That would mean that students who couldn't do any better than the current university prep standard would be supported and challenged enough to achieve to the best of their abilities, where students who could do better would only be supported enough to get them to the current university prep standard.
I disagree. I don't think that anyone is saying that raising expectations to a set level for all means you won't help kids who can do beyond. Just as you'll need to support some kids more to reach that expectation, you need to support kids who can go farther.
Everyone deserves the chance to get an education that will allow them to attend university if they decide to do so some day, and giving that to all doesn't mean that bright kids (like I was) will necessarily be left to languish. And even though I was an advanced kid myself (and thus sometimes bored), I don't think tracking is a good idea. Kids can do so much more than we might expect of them, especially if we've been tracking them; it's just a matter of instructing them in a way that they'll learn well.
Plus, some kids (the "bright/advanced ones" particularly) come in with much more prior knowledge than other kids, so they pick things up so much quicker because they have a frame of reference. We do the kids without that prior knowledge a real detriment when we assume that just because they don't pick things up as quickly as the others that they can't learn it at all. We have to be cognizant of the fact that some kids are always playing catch-up and then give the support to do so.
no subject
I disagree. I don't think that anyone is saying that raising expectations to a set level for all means you won't help kids who can do beyond. Just as you'll need to support some kids more to reach that expectation, you need to support kids who can go farther.
Everyone deserves the chance to get an education that will allow them to attend university if they decide to do so some day, and giving that to all doesn't mean that bright kids (like I was) will necessarily be left to languish. And even though I was an advanced kid myself (and thus sometimes bored), I don't think tracking is a good idea. Kids can do so much more than we might expect of them, especially if we've been tracking them; it's just a matter of instructing them in a way that they'll learn well.
Plus, some kids (the "bright/advanced ones" particularly) come in with much more prior knowledge than other kids, so they pick things up so much quicker because they have a frame of reference. We do the kids without that prior knowledge a real detriment when we assume that just because they don't pick things up as quickly as the others that they can't learn it at all. We have to be cognizant of the fact that some kids are always playing catch-up and then give the support to do so.