While you can gain new approaches from other countries, it is dangerous to think that we can borrow wholesale from them. America is huge compared to other countries. For example, we hear a lot about the great job Singapore is doing educationally. However, its student enrollment is about the size of San Diego City Schools. The complexity of our society, with its diversity of income levels, ethnic groups and 21st century economy, makes comparisons with others fairly useless.
Cultures are very different, and that makes borrowing from other countries difficult to do.
We worry about child abuse, but in Singapore caning is used as a form of punishment. Trashing American public education has become a national pastime. It is difficult to find a layperson who does not believe that American schools are dismal. Yet, when you visit other countries, you find that in many ways we do a better job educating our children than they do. Certainly our interest in educating all children leads the world.