# The world's students are falling behind

> PISA scores just hit their lowest point since testing began, and nobody can agree on why.
- Title: The world's students are falling behind · Vox | Shortify
- Summary: PISA scores just hit their lowest point since testing began, and nobody can agree on why. Global test scores are sliding, and AI in the classroom helps or…
- Keywords: education, pisa, reading, test scores, news, culture, world's, students, falling, behind, Vox
- Source: Vox — https://vox.com/today-explained-newsletter/502411/report-card-schools-ai-education-learning
- Author: Caitlin Dewey
- Published: 2026-09-09T22:05:00+00:00
- Read time: 2 min
- Topics: education, pisa, ai, reading, test scores, news, culture
## Scores hit a record low
A new PISA report finds math, reading, and science scores across OECD countries have fallen to their lowest levels since testing started in the early 2000s.
## Reading fell off a cliff
Between 2015 and 2025, reading scores dropped by more than a year's worth of education. In the US, they fell about 14 percentage points in just three years.
## This is not a small sample
PISA tested more than 760,000 fifteen-year-olds across 91 countries. It is one of the most closely watched education metrics anywhere.
## The usual suspects
The report points to the long tail of Covid disruption and an attention crisis that makes sticking with long text hard for kids and adults alike.

> an attentional crisis that makes it difficult for kids (and adults!) to stick with long texts
## Almost every teen uses AI
For the first time, PISA asked about generative AI. 86 percent of students said they use it at least occasionally, and roughly one in 10 use it daily.
## How you use it matters
Students who never touch AI outperformed those who do. But weekly users who used it to learn, rather than to finish tasks, scored about the same as nonusers.
## Teaching AI literacy helps
Frequent AI users who had also been taught AI literacy skills scored slightly higher than the rest. The skill is in the using, not the tool.
## Some uses clearly work
An upstate New York research center is building AI tools for kids with language disorders. One mother credits a reading app with transforming her autistic son's communication.
## Bans cut both ways
New York City's one-year moratorium bans student-facing AI in public elementary and middle schools, which would likely block those tools too. The chancellor calls it time to evaluate.
## Key takeaway

Global test scores are sliding, and AI in the classroom helps or hurts depending entirely on how students use it.