American education is not designed to maximize student performance.  As soon as a child meets the minimum, they are ignored.  All the effort goes into improving the performance of the underperforming kids.<p>no child left behind = no child does really well<p>Involved parents replace school.  They act as the real teachers.  They pay for after school classes where the child will do all the real learning.<p>The US education does what it is designed to do.  Help as many underperforming kids as it can.  The problem is that it claims to help all kids which it is not actually designed to do.<p>If the US wants higher performing students, it needs to change the design.  More education of gifted students will bring the average up.  Higher standards will raise the minimum bar that the schools try to reach.<p>I have 2 kids and I treated one of the top elementary schools in SV as a daycare.