In a Test of Adult Know-How, America Comes Up Short

"When it comes to basic skills such as creating a complex travel
itinerary, reading a thermometer or finding information from a website,
American workers are falling behind those in other rich countries.
That is according to a global test of adult know-how, which measures job
readiness and problem-solving among workers in industrialized countries.
The results, released Tuesday, largely show that the least-educated
American workers between the ages of 16 and 65 are less able to make
inferences from a section of text, manipulate fractions or apply spatial
reasoning ...
It also suggests that employers might have a hard time finding workers
capable of basic levels of critical thinking.
..
The number of U.S. test-takers whose mathematics skills didn’t surpass
those expected of a primary-school student rose to 34% of the population
from 29% in 2017, the last time the test was administered.
Problem-solving scores were also weaker than in 2017, with the U.S.
average score below the international average.
The Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies was
given to 31 industrialized countries or economic regions. A total of
about 160,000 adults took the exam, including 4,600 in the U.S. It has
been administered three times, once between 2012 and 2014, again in
2017, and this most recent iteration in 2023.
In the latest test, the U.S. ranked 14th in literacy, 15th in adaptive
problem solving and 24th in numeracy. The same eight countries were tops
in all three categories: Finland, Japan, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands,
Estonia, Belgium and Denmark."
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/america-us-math-proficiency-falling-1b5ac73c