Maggie's Farm

The Finns beat us in tests and it's because of their laid-back, child-friendly attitude. The South Koreans beat us and it's because of their fanatical work ethic. The British also run articles all year about how bad the schools are in comparison to the rest of the world. It's a hobby in the Anglosphere to complain about how much better things were in Ye Goode Olde Days.)

It's over 90% ethnic/racial. By state, one can take the national average caucasian score, average hispanic score, etc and multiply those by the percentage of each group in the state. The result will be within a few points of the overall state average. Once you know that, all theorising about education programming falls to the ground. Liberals love to sneer at Arkansas and Louisiana, thinking that they are sneering at stomach-scratching rednecks. Feels great. But scores of the different groups are enormously consistent state-to-state. (Not completely. There are a few points left unaccounted for.)

Similarly, Asian-Americans outscore other Asians (except maybe Singapore); American caucasians outscore all of Europe (maybe tied with Finland); American hispanics wallop all Latin American countries, ditto American blacks and all African and island nations. We have the best schools in the world. (Canada, Australia, New Zealand are about the same. Try not to see the obvious connection, because it's politically incorrect.)

Those serious points aside, frigate is spot on.