Go ahead and increase your expectations. The only effect that will have is to increase your frustration. We're dealing with something that's stuck on "pretty much worthless". Changing expectations won't move it one bit. The answer is getting rid of teacher's unions and privatizing schools.
For what it's worth it's got my vote. But I don't see anything happening anytime soon.
That would certainly help our education system. But it galls me to shy away from teaching the truth, and teaching the basis of scientific thought just because it's hard and we don't expect teachers to do it right, or students to understand. Perhaps I'm unrealistically optimistic, but my experience with my own children is that high expectations begets high achievement.