http://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...expense/2011/11/21/gIQAe76ywO_story.htmlClosing the achievement gap, but at gifted students� expense
By Michael J. Petrilli and and Frederick M. Hess
Washington Post
December 15, 2011
President Obama�s remarks on inequality, stoking populist anger at �the rich,� suggest that the theme for his reelection bid will be not hope and change but focus on reducing class disparity with government help. But this effort isn�t limited to economics; it is playing out in our nation�s schools as well.
The issue is whether federal education efforts will compromise opportunities for our highest-achieving students. One might assume that a president determined to �win the future� would make a priority of ensuring that our ablest kids have the chance to excel.
To Obama, however, as for President George W. Bush, such concerns are a distraction at best. Last year the Education Department�s civil rights division announced that it would investigate local school policies that have a �disparate impact� on poor or minority students � signaling a willingness to go to court if department officials think that school systems have too few of such children in gifted programs or Advanced Placement courses. This bit of social engineering ignores the unseemly reality that advantaged children are statistically more likely to be ready to succeed in tough classes than are low-income children raised in households with fewer books and more television.
The result is a well-intended but misguided crusade to solve via administrative fiat the United States� long-standing achievement gap: the dramatic differences in test scores between white and minority students and between middle-class and poor youngsters. The message to schools was unmistakable: Get more poor and minority children into your advanced courses or risk legal action by Uncle Sam.
Then, in September, the president offered states and school districts flexibility around onerous provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act � linked to certain conditions. Among these: States must explain how they are going to move more students into �challenging� courses. The effect will be yet another push to dilute high-level classes.
<end of excerpt>
