Why should we think about that? What the U.S. is doing currently isn't working, there's very little disagreement on that. While there is a certain amount of "golden age of the past" syndrome going on, it's clear that results in terms of educational outcome and school discipline are going down. Looking at other systems that are having success is the rational approach. "No child left behind" (Keep testing! Keep testing! Test more!) is not.

It's not about assuming we can replicate their success with a direct copy. It's about looking at what their system does better than ours, and working to improve our system. Now THAT is politically unfashionable and unlikely to be done any time soon, but it's what needs to happen.