To add some context, according to PISA, most Americans are doing just fine, and the best Americans are amazing, but there are problems within certain groups [1]

To add some context, according to PISA, most Americans are doing just fine, and the best Americans are amazing, but there are problems within certain groups [1]. There is no 'general slowdown' - it's more of an isolated issue, but those groups are growing a little bit in number so averages look off. Also, it seems as though the Chinese test-takers for PISA are not a fair representation, there's cherry picking there like they are all from Beijing or Shanghai and from good schools etc.. Finally - there is a really hard discussion to be had as the CRT perspective is that math itself (focus on correct answers, objectivity etc.) is racist and built on an inherently white/western/colonialist paradigm, and encourages other forms of expression as 'equally correct'. There's some academic points to be had there, surely, and maybe dropping 'entrance exams' as primary criteria is also a good thing overall - but - the rejection of science and math and essentially enlightenment principles as basically cover, or an excuse for non-achievement isn't going to work. Also in general there's too much focus on the education system itself, instead of the students, their home life and culture - if nobody shows up, nobody likes math, people are bullied for doing well, all role models are antagonists instead of positive, parents don't care, or don't know enough to encourage some conscientious outcomes - then nothing on the educational side will work. There seems to be some success in pulling otherwise decent kids out of 'really bad schools' but unfortunately that just leaves the bad places a little worse. 'Bad Math Scores' might be a little bit more a function of overall social malaise than just 'focus on math' itself, if we can get stable homes with parents who encourage kids, where gangs are not prevalent etc. then there's hope. Edit ---- While we are add it have a look [2] - from the OECD which breaks down PISA scoring by immigrants in various countries. This is maybe helpful because it gives a basis for other countries to get how 'non majority' people do elsewhere. The most interesting artifact of this is that - after accounting for economic standing - immigrants in Anglosphere countries (and some other small expat nations like Qatar) do exceedingly well - better than the local kids! While migrants struggle and do 'worse than' average kids in most nations - after you account for their depressed economic status, immigrants to better than average in Canada/US/UK. Oddly - eveb in places with exceptionally high educational standards like Finland - immigrants to 'very bad' even when accounting for income. Literally Finland is a 'Top 3' place for education, and yet, they are essentially at the very bottom when it comes to kids outside normative culture. This I think is insightful and I thing suggests that the US for example doesn't have anything resembling 'toxic teaching system' - at least migrants, who are generally outsiders to the 'majority culture' do relatively well. [1] https://gpseducation.oecd.org/CountryProfile?plotter=h5&primaryCountry=USA&treshold=5&topic=PI https://gpseducation.oecd.org/CountryProfile?plotter=h5&prim... [2] https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/263bde74-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/263bde74-en https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/263bde74-en/index.html?i...