I don't agree about our education system being stuck in the 1950s. The 50s was when the space race started. US schools were much better then (and in the 60s). I have math books from those decades, and they're way more rigorous than the current ones (also coherent and clearly written by people who understood the subject matter). Poor textbooks are a big part of our problem, IMO.
Another problem is that many teachers lack subject knowledge. This problem is worst at the K-8 level in public schools and some religious schools (e.g. Evangelical Christian schools that reject evolution, etc.). We don't like to talk about this fact (teacher bashing!)
Teaching is a low-prestige profession here, but when its members collectively have the lowest SAT, GRE, and Miller Analogies scores, low prestige isn't surprising. As for low pay driving the problem, average salaries in districts around here are $75-90K. Yet our public schools are still generally lousy. Places like Russian Scool of Mathematics, Mathnasium, and other tutoring places are very popular here. There are at least 4 within walking distance of my house.
Parents make a big difference, but I don't think we should dump on parents working two low wage jobs without benefits just so they can make ends meet. They can't barely make the rent, let alone Kumon, may not have subject knowledge to help their kids, and are probably don't have the bandwidth anyway. I think that US society is very quick to dump on people it sets up for failure.
This is where Canada and other nations do so much better than us. But we don't acknowledge this fact. Instead, we claim that the white and Asian kids in America do as well as high scoring PISA countries, which strikes me as a justification for ignoring the effects of poverty via an unsubtle claim about inherent lack of ability in some groups? I doubt very much that, for example, poor white kids in Appalachia are outscoring their peers in Finland or Canada.
Our narrowly focused high-stakes tests are also a problem. We favor industrial measures where low-tech solutions are called for. We give the kids passages to read, followed by multiple choice questions testing "comprehension," instead of asking them to read a whole story or a novel, talking about it, and then writing a paragraph or a paper. IMO, we choose an edu-diet of fast food over balanced nutrition. And then we wonder what's wrong. Throw in fads (whole language, no wrong answers in math, Common Core), and the results are predictable.
It's complicated. And I think that ideology on the left (Equity!) and right (The free market!) just makes it even more so.
