How well are Wake County Public Schools (WCPSS) students prepared for problem-solving, scientific reasoning, and critical thinking? (1) WCPSS schools out-performed both the U.S., national, and international averages in each core subject of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA): mathematics, reading, and science; and (2) overall, 60% of WCPSS high school students in 2016 performed at a proficient level or above in problem-solving, scientific reasoning, and critical thinking in the College and Work Readiness Assessment (CWRA+). WCPSS juniors' overall performance in CWRA+ was near the middle point between the averages of freshmen and seniors in the national CWRA+ sample. However, the WCPSS scores on the performance task and selected-response items diverged.