Reading Scores Among Many Other Developed Countries

How the U.S. Compares On Science, Math, and Reading Scores with Other Developed Countries
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How the U.S. Compares On Science, Math, and Reading Scores with Other Developed Countries
Introduction
Students in the United States perform dismally in science, mathematics, and reading in comparison to their peers drawn from other developed economies. According to Ryan (2018) students in the United States do not attain the top 25 global positions in science and mathematics and the top 15 in reading as a result of the increasing levels of racial and poverty diversities. Barshay (2013) reveals that according to the cross-national test results conducted by the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), only 2% of US scholars managed to attain the highest level of achievement in math compared to the OECD average of 3%. As revealed by figure 1, students in the United States have not made remarkable attainments in their average scores in mathematics literacy between 2012 and other previous rankings.
Figure 1: Comparison of the scores attained by U.S. students in mathematics literacy (Barshay, 2013).
The United States is ranked 20th in reading and 30th in science compared to other OECD economies in the 2012 PISA results. According to DeSilver (2018), the trend has remained constant since the inception of PISA in 2000. According to Barshay (2013), the detrimental results depicted by the scores in math, science and reading slotted the United States below countries such as Russian and the Slovak Republic which are considered to be inferior in other areas such as technology. Ryan (2018) attributes such dismal scores to the country's inadequacy in making quality investments in key components of the schooling system such as early childhood education, enhancing the nation's academic standards, increasing the affordability of college education and availing the resources needed to recruit and retain top-performing educators. As revealed in figures 2, 3 and 4, the dismal performance could be as a result of factors such as poor socio-economic status, an increasing number of students with immigrant backgrounds and family structure issues.
Figure 2: Effects of socio-economic status (Camera, 2016)
Figure 3: Effects of immigrant background (Camera, 2016)
Figure 4: The role played by family structure I affecting performance (Camera, 2016)
Desilver (2018) reveals that the United States' 15-year-olds still lag in reading, science mad mathematics compared to their peers from other developed economies (see figure 2). In the 2012 PISA tests,...