See How a 15 year old in US Compares to Others, in Science Literacy

Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) studies the scholastic performance of 15 year-old school kids across the globe. Almost half a million kids were surveyed for this data. Even though this may not reflect a very accurate result, it is a good effort shown by an organization dedicated to betterment of education.

Here on this chart, I only included 20 developed countries. The levels here represent proficiency levels, 1 being the lowest and 6 the highest level of competency.

First, Shanghai catches the eye with a huge green bar and a tiny red field. Chinese students who took this test appear to have outperformed others by far. And no, PISA is not a Chinese company or study. Contrary to our expectations, US does not really shine here. Actually, the only countries US beats in this chart are Russia, Israel and Sweden.

Bummer.

Perhaps it really is time US should start spending more on education.

Here is the link to my dashboard: http://bit.ly/1cp4E54

The data: http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/pisa2012/pisa2012highlights_4.asp