The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development runs a "Program for International Student Assessment." Among the 34 participating countries, in 2009 American 15-year-olds' math scores ranked 25th.
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan commented, when the scores were released, "The brutal fact here is there are many countries that are far ahead of us and improving more rapidly than we are. This should be a massive wake-up call to the entire country."