Success in the Middle School

The school which is touted as successful has many positive things going for it, including a schedule that is flexible and teachers who work in teams to ensure the success of the students.  According to the anecdotal record in Dufour's  book, the school in Texas identifies the needs of the students by testing with a common assessment weekly and then have cumulative bench mark tests each marking period.  They also offer proactive remediation before the state assessment.  The only real issue that I have with this method of instruction is how effective these methods are for the more gifted students.  Although enrichment is mentioned briefly, it does not seem to be a focus.  In my years of experience, I have noticed that the students who struggle are given much more attention than those who are quick to understand and who could move on, but they are generally "held back" while the slower students catch up.  I have seen the curriculum become less and less demanding so that the norm is the lowest common denominator, or knowledge, instead of setting sights as high as possible and having students strive to reach a higher expectation.  I have never considered a minimum competency test to be one that truly shows what students can do; instead, it generally shows the ability of the teachers to teach to the test, regardless if this is done on the middle school level or any other level of education in the U.S. today.