U.S. public high schools have an average of 752 students (2001-2002)
Student/teacher ratio
The student/teacher ratio for U.S. public high schools is 15.1-to-1. (2001-2002)
READING
Fifteen-year-old U.S. students rated average in a 27-country survey in 2000, below Finland, Canada and New Zealand; and on par with Australia, Spain, Norway, Ireland and England.
WRITING
Female 12th-graders outperformed males by 25 points, as cumulative scores dropped between 1998 and 2002.
SCIENCE
Private school (6 percent of total) and low-income (1 percent of total) students' scores rose, but public school students' overall scores fell 4 percent in a 2000 assessment.
CIVICS
U.S. ninth-graders ranked best among 28 countries in overall civic knowledge in a 1999 survey.
U.S. HISTORY
In 2001, 29 percent of seniors knew the significance of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, while 48 percent knew the Soviet Union was a U.S. ally in World War II.
Source: U.S. Department of Education; all schools did not report in some categories
