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Two groups of kids who invariably get into the most trouble are those who are the extremely bright and those who, though probably not stupid, aren't doing well. This is a problem that several people have noticed and have attempted to address in varying ways.

In my opinion (which I'll either change or back up according to research), the best beginning to solving the problem of low achievers is to ensure that basic instruction is good. If we make sure that everyone receives the best and most fool-proof instruction early on, a lot of problems will not develop.

If reading instruction begins with phonemic awareness (that is, awareness of the ~43 sounds that make up English--or the language you're trying to teach), and then if the instruction proceeds from the sounds to the writing, instead of the reverse (writing to sound, which is what most phonics instruction is), then virtually no one fails to learn to read.

Using proper reading instruction would solve the problems that stem from not learning to read right--such as dyslexia, learning disabilities, and frustration. Most of these can be completely avoided when reading instruction is started right.

As for math, I'm all for children enjoying and being creative and so forth with math--that's what it's there for. However, the best way to ensure that children enjoy math more and have greater access to the interesting (that is, higher) parts of mathematics, is to make sure that they get skilled in the basics. Learning basic math well doesn't have to be boring or repetitious, but it's important. Even with calculators, knowing the basic facts makes learning higher math so much easier. Skills build upon previous skills, and unless prerequisite skills have been learned well, learning new skills becomes unnecessarily difficult and frustrating.

Once people have got basic reading skills mastered (which shouldn't take longer than a year), comprehension becomes a factor of a person's background knowledge. Because of this, it's important for schools to have a lot of well-organized content. Making sure that all children have the same background knowledge in elementary school ensures that everyone will be able to learn new content with ease. Like skills, new content builds on old content, and without the right pre-requisite knowledge, learning becomes unnecessarily frustrating.

If basic education uses proper instruction for reading and teaches lots of content, then a lot of problems, especially those due to frustration, will go away. There is, of course, still the case that some children will need to move much faster than others. With a structured and sequenced curriculum, it would be much easier to do this. A child could move quickly through the subjects they enjoyed most and were best at, and could take more time at the ones they needed more help with. Schools should encourage kids who can to do more advanced coursework--for example, high school students taking college courses, and so forth.