News media often publish comparative studies that report U.S. student performance in a global context. The school quality concern seems so simplistic that anyone who had compulsory education can chime into the discussion. In this article, the condition of U.S. education is further disentangled across the boundary of K-12 and higher education. Core program features are examined to reveal profound factors behind student performance in mathematics and science. These findings are grounded on triangulation of the interrelated observations that are typically obscured from test score comparisons across nations.