There's definitely nothing telling about public education in a city with 20% black and 50% hispanic population being completely unrepresented on a team of dozens of kids. I'm sure that the "identifying talent" that's happening here is completely equitable and inclusive. I'm sure all the brown kids sitting in overcrowded classes are having a great time watching the white and asian kids go off to their special treatment with dedicated tutoring. This is exactly how our system of class based privilege perpetuates itself.
I have two kids. One of them was an "honor" student from 6th grade on.
The difference was one teacher. My younger one was tapped by their teacher for a special program in 5th grade that put her in a class with other "smart" kids for a day each week in 6th grade. From there, those kids blossomed to honors classes later.
For my other kid, the distractions in classrooms full of kids who didn't care about learning proved to be too much at times. The honor student had to occasionally take classes with "normal" students, and found the environment very distracting. It matters how much the kids in the class want to learn, as opposed to make fun of each other and the teacher, or be disruptive in other ways. The older one still did fine, has a degree and a job, but it was a struggle.
So, I get your point. I have strongly felt for a long time now that even average students should have received the experience my honor student did in 6th grade. It was a great break from the average day of going from class to class, broke up the monotony of standard curriculum, and provided those kids with a good foundation for thinking out of the box and learning to learn in a focused environment. It provided a clear pathway through honors curriculum in classrooms full of students and teachers who cared.
I want that for every kid, but with Republicans doing their damnedest destroy public education and the impact it's having on teachers' mental well-being (for those who can even be bothered to become teachers anymore, given the low pay and guaranteed bullshit from not just students but parents and the government itself), it's hard to imagine it becoming a reality in the short term.
> The honor student had to occasionally take classes with "normal" students, and found the environment very distracting.
I was consistently the teacher's pet in my English classes because I chose those to be my "normal" classes in high school because I thought they were boring. Even without putting in much effort, being quiet and actually able to answer the questions endeared me to my teachers.
The ancestor commenter is cynically pointing out that support systems are major factors in why the other students are more disproportionately not signaling potential to begin with
It is great that individuals picked are applying themselves and doing the work, it is noticeable this has some selective evolution towards some ethnicities pretty reliably, it is not recognizing how a deeper holistic solution can address the disparity in how other students can be motivated and presented with opportunities or how their home circumstance and support systems can be addressed
