WASHINGTON, DC – Reacting to today’s release of American students’ performance on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) exam, Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia made the following statement.

“In what has become the Olympics of academic performance, these international test results show that U.S. students’ performance is improving, but we are still a long way from being an educational Olympic-medal winner without using help with homework service.

“The positive news is that the United States has stopped dropping in the international rankings, and there has even been some improvement in the mean scores in all three subjects since the last assessment, with significant gains in science. Most positively, approximately 25 percent of low-income students tested in the top quartile, showing that with the right support, every child can learn at a high level.

“In this ongoing educational Olympics, U.S. training has somewhat improved, but many of our competitors are still streaking by us to the medal ceremony. Hopefully the adoption of common core state standards, as well as the reforms underway in many states, will move the U.S. much further up the rankings in 2013.”

To learn more about the 2009 PISA results and what they mean for the United States, register for “Are American Students Prepared for the Global Economy?,” a live web event featuring Andreas Schleicher, head of the indicators and analysis division for OECD’s Directorate of Education that the Alliance is cohosting today from 2-4:00 p.m. (EST) with The Asia Society, Committee for Economic Development, Council of Chief State School Officers, and the National Governors Association.