Sometimes people question whether the results of the TIMSS, PISA, and other internationally benchmarked tests are valid - perhaps only the elite in other countries take the tests; perhaps it's easier to do well on the tests in countries with more homogeneous populations; perhaps certain countries take more naturally to tests.
Vivien Stewart, in A World-Class Education, debunks each of these hypotheses in quick order - the tests represent the performance of the entire population of participating countries; our 10% immigrant population parallels that of many other countries that score higher than we do; countries with all kinds of cultures (New Zealand, Canada, Japan, Finland) do better than we do on the tests.
It is certainly true that the US education system has strengths that are not measured by the TIMSS and PISA. Our curriculum boasts (or at least used to) experience in the arts, consumer sciences, and sports, as well as clubs like yearbook, and civil rights, and drama.
However there is no doubt that in math, science, literacy, and languages our students lag many other industrialized nations. Stewart points out that it is not that our system has worsened - it's that the education systems of many other countries have rapidly improved.
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