Unfortunately there's the drawback brought on by standardized testing and "evidence based" grading systems. As a teacher in the united kingdom, I do not actual

Unfortunately there's the drawback brought on by standardized testing and "evidence based" grading systems. As a teacher in the united kingdom, I do not actually do the marking myself. I gather and estimate the evidence of their grades, but then submit their work to a central exam board. If a student will not produce the work, they can't get the grade. My personal evidence that they are smart is actually 100% irrelevant in the context of non-progressive school systems. (virtually anything with standardized testing, league tables, school rankings, etc..) "it's part of my job" is a wonderful platitude and is really easy to spout while waving your hands in the air to denote "details happen" but the realities are that the second-smartest kids typically don't do the work and can't get the grades no matter how much coaxing, cajoling and whatnot I try. Fact is, in a single room with 30 kids, and an annual working student body of ~300 - it's part of the student's job to do the work. And if we all face facts here, the smart student who squanders their own abilities will actually be fine at the end of the day. One day they'll decide they want to work, will catch up with the world and land in a distinctly average position like they deserve. The hardest job and kid who deserves the most attention is the kid from a broken home, who might not get fed every day, whose role models are possibly drug abusing or alcoholic etc... If we invest our effort there we might be able to lift poverty into middle class. Middle class to distinctly average is nothing we really have to worry about.