Lagging again

This one I can post almost without comment. The latest report from the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment shows, once again, that the United States has done poorly in science education. On average in the OECD, 80% of 15-year-olds have at least basic competence in science. In the US, only 75% do. Not to mention that US performance in science overall is lower than the international average of all countries included in the study. From a summary of the report, in the US:

Schools serve strong students only moderately well, and do downright poorly with the large numbers of weak students.

The system is breaking. Will we wait until it collapses before we start fixing it?