The material is not so static. Finding square roots by hand is no longer taught as part of the curriculum.¹ Interpolation from data tables is also not typically taught since students are expected to have a calculator that can at least handle trig functions and logarithms. Graphing calculators enable solving problems as part of classwork that weren’t possible before the calculator. When I was in high school, the lowest-level math class offered was Basic Math which didn’t even cover fractions. Some schools (but not the one I attended) topped out with AP Calculus BC which was roughly equivalent to a Calc II college class (integration and series). Now, the lowest-level math class available at the high school level is Algebra and students cannot graduate without passing Algebra and Geometry.² Some schools offer AP Calculus CD which covers multivariate calc (e.g., Calc III) as well as AP Statistics, neither of which existed when I was in high school.

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1. I’m sure that there are occasional classrooms where this is still taught, but it’s more an enrichment topic than part of the curriculum.

2. I was in high school when Illinois raised its graduation requirement from one year of math to two years of math. The year after that happened, my high school began offering Basic Math 3/4 in addition to the Basic Math 1/2 class it had previously because too many kids were unable to do fractions.