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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I personally think having different cutoffs for different states is bogus.  Why should one kid be a NMSF with a 212 while a kid with a 222 in another state is not?[/quote]

Because some states/school districts have a lot more resources. I personally think the current approach is fair. [/quote]

I think that the system is generally fair.  As a public school teacher in DC, I think that DC's scores are inflated by kids who come into DC for private school from MD and VA.  I think it's hard when there are lower income kids in DC whose score would get them NMSF in almost every other state, who don't get NMSF, in state tuition, or in state financial aid.  I know a kid like this whose scores would have qualified in any state except DC, NJ, and MA, and who would have qualified in DC if their scores were flipped. [/quote]

How is that "generally fair"?  [/quote]

As someone who lives in MD, where there are more opportunities.  I think it's fair that our cut off is set higher than South Dakota, because it's about exceeding the norm for your community.

My guess is that DC has a higher percentage of out of state kids earning NMSF than any other state.  If you look at the list of who won, it's a lot of kids from Sidwell, GDS, St. Anselm's etc. . . and a high percentage of those kids don't live in DC.  So, I think that that is unfair for kids from DC.  I think the cut off should be based on the percentiles of kids who live in DC.

I also think that when the high cut off is combined with the lack of instate options in DC, and an extremely unfair DC TAG program that is designed to help MC and UMC kids, but that doesn't address the fact that state schools generally don't give financial aid to low income kids who are OOS, I think it is unfair for kids from DC.

Given that DC makes up 0.2% of the population, I would describe a system that is fair for everyone but 0.2% of the population as "generally fair".  [/quote]

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