This is even more true under No Child Left Behind. Schools are graded by pass rates on a test. Once a child is good enough to pass the test, there is no incen

This is even more true under No Child Left Behind. Schools are graded by pass rates on a test. Once a child is good enough to pass the test, there is no incentive to provide anything more, and there is every reason to redirect all resources given to talented students towards students on the borderline between failing and passing. The result is that gifted education has effectively disappeared from American public schools. Parents of smart rich kids will compensate by sending them to a private school or sending them to enrichment activities outside of school that challenge them at their ability level. Poor kids can't do this, so they're stuck with an education that doesn't help them reach their potential. The best broad-based way I can think of to address this is to give schools some incentive for producing students that perform exceptionally. Designing the incentives will certainly be fraught though. It is very hard to design something like this that doesn't have too many unintended consequences and is politically palatable.