AI Use Linked to Worst Student Test Scores in 25 Years, OECD PISA 2025 Results Reveal

Global Student Performance Hits 25-Year Low

The world's 15-year-olds are demonstrating the weakest cognitive skills recorded since global testing began, according to the OECD's PISA 2025 results released Tuesday1

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. The Programme for International Student Assessment tested more than 760,000 students representing approximately 33 million 15-year-olds across 91 countries and economies, revealing average performance across OECD countries at the lowest recorded levels in science, reading, and mathematics1

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. This student performance decline signals a troubling reversal of what researcher James Flynn once identified as humanity's steady increase in IQ scores—now appearing to move in the opposite direction2

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Reading Scores Show Steepest Drop

The global decline in student reading skills proved most severe among the three core subjects tested. Average reading scores across OECD countries fell 28 points between 2015 and 2025, with 25 points of that decline occurring between 2018 and 2025 alone1

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. Since 20 points roughly equals one year of schooling for a 15-year-old, today's students are reading at levels once expected of students a year younger1

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. The decline in reading and math extended beyond OECD members, with non-OECD participants showing reading scores down 16 points and mathematics down 8 points over the same decade1

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. Mathematics fell 22 points over ten years among OECD countries, dropping especially sharply after 2018, while science proved comparatively resilient with a 7-point slip over the decade1

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AI and Social Media Emerge as Key Culprits

The OECD data pointed directly to AI and social media as primary drivers behind declining high school test scores. Students who regularly use AI performed far worse on tests than those who don't, with rare AI users scoring approximately 30 points better than regular users3

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. Only three countries where AI was widely accessible saw reading scores increase, along with just four in mathematics and five in science3

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. OECD director for education and skills Andreas Schleicher warned that AI may be creating a paradoxical effect: "If AI makes things easy, it's not great for you in the long run. It gives you better results, but it doesn't enhance learning"3

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. The organization found that 46% of students use AI chatbots weekly or more to help them learn, though often in ways that do more harm than good4

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. A recent study of 26,811 students in grades 7 to 12 in central China found that while AI use boosted homework grades, subsequent performance in closed-book exams declined sharply4

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The Rise of 'Hasty Readers'

PISA identified a specific behavioral shift behind the reading decline. The share of hasty readers—students who rush through texts and give quick but incorrect answers—nearly doubled between 2018 and 2025, rising from approximately 7% to 11%1

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. Meanwhile, the share of accurate, fluent readers fell by about 7 percentage points over the same period1

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. Performance dropped most sharply on tasks built around longer texts and higher-order processes such as evaluating information, connecting material across multiple sources, and thinking critically1

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. OECD secretary-general Mathias Cormann noted that "more screen time and less reading for pleasure have gone hand in hand with weaker results," with students increasingly engaging in rapid, superficial reading patterns shaped by digitalization4

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Digital Distractions in the Classroom

On average across OECD countries, 28% of students reported that classmates are distracted by digital devices in most or every science lesson1

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. In Beijing-Shanghai-Jiangsu-Zhejiang (China), Japan, and Korea, fewer than 10% reported such distraction, with higher distraction linked to lower science scores in most participating systems1

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. Students who excessively used social media at school performed about 44 points worse in mathematics than those who barely did3

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. Schools that ban cell phones on premises or set subject-specific guidelines for device use recorded lower distraction levels, with nearly half of students across OECD countries now attending schools where phones are barred, up from 34% in 20221

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. Schleicher emphasized that removing technology from the classroom through cell-phone bans represents "the only thing that works" to halt the deterioration in learning4

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Screen Time Reaches Alarming Levels

Students reported spending approximately 1.7 hours daily on digital devices for learning at school and 1.1 hours for leisure while at school1

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. Outside the classroom, screen time reaches even more concerning levels. A study from Common Sense Media found 8- to 12-year-olds are on screens for more than 5 hours daily, while 13- to 18-year-olds exceed 8.5 hours2

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. Limited to moderate use for learning was associated with stronger science performance than either no use or very heavy use1

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. The new technology may deliver a one-two punch: screens and social media diminish attention spans while AI makes it easier to avoid critical thinking by doing the work for students2

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Foundational Skills Crisis

Across OECD countries, 20% of 15-year-olds are now low performers in all three subjects, up from 16% in 20221

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. These students lack the foundational skills needed for further education, employment, and everyday life—they struggle to interpret simple data or identify evidence in graphs, find it hard to understand straightforward texts, and have trouble working out relationships between units and price1

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. The report emphasizes these are not students in conflict zones or countries without infrastructure, but rather live in high- and middle-income OECD countries and have had nine or ten years of formal schooling1

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Socio-Economic Gaps Narrow Through Decline

Socio-economic gaps in performance narrowed between 2022 and 2025, but the report attributes this to declining scores among advantaged students rather than gains among disadvantaged ones1

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. In science, disadvantaged students' performance held steady while advantaged students' scores fell 8 points1

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. In reading, disadvantaged students slipped 4 points against a 20-point drop among advantaged students, while in mathematics, advantaged students fell 14 points1

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. Schleicher called this "a new phenomenon, with the biggest factor in the overall drop in scores being advantaged students who are performing below what one would expect given their background"4

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. Socio-economic background nonetheless remains a strong predictor of achievement, accounting for 12% of within-country variation in science performance, with 37% of disadvantaged students classified as low performers in science against 12% of advantaged students1

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Global Rankings and Regional Variations

Asian students dominated the top 10 rankings in all three categories, with students from four Chinese provinces continuing as top performers in science and math, while students from Singapore topped the rankings for reading3

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. The US didn't scratch the top 10 in any categories, ranking 27th for math, 13th for science, and 13th for reading3

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. While the US followed most global decline trends, it still fared better than the worldwide reading score by 24 points and showed improvements in science scores—up 3 points from 2022 and up 13 points since 20003

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. England fared relatively well in the PISA 2025 results, probably because it has been relatively immune to faddish theories of instruction, recording improvements across all three subjects and moving into the top 10 in each2

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Economic Implications and Future Outlook

The decline in student performance raises serious concerns for long-term economic growth, since most economists believe growth is partly driven by improvements in education levels4

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. While new AI tools promise to raise productivity levels among existing workers, the PISA 2025 results suggest they could already be lowering productivity levels among future workers4

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. Education writer Daisy Christodoulou suggests that AI may lessen the need for brainpower in ways that parallel how widely available, inexpensive calories made obesity more common—representing a radical change from millennia when scarcity demanded constant effort2

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. She proposes that schools might need to become "gymnasia for the mind"—places that allow students to practice and acquire basic cognitive skills that are no longer directly rewarded in daily life but remain vital2

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. Watch for increased policy debates around technology use in education, potential expansion of smartphone bans, and efforts to redesign curricula that build critical thinking skills in an AI-saturated world.