For decades, the U.S. spent billions of dollars trying to close its education gap with the rest of the world. New data shows that all that money made little difference. Today, we investigate how that could be. Guest: Dana Goldstein, a national correspondent for The New York Times who covers education. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Background reading:

• The past three American presidents have tried to help the U.S. education system compete with other countries. Test scores haven’t improved.
• The “Nation’s Report Card” came out this fall. It indicated that two-thirds of children in the U.S. are not proficient readers.