I worked with a guy around a decade ago, who had a daughter coming up for college entry. This prestigious Virginia university had a entry test requirement for English and math. The kid passed the English exam....failing the math exam. So the college said fine...they’d just mandate a high-school type math class among the requirements for the first year of college. It counted for zero credits toward the degree.
So I asked this guy...hadn’t the daughter taken math in high school? Yes. She’d passed with mostly ‘A’s’. So my comeback was...so did the high school just screw up and teach just marginal math? No answer, was the response.
Virtually everyone in the US is really, really pleased with their local schools. They are lucky, you see. Their town has an excellent school system. They feel bad for all of the neighboring towns which have such troubled school systems. The state of education is just so terrible. But, you know, I live in one of the lucky towns which still has an excellent school system. It ought to be excellent — I certainly pay a lot in taxes!
But, of course, this is all denial. All of the government schools are bad. Even in your town.
It has been my experiences that kids can get good grades, but actually remember nothing from the previous year. This is the result of cramming for tests. I inherited juniors and seniors who couldn’t work ohms law problems: E = IR.