Early Mentors for Exceptional Students

• In Event: From Access to Achievement: Expanding Advanced Learning Opportunities

Abstract

Is the supply of extraordinary talent constrained by the scarcity of exceptional mentors, or can proficient but ordinary teachers suffice? I test these competing hypotheses in mathematics using newly assembled data spanning four decades of the American Mathematics Competitions (AMC) linked to long-run education and career outcomes. Exploiting variation in the timing and geographic availability of school-based mentors, I show that teachers who organize math competitions play a central role in revealing latent talent: mentor entry more than doubles the number of top-performing students identified at a school by the AMC, with comparable declines upon exit. Access to a high school mentor also shifts the trajectories of already-identified students, increasing the likelihood that they attend highly selective universities, hold patents, and work at elite tech firms. These mentors are overwhelmingly ordinary teachers, suggesting the binding constraint on extraordinary talent is not the scarcity of exceptional mentors but the underutilization of a broad pool of capable ones. The findings imply that expanding mentor access is a scalable, low-cost lever for increasing the long-run supply of talent in science and innovation.

Author

• Ian Hunter Calaway, DePaul University
  Presenting Author