Achievers need a chance to go faster, fly higher

High-ability students should be grouped together and allowed to accelerate their learning, argues Brandon Wright. That's especially true for students from black, Hispanic and low-income families.

Grouping high achievers together doesn't harm other students, he writes. The alternative grouping all students together in one class and asking teachers to "differentiate" instruction -- is very difficult to pull off, especially in classrooms with a wide range of performance levels.

"The typical American classroom includes students that span three to seven grade levels of achievement mastery," according to a 2022 study. A fifth-grade teacher may have students who haven't mastered second-grade math content "as well as those who have already mastered eighth-grade math content."

The pandemic widened the performance gap, a more recent study found, notes Wright. Few teachers can provide effective instruction to students at so many levels in the same classroom. Often, teachers focus on the struggling students and ignore the high achievers.

"Equity" advocates have tried to scrap programs for advanced learners in Virginia and California and cities such as San Francisco, Seattle, and New York, Wright notes. He argues for more opportunities for advanced education and better identification of "marginalized students" who'd benefit from the challenge.