<p>Oh yes, schools in the US follow different curricula. Some states have more detailed standards than others, but I don’t know if any place has anything similar to what is found in other countries. States differ from each other, school systems vary within states, schools vary within school systems, and teachers even vary within schools. And private schools go their own way entirely.</p>
<p>Obviously this creates a problem with students who move from one school to another.</p>
<p>Some believe the lack of a definite curriculum is what ails education in the US. See, e.g., Hirsch, The Schools We Need and Why We Don’t Have Them (he also goes into the “constructivist” pedagogical theory that has taken over US teacher’s colleges, which tries to go for student-constructed knowledge and “higher order thinking skills” in preference to “mere facts.”)</p>
<p>I actually reviewed my state’s “curriculum” and that of my local school system. I found neither to be useful (what wasn’t vague seemed dumbed down) and so I found my guidance elsewhere.</p>