[SeekAndFind]

U.S. News ranked the U.S. as first in its widely cited 2024 Best Countries report, which reportedly surveyed the views of "close to 17,000 global citizens."

(usnews.com)

On the other hand, a report by WorldTop20 — a project associated with New Jersey Minority Educational Development, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit group cited by the World Population Review (visible upon clicking the U.S. on the world map at this link ) — found that, in 2024, the U.S. ranked 31st worldwide in education.

Other studies offer a more-detailed assessment broken down by subject and parameter and compared to other countries of similar wealth, such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development , an intergovernmental organization with 38 member countries. For example, according to the average scores of 15-year-olds from 37 member countries in 2022, the U.S. ranked above average in science and below average in mathematics.

[Jan_Sobieski]

America was #1 in the world in education before the department of education

[PGR88]

I would necessarily trust the metrics of this. Much of it is comparing apples to oranges.

For example, comparing the the huge and diverse USA to Singapore, which is a highly advanced and homogenous, but relatively small city, is not a good comparison.

Neither is comparing USA to China. China will never allow any foreigner to interview, survey or deeply analyze any part of its society. Data from China should be suspect.

Even a comparison to Germany may not be accurate, as by high school Germany has already segregated and separated kids by testing and career path.

REGARDLESS, by our OWN standards, kids in the USA are certainly worse than 40 years ago.

[escapefromboston]

We imported a lot of the 3rd world since 1979

[Jonty30]

It’s the mandate that everybody must get a high school diploma at the same time that is destroying America, and Western, education.

[Navy Patriot]

Taija PerryCook is a journalist and a senior at the University of Washington, focusing on human rights and legislative reporting.

A real seasoned expert you've got there!

[philman_36]

I find man on the street interviews much more revealing and less subject to skewed interpretations.

gen z can't answer most basic questions

Rocks are smarter than some of these young people.

[philman_36]

Even Larry Elder spotlighted it in a video three year ago.

[Flaming Conservative]

When you have Ivy League universities passing out A’s to C and D students, by unscrupulous professors trying to save their jobs, it’s not outside the realm of possibility. This sort of thing trickles down to all of the “education” system. Add politics to the equation, and you have a perfect template for disaster.

[oil_dude]

I think 1979 was the year that Critical Thinking was outlawed in the US

[nicollo]

DOE’s great accomplishment is to move our national educational system from excellence to equity.

That equity has come at the tremendous cost to excellence.

[sphinx]

As we all know, it all depends the metrics used: what is being measured; how it is weighed; what is left out, etc.

Part of the U.S.’s “problem” is that we still have the “everybody needs to go to college” thing operating. This is a cash grab scam run for the benefit of the educationist blob, but that’s the frame of measurement we use. Much of the rest of the world tracks early and effectively.

The second big question is whether we are assessing for inputs or educational outcomes. The U.S. educrats, with scattered exceptions, have deemphasized educational rigor in favor of participation trophies and a dozen other ancillary social engineering goals.

A measurement that relies, even in part, on measuring inputs is also inherently suspect. The U.S. system is superb at wasting money doing irrelevant and sometimes harmful things. It is failing at getting lower income students to grade level performance. And the DEI mania translates directly into a hostility to anything that measures differential performance because of its social correlates.

I am quite confident, however, that we still lead the world in tampon dispensers in the boys room and women with penisis in the girls locker room. And our non-teaching/administrative staff to student ratio is almost certainly unmatched.

[MichaelRDanger]

The thing is “how do other countries measure their education results”. What if every student in America is measured but other countries only measure from their very best schools? I do believe that education has fallen off in America since I was in school but I find it hard to believe that we are that bad relative to the rest of the world.

[Cincinnatus.45-70]

Sure, Yahoo News. People educated under the Department of Education may believe you. But nobody else. Say, Yahoo, where did you get your education? Maybe that is part of your problem, too.

[x]

If we were #1 it was because the rest of the world was either destroyed or underdeveloped. European schools were much more rigorous than ours. Over the last 40 years or so, they’ve gotten slacker, as have ours.