Whenever the goal is to "close the achievement gap or narrow the excellence gap", the easiest way to do this is to prevent the better students from learning.
Yes, gifted education has been around for some 50 years now and still families are breaking their wagon wheels on the same ruts in the road... only those ruts are worn deeper by the decades of families who've gone before.
When educational institutions are asked to fix the ruts in road, they may first engage in grant writing, determine how many might be helped, pay themselves for their services, then say there is no money left for the gravel, asphalt, or concrete to fix the rut!
If we all advocate and fundraise and donate the amount needed for the gravel, asphalt, or concrete, soon we find that it was spent for tree-trimming so that trucks could be brought in to do the work.
Raise more money and it is spent on in-house survey equipment so future improvements can be measured.
The next wave of money may be spent on underground infrastructure, passing electrical lines, cables, fresh water, and sewerage pipes below the rutted road.
More funds result in a bypass road, a restricted access tollway, being built utilizing the newly acquired infrastructure.
And so it goes. The rutted road of gifted education has resulted in great stimulation of the economy but has not much improved nor benefitted those who must travel that road. Families are still breaking their wagon wheels on the same ruts. Fortunate are the families who find forums like this and can read the signposts and hand drawn maps which other families have left as a guide of what the road looked like in their season of passing through.
