Should we compare American schooling with European schooling

I don't know which part of your post is more wrong here. "Weeding out bad teachers" was never a primary puropse of standardized testing and the Brits (Apparently with the exception of the Welsh) have standardized testing throughout their educational system. The British system was the model used for bringing Standardized Testing to the U.S..

This past December standardized tests were eliiminated in Wales for students under age 14 in favor of their "DELLS" system.

Europe isn't England

Perhaps she was simply using England as an example of a European country, however, I would venture to guess that each European country handles education differently.

I suppose it wouldn't hurt to research various other countries and how they handle education. However, each country again has a different culture and what may work well in one country may not work well in another because of cultural differences.

Thank you, linkat. I had less than five minutes to use the computer and dashed off a few quick lines.

fishin -- Your running mates strongly disagree with you on what testing was meant to do. There is a drumbeat here about getting rid of senior teachers who members of the right who post here tend to believe are uniformly bad.

And, England is in Europe. It just isn't spoken of as Continental Europe.

I did a research paper on this. PISA is an international test that, if I remember correctly, tests students from most nations. Americans did better than average in some areas and lower in others. PISA is one of the items pointed to as an example of the failing American school system. We look to the techniques of other countries who score well where we don't to see what we can add to our system.

I am going to stop here, I am not capable of really spending the time here to answer right now..........

Comparison is a legitimate way to gauge our educational effectiveness. However, there are certainly problems when the students being compared aren't taking the same test and aren't learning in similar environments.

My point is that in England and in France, students are tested to determine whether they have university potential at 14. If they don't, they leave school. Americans insist not only on keeping students in school until 16, but on having all students graduate from high school. Furthermore, colleges are getting looser and looser in their standards. In fact, there are college who accept people who only need to breathe. Needless to say, these kids drop out during or at the end of the first year. The University of Southern Maine (a rip off if there ever was one) actually sent a girl back to Arlington High School.

So, we can not compare American students to European students because the goals of the school systems and the standards are so completely different that this is an apple and orange comparison.

The basic reason for testing is to eliminate students from the system, not to eliminate teachers and to "improve" the schools.

The English require education until 16 but are about to extend that age to 18. (http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Parents/FamilyIssuesAndTheLaw/ChildrensRights/DG_4002945) The French also require schooling until 16.

Lewis -- Interesting. Americans have grown up with the notion that Britons who don't reach a certain standard at age 14 leave school for an apprenticeship, as did the husband of a former coworker. Met some Irishmen in the 70s who left school at 14 but who later returned to school after taking some classes through Open University.