@blossom, @mom2collegekids, I wonder which countries you are talking about and where you are getting your information from? Because I am aware of no system that works like that these days. If you look at tertiary education graduation rates of younger adults rates in OECD countries, they hover around 40 to 50% for most of them, and while the US is rather closer to 50%, the differences are not that stark. (Looking at older adults, that’s where the picture changes).
And even in systems with tracking, is isn’t that anyone is not allowed to go on to higher education by being tracked away from it and somehow forcibly kept away. The numbers of students gaining alternative tertiary entrance qualifications is steadily climbing, in some countries approaching college prep track numbers. Again, the system may look very different on the surface in that respect, but in essence it boils down to the fact that no matter how many chances a system offers, at some point you do have to pass algebra 2.