Some more bits: It was actually a private school, but I don't doubt that during this time period similar things were happening in public school. The private sch

Some more bits: It was actually a private school, but I don't doubt that during this time period similar things were happening in public school. The private school I went to was very big on standardized testing and what got me into the upper math course in the first place was my standardized testing score. My math scores, throughout my time at that school, declined after fourth grade because the "lower" class was roughly two years behind the upper class. This effect would leak into the sciences too because curriculum obviously was difficult to align at that point.