True or False:
1. The United States produces many more high-achieving students than any other OECD nation.
2. In both reading and math, the U.S. produces more high achievers than France, Germany, and the United Kingdom combined.
3. In both reading and math, in raw numbers, the United States produces more high-achieving Hispanic students than Asian students.
4. There are more high-achieving African-American students than high-achieving Finns.
All true, according to an interesting new paper American Achievement in International Perspective by Fordham’s Mike Petrilli and Janie Scull. The moral of the story? Size matters and the large number of U.S. students ensures a high number of high achievers across the board. “In raw numbers, at least, our high-achieving Hispanic and black American students outnumber the high achievers of several other countries,” Petrilli observes at Fordham’s Flypaper blog. “At the least, this indicates that they will have a seat at the international table—on prestigious college campuses, in the board room, and in the laboratory. It’s a start.”