Schools in most (all?) other OECD countries teach to the test. But the tests are very different.
For example, in Ireland, everyone know that the test would have questions from Jane Eyre and A Tale of Two Cities, so the schools taught Jane Eyre and A Tale of Two Cities. This was done by reading the books, writing papers about them, and talking about them. It was not done by reading excerpts, constructing paragraphs (11 sentences each!), and choosing the best answer about Mr. Rochester's reaction to his house burning down. Etc. Their tests have few multiple choice questions (if any), but there are essay questions about the books and long-answer problems in math/science. Questions generally take 10-20 minutes to answer.
But in this country, students have less than a minute per question. Everything is superficial. Read a passage and pick the best answer. What is the slope of the line? So the teaching becomes superficial, even though the deeper approach would almost certainly raise test scores.
The superficiality of our education system is destroying us. It's like the people in charge don't know about the general principles of different subjects and how concepts fit together.
