After generating months of anxiety among both proponents and opponents of public-school integration, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a predictably close 5-4 decision, ruled that the use of race in student-assignment policies by the Seattle and Louisville, Kentucky, school districts violated the rights of the white petitioners whose children were denied…

The effort to leave no child behind is a major threat to high-ability students, whose cognitive and affective needs are increasingly falling by the wayside from default, according to gifted education advocates. They argue that the No Child Left Behind Act, with its unprecedented, high-stakes focus on students performing below grade level, leaves…