I'm student teaching in a high school classroom right now while trying to complete my BS in Math and get my initial teaching license. There is a growing trend i

I'm student teaching in a high school classroom right now while trying to complete my BS in Math and get my initial teaching license. There is a growing trend in the classroom to allow students to move on even when they have no foundational skills. As long as they get a D they get credit and can move on regardless of their lack of a solid foundation from which to accurately build upon. A large part of the issue is that the classrooms aren't differentiated by ability so we have students who can't really do or understand basic math but we're trying to teach them algebra and trigonometry. Some of them may pull through but do they really understand the subject matter when they don't understand the foundation from which it builds upon? One of my education instructors told me once that it doesn't matter if a student can calculate 20x15 as long as they understand that we're looking for a number that is 20 times larger than 15. The problem is they really don't understand and they must rely on a calculator for even basic math. It really is disappointing and I'm not sure I want to teach anymore. I feel like the system is broken and just because someone, somewhere said that when we educate students like this they can perform just as well or better than if we actually made sure they were in a class that suits their abilities we've latched onto it as a method of reform. (I taught developmental math for 2 years at a local community college. My classes were difficult and I expected a lot of my students but the instructors that ended up with my students later on were all grateful of the foundation that I made sure my students had.)