A nation of C students

Despite a national push to improve student performance, American teens remain average in science and reading proficiency and below average in math compared with the rest of the world, according to new results released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which has tested 15-year-olds in 65 nations triennially since 2000. Students in Shanghai scored highest (China doesn’t report on the whole country); Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong followed. U.S. students fell in the middle in all categories, with Peru, Indonesia and Qatar coming in last.

While dozens of countries have improved over the past decade, the U.S. hasn’t. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called the results a “picture of educational stagnation.”

–MAYA RHODAN