SARAH MERVOSH2026年9月9日The reading scores of American 15-year-olds have fallen sharply since 2022 and are near their lowest point in 25 years, according to the results of a key global exam released on Tuesday.周二公布的一项关键全球测试结果显示，美国15岁学生的阅读成绩自2022年以来大幅下滑，已接近25年来的最低水平。U.S. math scores are also among the lowest since the test began in 2000, even as students have held their ground in science.美国学生的数学成绩也处于该测试自2000年开始以来的最低区间，不过科学成绩保持稳定。By every measure, American students are being outperformed by students in Singapore and parts of China who had top scores on the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, taken by 15-year-olds around the world.无论以何种标准衡量，美国学生的表现都逊于新加坡和中国部分地区的学生，这些学生在国际学生评估项目(PISA)中得分最高，该测试面向全球15岁学生。It is the latest warning sign for an American education system that has seen test scores fall over the last decade, starting before the pandemic.这是对美国教育系统发出的最新警示。过去十年来，该系统的考试成绩不断下降，这种情况从新冠疫情前就已开始了。“Our kids are going in the wrong direction on the skills that are absolutely essential for their — and our — success. Period. The end,” said Margaret Spellings, a former education secretary under President George W. Bush. She called for “urgent action at all levels.”“在对他们自身以及我们所有人的成功都至关重要的技能方面，我们的孩子正朝着错误的方向发展。就这么简单，”乔治·W·布什政府时期的教育部长玛格丽特·斯佩林斯表示。她呼吁“在所有层面立即采取行动”。But the results also show that the challenges facing the United States — including the allure of smartphones, social media and A.I., and the continued fallout from the pandemic — are not just American problems.但结果也显示，美国面临的挑战——包括智能手机、社交媒体和人工智能的诱惑以及疫情持续造成的后果——并非美国独有的问题。Reading scores are falling in many industrialized countries, down from their peak in 2012. Math scores are down globally since 2018.许多工业化国家的阅读成绩出现下降，较2012年的峰值有所回落。自2018年以来，全球数学成绩也在下滑。Overall, the United States ranked above average in reading and science, and about middle of the pack for math, compared with 37 other countries that make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a coalition of mostly free-market democracies that account for a majority of world trade.与经济合作与发展组织（一个主要由自由市场民主国家组成、占世界贸易大部分的联盟）的其他37个国家相比，美国在阅读和科学方面高于平均水平，数学大约处于中等。Experts attribute the global declines, at least in part, to the rise of technology. Students are easily distracted and reading less for pleasure.专家将全球性的下降至少部分归因于科技的发展。学生容易分心，并且为兴趣而阅读的时间减少。Across countries, the share of “hasty readers” — students who skimmed texts quickly and gave incorrect answers — almost doubled from 2018 to 2025, according to the PISA.根据PISA的数据，各国“敷衍阅读者”——快速浏览文本并给出错误答案的学生——的比例从2018年到2025年几乎翻了一番。More than 760,000 teenagers from 91 countries and economies took the test last year, including about 4,600 in the United States.去年，来自91个国家和经济体的超过76万名青少年参加了这项测试，其中包括美国约4600名学生。Top-scoring countries included Singapore, Japan and Korea.得分最高的国家包括新加坡、日本和韩国。China also dominated the test, but the testing sample included only the provinces of Shanghai, Beijing, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, some of the country’s wealthiest coastal areas, prompting skepticism about cherry-picked results.中国也在测试中占据绝对优势，但测试样本仅包括上海、北京、江苏和浙江这些中国最富裕的沿海省份，这引发了人们对其“择优选取”结果的质疑。Still, those regions are highly populated, include some poorer areas, and are home to some of China’s top talent, said Tracey Burns, chief of global strategy and research for the National Center on Education and the Economy. Those students will soon be competing with American students for jobs and future innovations.