sadly, the principal is right. High achieving students presence improves the scores of low achieving ones.... It does nothing at all for the high achieving students.
It's similar to what we have in BC: "inclusion." Inclusion is grouping by age peers, for everyone - even the intellectually challenged kids. Kids with all ranges of abilities are kept together in the class and EAs are there to support those with significant enough challenges.
The challenged kids benefit, and sadly I think there are more challenged kids than gifted. For the typical and gifted I think it enhances socialization by stretching the boundaries and it normalizes differences, possibly resulting in a more compassionate society.
However... unless the gifted kids are grade skipped or enriched... there is obviously the huge downside of the curriculum mismatch. The challenged kids get IEPs and reduced work loads, but even an enrichment IEP for a gifted kid is lacking. They need to be grouped, at least part of the time, with like-minded peers so they can share ideas and raise the bar for each other.
