Lake Wobegon Revisited: On Diversity and Education

Abstract

I present the theses that current educational practices underestimate the magnitude of diversity in educational achievement and that disregarding diversity has the effect of widening the range of differences. I suggest that diversity in the rate of growth of capacity to process increasingly complex tasks partly underlies achievement differences. I propose a transactional model of the interaction of capacity differences and curriculum taught resulting in failure to achieve academic skill mastery by unnecessarily large numbers of children. I propose that reducing concern with "grade-level achievement" and increasing concern with academic mastery would have long-term educational benefits for individuals and society.