It seems the "level" of education at a certain grade is highly variable in the United States. I grew up in Michigan, who, at the time, was a leader in educatio

It seems the "level" of education at a certain grade is highly variable in the United States. I grew up in Michigan, who, at the time, was a leader in education in the States, and I was seeing beginning algebra in 5th and 6th grade. We moved to Illinois when I was in High School, and experienced much the same your transition to Wisconsin. These days, still in Illinois, my 7th grade daughter is doing high school level algebra and some geometry. For a little context, 7th grade pre-algebra + 8th grade algebra is equivalent to Algebra 9 (she'll start with Algebra 10 in high school). 9th graders can take either Algebra 9 as a freshman then Algebra 10 as a sophomore, and so on, or Algebra 9A as a freshman and Algebra 9B as a sophomore.