http://www.epi.org/publication/bringing-it-back-home-why-state-comparisons-are-more-useful-than-international-comparisons-for-improving-u-s-education-policy/
A few years ago Gene Glass wrote (http://ed2worlds.blogspot.com/2012/12/where-in-world-is-carmen-sandiego.html) that rather than using international test data to compare ourselves to other countries (which our policymakers love to do), we should better understand the great variability of educational outcomes within our own country and learn what students and schools in higher-scoring areas are doing that's different. In this new report from the Economic Policy Institute, they recommend the same thing and add their findings to a growing body of evidence that shows that while average test scores across the U.S. might not rank at the top of the world, students in certain states or students of higher socioeconomic status in the U.S. score similarly to students in Finland or Singapore. So rather than think there's some "exotic" solution to import from a country on the other side of the world, maybe some of the keys to our educational troubles are already here and staring us in the face if we just focus on the variability within our own country.