Compared to other industrialized countries, high school students in the US do perform way below average.
Even though most people favor competition in almost all other areas of life, when it comes to education, competition between schools and teachers is seen as damaging to the child and as an additional hardship to teachers.
However, in other parts of the world competition between high schools - for example through voucher systems - is well established and is seen as a decisive factor for the superior results of students.
In this highly interesting documentary, the upsides of establishing competition in the field of education are explained:
