The Wall Street Journal article How a Public School in Florida Built America’s Greatest Math Team (non-paywalled version) describes how a retired Wall Street bond trader built a math team that has won 13 of the last 14 national math championships at an otherwise unremarkable high school. His success is not based on having a large budget, but rather on thinking differently and building an ecosystem.
The otherwise unremarkable high school has pick of the litter from everyone living around one of the largest universities in the country which is <5 miles away. (“Many of the gifted kids in his program have parents who work at the nearby University of Florida and push to get on Mr. Frazer’s radar.”) That the school has unremarkably low average scores says little about their tails. (Note all the Asian names.)
There are probably hundreds of high schools located within close proximity to large US universities, including universities with stronger math programs than the University of Florida.
The reason parents push to get on Mr. Frazer’s radar is because he built a successful ecosystem. One of the core reasons you build an ecosystem is to attract talent. The success of what he built is what attracts additional talent. When he started nobody was trying to get on his radar, that only happened once the program gained momentum.
And of course tails, if they are remarkable, are reflected in averages. But all of that aside. Before he arrived and built the the program the math team was unremarkable. The thing that’s meaningfully different is what he built, not the talent pool he was drawing from (especially at the beginning). I’m sure the talent pool he’s drawing from now is much stronger.
The otherwise unremarkable high school has pick of the litter from everyone living around one of the largest universities in the country which is <5 miles away. (“Many of the gifted kids in his program have parents who work at the nearby University of Florida and push to get on Mr. Frazer’s radar.”) That the school has unremarkably low average scores says little about their tails. (Note all the Asian names.)
There are probably hundreds of high schools located within close proximity to large US universities, including universities with stronger math programs than the University of Florida.
The reason parents push to get on Mr. Frazer’s radar is because he built a successful ecosystem. One of the core reasons you build an ecosystem is to attract talent. The success of what he built is what attracts additional talent. When he started nobody was trying to get on his radar, that only happened once the program gained momentum.
And of course tails, if they are remarkable, are reflected in averages. But all of that aside. Before he arrived and built the the program the math team was unremarkable. The thing that’s meaningfully different is what he built, not the talent pool he was drawing from (especially at the beginning). I’m sure the talent pool he’s drawing from now is much stronger.