I think we have a mismatch of "zoom" levels where you appear to be arguing both "Everyone in the same grade took the same classes" and the opposite of that sche

I think we have a mismatch of "zoom" levels where you appear to be arguing both "Everyone in the same grade took the same classes" and the opposite of that scheduling. I suppose from an extremely high level perspective we also all took some of the same classes, sort of. I think drivers ed was universal as was gym/phy ed, and health class (which was a dumbed down human oriented biology/anatomy class, rather than having anything direct to do with health) Based on further detail our experiences were not all that different. "college prep" this was more of a tag on the depth of study in the classroom than a specific class. They generally separated and tracked and labeled the classes by "intensive" "college prep" "unlabeled" and "basic" from top to bottom. I was in "intensive" math so in my last year I took college calculus. I was merely in "college prep" english lit with the primary effect that I got better letter grades than my friends in "intensive" english lit, also my reading assignments were shorter as were my essay requirements. It was explained you'd never be able to do college level work unless you took the "college prep" level classes. It was explained to us that for the rest of our lives our industrial corporate employers would care very deeply about who took Int English Lit 11 vs College Prep English Lit 11, not to mention how much they'd care about our middle school grades (LOL). There is something of a fad in the usa to mainstream absolutely all students into the "college prep" classes, to maximize revenue. I suppose it minimizes expense, at least as long as you can pretend there's no difference between students. Conformity at all costs! As I think back, pretty much everyone in the "intensive math" class was together from 7th grade until 12th grade, plus or minus people moving, etc. Thru attrition we were down to about 15 kids by senior year.