Reading scores among 15-year-olds in the United States have fallen to the lowest level in about 25 years, according to an international education assessment. On Tuesday, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released findings from the 2025 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a global metric for educational achievement. The results showed that US reading scores fell 14 points from 2022, the last time PISA results were released.
The decline was part of a broader international trend, with an OECD average from 23 countries also dropping 16 points. But the US stood out for the size of its performance gap. Some 25.7 percent of US students were ranked as low performers in reading, while 13.3 percent were flagged as top performers.
In March 2025, Trump issued an executive order calling on Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin the process of dismantling the Department of Education, a federal agency that tracks student achievement, distributes federal education funds and enforces civil rights in schools. The Education Department, however, does not establish school curriculums or academic standards. That responsibility has traditionally fallen to state and local authorities.
Still, Trump pointed to slipping test scores as a reason to shutter the department. He has also denounced the department for its “entrenched bureaucracy” and called for its responsibilities to be redistributed to the states. In response to a request for comment on Tuesday, McMahon sent a statement to Al Jazeera echoing Trump’s push.
The White House has argued that federal education spending is excessive and has failed to translate into higher standardised test scores. Since the Education Department was founded in 1979, it has spent more than $3 trillion, according to the White House. The term refers to the practice of diverting taxpayer money away from public education to help parents finance alternative choices for their child’s schooling, like charter schools, homeschooling or private institutions.
The practice is controversial. Critics have accused the “school choice” system of weakening public education in favour of less regulated school systems that receive money with little oversight. But since returning to office in 2025, Trump has embraced “school choice” as a form of “educational freedom”.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
