[bobochan]

"Many highly selective colleges expect students to take calculus in high school."

Which is exactly why this is not about "gifted" students (whatever that means), but about a lot of students that are interested in math and science and would like to be prepared for first year courses that expect them to at least have exposure to calculus.

To put it in context, California was the state that was looking at stripping the requirement for passing Algebra II as a condition of graduating from community college a few years ago:

https://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-intermediate-a...