I'm guessing that there are some pretty terrible math teachers sucking up paychecks in Title I districts. I live in a Title I district (for math) where a person I consider to be incompetent has been hired as the district math consultant. His first move was to take a good number of weeks, IIRC about two months, at the start of every school year to have the chilren focus on math drills to memorize math facts better, taking away from the time devoted to conceptual math instruction. Do you think a highly gifted child would perform to his utmost abilities under this program?
Of course not. But why should we react to bad Title I schools by sacrificing the needs of gifted students? What's the point of watering down entry requirements at the few public schools in this country that provide a stimulating, challenging environment for them? The system should force the crappy schools to change, not force the good schools to pick up their slack. As you said, changing the tenure system would help.
But the reality is that most kids just aren't smart enough for a school like the old Thomas Jefferson. Changing the entry requirements won't change this. As I mentioned, IMO, the best way to help disadvantaged kids would be to give them free nutritious food at school twice a day starting in kindergarten. Ensuring that they have highly capable teachers would also go a long way, but the unions won't allow it.
