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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I would assume the selection bias continues to exist in a public HS with a high percentage of parents who are intellectuals (either academic or artistic or otherwise).

I think the point of the original post you quote was that you certainly cannot look exclusively at achievement statistics for these areas schools and infer anything about the actual teaching done there.  In an ideal world, you would know all the attributes about your child and know what school helps the kid with those attributes at entry do best (according to whatever metric you or your child care about).[/quote]

Hmmph.  Simply put there is afterteaching in aware households.  STA teaches kids to write and has small class sizes.  Practical instruction in math and science.  The older kids who actually play sports on an intense level at STA have no time for afterschooling so you know the teaching is good.  the meatheads are successful....a pun on the Sidwellian outlook.[/quote]

Let's assume you're correct.  There are a group of students who have no additional instruction outside of school.  That doesn't eliminate the possibility that these intense athletes are extremely bright (despite your disparaging comment about them being meatheads).  The point was that if you were concerned with the performance of the SCHOOL (with regard to teaching), you would need to see how this group of students do in other teaching environments, compare, and judge the schools based on how these equally talented students did in these environments.  By saying students who have no chance for exra instruction at home do well, you are only controling for one potential bias (good grades = high levels of afterschooling) but certainly not the main one (good grades = high iq = high levels of performance no matter how crappy the teaching).  Or it could reflect the grading system employed which compensates athletes for less time.  I don't know.

Anyway, this wasn't to put down StA which surely is a great school.  But certainly not by your inadequate defense.

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