South Korea is a culturally homogeneous society, with education serving as an important class marker. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 93 percent of Korean students graduate on time from high school. In comparison, the U.S. has an on-time graduation rate of 72 percent.
Experienced high school teachers in South Korea earn on average 25 percent more than their American counterparts. Excluding university, Korean families spend triple what U.S. families do on education, including more than $200 billion annually on private educational institutes, or hagwons -- after-school tutoring academies seldom seen in the United States.
South Korea remains teacher-centered in orientation, with significant amounts of rote memorization required, because the singular goal is to do well on the national university entrance exam. Performance on the test solely determines which university a student can attend.
Professor Yunhan Hwan of the Gwangju National University of Education compared how Korean and American middle school students spend time in an average week. He found that while the length of the school day is similar, Korean students sleep less per week and do less household work, spending much more time doing homework: about 16 hours, compared to the three hours and 40 minutes spent by American students.
According to the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment, 15-year-old Korean students outperformed their U.S. counterparts in all three areas of literacy measured: reading, science and math. In the 21st century, however, literacy isn't the only desired outcome. The most recent South Korean National Curriculum places an emphasis on individual talent, aptitude and creativity. This is a "student-centered" trend informed by and consistent with curriculum goals, objectives and defined best practices in the United States.