The standards thing isn't an either-or problem --- it's both. Some kids are forced into classes they aren't ready for because of romantic ideas about sending everyone to college. At the same time, highly capable students are held back for arbitrary reasons. All of the flawed thinking leading to these approaches comes from the same well of ignorance.
Exactly. The solution is to group students in separate classes by ability, and teach to their level.
Also standards have a place in quantifying what students have learnt, but they should never be used to dictate what every student should know at a particular age or grade. The reality that there is a huge range in learning ability needs to be built into the standards so that equal challenge and unequal outcomes are the expectation.
