The United States of America invests a substantial amount of money in education, one of the highest numbers seen worldwide. Despite this, educational achievement within the country doesn’t seem to be reflective of these financial efforts. In fact, according to periodically conducted international tests, the United States is immensely lagging behind its counterparts in all areas of learning. This year, American math scores dropped even lower, a staggering blow that hasn’t been seen for over 20 years. Reading and science scores remained relatively stagnant, but aren’t quite up to par either. There are many questions as to why this may be and what we can do as a country to fix this fundamental issue.

An international student assessment known as PISA is administered every three years to compare the intelligence of teenagers throughout 69 participating countries. First administered in 1997, the exam overtime came to dictate the educational status of students in different countries. Singapore has long stood as the country bragging the highest math scores while the United States, though one of the largest spenders, is much lower on the scale. However, even with overall meager scores, America has been able to pride itself on a massive improvement by measure of equity. More students are achieving better results, especially those at certain financial or social disadvantages.

Many are hoping that newly implemented program such as the Common Core State Standards and the No Child Left Behind act will soon bear improvement for the American academic institution. Methods found to be successful in boosting educational quality include maintaining a culture of constant improvement within schools and instilling uniform standards for all students, much like those of the Common Core program. Hopefully using this valuable information, the United States will be able to raise the academic standard nationwide.