Are American Students Actually Falling Behind?
The standard American education panic arrives like clockwork every few Decembers, usually accompanied by a solemn graphic in the Washington Post and a collective sigh from the editorial board: our kids are falling behind, our classrooms are collapsing, and every country between the Baltic Sea and the Singapore Strait has apparently solved what we have failed to fix. The headlines are practically photocopied: The Washington Post: “U.S. students continue to lag behind peers in East Asia and Europe in reading, math and science, exams show.” ...