Patrick Djordjevic
September 9, 2026
Reading and math scores among American 15-year-olds neared their lowest levels ever recorded on a key global test.
The Program for International Student Assessment was taken by more than 760,000 teens from 91 countries and economies. Results revealed education systems in Singapore, Japan, South Korea, China, are among the world’s top performers.
Reading scores among 15-year-old American students have dropped sharply since 2022, with math scores ranking among their lowest since 2000 as science scores held consistent.
U.S. students rank above the OECD average in reading and science and roughly average in math. It comes as the breadth of U.S. students failing fundamental proficiency in reading and math has risen over the past decade.
Sal Khan, founder and CEO of Khan Academy, joined “The Hill on NewsNation” to discuss his perspective of the results.
“It does look like COVID had a hit. You know, things were kind of not trending well and then they really started to decline at a bigger rate right around COVID,” Khan said of the math results.