<p>^ ^</p>
<p>If you think the testing regime is bad here in the US, you haven’t observed/witnessed some European or Asian societies where central governments set nationwide curricula* for each track, students are tested from a very early age, and those tests are used to determine which track one is assigned/reassigned at each stage.**</p>
<p>Not only are students tested more often in a high-stakes environment, the exams are also implemented, created, administered, and graded by the central government’s education department with no involvement from the regions or local education departments to discourage attempts to influence results in their own students’ favor. </p>
<p>Regarding the use of calculators in math classes, I personally never was allowed to use one until I took pre-calc. </p>
<p>IMHO, introducing calculators before pre-calc is a bad idea if one wants to impart basic math skills. </p>
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<li>Unlike the common tendency of most US regular public school systems/education departments to teach to the LCD, most foreign countries’ education departments set high teaching/testing standards and are fine with allowing those who can’t keep up to fail/be left back/be assigned to another track. </li>
</ul>
<p>** i.e. K, elementary school(1-5/6), middle school(6/7-9), high school/various vocational schools/apprenticeships, university/community colleges/various advanced vocational institutes.</p>
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<p>Actually, Germany is one of the few First world countries which decentralizes educational/curricular administration to the states similar to what we have in the US. On the other hand, their high school leaving exams aren’t only standardized across Germany, but across European countries…especially those with Germanic education traditions. A reason why it’s a cinch for Germans on the academic track to apply to Germanic systems like Austria as well as apply to other universities in the EU.</p>