No, the best solution is to have the ‘big’ exam at the end of the 8th grade. If that kid isn’t capable of high school work...stop his path there, and send to a craftsman shop that requires just 6th-grade reading skills and apprentice-train the kid from that point on. If he doesn’t show up or show any attention...drop him off at the state unemployment office for placement at Burger King/McDonalds at the age of fourteen. You don’t need to waste time or money on the kid.
Public education is a kludge. You can keep on trying to tweek it and micro-manage it but it will always suffer the same basic problem : it’s paid with other people’s money for other people’s kids . It will always move to Soviet style antics as long as it is paid for by the state . To see the real difference state control causes check out your local supermarket verses what they had in the USSR.
Agreed. My great-uncle (the older brother of my dad’s father) who lived from 1891 to 1984 (so as a kid I got to know him fairly well) got up to the eighth grade and then spent the rest of his life working on the family farmstead. And he was very likely that more thoughtful and literate even with that level of formal education he had than what you probably get with many high school kids in New York or Chicago or other Democrat plantations and their union shops these days.
The real waste of money is sending any kid to most liberal arts universities.
Also, apprenticeship programs in the blue-collar trades need intelligent people who are capable of competent work.