I don't know, man. I've wondered that for a while, but schools over here seem better.
Recently, I failed a pretty tough test. This test is required by a lot of schools in the area, and if you fail it, you have to take rudimentary math your first year of college. This course is not terribly interesting, is challenging, costs $600 or more, and doesn't earn you credits. However, a local program has brought said class into the high school level, in an attempt to help kids to pass this test.
So I took the course. It wasn't a cake walk, I assure you. But the teacher knew what they were talking about, and tried to get me more interested. He told us that this wasn't just about math. Math wasn't about 2+2=4. Math was about abstract, problem solving. 'What's the easiest way to solve this problem?' he'd ask us. If we had a problem (fractions really threw us off), we could ask him (or the teacher we borrowed the room from, who would give us a silly snarky answer that got the point across) and he'd explain it to us. Sometimes he'd take forever to do it, but he'd walk us through it step by step.
I went into that class with a score on elementary algebra of 40something out of 120. You need 83 to pass.
I came out with a 116.
Something obviously worked.
