New results of a prominent international assessment of student learning were released on September 8 with Vanderbilt University leaders and faculty experts assisting in their rollout.
Vanderbilt teamed with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences and National Center for Education Statistics to co-host a webinar devoted to exploring the 2025 U.S. results of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA).
Among the headline findings:
- U.S. 15-year-olds scored above the OECD average in science, reading and computational problem solving and in line with the OECD average in math.
- Even so, the U.S. joined many international peers in experiencing a decline in reading scores from the previous testing cycle in 2022.
- The U.S. also had the widest gap among participating countries in reading achievement between students performing at the highest levels of proficiency (90th percentile) and those performing at the lowest level (10th percentile).
- International rankings were again dominated by East Asian nations including four provinces (Beijing-Shanghai-Jiangsu-Zhejiang) in China, followed by Singapore, Macao, Chinese Taipei and Japan.
- Detailed findings on U.S. achievement can be found at https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/pisa2025/index.asp#/.
Opening the webinar were Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier and U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. Matthew Soldner, acting director of the Institute of Education Sciences and commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, and Andreas Schleicher, director for education for the OECD, presented the 2026 test results.
In his remarks, Chancellor Diermeier noted Vanderbilt Peabody College's long history of educational research and translation into practice, highlighting recent efforts in literacy, including the Roberts Academy and Center for Dyslexia and the new Patterson Institute for Early Adolescent Literacy. "Strengthening a student's ability to read, comprehend and engage with increasingly complex material is essential to how well they will perform not only in reading but across mathematics, science and the other challenges they will encounter in school and beyond," Diermeier said.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon emphasized that overall U.S. performance on PISA had not changed significantly since 2015 and that the reading gap between students at the 90th and 10th percentiles had grown by more than 50 points over that period, "the equivalent of two and a half years of lost learning."
Soldner offered a mixed assessment of the PISA results. "2025 marks the high point of our international ranking in science, and our ranking in math is the highest it has been since 2000," he said. But he also noted, "In 2025, our reading gap was the largest in the world, and our science gap was the second largest."
Schleicher then offered a thorough presentation of the findings, including their international context and how students' use of digital devices and artificial intelligence relates to their performance. Further information can be found at https://www.oecd.org/en/about/programmes/pisa.html.
Peabody College Dean Camilla P. Benbow moderated the event, which also included responses from Peabody faculty members Carolyn Heinrich, University Distinguished Professor of Leadership, Policy and Organizations and Political Science and Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Public Policy, Education and Economics; Sean Corcoran, professor of public policy and education; and Jonathan Seiden, assistant professor of early childhood policy.
Noting the widespread recent adoption of policies promoting the Science of Reading, Professor Carolyn Heinrich advocated for research assessing whether the implementation of new policies has the effect of changing classroom practices and improving student outcomes. Of the widening score gap in the U.S., Heinrich said, "It may be imperative for the U.S. to look outside its borders to grasp new ideas and insights as to how we can reverse this trend."
Professor Sean Corcoran underscored the need for research to better understand the complex factors that may be widening the score gap for U.S. students. He cited school policies, resources and out-of-school factors as potential reasons while also emphasizing a decline in school accountability policies and the growing availability of school choice for many families. Corcoran stated, "Research does find that choice can improve outcomes in some settings. But choice on its own-without accountability and standards-is unlikely to reduce gaps we are seeing on standardized tests."
Jonathan Seiden studies early childhood, exploring questions around measurement and how global policymakers use tests to inform decision making. He noted that scores in the Computational Problem Solving area of the PISA tests were more closely associated with reading scores than with math, lending weight to the importance of reading as the foundation for other skills.
Seiden also sounded a cautionary note to anyone considering whether greater investment in artificial intelligence might offer tailored solutions to individual learners. He pointed to one recent study that suggested how important it is for students to be motivated and engaged. "Educational technologies like AI tutoring are not magic bullets to solve these problems. They are not replacements for effective teachers or substitutes for family support for learning at home. Implementing these technologies without carefully understanding how to bolster student engagement for low-achieving students could actually exacerbate the disparities we see between low and high performing students," he said.
Nearly 200 viewers, including journalists, attended the webinar. The full recording is available at https://youtu.be/YCDXPD3wRr0.
