Educational policy such as NCLB based on the assumption that we KNOW there are no innate difference and that schools MUST close the gap or be shut down do harm by misallocating educational resources and causing states to water down their standards of "proficiency".
Our school seems to be hitting a new phase in "standards based education". In fact, the whole state of PA (and country!) seems to be in the same place, but lucky us, we get to be front runners. But a HUGE chunk of this phase is the thinking that every child can succeed to the same degree, an therefore should be grouped together, receiving the same education for pretty much the duration. And in my opinion, that's just not the case. Some children have...however you want to word it..."more intelligence". Once that difference becomes undeniable, I think it's a crime to have them blended in with kids at the other end of the spectrum for their day-to-day instruction.
My thoughts are devoid of height, gender, skin tone, social-economical standing, ethnicity, religion, etc...only proven ability to do or not do advanced work,
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