One thing I wish the US public schools would do is have some of the same teachers throughout your schooling.
For instance, the private schools I went to in FL had maybe 5 teachers who taught math. It was a 6 year school (Forms 1-6 which was in essence grades 7-12). You very easily could have had the same math teacher all 6 years. This enabled that teacher to know your strengths and weaknesses, what not to put up with, how far they could push you etc. The problems is that any kind of teacher familiarity is virtually impossible these days with the massively huge schools.
My son was in the gifted programs and the gifted teacher was always the same throughout elementary and middle school (in HS there was no gifted program per se, they just took advanced classes). Those were the teachers that IMHO taught him the most. Granted, it could have been due to a classroom of kids who wanted to learn, but I think a part of it was a constant teacher.
However, transiency in the schools, especially those with lower incomes, will always nullify this.
