Interesting! Why did the USA veer away from the high school model? Unwillingness to send kids to boarding school? Lack of population density?
Intriguing idea about qualifications tests; as far as I know, HSK, JLPT and their ilk are set up by the relevant country, though a USA company does the TOEFL. There's the Bar for lawyers, which some states allow people to take without a degree, but I otherwise don't know of any USA testing-as-substitute-for-school. We tend to be pretty bad at making standardized tests, actually, especially for knowledge (oh, SATs, how my Japanese friends boggle at you). What made the USA magical population slant differently from the non-magical one?
no subject
Intriguing idea about qualifications tests; as far as I know, HSK, JLPT and their ilk are set up by the relevant country, though a USA company does the TOEFL. There's the Bar for lawyers, which some states allow people to take without a degree, but I otherwise don't know of any USA testing-as-substitute-for-school. We tend to be pretty bad at making standardized tests, actually, especially for knowledge (oh, SATs, how my Japanese friends boggle at you). What made the USA magical population slant differently from the non-magical one?