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Emile comments on Open Thread, September 30 - October 6, 2013 - Less Wrong Discussion
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Good compared to what? Compared to other developed countries, compared to what they could do if they spent their resources more wisely, compared to what you could do homeschooling your kid?
A lot of the criticism of US schools is based on the first two criteria, but the third one should be the one that matters for you - even if they do a crappy job compared to Europe or Canada, they might still do a better job than you on your own, especially if you take into account things like learning to get along with peers.
(That being said, I don't know enough about either your situation or even US schools (I live in France), I'm just wary of the jump from "schools are bad" to "I can do better than schools")
Student achievement in US schools compared to e.g. Finnish schools is to a large extent a reflection of the much greater inequality in the US. If you're a middle class parent and you're not living in a high-poverty neighborhood, your kid will be totally fine going to public school.
What does "totally fine" mean? I wouldn't describe 99% of the population as "totally fine" in terms of education and rational thought.
I don't think a system that can promise you 3 standard deviations of improvement has been invented. Look at twin studies.
I agree that 3 standard deviations of improvement of a random person is a lot to ask for. However, I can easily see that someone with built in potential to be 3 sd above average could be brought down to near average by the wrong system.
My expectation of my children's potential is very dependent on how heritable intelligence is, and I admittedly do not know much about that.
As far as I know, most estimates point to around 50% genetic, but parenting style doesn't explain much of the remaining 50%
See this: http://infoproc.blogspot.fr/2009/11/mystery-of-nonshared-environment.html