American students rank 17th in OECD scientific literacy survey

The Chronicle of Higher Education (sub req) reports on "an international assessment of scientific literacy among 15-year-olds" conducted by the Program for International Student Assessment, sponsored by the OECD. The assessment

shows American students to be scoring slightly below the average for the group of 30 nations that sponsored the test, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.... The United States posted an average score of 489 on a 1,000-point scale (with the mean set at 500), placing it just above the Slovak Republic and Spain, and just below France and Iceland [and 17th overall]. The top scorer was Finland, with an average score of 563, followed by Canada, Japan, and New Zealand.

A close examination of the results for the United States shows that racial and ethnic gaps in educational performance contributed to the nation's mediocre showing. The average score for non-Hispanic white 15-year-olds in the United States was well above the international average, at 523, but black U.S. students posted a mean score of 409—below the averages for every other OECD nation and all but eight of the 27 non-OECD nations and jurisdictions. The average score for Asian-American students was a 499, while the average for Hispanic-American students was 439.

The entire report is available at the National Center for Educational Statistics.