The plight of low-performing students dominates our education news and policy discussions. Yet America’s high flyers also demand innovative, rigorous schooling, particularly if the country is to sharpen its economic and scientific edge.

On August 24 at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute in Washington, DC, Hoover Institution senior fellow Chester Finn and Jessica Hockett discussed how motivated, high-ability youngsters can be served in myriad ways by public education, including schools that specialize in them. This is the focus of their new book from Princeton University Press, Exam Schools: Inside America’s Most Selective Public High Schools. In the book, the coauthors identify 165 such high schools across the United States.