Free Republic

...As a new study on education standards world-wide shows, unlike in the U.S. and much of Europe, high school students in these countries actually learn something. In this country, the study's findings grabbed headlines for how poorly American students score.... Only a generation ago, U.S. high school students ranked No. 1. Today their performance has fallen below the OECD average -- except in reading, where Americans manage to eke out an "average."... Less publicized has been why U.S. scores are so low. The OECD researchers identified several key characteristics that most successful school systems share -- namely, decentralization, competition and...

On July 19, 2004, the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) released a study entitled The Multiplier Effect. The study revealed that a large percentage of top students in the U.S. are the children of immigrants [both with immigrant and nonimmigrant visa status] -- 65 percent of the top math students and 60 percent of the top science students. Groups of students studied include: the Intel Science Talent Search finalists, the Math Olympiad's top scorers, and the U.S. Physics Team. The parents of these top students came from a diverse mix of countries, including: India, China, Taiwan, Russia, Ukraine, Israel,...