U.S. students record their lowest PISA reading and math scores in nearly two decades

The 2025 round of PISA, which evaluated 760,000 fifteen-year-olds in 91 economies, revealed that U.S. students attained a reading score of 490 and a mathematics score of 463, marking the poorest performance since 2009 and 2006. Science scores showed no decline. Approximately 4,625 American pupils from 144 schools took part, representing an estimated 85% of the country’s fifteen-year-old population.

Only about 74% reached basic proficiency in reading and 65% in mathematics. Similar downward trends were observed in 23 OECD nations, with reading and math averages hitting their lowest levels since the programme began. Despite the drops, U.S. results remained above the OECD average in reading and science and near the average in math. Top performers continued to be jurisdictions in China, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Estonia and the United Kingdom.