Okay, but I see this as a false dichotomy to some extent-- that is, why is a cap of
achievement expected to accomplish the desired outcome in this situation to begin with?
Now "everyone" will have the same "at the ceiling" achievement level, at least on paper, right?
It also seems to me that this is the wrong approach to the underlying problem in the first place. Parents just need to relax about their kids' college resumes and make choices based on the child's best interests.
The district decision to prevent child abuse by limiting access to the peculiar tools that some parents have chosen will harm outliers, certainly. Kids like those of members here will be forced to go elsewhere (if they can afford to). Will it "help" some of those bright and MG youngsters whose parents relentlessly push to make them look PG? Maybe. There
are probably more of those kids, statistically speaking.
The real answer isn't to keep showing "Race to Nowhere" and slapping band-aids on the problem, however. The real solution is to admit that not all people are capable of elite performance-- and furthermore, that
this is an okay thing. Not everyone can-- or should-- go to an elite college. Heck, probably not everyone should go to college at all.
Programs which serve gifted children and which also don't achieve perfect diversity probably come under fire precisely
because they serve (mostly) parents who want special labels and gold stars and distinctions for their children. Those aren't necessarily the children who truly need differentiated instruction. Maybe their parents "need" those things. The kids, not so much, quite often. There is a stereotype that first-generation immigrants tend to parent that way, but it can appear as a cultural construct in almost any highly-educated population.
That still doesn't make those children
gifted however.
The problem with such gifted programs is that they base admittance on achievement-- not on need-- to start with, and then people wonder why the participants all seem to be of a particular type? Well, they selected for it-- not sure why that is a shock.
