The U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) on Friday released the initial results of an international survey of adult skills in literacy and mathematics, revealing that Americans rank 21st in “numeracy” and are tied for 15th in literacy among adults in 23 advanced economies. American adults also scored below the average in both numeracy and literacy for all respondents in all 23 advanced economies. Japan and Finland ranked first and second in both categories and Italy and Spain took the bottom two spots in both.