Why American kids are falling behind their global peers: It isn't about IQ

The decline of the U.S. is real and partly long-running. Country notes from OECD PISA 2022 drive the nail into the wood: Socioeconomic status predicts a large share of US variation in math performance-about 15%-in PISA 2022, and the most-advantaged US students continue to perform weaker than similarly advantaged students in top-scoring countries. Other inequities in learning opportunities identified in the report include the lack of access to pre-primary education, growing shortages of teachers, and high shares of students being distracted by digital devices.

According to national trends reported by NAEP, the Nation's Report Card, in recent assessments, performance in reading and math fell for many groups of students. Though the decline started well before Covid, pandemic disruptions accelerated it. What we are seeing is not a shortfall in the "top" kids nor in one single cohort; rather, it is a broad weakening of learning outcomes, one pointing away from fixed cognitive differences and toward systemic issues.

If the gap were primarily innate, added resources wouldn't move the needle, but the evidence is otherwise: Harvard CEPR analyses of federal pandemic relief spending found measurable, short-term learning gains tied to funding. It showed roughly the equivalent of a few days of learning per $1,000 spent, with larger benefits where funds were used for targeted tutoring, summer programs, and teacher support. Responsiveness to funding implies that instructional time, better staffing, and targeted interventions can and do improve outcomes. As Eric A Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann stated in 'The Knowledge Capital of Nations: Education and the Economics of Growth', published by The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2015, national economic outcomes correlate with what students learn, not merely how “smart” they are by birth.

 High-performing countries combine strong early childhood participation and coherent curricula with effective teacher training and selection and fewer disparities across schools. Where the US diverges is in fragmented governance, unequal school funding (tied to local property taxes) and inconsistent adoption of instructional best practices — again, policy and systems, not innate ability. What shall we do, then? For example, researchers and education journalists have joined the dots between increased screen use, less time devoted to reading long texts, and lower classroom engagement and weaker comprehension and attention stamina. 

Fund tutors and extended learning via targeted spending, since studies of ESSER federal relief demonstrate targeted programs delivered measurable gains. Likewise, expand proven models at high-need schools. Stabilise and empower the teaching workforce: address shortages with competitive pay, coaching and professional development, and with smarter hiring so students see consistent, high-quality instruction. PISA links teacher shortages to lower performance. Prioritize reading stamina and deep work, reducing shallow digital distraction during class, and advance sustained reading and analytic tasks which have proved to build comprehension and reasoning. Close the opportunity gaps by funding equity: move away from property-tax dependence, target resources to schools serving disadvantaged students, and support wraparound services that remove learning barriers - transportation, health, family supports. As Stanford University's analysis shows, early and persistent gaps require non-school investments too. Stripped of the political rhetoric, the science says American kids are no more inherently inferior than their peers anywhere else but that they end up embedded in a system that generates unequal early opportunities, tolerates uneven-quality schools, struggles to retain highly qualified teachers, and lately has endured massive disruptions in learning. These are problems with solutions; the research points to practical evidence-based levers that produce gains when implemented at scale