STOP THE PRESSES!  (Sorry – a lot big news recently)  The new 2009 PISA data is out and the news is grim for the U.S.: while the US has made progress (the math raw score rose from 474 to 487 from 2006 to 2009 and science went from 474 to 502), we remain mired in the middle of the pack.

"We have to see this as a wake-up call," Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in an interview on Monday.

"I know skeptics will want to argue with the results, but we consider them to be accurate and reliable, and we have to see them as a challenge to get better," he added. "The United States came in 23rd or 24th in most subjects. We can quibble, or we can face the brutal truth that we're being out-educated."

In math, the Shanghai students performed in a class by themselves, outperforming second-place Singapore, which has been seen as an educational superstar in recent years. The average math scores of American students put them below 30 other countries.

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Top Test Scores From Shanghai Stun Educators

By SAM DILLON

Published: December 7, 2010

www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/education/07education.html