不过，国家教育与经济中心全球战略与研究主管特蕾西·伯恩斯说，这几个地区人口众多，并且也包含一些较贫困地区，是中国一些顶尖人才的家园。这些学生很快将在就业和未来创新方面与美国学生竞争。She estimated that the average student tested in China was more than five years ahead of American students in math, and three years ahead in science.她估计，在中国接受测试的学生平均数学水平比美国学生领先五年以上，科学水平领先三年以上。“Even a conservative read of these results is concerning,” Dr. Burns said.“即使对这些结果进行保守解读，也令人担忧。”伯恩斯说。The United States has long lagged the world’s best education systems, despite spending more on education than many countries.美国长期以来一直落后于世界上最好的教育体系，尽管其在教育上的支出超过许多国家。Just 8 percent of American teenagers scored at the highest levels in math on the PISA, compared with 37 percent in Singapore, 23 percent in Korea and 22 percent in Japan. (In the Chinese sample, 54 percent of students scored at the top level in math.)在PISA中，只有8%的美国青少年在数学方面达到了最高水平，而新加坡为37%，韩国为23%，日本为22%。（在中国样本中，54%的学生在数学方面达到了最高水平。）In reading, American students performed about as well as students in Australia and Canada. In science, American students competed with students in Switzerland and Finland.在阅读方面，美国学生的表现与澳大利亚和加拿大大致相当。在科学方面，美国学生与瑞士和芬兰不相上下。But the share of American teenagers who failed to reach even a basic level of proficiency in reading and math, considered the minimum needed to read a utility bill, for example, has risen over the last decade.但在过去十年中，未能达到阅读和数学基本熟练水平的美国青少年比例有所上升，而这一水平被视为看懂水电费账单等信息必须具备的最低能力门槛。That is in sharp contrast to the most successful Asian countries, which do a much better job of lifting up their most disadvantaged students, often by attracting top teachers and principals to their most challenged schools, said Andreas Schleicher, who oversees the PISA for the O.E.C.D.负责OECD的PISA项目的安德烈亚斯·施莱歇尔说，这一点与最成功的亚洲国家形成鲜明对比，这些国家在帮助最弱势学生提升方面做得要好得多，通常是通过将最优秀的教师和校长吸引到最薄弱的学校。“In the U.S. if you make a choice between a better teacher and a smaller class, you typically choose a smaller class,” he said. “In these countries, they save on the class size, but they get the best people to become teachers.”“在美国，如果你在一位更好的老师和更小的班级规模之间做选择，你通常会选择更小的班级规模。”他说。“而在这些国家，他们在班级规模上压缩成本，但让最优秀的人成为教师。”Another difference: the use of A.I., which the western world has often used to “make things easier for kids,” Mr. Schleicher said.另一个区别是人工智能的使用，西方世界常常用它来“给孩子们降低难度”，施莱歇尔说。In top Asian countries, he said, A.I. is not typically used by students, but is used by teachers “to make students think harder, work harder.”但在亚洲顶尖国家，他说人工智能通常不是学生使用的工具，而是被教师用来“让学生更勤于思考，更努力学习”。Researchers urged some caution when interpreting the U.S. results. The U.S. sample included about 4,600 students from 144 schools, but response rates fell short of the PISA’s targets. The Trump administration last year slashed staffing at the federal agency responsible for administering the PISA in the United States, as part of its plan to shrink the Department of Education.研究人员呼吁对美国的成绩要谨慎解读。美国样本包括来自144所学校的约4600名学生，但回应率未达到PISA的目标。作为缩减教育部计划的一部分，特朗普政府去年大幅裁减了负责在美国实施PISA的联邦机构的人员。Still, experts say there is little doubt that American students have lost ground.不过，专家表示，美国学生在退步这一点毫无疑问。In the absence of a federal education agenda, it will be up to every state to push for improvements, said Kevin Huffman, a former education commissioner in Tennessee who now leads a nonprofit focused on education solutions.前田纳西州教育专员、现领导一家专注于教育解决方案的非营利组织的凯文·赫夫曼说，在缺乏联邦教育议程的情况下，改进只能在州一级进行。“Nobody is off the hook,” he said.“没有人能置身事外。”他说。Sarah Mervosh是时报教育记者，主要报道K-12学校。翻译：经雷点击查看本文英文版。获取更多RSS：https://feedx.net https://feedx.site