International Comparisons of U.S. 15-Year-Olds’ Performance in Mathematics, Science, and Reading

On December 5th, the National Center for Education Statistics released a web report on the results of the eighth round of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) from 2022. This international comparative study is designed to measure how well 15-year-old students can apply their mathematics, science, and reading knowledge to real-world tasks. The results allow readers to compare U.S. performance in these three subjects to the 80 other participating education systems, as well as understand performance over time. In each round of PISA, one of the subjects is tested as a major domain, taking up roughly one-half the total testing time while the other two subjects take up the other half. In 2022, mathematics was the major domain while science and reading were minor domains. In 2022, PISA also assessed financial literacy (the results for which will be released in spring 2024). The U.S. web report compares results for the 2022 assessment to the previous assessment in 2018 (PISA is administered every three years except for a one-year delay in the current cycle from 2021 to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic). Thus, it provides data on changes in performance since prior to the COVID-related school closures. It also provides data on changes in performance since the earliest administrations of PISA. In addition, this report describes performance differences within the United States and other education systems between top and low performers, as well as among different student subgroups. To view the full report please visit https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/pisa2022/