Comment by programjames

I saw an interesting post on LessWrong[1] that essentially argues education got so bad because all the education studies are using metrics biased towards the bottom. If you can't measure improvement in the top (10% for standardized tests, 80% for typical definitions of 'achievement'), and then you tie money to which schools are measurably improving learning outcomes, you incentivize schools to teach to the bottom. You end up with schools desparately trying not to suspend/expel students, because it looks bad on their metrics and decreases their funding, while holding back their more diligent students as teachers/babysitters for the less diligent students.

[1]: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/LPyqPrgtyWwizJxKP/how-do-we-...