"Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified." — Samuel Johnson."I feel that the greatest reward for doing is the opportunity to do more." — Jonas Salk.
When my eldest son was in elementary school, we enjoyed the benefit of an enlightened principal. At the beginning and end of each school year, this principal tested all the children in mathematics and reading. With these data and consultation with teachers and parents, this principal arranged classes so that children of similar ability where grouped together. As achievement and mastery of material warranted, children moved from one ability group to another.
The arrangement worked with little complaint. Usually by the end of sixth grade, about a dozen students were prepared for algebra in the seventh grade. This enlightened approach has permitted my son to excel in calculus as a high school junior.
My second son and several cohorts were treading along the same path when a new principal was assigned to the school. This principal did not wish to have any one or any group conspicuously advanced. Despite the fact that a number of fourth graders had already successfully completed the fifth grade mathematics curriculum, they would be required to repeat the same material again in fifth grade. The principal refused to grant parental requests for advancement or even test the students. It took an intervention by the school district superintendent and special testing to advance the students to the fifth-grade curriculum. The victory was short-lived. The group of students at the center of the controversy did indeed advance. In time, however, parents of younger children were not aware of the history of advancement and excellence. Mediocrity now prevails.
Daniel J. Singal wrote in a 1991 Atlantic Monthly article about the "other crisis in American education." Apparently, students with the highest ability are not as capable as they once were. There are fewer and fewer students excelling on SAT and other aptitude and achievement tests. Scores in standardized tests have declined in part because a greater portion of the student population, not just the college-bound, are taking these tests. Nonetheless, the demographic changes in the test-taking population are not sufficient to explain declining scores at the high end.
College professors are reporting that many of their students are not prepared for college-level study. College students are less able to extract
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