When my British friends ask what it’s like to educate my kids in the US, the first issue they raise is the risk of school shootings.
In contrast, the last school shooting in the UK — when a gunman murdered 16 elementary students and a teacher — happened in 1996. As a result, the public called for tighter gun controls, which the British government enforced.
My friends’ next question is often related to academic achievement.
In 2018 — the most recent year the research was performed — the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) ranked the overall knowledge and skills of British 15-year-olds as 13th in the world in reading, literacy, mathematics, and science.
The same assessment found that 15-year-olds in the US were ranked 25th globally.
It’s difficult to compare public school systems forensically because of the countries’ vastly different populations and government infrastructures.
However, feedback from my British…