Originally Posted by Bostonian
... Richwine's post (at a conservative journal of opinion, after all) is a reasonable summary of the report
Agreed! Provoking both thought and discussion, it serves a useful purpose.

Originally Posted by Bostonian
... On a lighter note, one of the "critically important academic characteristics that must be shared by all students if our nation is to make meaningful gains in educational attainment" is that students "be in the top 10 percent of their high school graduating class". Is the College Board pulling our leg?
Tugging at our leg, or at our purse strings? When there is but ONE definition of success or path to success that people buy in to, we run the risk of societal imbalance by throwing supply and demand out of whack.

Measuring success by this definition may be setting the tone for the equity movement in which selected students are enrolled in support classes to boost their high school accomplishment/achievement (in anticipated future Common Core curriculum), receive similar coaching throughout college, and in some scenarios are described as ultimately taking government jobs which allow any accumulated college loan debt to be forgiven?

Quote
... This year’s report highlights characteristics of these students to help demonstrate
successful patterns that can be replicated in schools and districts throughout the country
.
Interestingly, this mirrors the practice discussed in the Jan Cross TEDx Talk which pointed to successfully creating change by presenting a societal norm which models the desired behavior. This may also be applied to gifted advocacy. http://giftedissues.davidsongifted.org/BB/ubbthreads.php/topics/169478.html#Post169478