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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]So rereading through all of this...

I hear the point people are making that the schools don't have to serve anyone they don't want to.  Yep, that's definitely true.  And I can see how a PG kid (150+) might not be able to be served in a private school that isn't totally onboard with working with them.

I feel differently about those 98-99% kids.  First, there are so many of them.  Each grade must have 3-5 of them!  Its not like they come around every 5-10 years like the PGs.

Second, these are the kids that the same schools tout when they are older.  They show off the kids' college acceptances, National Merit Awards, etc - and use that as a selling point to other parents in admissions tours.  They seem to be exactly the kind of kid the schools want, and they fete their accomplishments when they are older, but they just leave them to languish in those first 5 years.  That's kinda a bummer.

And finally, I think I am frustrated because it would take so little to address their needs.  The schools don't need to poach resources from needy kids; they just need to structure things a little differently.  It would mean acknowledging that not all kids are the same smart at everything.  But the schools already know this (they collect all sorts of data on this and keep tabs, whatever they tell parents).  So why the farce?[/quote]

Yes, there are some things a private school could get out of doing a better job for these 98% kids.  The biggest argument is that it's good for the kids themselves, and that's reason enough by itself.

However, I doubt private schools really need/want the other advantages you're pointing to. Private schools already attract maybe 4-5 98% kids in each grade, without having to do anything extra.  Some schools with strong applicant pools could probably fill every class with these 98-99% kids -- but they don't, because they want a diversity of talents, including musical, artistic, theatrical and athletic talent, not to mention satisfying some of the demands for spots for legacies and siblings and political appointees' kids. These schools already send lots of kids to the Ivies because of Ivy legacy status and athletic skill and just being the school with Obama's kids.  So what does the school get out of treating the 98% kids better, besides attracting more 98% kids, which it doesn't need?

But from the school's POV, there are some definite downsides to what you're suggestion.  To cut and paste from above:

[quote]But I can totally see the downside for the school in doing this. First, imagine the fierce lobbying from every single family to get their kids into the "elite" group, because of some assumption that the Ivies will pluck these kids first - I've seen this lobbying first hand, and it already happens with the existing, more limited ability groupings (leading to "teacher peeve" threads, but I digress). Second, imagine the parents who want their fair share - "those kids got a resource teacher, so I want a resource teacher for my kid who struggles with ADD or executive function," which is a valid request, and how does the school respond given that money isn't unlimited. Third, what about the kids who aren't put in the new, super-high ability group - do they think they aren't as talented, and will their parents complain? [/quote]

Plus, you make it sound so easy.  "The schools don't need to poach resources from needy kids; they just need to structure things a little differently."  I don't know what this means.

The biggest problem, IMO, is something that you dismiss.  You write that schools already know "not all kids are the same smart at everything" so it's a "farce" that they don't "acknowledge" it.  OMG!!!  (and I'm religious) Can you see a top 3 school telling 95 families their kids aren't as smart as the 4-5 kids who got into the super-accelerated math class? Not to mention adding, this is part of the school's plan to attract more of these 98% kids, and identifying them clearly by putting them in special classes, so the Ivies know who they are, so we can boost the school's already high Ivy admittance rate? It's one thing to separate a class of 100 into 3 broad groups of 33 kids each, parents fight teachers on this but for the most part they are down with it, especially if the lines between ability groups are kind of fuzzy and there's always the possibility of switching groups next year.  But to create a sort of overclass of 98% kids?  This is something that will never happen.[/quote]

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