Although the United States has an impressive higher education system, the country seems to lag far behind many other countries when comparing its K-12 curriculum with the systems of education of young people from other countries. In the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment, an international test that compares countries' students aged fifteen and sixteen, the United States ranked twenty-sixth in mathematics, twenty-first in science, and seventeenth in reading (Elliott et al. 1). Although many blame poverty, affluent American students in PISA 2006 reportedly ranked only twenty-third in math and seventeenth in science compared to other students of similar status, and Vietnam, a country relatively poor, consistently performs better than the United States. (“Ensuring America’s Students Receive a World-Class Education” 24). The sources of the gap between the United States and other countries are teachers and teaching methods. In high-performing countries, teachers are trained more rigorously and these fully trained teachers collaborate together to teach students as a whole class instead of separating students based on their achievement. Additionally, even though these countries teach fewer subjects at a time, they teach subjects longer and in more depth. Because higher-performing countries have more qualified teachers who teach students in groups a more focused curriculum, adolescent students in these countries perform better than adolescent students in the United States. One of the most important differences between the United States and top-performing countries is how well-respected and well-trained teachers are. In high-performing countries, teaching careers are more respected than in the United States; On average, the United States pays teachers about seventy-two percent of the average of all college graduates...... middle of paper ...... foreign powers such as China are becoming increasingly most important in today's world, and the United States needs its younger generation to be well-educated to represent and lead their country. The solution to this problem is to borrow what works for other countries. Even though the United States is a diverse nation, the top-performing countries are a combination of European and Asian countries. So, by looking at the consistent similarities between these high-performing countries, the United States might be able to find a good direction for reform. Other countries such as Germany and Finland have already succeeded in reforming their education systems (Hancock 4); If the United States can begin training teachers more rigorously and slowly begin to develop a deeper curriculum and teaching methods used internationally, American students can begin to receive a world-class education..