I'm a Brit here to say that any assertion about the state of American education ought to include consideration of video games, many of which come from the US.

Games are, after all, highly educational. They represent an environment with three attributes:

(1) choice, (2) rapid feedback, (3) safety (you don't get punished for making mistakes, academic or social).

Note that all of these are crucial in the business of making and correcting errors, which is what learning is all about.