The recent announcement of the PISA 2012 results has sparked a lot of discussion recently. From the PISA website:
Find out how the 65 participating economies fared in the latest PISA survey in 2012 which focused on mathematics. Discover which education systems have improved over time, how equitable they are and how boys compare to girls, both in their performance and in their attitudes towards learning maths.
More than 510,000 students took part in this latest PISA survey, representing about 28 million 15-year-olds globally.
These PISA results reveal what is possible in education by showing what students in the highest-performing and most rapidly improving education systems can do.
You may also want to view the recorded discussion of the results.