"Students in U.S. public schools outperformed 23 of 34 other countries in the project, known as the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study of 2001. Those countries ranged from top scorers, including Sweden and England, to such lower performers as Iran and Kuwait."
Rankings...
1. Sweden
2. Netherlands
3. England
4. Bulgaria
5. Latvia
6. Canada
7. Lithuania
8. Hungary
9. United States
10. Italy
11. Germany
12. Czech Republic
13. New Zealand
14. Scotland
15. Singapore
16. Russian Federation
17. Hong Kong
18. France
19. Greece
20. Slovak Republic
21. Iceland
22. Romania
23. Israel
24. Slovenia
25. Norway
26. Cyprus
27. Moldova
28. Turkey
29. Macedonia
30. Colombia
31. Argentina
32. Iran
33. Kuwait
34. Morocco
35. Belize
http://www.cnn.com/2003/EDUCATION/04....ap/index.html