Just as a followup: When my wife presented the results (she still had to hide that she manipulated class assignments), she was reassigned to teach advanced science. She taught 6th, 7th and 8th grade (now just 7th and 8th). She still uses test results to adjust her teaching. Over the course of 3 years of teaching the same students, students like those that were declining before, her students go up “7” years. So it’s not a fluke limited to slower students.
I use 7 in quotes because they don’t get 7 years smarter. But their scores do improve the amount expected over 7 years. Though being able to hold a conversation with an 8th grader about the relative merits of different nuclear power types, or the relative merits of genetic manipulation, you get the impression they can hold their own against many college freshmen.
