2025 PISA reports further global declines in reading, science and math, with Asian students extending their lead over Western peers
State of Us · Friday, 11 September 2026
Why it matters
PISA is a major cross-national outcome measure for judging whether US and Western European education systems are improving or falling behind. The reported broad-based decline and widening Asian lead warrant closer attention to the full country and subgroup tables before drawing conclusions about the scale or causes of the change.
What happened
The OECD released its 2025 Programme for International Student Assessment results, reporting that 15-year-olds' performance in reading, science and mathematics continued to decline globally. The release indicates that students in Asian education systems have extended their lead over Western peers, including the United States. The supplied material gives no country-level scores, demographic breakdowns or quantified evidence about artificial intelligence's effect on learning.
Players & places
- United States
- OECD