US Has Dropped from 1st to twenty fourth Worldwide in Schooling Since 1979?

On Nov. 11, 2024, X proprietor Elon Musk posted an image (archived) of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter that was captioned: “In 1979 I created the Division of Schooling. Since then America went from 1st to twenty fourth in training.”

Musk wrote in his publish, which had amassed greater than 64 million views and 613,000 likes as of this writing: “Not precisely nice worth for cash!”

President-elect Donald Trump, who appointed Musk to function co-commissioner of the newly fashioned Division of Authorities Effectivity, has acknowledged on a number of events his plan to close the U.S. Department of Education.

There are two components to this declare: whether or not the U.S. at present ranks twenty fourth worldwide in training and whether or not its ranked first in 1979.

Briefly, there is no such thing as a single definitive scale that determines the rating of countries’ training high quality worldwide, although a number of organizations have revealed their very own assessments. Snopes was unable to trace down an evaluation that discovered the U.S. particularly ranked twenty fourth worldwide. Musk’s publish additionally didn’t specify a number of key objects, similar to which 12 months the U.S. was in twenty fourth place or which assessments the declare referred to. Due to this fact, now we have rated this declare as unfounded.

Snopes contacted Musk and the Division of Schooling looking for proof concerning the declare and can replace this story if we obtain a response.

As of This Writing, Does the US Rank twenty fourth Worldwide?

Numerous organizations have reached totally different conclusions, however Snopes didn’t monitor down any important survey, report or evaluation that discovered the U.S. ranked twenty fourth worldwide in training in 2024.

For instance, U.S. Information ranked the U.S. as first in its widely-cited 2024 Greatest International locations report, which reportedly surveyed the views of “near 17,000 world residents.”

(usnews.com)

However, a report by WorldTop20 — a mission related to New Jersey Minority Instructional Growth, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit group cited by the World Inhabitants Evaluation (seen upon clicking the U.S. on the world map at this link) — discovered that, in 2024, the U.S. ranked thirty first worldwide in training.

Different research provide a more-detailed evaluation damaged down by topic and parameter and in comparison with different international locations of comparable wealth, such because the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, an intergovernmental group with 38 member international locations. For instance, in keeping with the typical scores of 15-year-olds from 37 member international locations in 2022, the U.S. ranked above common in science and under common in arithmetic.

(OECD, PISA 2022)

Within the 2024 OECD findings, the U.S. ranked 20th out of 41 international locations in training general. In 2015, results from the Programme for Worldwide Scholar Evaluation — which assessments 15-year-olds throughout dozens of nations each three years — positioned the U.S. thirty eighth out of 71 international locations in arithmetic and twenty fourth in science. 

Was the US Ranked 1st Globally in Schooling in 1979?

There was additionally no indication that the U.S. ranked first globally in training in 1979, which might be partially as a result of worldwide rating was rudimentary on the time. Nevertheless, one 1992 report revealed by The Nationwide Middle for Schooling Statistics (a part of the U.S. Division of Schooling’s Institute of Schooling Sciences) discovered that, after administering science and math assessments to 10-, 13- and 14-year-olds from the Nineteen Sixties via 1988 throughout six to 18 international locations (relying on the topic and grade stage), the proof steered, basically, that: 

College students from the USA have fared fairly poorly on these assessments, with [their] scores lagging behind these of scholars from different developed international locations. This discovering is predicated largely on analyses of imply achievement scores and associated rankings of nations taking part in every survey.

One analysis from 2022 discovered that common pupil achievement within the U.S. elevated from 1971 via 2017. The report, carried out by Paul E. Peterson from Harvard College and M. Danish Shakeel from the College of Buckingham, pulled knowledge from 7 million assessments taken by U.S. college students born between 1954 and 2007. 

The evaluation discovered that the final development in math and studying was upward throughout the board since 1971, with Black, Hispanic and Asian college students enhancing “way more rapidly” than their white classmates in elementary, center and highschool.

(Evaluation by M. Daniel Shakeel and Paul E. Peterson)

Lastly, the impact of the Division of Schooling itself on improved training averages and world rating is unclear. The department began as a way to gather nationwide knowledge and immediately is primarily responsible for distributing and monitoring federal monetary support, establishing monetary support insurance policies and amassing knowledge on U.S. colleges.

In Sum …

There was no proof to help the declare that since Carter based the Division of Schooling in 1979, the U.S. has dropped from first to twenty fourth worldwide in training.

Somewhat, one report discovered that U.S. college students’ scores have been “lagging behind” college students from different developed international locations from the Nineteen Sixties via 1988, and one other evaluation discovered that, on common, pupil achievement within the U.S. had elevated between 1971 and 2017.

As of this writing, rankings differ, and there’s no definitive supply to substantiate the U.S.’s present standing. Additionally it is unclear what impact the existence of the Division of Schooling has had on the standing of U.S. training relative to different international locations.