Scores from a sample of students could reveal instructional quality.
That test is periodically given to a sample of students in designated grades in both public and private schools.
His group had tried to assure that a representative sample of students in each country took last year's test, he said.
But, as a condition of receiving federal money, states would have to evaluate a sample of students with tests known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
The figures were based on a nationwide random sample of students who were asked whether they had been victims of crime.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress, given to a nationwide sample of students, has tested civics knowledge only twice, in 1988 and 1998.
The country was excluded from the OECD's 2003 study because its sample of students was so poor.
Business Week comes up with its rankings by polling a large sample of students and companies that recruit them.
The latest Timss study, the world's largest review of math and science achievement, involved testing a representative sample of students in each country in 2007, the first time the tests had been administered since 2003.
But there is better evidence from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a test given by the United States Department of Education to a representative sample of students nationwide.
Because these exams are given only to a sample of students, each of whom takes only part of a test, no individual, school or district scores can be reported.
