How will the United States compete in the global economy, went the lament, when our students lag behind the likes of Singapore and Hong Kong in math and science? American fourth-graders ranked 12th in the world on one international math test, and eighth-graders were 14th. Is this further evidence of the failure of the nation's schools? Myth 1: U.S. students rate poorly compared with those in the rest of the world. Answer:This is true only if you cherry-pick the results...Americans are above average when compared with 22 other industrialized nations. In civics, no nation scored significantly higher than the United...