Education
US Teen Reading Scores Sink to Quarter-Century Low as Trump Pushes School Choice
American 15-year-olds recorded their weakest reading performance in roughly 25 years, according to newly released results from an international education assessment. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published findings from the 2025 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) on Tuesday, a global benchmark of student achievement.
The data showed US reading scores fell 14 points compared with the previous PISA cycle in 2022. This decline mirrored a wider global slide, as the average score across 23 OECD countries dropped 16 points. However, the United States showed a particularly pronounced gap between its strongest and weakest students.
According to the results, 25.7 percent of US students were classified as low performers in reading, while only 13.3 percent ranked as top performers. Michael Kieffer, a professor of literacy education at New York University, told Al Jazeera that no other country among the 90 assessed showed a wider disparity in reading scores than the US. He said the data made clear that a significant portion of students are being underserved.
The release of the PISA results coincides with efforts by President Donald Trump's administration to overhaul the federal government's involvement in education. In March 2025, Trump signed an executive order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin dismantling the Department of Education, the federal agency responsible for tracking student performance, distributing education funding, and enforcing civil rights protections in schools. Notably, the department does not set curriculums or academic standards, which remain the responsibility of state and local governments.
Despite this, Trump has cited falling test scores as justification for closing the department, criticizing it as an overly bureaucratic entity and calling for its duties to be shifted to individual states. In a statement provided to Al Jazeera, McMahon reiterated this position, saying the current federal education system has failed American children and hindered the country's progress.
The White House has argued that federal education spending—which has exceeded $3 trillion since the Education Department's founding in 1979—has not led to improved standardized test outcomes. McMahon described the moment as a