Every two years an international standardized test is given and a lot more often than that we get treated to mainstream media claims about how bad science education is.
They never want to say students are dumb - it is just the ammunition in their culture war against...someone. Mostly taxpayers, it seems, since they are buying into propaganda by well-funded education lobbyists that hiring more teachers or spending more money will solve the problem.
Of course, it doesn't solve the problem at all. America spends more per child than every country except one. And teacher hiring has far outpaced student enrollment in the last 40 years. But a lot of teachers quit, for reasons that have nothing at all to do with funding or students, it instead has to do with a mechanism that strangles the abilities of good teachers to protect those who have been around longest.
America has led the world in science but the secret the 'American kids are dumb, spend more money' lobbyists leave out is that American kids have never led the world in the average score on standardized tests. Never even been in the top half. Yet we still produce great science and technology.
Writing in USA Today with Alex Berezow, I debunk the claims carefully created by highly-funded lobbyists that are dutifully regurgitated by the mass media. Fortunately, USA Today at least gave it a fair shake and they put it out for free in the online edition too:
Quit fretting. U.S. is fine in science education By Alex Berezow and Hank Campbell, USA Today
