The Japanese national exams

In an effort to raise students’ educational levels across the globe, the Program for International Student Assessment, encourages hundreds of thousands of 15-year-old students from sixty-five countries to take a two-hour test that covers just three subjects: math, science, and reading. In 2012, 510,000 students completed the test, and the PISA test scores reveal sobering news.

The Shanghai Chinese students won first place in all three subjects, and Peru’s students took last place in all three. The Japanese students scored seventh in math, and fourth in both science and reading, and the South K...