Some of the leading thinkers of our day decided that our really big crisis is not the low test scores of the bottom 10%, but the desultory gains of our top 10%. This is known as the “top student crisis.”
Where would American education be, after all, if a day went by without another crisis?
Some might say that top students are bored by our national testing regime. Or maybe they suffer because of the abrupt resignation of many experienced teachers.
Paul Thomas has the answer to this latest crisis. He thinks we need to do to the top 10% what reformers have done to the bottom 10%. After all, as EduShyster might say, why should all that excellence be reserved only for those with the worst scores?
Thomas proposes TFA for the top students, making sure they get young, ill-trained teachers rather than those tired veterans; KIPP schools and other no-excuses for them, where they learn to obey rules promptly; larger class sizes, preferably 40-1; and be sure they get no music or art but focus strictly on test prep.
Then, no doubt, we will see innovation and excellence and higher scores for our top students. Another crisis solved.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I was, by any metric, one of the “top students” throughout my K16 public education. Intelligent teachers with a passion for their subject engaged me; poorly educated novices and veterans alike immediately made me lose respect. (How can you respect a teacher when their corrections to your papers are grammatically incorrect?)
Some of my peers and I were not very good at obedience, despite our academic performance, and we would not fare well under such a regime. It would of course provide justification that intelligent creative young people aren’t “top students” after all.
Depending on what one means by ill trained, this might not be a bad idea. My son’s favorite math teacher through his junior year in high school was the graduate student who taught his calculus classes. By the standards of public schools, the graduate student was certainly unqualified to teach, but the deep understanding of mathematics meant that he could answer my son’s questions.
I assign Michelle Rhee to teach all of your boys. Best of luck..hide the tape..stock up on bees.
Actually, for real LOL.
(I think in pictures, the cartoon in my head was unbelievable.
Thanks, I needed that.
I would rather go with a Cal Tech or MIT math major. I am not sure if rather institution has a school of education though.
Why would they be better than any other teacher that has mastered Calculus?
This obviously depends on the individuals, but they might be better because of the depth and breath of mathematical knowledge. Talented and aggressive students in mathematics have so many resources outside the classroom ( my son made extensive use of Wikipedia and math stack exchange as well as some advanced texts) that it takes a very talented mathmatician to deal with the variety of questions a talented student might ask.
Here is a link to the sort of MIT math student I had in mind. He is currently a first year grad student at Berkley, but might have been an ill trained beginning teacher: http://math.stackexchange.com/users/232/qiaochu-yuan
I’m glad your sons had a positive experience. Being a veteran teacher is no indication a good teacher. I know some teachers who really should retire. They might have been good once, but they are just “putting in time”. On the other hand, there are some really good young teachers. Old or young, teaching is a skill, some are better at it than others. Some are natural teachers. some are in the field who shouldn’t be.
By K-12 standards this graduate student was not any sort of teacher in that he had no classes in pedagogy and would never be licensed to teach in public schools. For aggressive students, depth of knowledge is more important than pedagogy.
I love the smell of “tu quoque” in the morning! Smells like…justice!
Nice one, Diane, thanks!
I think this is a great idea, but it doesn’t go nearly far enough.
After all, the US has among the highest infant mortality rates in the developed world, which can only be the fault of those lazy, overpaid ob-gyns. Why, because of “bad ob-gyns,” we aren’t even giving these babies the chance to have their lives ruined by career teachers in the public schools.
Let’s get rid of those stale, burned-out malingerers and replace them with Play-Doctors for America: young, energetic and enthusiastic undergrad Biology majors who will bring Transformational Change (and lower fees!) to the maternity wards of the US.
After all, shouldn’t newborns be delivered by the best and brightest, who will then use medicine as a stepping stone to real careers as health insurance, finance or pharmaceutical executives?
The US also lags behind other developed countries in life expectancy. Well, then it’s time to bring accountability to all doctors, who for far too long have taken advantage of their cushy positions, especially in urban, public hospitals. In fact, research shows that ill-trained, temporary doctors achieve outcomes superior to those of all those losers with “experience.”
Act now: the investment opportunities are endless, and it’s the All New Civil Rights Issue of Our Time.
An innovative, sweeping, status-quo-busting idea!
The scariest part about the study was that they apparently didn’t recognise that they had a classic case of “regression to the mean”. (I assume, because I can’t get to the actual report as I get stuck in a loop that goes back to the ad for it.)
Basically “regession to the mean” means that …
the kids in the top 10% are going to include more kids who tested above their ability than below and when tested again they are more likely to score closer to their true ability level i.e. lower. And the converse in the bottom 10%.
So what looks like the bottom improving more than the top is just a reflection of the randomness of student “on the day” performance.
We have noticed this phenemonenon in CT after our Response to Intervention (RTI) was implemented. CT’s version, SRBI, mandates that classroom teachers deliver the small group/individual remediation that normally would be done in a resource room. At the time we teachers said that that would mean our average and above-average students would get short-shrifted. No one listened. While I am working with one or two students on skills, the other 18 students in my class are working independently. Have you seen 7 year-olds working independently? Some can, some can’t. How valuable is this half hour for them? Surprise, surprise: it turns out that the achievement of our highest students has plateaued. Of course, somehow the classroom teacher will get blamed for this as well. I wish the policy makers would come into my classroom and teach an intervention group while also providing challenging and stimulating activities that small children could do quietly and independently for a half hour. Oh, without a para, since mine was yanked last year.
Sorry–late to the party. The theme of America (not just education) is constant (albeit manufactured) “crisis.” Which politician said, “I never let a good crisis go to waste?” Was Katrina the “education” crisis benchmark? (I know I really don’t have to repeat Arne’s quote on this forum!) American politicians are suffering from “Wag the Dog” syndrome. “Fiscal cliff,” “tsunami,” “sequester,” “Illinois is broke.”
Just how stupid do elected officials and wanna-bes think the American public is?
Really, “W.t.D.” Syndrome sufferers, take two aspirin and go to bed already. We’re past your phony crises and are ready for action (we are our own saviors).