"The enrollment process created additional barriers for students and families. When students went online to select their courses, in many school districts they could not see classes that required teacher recommendations and may not have known those courses existed. Students who requested placement in advanced classes were frequently told they could not enroll, even when they had strong academic credentials. Students had no pathway to demonstrate their readiness or earn their way into these courses through their academic performance. They had to be recommended by a teacher."
Maybe this system shouldn't be set up this way? Who set up the system I wonder.
They actually do. They just group the advanced classes in an elite "prep schools" track, whereas everyone else gets the crappy "vocational schools" track. The worst part about this is the pathological incentives it creates among teachers. No one wants to teach bad students, so the "vocational" track gets the worst teachers, and the divergence in outcomes becomes ingrained.
That's not true, but maybe there are too few good teachers who do that...
UK, Norway, Sweden, Germany and France are the systems I'm aware of and they all have different levels of maths you can study at high school. I'd be surprised to learn of any country the offers no options or specialisation before University.
Sure it does. There is a vested interest in some to ensure a desired peer group of the classes their kids take. More generally, to ensure 'space's at the top for those that get the teacher recommendations. Bluntly speaking, it's racist as shit. The data presented is a case study of systemic racism.