Here are a few current UK Education stories for anyone who is interested in the differences between the different systems::

OK, hands up all of you who are currently struggling with GCSE coursework. Thank you. Now, those of you who are still at school put your hands down. Hmm! As I thought, rather a lot of parents still with their hands in the air. A discussion of the inclusion of course work in the current GCSE syllabus and the “help” given by parents:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/education/features/mike_baker/newsid_1634000/1634426.stm

Just walking into the exam halls was enough to send a shiver of recollected tension down my spine - and it is many years since I last sat an examination in earnest. Such is the power of those deep-lurking memories. …
For the first time a higher proportion of young people graduate from university in the UK (35.6%) than graduate from the USA (33.2%). This may be partly due to the shorter length of undergraduate degree courses in the UK, but the main factor is the much higher drop-out rate in the US.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/education/features/mike_baker/newsid_1391000/1391120.stm

This summer, as in past years, schools in England and Wales are already having to accommodate and supervise around five and a half million GCSE exam entries and a further 700,000 A level entries. Now, on top of this, they must also oversee some three-quarters of a million AS-level entries. …
Contrast this to the United States where, although state-wide testing is on the increase, there are no nation-wide examinations at 14, 16, 17 and 18 as we now have. Discussion of the introduction of a new layer of exams (AS level) in the UK.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/education/newsid_1364000/1364907.stm