“In public school, they were just happy you turned in your work.”

That’s the view of high-school basketball star Josh Hart, who transferred from a Maryland public high school to Sidwell Friends in Washington, D.C., where he hoped to get more attention from college basketball coaches. Here’s more of what he said to the Washington Post:

“With the academics, it was like a whole new world where they were speaking a different language,” recalled Hart, who had transferred from Wheaton. “In public school, they were just happy you turned in your work. Here, on the second day, the teacher was talking about explicating poems and I remember thinking it was going to be a long year.”

The good news is that thanks to the help of some involved parents, Hart improved his study habits and grades and is now an all-around success at Sidwell Friends. But how well are other students being served by schools where “they were just happy you turned in your work”?