Surpassing Shanghai: An Agenda for American Education Built on the World's Leading Systems by Marc S. Tucker and colleagues takes benchmarking one step further. The systems of schooling in Shanghai (China) Finland, Japan, Singapore, and Ontario (Canada) are analyzed, since students in those countries or provinces consistently outperform American students on international tests of academic performance.

According to this analysis, six key factors underlie the success of those top performers:

1. Funding schools equitably, with additional resources for those serving needy students

2. Paying teachers competitively and comparably

3. Investing in high-quality preparation, mentoring and professional development for teachers and leaders, completely at government expense

4. Providing time in the school schedule for collaborative planning and ongoing professional learning to continually improve instruction

5. Organizing a curriculum around problem-solving and critical thinking skills

6. Testing students rarely but carefully -- with measures that require analysis, communication, and defense of ideas