It’s Not an Illusion: U.S. Students Need More High-Level Skills

U.S. student performance in math, science and reading remains largely stagnant, while other nations continue to surge ahead, based on the most recent test results release by the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA).

The PISA results paint a poor picture of the next generation of American workers. Will our young leaders be workforce ready?

What the PISA Scores Tell Us

Since 1998, PISA has assessed 15-year-old students from nations around the world. Tests are conducted every three years. In 2012, 65 education systems participated in the assessment, including 34 countries that belong to the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD).  Amongst these countries, the United States placed 17^th in reading, 21^st in science and 26^th in math.

Compared to 2009, the United States lost ground to other global competitors in every assessed category.

While the PISA scores do not include specific prescriptions or solutions, several important trends are clearly apparent:

• While U.S. students are not regressing compared to previous PISA results, their relative standing is falling as other countries and education systems improve and surpass the United States.
• The results suggest that U.S. students as a whole are not prepared for the workforce demands of the 21st century.
• Most importantly, U.S. students do not appear to be developing the higher-order cognitive skills to compete and collaborate in a global knowledge economy.

What Students Can Do

To be successful in the global knowledge economy, today’s students must master more complex skills and competencies such as problem solving, analysis, reasoning, collaboration and intellectual openness. Such “deeper learning competencies” are now essential – in the age of computers and advanced technology – because routine tasks are no longer important, according to a new Alliance for Excellent Education report, The Deepest Learners: What PISA Can Reveal about the Learning That Matters.

However, based on the PISA results, classroom work alone has not been enough to give U.S. students the higher-order skills they need. This is exactly why Envision was founded more than 25 years ago.

We believe that PISA’s vision of an underprepared 21^st century America workforce does not have to be a foregone conclusion. Through unique instructional design, students can participate in rigorous outside-the-classroom experiences and gain the skills and knowledge they need to succeed – in college, in careers and in the global knowledge economy.

That's our mission at Envision. As a result, our students go the extra mile to transfer their abilities to challenges that exist in the real world and explore how knowledge can be applied to career outcomes.

Global competition is here to stay. The students who stretch themselves – with meaningful extracurricular development activities – will be better prepared to shape their futures rather than be shaped by them.