Nicely worded philly! Thanks for taking the time to put this down.
I have struggled explaining this like you have here. A lot of gifted parents feel this way too.
I am going to steal/share some of your thoughts.
I hope these are the ideas from philly103's post that you wish to further disseminate, mecreature:
1) creating a broader range of classes for students to reflect the broad range of abilities
2) the importance of acceleration
3) A school should have better class groupings so that advanced kids can take classes with similar level peers.
4) The problem is... insufficient range of choices for different skill level students.
5) 5th grade... Those students should be allowed to attend the 7th grade math
6) The students capable of more should move on to classrooms delivering more
7) When the student has mastered the curriculum the student should move to a different classroom.
8) When the student has finished the curriculum, the student should change to a new curriculum.
9) I expect the school to find a way to accommodate my kid... You find a way to accommodate the outlier.
numbers added, to count the excerpts
Unfortunately, despite years of successful advocacy, some strong supporters of "equal outcomes" continue to object to acceleration and student grouping by ability, readiness, achievement... or any means of providing continued growth for pupils at the top, until pupils at the bottom catch up and attain grades reflective of having achieved "equal outcomes."
Note: "equal outcomes" is NOT synonymous with "grade level proficiency."That said, much of the post was far outside the topic of
college grade inflation, or even the broader topic of
grading practices. I'll tie this back to the thread by saying that
grades recorded for earlier educational levels do impact college readiness, college grades, college grade inflation/deflation, and the value of degrees conferred.
