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Viliam_Bur comments on Negative and Positive Selection - Less Wrong
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But on the opposite side of the spectrum is saying: "Everyone is so smart because they can read and write, and thousand years ago most people couldn't do this!" (Strawman example, I know.)
Generally I would prefer to have a list (tree, directed acyclic graph...?) of all human knowledge, and give everyone a report saying: "This person understands these parts." But over time, the list/tree is growing. Of course it is OK to know a smaller part of total human knowledge, because the population is growing; but still, you need to know more than your ancestors (if your computer skills are the same as your grandma's, then she is a hero and you are a loser); on the other hand some knowledge becomes obsolete.
I think a percentile across the whole country would be a good measure for comparing individual students or schools. And it would be nice to also calculate long-term changes to know whether the country as a whole is improving.
Of course, you could show percentage scores in the tests rather than where you sit in the country. That means that it should be consistent over time, although I agree that in a decent sized national subject it's probably fine the other way.
My main objection to giving percentiles relates to the OP's concern that there's no such thing as a 'very good' A, At least with UK school exams, I think that getting 100% in most subjects tests for conscientiousness and not making silly errors at best and being well-trained in the exam system at worst. I am pretty sure that if percentages were public I'd have had to get better marks to get into uni, but also that in making sure I did so I would not have been using my time usefully.
What I think would be far preferable to a 'who managed not to screw up a single question' model of getting better than an A would be an extension paper that was genuinely challenging and couldn't be straightforwardly taught.
Boy, are you setting a high bar for Erna Hoover's grandkids.