“Contrary to widespread hopes that promotion of self-esteem and confidence will encourage learning, grade inflation seems to lower performance...”

US school students don’t count in international class | Published: Wednesday, 30 May, 2007, 08:26 AM Doha Time

PARIS: School students in the US think they are just great at mathematics: but by the age of 14 they are two years behind the level in other industrialised countries and overall come 24th in a class of 29.
...
In fact, the OECD says, US school students “rank 24th out of 29 OECD countries in mathematics performance.”
...
The “astonishing self confidence” expressed by US school students “also suggests standards are lax,” the report said. “Contrary to widespread hopes that promotion of self-esteem and confidence will encourage learning, grade inflation seems to lower performance...”

“In short, one reason why US students perform worse than their international counterparts seems to be that they are not being challenged.” Another explanation was that in the US there was no school-leaving exam based on a set curriculum.
...
A generation ago, the US had the highest rate of higher education in the OECD area, today it ranks eighth even though in 2003 it spent 2.9% of gross domestic product in this field, about twice the OECD average.

Spending per student on higher education was $19,500 (14,100 euros) compared with an OECD average of $7,800. ...