This is actually not shocking news that smart kids are being held back.
What is shocking is that so many kids are testing above their grade level and we are literally holding back a much larger % of students than what might previously had been guessed. We are holding back a substantial number of students just so the feelings of the lower performing students are not hurt? I do recall, when the lovely Mrs_Bob was still a teacher, that initially only the top performing kids were allowed into the "Advance Placement" classes in her school, eventually they started letting in anyone, including the mentally disabled, into those classes, which held back the entire class.
Please read the article at Intellectual Takeout from the link below. It cites research from Johns Hopkins University, there are charts at the link.
In summarizing the data from all of the tests, the researchers declared:
And there is this tidbit:
What is shocking is that so many kids are testing above their grade level and we are literally holding back a much larger % of students than what might previously had been guessed. We are holding back a substantial number of students just so the feelings of the lower performing students are not hurt? I do recall, when the lovely Mrs_Bob was still a teacher, that initially only the top performing kids were allowed into the "Advance Placement" classes in her school, eventually they started letting in anyone, including the mentally disabled, into those classes, which held back the entire class.
Please read the article at Intellectual Takeout from the link below. It cites research from Johns Hopkins University, there are charts at the link.
Study: Smart Kids Are Being Held Back - Intellectual Takeout
The last several years have seen a number of parents reporting that their child is not being challenged by the local public school. Naturally, some may want
www.intellectualtakeout.org
In summarizing the data from all of the tests, the researchers declared:
“[W]e estimate that 20-40% of elementary and middle school students perform at least one grade level above their current grade in reading, with 11-30% scoring at least one grade level above in math.”
And there is this tidbit:
“The basic principle of the new education is to be that dunces and idlers must not be made to feel inferior to intelligent and industrious pupils. That would be ‘undemocratic’. … Children who are fit to proceed to a higher class may be artificially kept back, because the others would get a trauma … by being left behind. The bright pupil thus remains democratically fettered to his own age-group throughout his school career….”