Things have changed since I went to school so I can’t give you the exact details of how it works now, but whether you pass a class or not in most US schools is/was based not only on how well you do on a standardized test at the end of the semester*, but also how well you did on class work and tests during the semester. If you bomb everything it’s possible to get into a hole where even if you do great on the final exam, it still might not lift you up to a passing grade, depending on how all the assignments are weighted. So the teacher decides all of your in class grades, which determine if you pass or fail.
* I’m actually so old that we didn’t even do that when I was in school, and now I couldn’t tell you if the standardized tests are national or state based.
Things have changed since I went to school so I can’t give you the exact details of how it works now, but whether you pass a class or not in most US schools is/was based not only on how well you do on a standardized test at the end of the semester*, but also how well you did on class work and tests during the semester. If you bomb everything it’s possible to get into a hole where even if you do great on the final exam, it still might not lift you up to a passing grade, depending on how all the assignments are weighted. So the teacher decides all of your in class grades, which determine if you pass or fail.
* I’m actually so old that we didn’t even do that when I was in school, and now I couldn’t tell you if the standardized tests are national or state based.