Gutek Chapter 8

A section of Chapter Eight: Educational Systems in National Contexts focuses on “The Problem of Comparability.” This particular section discusses the American standpoint in international comparisons of educational systems, which are done by the IAEEA and the NAEP; the testing mentioned covered mathematics and science, subject matter that has less specific cultural context and should be uniformly taught. In the 1992 survey, as with prior surveys, ranked the United States and average to poor in comparison with other technologically developed countries. The text mentions that one of the primary arguments of how this is not an appropriate comparison relates to the fact that more academically diverse students in the United States complete a higher level of education.

Based on my own experiences in Germany, I can attest the truth of this statement. Germany divides their students into diverse pathways of education after primary school. Here, every student moves onto secondary school and is then filtered into class levels; therefore, more students are going through the secondary education system. Also, there are very few schools in the United States that have the option of vocational training programs. In Germany, the students are placed, based on academic testing in Grundschule, into a university-bound program through 13^th grade at the Gymnasium, or in a 10^th grade Realschule, which ends with a skilled apprenticeship, or lastly into the Hauptschule, which ends at 9^th grade and prepares students for a vocational school or basic work in public or secretarial service. There are very few Gesamtschule, which are schools that allow for students to complete academics at all of these levels. International testing occurs from the Gymnasium, where the students have already been selected for academic skill and is, therefore, a more elite group than the American students participating in mathematical tests in high school.