One question is often risen in response to international 【M1】______test comparisons: Do th

One question is often risen in response to international 【M1】______

test comparisons: Do these results really mean anything？ In

the past, international testing programs have been criticized

on variety of grounds. Two allegations, in particular, have 【M2】______

been common: first, that other nations have not tested as large

a percentage of their student population, and nevertheless their【M3】______

scores have been inflated; and second, that our best students are

among the world's best, with our average brought down by a 【M4】______

large cohort of low-achievers.

Whatever the historic validity of such concerns, they are 【M5】______

now, if anything, reversed. Particularly in the fourth and eighth

grade, education has become universal in all of the leading

nations. Therefore, in science, the percentage of randomly selected【M6】______

U.S. schools and students that actually did participate at the

eighth grade level was just 73 percent—the third-lowest of all

45 participating countries, and 11 percentage points under the【M7】______

average participation rate of industrialized nations. In fact, the

United States had third-lowest overall participation rate for both【M8】______

grades in both subjects. Japan, Taiwan and Singapore all had

participation percentages in the 90s.

How about our best and brightest？ At the fourth-grade level,

there is some real truth to the idea that the best American students【M9】______

are among the best in the world. Looking only at the top 5 percent

of test-takers, American fourth-graders beat the average of wealthy

nations by 13 percentage points. By the eighth grade, however, the

tables have turned, with America's brightest students fallen 10【M10】______

percentage points behind their foreign peers.

【M1】