So while one can talk about differences between individual schools and teachers in France, the system is the same everywhere, and I
can compare it.
Hmmmm...
Granted, my experience of the US school system is limited to one school, one district, one state, and doesn't go above 3rd grade yet, but I still think you have too rosy a picture of the uniformity of education in the French system. And that's a system I have 20 years of experience with as a student
There are bad teachers there, and good ones, and OK ones. The curriculum is the same (and that includes public and most private schools) but the textbooks are not, and implementation of that curriculum can be seriously diluted depending on the demographics of the school you attend.
So... IMO, not so different from CA public school and state mandated curriculum here. Even before Common Core. So far my kids have had better luck in teachers than I did at their age.
The curriculum might be slightly more demanding here in early grades, slightly more there by the end of high school (discounting AP classes). But you have to understand that by high school the lowest performing students will have been tracked completely out of the system.
I see some pluses to the French system -- less reliance on the tricks of standardized testing (to loop back to the subject of this thread) is one. Proper (ahem!) funding is another: no bake sales needed.
There are boatloads of cons to go with them, and some you will have had
no experience with whatsoever at a private school in the US. Parental input is completely unwelcome, for a start. You drop your child at the gate in the morning, pick her up in the evening, and that's it. Unless your child is raising hell in the classroom and you are summoned to school there is no talking to the principal either.
And in this venue... Consider a school system where schools throughout the whole country are supposed to go in lockstep. Now picture a GT, special needs, or (shudder!) 2E kid thrown in. And weep. Differentiation? GT programs? Dream on!
Not that I am bitter about it or anything...
