Providing for Able Students at the Local School Level

In the early history of education in the United States it was only the capable student who remained in school. At that time mathematics was considered a subject appropriate for the intellectually elite and the needs of a predominantly rural culture did not include extensive education for the majority. However, with the spread of the Jeffersonian ideal of democracy based on universal education, by the middle of the twentieth century, education for all was becoming a reality.