Massachusetts is typically described as a state with “zero funding” for gifted and talented education. But I’m wondering if it isn’t actually negative funding.
A friend lives in West Roxbury and his kids attend their neighborhood Boston Public School (“we were lucky and won a lottery”; it was possible that the children would have instead spent 1.5 hours each day on a bus to a school elsewhere in the city). He said that 70 percent of the students had performed above grade level on a standardized test and that, as a result, the school’s funding had been cut. “We lost a gym and a music teacher,” he said, “because they want to redirect the funding to an underperforming school.”
I do not think your friend should be too worried if his/her children are gene lottery beneficiaries/or motivated by “the tiger mom”/or culture to study.
Despite the prevailing mythology in this country, money play virtually no role in educational success/failure. Teachers do have some influence but not very substantial either. See
https://www.amazon.com/Bad-Students-Not-Schools/dp/141281345X
for a more detailed exploration.
Two ways to eliminate the gap, bring up the bottom end or bring down the top end.
Money plays a moderate role in success or failure, just not money spent on laptops or (theoretically as it has turned out) teacher pensions.
Marital status is more important though.
MONEY AND SCHOOL PERFORMANCE
Lessons from the Kansas City Desegregation Experiment
https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/pa-298.pdf
Tell the students to throw the test. Perhaps the school can split into two, the regular one and one just consisting of barracks used for the final tests. The students transfer as late as possible and then don’t hold back on the test.
Barracks school (good name) would then get great test results at a minimal budget.
No Child Left Ahead!