Deep Dive · No. 04 The global competitiveness picture
Falling Behind

Singapore
teaches kids
to code.
We argue about
pronouns.

Math is the single best predictor of long-run economic growth in any developed country. Reading is the gateway to every other skill. AI is rewriting the rules of work in real time. While American kids slip in every international ranking that measures any of this, the House Education and Workforce Committee held four hearings on AI but passed nothing, zero hearings on global competitiveness, and zero on the workforce of 2040.

PISA 2022 · OECD assessment of 15-year-olds
33rd
Out of 35 OECD countries in math. The United States. Below the OECD average. Behind Estonia. Behind Latvia. Behind Slovenia. Three to five years of schooling behind Singapore.1
Source: OECD PISA 2022 U.S. country note

§ 01The math gap, ranked

PISA 2022 Math · Top 6 + the U.S.

1 🇸🇬 Singapore 575 pts · 41% top performers
2 🇲🇴 Macao (China) 552 pts
3 🇹🇼 Chinese Taipei 547 pts · 32% top performers
4 🇭🇰 Hong Kong (China) 540 pts
5 🇯🇵 Japan 536 pts · 23% top performers
6 🇰🇷 Korea 527 pts
↓ Estonia, Switzerland, Canada, Ireland, Latvia, Czech Republic, UK, Slovenia, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Denmark, Poland, Australia, Sweden, New Zealand, Germany, Netherlands ↓
33rd 🇺🇸 United States 465 pts · 7% top performers

Singapore's score of 575 in math is the highest any country has ever achieved in any single PISA domain. Singaporean 15-year-olds are, on average, the equivalent of three to five years of schooling ahead of their global peers. 41% of Singaporean teenagers are top performers in math. In the United States, that number is 7%.2

Only 7% of American 15-year-olds are top performers in math. Singapore: 41%. Our committee just held its ninth hearing on something else. The receipts, May 2026

§ 02How far behind we slipped

Between 2018 and 2022, U.S. math performance dropped by roughly 15 points. The OECD average dropped 15 points. Japan gained 13 points. Taiwan gained 16. School closure duration during COVID did not predict which countries declined the most. Countries that had strong systems before the pandemic stayed strong. Countries with weak foundations got weaker.3

Change in PISA math score · 2018 to 2022

🇯🇵 Japan
+13 pts
+13
🇹🇼 Taiwan
+16 pts
+16
🇰🇷 Korea
+3 pts
+3
📊 OECD average
−15 pts
−15
🇺🇸 United States
−13 pts
−13

The countries that did well are the countries that invested in evidence-based instruction, in teacher quality, in high standards across the board. The countries that did badly are the countries that let the conversation get pulled into other fights. Guess where we landed.

§ 03The NAEP picture at home

The story is the same on our own assessment. The 2024 NAEP, the federal government's own measurement of American students:

4th grade reading · Below NAEP Basic · 2024

🧒 🧒 🧒 🧒 🧒 🧒 🧒 🧒 🧒 🧒

40% of fourth graders can't read at NAEP Basic. Highest share since 2002. These students likely cannot recognize a reason for a character's action implied in a story.4

8th grade reading · Below NAEP Basic · 2024

🧒 🧒 🧒 🧒 🧒 🧒 🧒 🧒 🧒 🧒

33% of eighth graders can't read at NAEP Basic. The largest percentage ever recorded in 32 years of NAEP reading testing.4

12th-grade reading scores in 2024 were 10 points lower than the first NAEP 12th-grade reading assessment in 1992. Math scores dropped the same amount.5

Scores for our lowest-performing students are at historic lows · continued declines that began more than a decade ago. My predecessor warned of this trend, and her predecessor warned of this trend as well. And now I am warning you of this trend. Matthew Soldner, Acting Director, Institute of Education Sciences, 2025

§ 04And then there's AI

Generative AI changed every white-collar profession in a single eighteen-month window. Other countries noticed. South Korea announced a national AI textbook rollout. Singapore made coding compulsory in primary school. China set targets for AI-trained graduates by 2027. The European Union passed an AI Act and is investing billions in AI skills.

The House Education and Workforce Committee held four hearings touching on AI in the 119th Congress — and produced no legislation. Federal legislation introduced (S. 4414 on AI literacy) is sitting in the Senate HELP committee. The House committee that would write the K-12 piece has held the hearings and still not moved a bill.6

0
AI-literacy bills the House Education and Workforce Committee has moved out of committee — despite holding four hearings on AI in the 119th Congress.

The kindergartner sitting in a classroom this morning will graduate high school in 2038. The career that kid will hold has not been invented yet. The skills that kid will need are the skills the committee holds hearings on and never acts on.

§ 05What is at stake

The U.S. in 2026

33rd

Of 35 OECD countries in PISA math.1

40%

Of 4th graders below NAEP Basic in reading.4

7%

Of U.S. 15-year-olds are top performers in math.2

Singapore in 2026

1st

PISA math · highest score ever recorded.

89%

Of Singapore students at PISA reading Level 2 or above.2

41%

Of Singaporean 15-year-olds are top performers in math.2

Math skills are a foundational input into modern economies. They support innovation, productivity, and long-term competitiveness. As technology and data-driven work become more central, countries with stronger math outcomes often gain an edge. Visual Capitalist, summarizing OECD analysis, December 2025

Stop the clown show. Get to work for kids.

The committee's job is not theater. Its job is to make sure American kids can compete with their global peers. Right now we are losing. The casting call needs to end. The work needs to begin.

Take Action What Parents Want →

Sources

  1. PISA 2022 Results, OECD. U.S. mathematics score: 465 (OECD average: 472). oecd.org. U.S. ranking 33rd of 35 OECD countries: Visual Capitalist, 2025
  2. PISA 2022 U.S. country note: 7% of U.S. students top performers in math; Singapore 41%; 89% of Singapore students at reading Level 2 or above. oecd.org
  3. "PISA Scores By Country," analysis of 2018-2022 PISA change. Japan +13, Taiwan +16, OECD average −15. datapandas.org
  4. 2024 NAEP Reading Assessment. 40% of 4th graders below NAEP Basic (highest since 2002); 33% of 8th graders below NAEP Basic (highest ever). nationsreportcard.gov. NCES press release: nagb.gov
  5. "A new Nation's Report Card shows drops in science, math and reading scores," NPR, September 9, 2025. 12th-grade reading 10 points below 1992. npr.org
  6. S. 4414, AI literacy at elementary and secondary level, sits in the Senate HELP committee. congress.gov. Per committee staff, the House Education and Workforce Committee held four hearings touching on AI in the 119th Congress but advanced no AI-specific K-12 legislation.