Looking at the 4 systems of education you mentioned, the obvious connection is the tracking of some students to vocational ed. There are some other differences, but that one factor is going to increase graduation rates; when non-academically inclined students have a strong vocational ed program as a choice, and earn their "high school" diploma that way, fewer of them drop out. In the U.S., vocational ed at the high school level has declined drastically. It's non-existent at the high schools in my local area. In the U.S., and in my state in particular, we've "raised standards." That means that in order to get a high school diploma, you are on the college track. When I was in high school, the college bound took college prep courses. Everyone else took general ed, with a few vocational choices thrown in for those inclined. No wonder our drop out rate is going up. Ironically, our current run to right-wing ed reform feeds this trend; the more students "fail," the more they can assign blame and turn up the volume and intensity for their agenda, which causes the "failure" to begin with.
Again, the irony: one of the tools used in this agenda is the "ranking" of schools and students against one another. Which means, of course, that someone is always "behind." Whether it's a local, national, or international ranking.
I'd love to see a comparison of education expenditures in terms of the percentage of gdp for all of these systems; I didn't have time to look all that up this morning. That would make an interesting comparison. Of course, right now, way too many U.S. ed dollars are going towards testing programs, compliance/documentation paperwork, and consultants/training on how to teach the way the right-wing ed reformers want you to. It never actually reaches teachers and classrooms except as more demands and mandates divorced from actual teaching and learning.
http://www.askasia.org/Korea/r7.htmlHigh schools are divided into academic and vocational schools. In 1995, some 62 percent of students were enrolled in academic high schools and 38 percent in vocational high schools. A small number attended specialized high schools concentrating in science, the arts, foreign languages, and other specialized fields. This is still the case.http://odin.dep.no/odinarkiv/norsk/dep/kuf/1997/eng/014005-990603/index-dok000-b-n-a.htmlIn Norway, "lower secondary school" ends at grade 10. So does compulsory education. The next level, "upper secondary school," is open to all, but not compulsory. It offers both academic and vocational training, and lasts 4 years. In Norway, primary school begins at age 6, our first grade, not K, although some "pre-school" is available. If you do the math, you'll see that, by the time students in Norway finish "upper secondary school" and are ready for Higher education, they've had one more year of instruction than American kids. America: K-12. Norway: 1-10 compulsory, then 4 more years of academic/vocational training. And:
The cost of education in Norway amounts to 7.6 per cent of the gross domestic product, while the OECD average is 4.9 per cent (1995).http://www.euroeducation.net/prof1/czechco.htmIn the Czech Republic, compulsory education begins at age 6 and ends at age 15. Non-compulsory secondary education then has 3 branches: An academic secondary ed, age 16 - 19; a technical secondary education, age 16-19; an a vocational secondary education lasting from ages 16 - 18 or 19.
As Maestro pointed out, students are sorted out with entrance exams before high school in Japan. Not every Japanese high school education is equal:
http://www.ericdigests.org/2002-2/japanese.htm Many American public high schools are comprehensive. While there are a few comprehensive high schools in Japan, they are not popular. Between 75 and 80 percent of all Japanese students enroll in university preparation tracks. Most university-bound students attend separate academic high schools while students who definitely do not plan on higher education attend separate commercial or industrial high schools. In the United States, students enter secondary schools based on either school district assignment or personal choice. For the overwhelming majority of students in Japan, high school and university admissions primarily are contingent upon entrance examination performance. The best Japanese high schools and universities require high entrance examination scores. And this doesn't even begin to look at the issue of inclusiveness, and of other factors that affect education outcomes, such as how a society values learning and intellectual habits, levels of poverty and crime, levels of $$ and other support for the ed systems in question.
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