The Collaborative Problem Solving Skills of U.S. Students and their International Peers

U.S. students outperformed their peers around the world, on average, on an international assessment of collaborative problem solving skills, with 14 percent of students scoring at the highest level of proficiency.

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) collaborative problem solving assessment was given in 2015 and measured students’ ability to solve a problem by sharing the understanding and effort required to come to a solution, and pooling their knowledge, skills, and effort to reach that solution.

PISA is coordinated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and conducted in the U.S. by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The U.S. was one of 51 education systems participating in the PISA collaborative problem solving assessment, along with two U.S. states—Massachusetts and North Carolina.

NCES released a Data Point report today (Nov. 21) on the results of the assessment, which found:

• The U.S. average score of 520 was higher than the international/OECD average score of 500;

• The U.S average score was statistically higher than 35 other education systems and statistically lower than 10 education systems. The U.S. score was about the same as five other systems. Singapore (561) and Japan (552) had the highest average scores, while Tunisia (382) had the lowest score; and

• About 14 percent of U.S. students scored in the highest range of proficiency (Level 4) and 30 percent scored in the second-highest range (Level 3), compared to 8 and 28 percent, respectively, for international/OECD students. About 24 percent of U.S. students scored in the lowest range of proficiency (Level 1 and below), compared to 28 percent internationally.