Our modern education system was imported from Germany in the late 1800s, part of the “progressive” movement that influenced people such as Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.
The key feature of German & most other countries' education which distinguishes them from American is their practice of sorting & separating out over-achievers at a very young age.
The most talented kids are put in special schools and given special educations (royal jelly, so to speak) in preparation for becoming the country's leaders, while average kids go to average schools to prepare them for lives as worker-bees.
Yes, America's most talented kids do often get separated out and given special attention, but never as systematically or scientifically as in most other countries.
As for Germany's alleged "progressive education", I think most anybody could argue that there was a lot of influences flowing both ways among all countries with European populations.