> has the US approach to education kept up or prioritized?

"The PISA results are also a reminder of something that I think many Americans don’t know: America’s overall educational performance is above average for a rich country.

Our PISA reading scores were worse than Canada, Ireland, Estonia, and the rich Asian countries, but higher than everyone else in Europe. You used to be able to break out PISA scores by state, which would typically show things like Massachusetts doing better than any European country. But that breakdown is no longer available."

> Students getting "dumber" implies something about the students

A tree stunted by being grown in poor soil is still stunted.