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Even if the school has only one or two "highly gifted" students (the top 3% nationally), they should have college work under the Advanced Placement Program to enter college ahead of the game, and there take tougher courses. And the "academically talented" should never get a chance to loaf. As college material, they should take a minimum 18 courses with homework (at least 15 hours weekly), including four years of English, four years of math, three years of science, four years of one foreign language (for "mastery") —plus required courses.
In a year of inspecting 55 top schools in 18 states, Conant found only eight came close to being exactly "right" (all have improved since). Most common deficiency: only two years of foreign language study (partly because few colleges require more). Other flaws: able girls shunned math and science; able boys concentrated on them, skipping foreign languages and neglecting English. All down the line, observed Conant. "the academically talented student is not being sufficiently challenged."
Yet Conant was highly encouraged: "All of the schools could have been made as good as the best or even better. I am more and more convinced that it would be much more difficult to make a radical change in our schools than to improve those we now have."
Green Light. One of Conant's most potent prescriptions was the "academic inventory." a yearly comparison between bright students' capacities and the elective courses they actually choose. Like a stockholder's report, it sums up a school's income and outgo. And it goes straight to the heart of the matter: guidance.
The tool is yearly testing (aptitude v. achievement), an art that has come far since the old one-shot IQ score. The tests cannot measure inherent ability (testers used to think they could). They do determine "developed ability," a blend of innate talents and outer influences, which can be changed by home and school. With his wiggly blocks and foolish questions. the guidance man strikes some parents as a dangerous bore: George will go to Harvard no matter his score. Let George do it—if he can. Guidance counselors are after bigger game: the brainy boy from a culture-poor family who always thought he was "dumb," the bright laggard who needs to be prodded. To Conant. guidance is "the keystone of the arch of public education."