Reply to Why w school students not preferred in Blair magnet

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[quote=Anonymous]"There are over 400 students in my child's middle-school grade. And in most of my child's classes, there are more than 30 students per class. I'm not seeing much opportunity here for a given teacher to acquire a thorough knowledge of a given student."

They are not looking for thorough knowledge.  They are looking for THE 4 out of the 400.  These kid's reputations have been growing since K.

The kids know who the 4 will be why wouldn't the teachers?

"This is your fiction. First I don't believe there is an exceptional group set off from the pack, that's contrary to the concept of a curve. Second even if there were, in addition to including math geniuses it would scoop up a fair number of the future math cranks of the world, people who for whatever reason obsess on math but arrest in their own thoughts. There'd be no way for the teacher or the test to distinguish between raw talent and such a person and there's no need to because kids deserve the benefit of the doubt. Regardless, what probably is obvious to the teacher is parents who have a deeper interest in the magnet than that of their kid's, and no doubt such parents are over represented in the group mentioned. I mean really, last year of middle school and they don't realize back to school night isn't for individual discussions?!? Glad the teacher has a sense of humor about it, as surely this is just the first of many such interactions before the end of eighth grade."

There are only 11,000 or so kids in the 8th grade.  The curve does not become smooth until you get to many MILLIONS when you are 5 standard deviations out.  I know kids in that group who have ALREADY scored high enough to be NM semifinalists.  They ARE 5 standard deviations out.

You could be onto something when you mention the geniuses and the cranks.  By 8th grade, the teachers and other kids may know who the cranks are but parents, not so much.  While some 8th grade cranks deserve the benefit of the doubt, some are so cranky already that they can safely be ruled out for someone at the beginning of the smooth part of the curve.  This alone could be what the teacher was rolling their eyes about.[/quote]

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