Part of my mental model for education:

You have quality of curriculum and teaching on one side.

Then you have a bunch of compensating factors on the other side. How motivated a student is. How much outside knowledge they arrive with. How bright they are. Extra instruction, i.e. tutoring or mom at the kitchen table.

With mediocre curriculum and teaching, lots of kids will still learn because they have enough of those compensating factors.

Some don’t have enough to compensate and don’t make progress.

The real question: how do we respond? Do we try to address the compensating factors? Get parents to help? Find new ways to motivate students?

Or do we try to improve curriculum and teaching?