My sons attended a well-funded high school with a splendid chemistry lab, did many fine experiments and wrote lab reports. All chose science and engineering in college.
I'm a little tired of some snooty British guy claiming their bad inner-city experience is typically American, then holding up their Public School (which in Britain means Private School here) experience as proof of the superiority of something or other.
My British friend in Computer Science at Iowa got his degree, then went on to study at Manchester (England) because nobody in England would respect his American degree. Once he got there the profs shook their heads, poor guy got an American degree, he'll have to repeat almost everything. They wrote a study plan for him (without his being consulted at all).
Long story short, he didn't attend any class, do any homework, ever really attend anything except his exams. He was top student that year, of course. Of course he was! He'd already been well educated and had work experience.
So, there's my counter-story. And to avoid hypocrisy, I won't claim its typical of anybody, except maybe good Iowa students going to study at Manchester.