When the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition announced recently its high school winners in Paris, the grand prize went to a Chinese team from Shenzhen. Six of the nine runners-up were also from China.

Only one American school ‒ Lambert High in suburban Atlanta ‒ made it into the top 10.

Dominating academic performances by Chinese students has become routine news. In addition to winning science contests like iGEM, they also outscore everyone on international standardized tests like PISA. This often leads to American handwringing about how China is leaving American students in the dust, with implications for competitiveness in STEM fields and the global economy.

The reality is more complicated.

China has a highly selective, intensely pressurized educational pipeline that develops a narrow slice of students to an extremely high level. The United States, by contrast, has "islands of excellence" like Lambert that sit atop an educational system that doesn't always set up students for success in science, technology, engineering and mathematics ‒........

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