According to an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer today, American students do poorly in science compared to the rest of the developed world: http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1148545940278060.xml&coll=2
This is also true for math. What's interesting is that the longer American kids stay in the government schools (aka public schools) the worse they fare compared to students in other countries. Results of these studies can be found here: http://ustimss.msu.edu/ (I found it under Overheads.)
A couple of reasons: America is one of the few developed countries which allow the education of our children to be controlled by a government/union monopoly; also, we are more interested in how kids 'feel' about school than in whether they are receiving an excellent education. One quick piece of evidence... Eighth grade science classes were videoed in the US and in countries with high achieving students. Games and entertainment occupied a much higher percentage of time in the US classes.
As a homeschooling mom searching for curriculum for my kids, I have to wade through lots of curricula full of fun games to find quality material that just teaches without trying to entertain.
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