USA Number 11!

An international study showed fourth and eighth grade students in the USA trailed several foreign countries in math and science proficiency. The study did show significant gains in math for U.S. students, and lesser gains in science, but a closer look reveals some disturbing numbers.

For example U.S. 4th graders came in 8th in science, trailing not only Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan, but also Latvia and the Russian Federation. 8th graders did worse, coming in 11th behind the aforementioned Asian countries as well as such intellectual strongholds as Slovenia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic.

The math numbers were equally disappointing. 4th graders came in 11th behind Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and Singapore, but also trailed Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Kazakhstan.

Yes, that Kazakhstan.

Even worse was the lack of students scoring at advanced levels. In math, only 10% of 4th graders and 6% of 8th graders scored at advanced levels. Compare this to Singapore, which hit 40% for both grades, Kazakhstan, which hit 19% for 4th graders, and Russia, which scored 16% and 8% respectively.

I don't expect the U.S. as a whole to compete with highly developed city-states like Hong Kong and Singapore, our population is far too large and diverse to compare with them. But it is certainly troubling to lag behind third world hells like Kazakhstan.