I'm familiar with the PISA study as being an objective measurement for what you're describing. If I remember correctly the US scored somewhere in the middle of the field, just above Croatia (technically a 3rd world country, as when it was part of Yugoslavia it was also part of the Non-aligned movement during the cold war or 3rd world. The phrase was later turned into a derogatory term by some pretty crafty spin doctors).
I remember the US getting constantly humiliated on the study and stopped taking it. I also remember it being a big thing here in the EU. Pretty much all national TV channels were covering their respective scores.
That was some time ago and I do believe you might be right and that things have improved dramatically. However how does one track this now-a-days? I tried the PISA website, but it seems to have been mostly discontinued, as the last published survey seems to be from 2018. So I'm basically looking for a source that compares education objectively by country with recent data.
