That's known as "tracking" in the States and has a history of racial discrimination. There's little chance it will be implemented in the states.

are you talking about diploma pathways: "advanced"/"standard" diplomas and things of that nature? because that's the norm in several states.

More along the lines of everyone takes a test and the top X% are in the college prep track, the next Y% are in the 2 year community college track, and the rest are on the industrial/shop class track.

oh, interesting. I hadn't heard of that. racial disparities appear in the distribution of different degree "tiers" in states that use those systems, too, and in some the degree you get in high school determines your eligibility for some types of college funding, so it sounds like it's a similar problem potentially.

That's interesting, it seems that this shifts the entrance exam of college to earlier in a student's life (making high school entrance exams much more valuable compared to the United States.)

Yes, fwiw your high school level is determined at the end of primary school based on your teachers' recommendations and a standardized test. But there is quite some mobility possible between high school levels.

Then the high school exams just become the de facto college entry exams. It still adds all kind of wealth privilege gates to who gets free tuition at the best schools.

If that's the case, it's a privilege afforded to about 50% of each year's students (Germany, presumably it's not much different for our neighbours). For people who don't qualify due to their high school education, there are opportunities to gain access later in life, and people who did that make up about 30% of each year's university students.

Obviously, nothing is perfect.

Source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiturientenquote_und_Studiena...