Reply to The case for "low rigor" at highly competitive private lower schools?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Hi,
Our blessed buttercup will be starting at a highly selective private school this year. Many of our friends and colleagues have cautioned/warned/indicated that there is not much rigor in those early years: the pace at which math and reading are taught is slower than the high-quality public schools in Bethesda/VA, and also likely below the level at which many children are capable of (given they have supportive parents, perhaps often high test scores, etc.). We are told in 9th grade, when a bunch of top-performing kids from public schools join, the 'lifers' are perhaps even at a disadvantage. 
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1) LOL blessed buttercup.
2) I guess it depends on which school you're talking about, but this is certainly untrue about the more selective private schools.
3) The only grain of truth in your post is [b]We are told in 9th grade, when a bunch of top-performing kids from public schools join, the 'lifers' are perhaps even at a disadvantage.[/b] But you're mixing up cause and effect. It is very difficult to tell which 4 year olds will be highly gifted, whereas by 9th grade it's obvious. So students who enter at 9th grade are usually a uniformly high-performing crowd, whereas the lifers contain at least some proportion who aren't quite as able but happened to do admissions testing during a time when they were having a cognitive growth spurt and were ahead of their peers. The lifers are no worse off than they would have been elsewhere -- in fact, there's some evidence that being surrounded by a high proportion of high-achieving kids boosts lower-achieving kids' performance.
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I agree.  Nice analysis/summary, PP.[/quote]

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