It is true that you can't manage what you can't measure. It's also true that you'd be hard pressed to find a crowd more quantitatively oriented than HN readers.

It is true that you can't manage what you can't measure. It's also true that you'd be hard pressed to find a crowd more quantitatively oriented than HN readers. It follows that there must be a fault with your analysis. The fault is in the ability to measure cognitive abilities in children. We know surprisingly little about how the human brain develops. A wrong measurement is worse than no measurement at all, for a multitude of reasons, the biggest of which is the fact that measuring will introduce undesired side effects. If you are introducing side effects, with no actionable result to show for, you should consider the value of measuring. As such, and given that western societies can accommodate free education at least until puberty, the solution is to provide free education. Assess cognitive abilities, for resource allocation purposes, at the terminus of the free education track.