I went to a parochial grade school and hated it. I begged my parents to take me out, and by the time 7th grade came around, they gave in. Unlike my siblings, I went to public school for 7th and 8th grade. In retrospect, if I ever have children, I would make every sacrifice imaginable to ensure they go to private schools. No amount of complaining from them would ever make me reconsider.
I believe that actively working to prevent top students from making too much progress over the median student is the norm in all public schools.
It is wrong that we primarily divide the thousands of students in a given school district by the year they were born.
I agree with your last point whole-heartedly. We need to start adjusting for ability and proficiency as early as 2nd grade.
The big challenge with all teaching is that you must teach to the "middle" ability child. Instead of splitting by age we should be splitting into groups like the top 45% in one class, the next 35% in the next and the bottom 20% in the last. This lets each child have more or less time based on the aptitude and creates smaller deviance between the "middle" and top/bottom of each group.
Absolutely true. However, everyone knows who the kids are that got an F on the test anyway. In this structure, they get more help and may be more able to get a C- instead. It is even more so with math since everything builds on previous knowledge unlike something like history.
Stigma isn't all bad. It's a motivating factor. Decades ago, the norm was to post grades on the wall for all to see. We lost a lot of motivation when we got rid of that.
I went to public schools and then to Caltech, where I could sleep through freshman chemistry because my public school chem teacher was so great that I already knew the material.
I believe that actively working to prevent top students from making too much progress over the median student is the norm in all public schools.
It is wrong that we primarily divide the thousands of students in a given school district by the year they were born.