<p>The stellar achievements of SKorean students should be viewed in light of the near zero population diversity there, and the relatively uniform quality of education (national education). Their approach is not much different from what we had to go thru to pass the dreaded national entrance exam in my birth country of Elbonia (one of those small expansion countries in Europe). We did have our local hagwons, lots of them, with their own photocopied textbooks, endless tests, lectures, etc, all aiming to pass the test. There were different price points for our hagwons, too, with expensive air conditioned ones and 5-10 kids per class to near public school sized 30 kids per class.</p>
<p>Like SKorea, we had nationalized education and nearly zero diversity. In the US, we have neither. Seeing the opportunities, skills, and critical thinking that my daughters developed in our local (US) school system (ranked in the top 500 schools in the country) has all but convinced me that the SKorean or Elbonian system would not work here, and vice versa.</p>