First off, I have no idea what I'm talking about here - I have no idea how other countries run their educational institutions and my understanding of internatio

First off, I have no idea what I'm talking about here - I have no idea how other countries run their educational institutions and my understanding of international (non-U.S.) cultures is limited. I know that here in the U.S. there's been a great deal of effort put into providing equal opportunities for people of all races/ethnicities/gender/backgrounds. We've also been trying very hard to prevent our educational system from instilling a sense of failure or inadequacy in our children. The motivations for these initiatives are complex, and effectiveness is subject for debate. However, I would assert that they do exist and that effort has been put towards those ends. I wonder how much that does or does-not detract from the objective of boosting our math and science scores against other countries. Do other countries have these same struggles - and how have they dealt with them? Do other countries sacrifice children of immigrants, lower economics, etc... at the expense of the children with the abilities to nudge the math/science scores? Do other countries even have challenges comparable to ours? I don't know but would be curious to hear.