One memorable part of getting paid coaching for interviews was the admonishment "There is no place for honesty in a behavioral interview. No one is going to check on your story."
It makes sense though. The employer will lie constantly in one of those interviews. It's best to shore up your chances. This is the system employers wanted so give it to them. It's not like you'll be working there in three years anyway.
> Well, that could certainly give the prospective employers plenty of information about the way you behave.
That's the beauty; how would they know? The information is completely unverifiable so all such an interview does is find the person best at telling you what you want to hear.
My guess is that they are trying to vacuum as much information as possible. It is easy to do ("I can do nothing, the client is asking for the high school scores, not me!"). Who knows what they are doing with that data
Is it possible they’re trying to separate out candidates who studied English literature as a matter of typical high school education vs those who studied ESL back in their home countries?
Knowing your ability to communicate in English is a useful metric, but asking for your high school English grade is definitely not the right way to go about it.
Or tell them that your high school didn't offer English class, learning was student-led and project-based.
Or you took the GED at 12yrs to skip high school and study puffin colonies in Alaska with your aunt.
How are they going to fact-check any of that?