About two-thirds of U.S. adults believe K-12 STEM education in this country is average or worse when compared to peer nations, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. A remaining 28% believe it is above average or the best internationally.
Turns out the perception is more true of math than science.
Senior Pew researcher Brian Kennedy put those STEM performance beliefs into context by looking at the most recent results from PISA, an international assessment that measures 15-year-old students’ reading, mathematics and science literacy in the U.S. and other industrialized nations. The U.S. is indeed lagging behind in math, his research shows, but is performing — if not the best in the world — better than average in science.
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