Average math, reading and science scores for 15-year-olds in developed economies fell to the lowest levels in PISA history, based on tests taken by more than 760,000 students last year.
A companion survey pointed to weaker family engagement: students whose families asked weekly about school scored about 35 points higher in science—more than a year and a half of learning.
Digital distraction also stood out, with more than a quarter of students in high-income countries saying classmates were distracted by devices in most or every science class; countries with tighter phone controls reported less disruption.
AI use showed a similar pattern: students who never used chatbots outperformed users, while countries such as China, Japan, Singapore and Estonia were cited as using AI more selectively in classrooms.
Asian systems dominated the rankings, while U.S. reading and math scores kept falling even as the country still placed in the top 15 in science, reading and computational problem-solving partly because other countries declined.
With 2025 PISA scores plummeting, is AI use destroying critical thinking, or are educational standards simply outdated for the digital age?
If global education systems are universally slipping, what radical teaching methods do top performers like Singapore use to maintain high literacy?
As 'hasty reading' doubles globally, are digital distractions physically rewiring adolescent brains to reject deep comprehension and sustained attention?