Anti-merit education experiments of the 2010s and early 2020s are unpopular and failing.
While criticisms of gifted education are not new, they have grown increasingly absurd. In New York, writer Katie Arnold-Ratliff, for example, recently questioned whether student giftedness was a myth. She originallytried to argue that gifted programs were pointless because “only 12.3 percent” of gifted students in a study “reached a level of eminence” by age 50, meaning “88 percent never” reached extraordinary levels of success such as becoming Fortune 500 executives or award-winning journalists.
Arnold-Ratliff’s article, however, represents the last gasp of a failed experiment. Attempts to replace gifted and talented programs with more “equitable” initiatives have proved damaging to both high-achieving kids and students struggling academically. Thankfully, some school districts are starting to reverse course.
