Chairman Miller Statement on Latest PISA Survey of Academic Achievement
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, released the following statement today on the results of the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which tests nearly 500,000 15-year-old students in more than 70 countries in reading literacy, mathematics and science. According to the assessment, the United States ranks average, or 14th, or reading, average, or 17th, in science and below average or, 25th, in math out of the 34 OECD countries.
“The difference between the countries at the top of these rankings and the U.S. is that the countries who are outperforming us have made developing the best education system in the world a national goal. Those countries made academic success a national effort. They’ve recognized that the strength of their economy will be inextricably tied to the strength of their education system in the 21st century. The educational success of other countries while the US has stagnated is a clear, unequivocal sign that a shift in federal education policy is absolutely necessary. It is time we decide as a nation that we can no longer afford to stay just average – average is not good enough for a country as great as ours. Average won’t help us regain our global role as a leader in education. Average won’t help our students get the jobs of tomorrow. Average is the status quo and it’s failing our country.
“This is clearly an issue we need to tackle in the next Congress and I look forward to working in a bipartisan way to fix our education system in this country so that it works for every student, in every school, in every city. For the sake of our children and for the sake of the future of this country, we all have to be unwavering in our commitment to rewrite and reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.”
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