<p>South Korea, Japan, and Finland have developed high-quality secondary education systems that effectively balance efficiency and equality. Each country employs iconic policies. South Korea and Japan aim to reduce inter-school differences in teaching quality through the rotation of teachers. Finland aspires to provide quality education (more than quality teaching) for all students through its public comprehensive schools. Nevertheless, few studies have provided evidence that these policies achieve their goals and reveal the distribution of efficiency-related inequalities in their schools. This study used 2018 PISA test data to analyze the state and patterns of secondary education in these three countries. Latent profile analysis identified two types of schools: low-efficiency and high-efficiency. Teaching quality in low-efficiency schools matched that of high-efficiency schools, consistent with the policy effect of teacher rotation. In Finland, 95.3% of schools were the high-efficiency type, which aligns with the comprehensive school policy. Moreover, low-efficiency schools gained more teachers and computers, yet their students still lacked academic drive and perseverance. The three-step latent profile analysis found that the likelihood of attending high-efficiency schools was the same regardless of whether students lived in small towns or large cities. Instead, fewer peers and a high proportion of students from low-income families increased the likelihood of attending a low-efficiency school. This study enhances understanding of the relationships among educational policy, school resources and climate, and school efficiency.</p>