The 2025 PISA study, published 8 Sep 2026, shows declines in 15-year-olds' performance around the world: between 2015 and 2025 reading scores fell by 28 points in OECD countries (16 in other participating countries), math by 22 points in the OECD (8 elsewhere), and science by seven points in the OECD while remaining broadly stable elsewhere; around 29 percent of 15-year-olds in OECD countries are now estimated to be 'low performers' across all three subjects, and the study notes 20 score points are roughly equivalent to a year of learning (Deutsche Welle/OECD, 8 Sep). src

In the 2025 PISA study, more than 760,000 students in 91 countries and economies took the test; reading drops were most extreme in Iceland and Slovenia (down more than 50 points in each), while only five countries improved in reading: Qatar (+11), Brunei Darussalam (+18), Cambodia (+26), the Philippines (+27) and Zambia (+50); Germany ranks 24th in reading (barely above the OECD average), 26th in math (below the OECD average), and 23rd in science (two points above the average), with reading down 15 and math down 11 points since 2022 (Deutsche Welle, 8 Sep). src

US reading scores fell 14 points from 2022 to the lowest in about 25 years, with 25.7 percent of US 15-year-olds ranked low performers in reading against 13.3 percent top performers; NYU's Michael Kieffer said across the 90 participating countries 'there was not a single country with significantly wider inequality in reading scores than the US', and Education Secretary Linda McMahon used the results to push school choice as the Department of Education faces dismantling (Al Jazeera, 9 Sep). src