Not only is the US being outdone by many countries on a global scale when it comes to studies, it is not even the best North American country. Apparently, PISA exams proves Canadian kids are smarter than American kids in math, reading, and science. The US has never really fared well in the PISA exams and has fallen even further behind, as shown by the 2015 test rankings. It would be bad enough for the country to place behind Canada in any skill, but to fall behind, and by a distance, in all three is simply outrageous.
While Canada ranks tenth, third and sixth in math, reading, and science respectively, US students could only place 40th, 24th, and 24th respectively. It’s not that there’s just a gap, it looks more like a chasm that cannot be closed. However, is the situation as dire as the scores indicate? Before we delve into the discussion, we suggest you take a look at the related topic – 20 Countries That Have Smarter Kids Than America, and see which other countries, besides Canada, can boast about having more intelligent children than America.So, is the statement “PISA exams proves Canadian kids are smarter than American kids in math, reading, and science” really true?
As mentioned earlier, US students have generally scored poorly in these tests, but the number one economy in the world and the only superpower is still the US by far. Critics may argue that the tests indicate that it is the next generation that will face issues and could lead to the US losing the edge it has over other countries, but I digress. Some of the most valuable companies in the world, such as Apple and Facebook, have been the brainchild of Americans. There is no other country in the world that has such an encouraging market. Therefore, even if the average kid in the US is not as smart as the average kid in Canada, the smartest kid in the US may still be a lot smarter than the smartest kid in Canada.
On the other hand, this could also indicate that countries such as Canada take the test much more seriously, prepare its students better for the test, and ultimately perform better when compared with countries such as America. But does this mean that there are absolutely no issues in US education? Not really. There are definitely issues in the education system in the country, some of which we will discuss to determine why Canadian kids are smarter than American kids.