>>A lot of the tests that have been publicized on this front are misleading. Other countries have a different way of organizing curriculum that often puts US students at a disadvantage in such tests. For example, students in many other countries study all sciences in parallel year after year rather than taking discrete courses in biology, chemistry and physics at different times. A test that assumes students have been introduced to all sciences rather than addressing only those US students have studied by that age will surely show better results for the other students.
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>If other countries are getting more out of their kids, maybe then we should adopt their system of education....
>Oh yeah. We have in this country what is called compassion and making sure every student feel good about themselves. Not to mention the tangle web of bureaucracy at all levels that has it's own agenda, other then education.

I didn't say they're getting more. I said they're introducing some subjects earlier. In the US, we tend to teach subjects sequentially. For example, where I live, kids take Physical Science in 9th grade, Biology in 10th, Chemistry in 11th and Physics in 12th. As I understand it, in many other countries, students have all those sciences in each grade and spread the material out over a number of years. That means they acquire fundamentals of those subjects younger than their American counterparts, not necessarily that they learn more of each.

Tamar