Thread by @Noahpinion

Hey, everyone! My @bopinion post today is about all the talent that's going wasted and undiscovered out there in America.

bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…

Here's a little personal anecdote that first clued me in to the fact that much of America's talent is getting wasted:

But there are even better anecdotes than that:

nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/dr…

Or this one:

https://twitter.com/mekkaokereke/status/1081619342377156608

How many people like these are falling through the cracks in our system?

Evidence says: An awful lot.

You hear a lot about the evils of standardized testing, but in fact it helps discover hidden talent among poor and excluded populations that our education system would otherwise ignore or discount.

But don't kid yourself: Testing alone won't solve this problem.

Poor kids with great test scores still complete college at lower rates than rich kids with bad test scores.

One problem is colleges, who try hard to fill their student bodies with rich kids (presumably to increase alumni donations).

npr.org/sections/ed/20…

Our failure to discover and reward the talents of poor and minority kids might be one reason we have lower economic mobility than most European countries.

brookings.edu/wp-content/upl…

We need to do more to discover talented students from poor and disadvantaged backgrounds.

Here are a few simple policies that help get more of those kids to college:

insidehighered.com/news/2013/04/0…

Mentoring, summer programs, gifted classes for schools in poor neighborhoods - these are all important.

If we want "America, land of opportunity" to be more than a cruel joke, we have to do a better job of discovering and nurturing the talents of the Americans we're ignoring.

bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…

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