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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am hopeful that the new principal can keep the low stress environment without abandoning rigor.[/quote]

The previous principal did an excellent job maintaining high standards while reducing the test prep cheaters, which helped with the toxicity.[/quote]

[b]Test prep is not cheating.[/b]
Studying is not cheating.
Nobody believes that it is.
Not even you.  
Only cheating is cheating.
You should stop denigrating the hard work and effort of some kids just because you want opportunity for other kids.

I think Bonitatibus was focused on mental health especially in light of the two suicides during her tenure.  I think these may be the first suicides at TJ since its inception and it must have weighed heavy on her as it would on any principal.[/quote]

The test prep has the questions bank, they teach and train your kid strategy on how to answer it, they expose to your kid what the test would similarity be like. 
If you don't like the term of 'cheating' I will call it unfair advantage.

I am agree that studying is not cheating. 
[/quote]

Well, this is why I think the PSATs would be the best test to use.  The "question banks" are publicly available for free.
Test prep is available on khan academy.[/quote]

If it is free and the same, nobody will pay $$$ for prep, and the ones that usually do prep is the "wealthy, educated, and understand the game".[/quote]

You don't understand the game.
Because there is no game, not in the sleazy sense you are talking about.
Just because your kid is stupid doesn't mean the rest of the world is cheating.

Wealthy people pay more for the same thing all the time.
Toyota and a lexus are essentially the same car with different price tags.
A Kohler faucet costs 5 times as much as an off brand facuet made at the exact same factory.
People pay more for things all the time.

Back when people didn't have the internet, in person instruction was the only game in town.
It's what we did, it's what our parents did and we think it's what our kids must do.
For a lot of kids, online learning isn't as good as online learning but the smartest kids adapt well to online learning.
Princeton review and Kaplan doesn't have any secret sauce that khan academy doesn't have access to.[/quote]

Let’s say you take 300 bright kids: 
100 receive 1:1 tutoring twice a week 
100 attend in-person, small group courses once a week
100 are given the link to Khan Academy

After 6 months, which group(s) see the biggest gains in test performance? 
[/quote]
Are we talking about the PSAT?

If the kids are 99th percentile bright, then they would earn high scores on the PSAT without any prep.  Any or none of the options would be sufficient.

If the kids are simply bright, then either of the last two options could be better, depending on the kid.  If the kid is self-directed enough, they'd likely do better with Khan academy than the group courses.  They will have more freedom to focus on areas of weakness and won't have to sit through material that they already know.  If the kid is not self directed, the courses would be better since they likely wouldn't bother doing the Khan academy stuff.  As an example, my kid took the PSAT completely cold in 10th grade and got a 1450/1520.  They got a workbook, lightly studied, and raised that score to a 1500/1520 for the 11th grade PSAT.  Nothing more than that is needed for a smart kid.

So why do people pay for the tutoring or classes?  They have some level of FOMO and want to cover all bases.  They are wealthy enough that the money is insignificant.  They know their kids won't do the work on their own.  They don't have the bandwidth to keep the kid on track.  They believe the hype and think the courses will make a significant change.  They don't want to regret not doing classes if their kid ends up just barely under any of the cutoffs.  Any and all of these could be reasons why people pay for PSAT prep.

[/quote]

You don't get to pick the study habits/motivation/backgrounds of the 100 bright kids. Just a mix of 100 bright kids, specifically 8th graders.

[u]On average[/u], how would those cohorts generally fare based on the prep they received? 
[/quote]
Private tutoring >= targeted class >= Khan >= nothing.  But I don't think the differences are that huge.   Again, my kid went with the nothing approach and will definitely make NMSF with a score higher the kids who did extensive tutoring.   Prepping may give some small gain, but the bright kids will still have high scores, no matter what they do.  The not-so-bright kids will have lower scores, no matter what they do.  The PSAT and SAT have remained useful as admissions tests because despite the plethora of free and paid prep programs, they still do a pretty good job of indicating the ability level of a kid.

If people like you are so concerned that use of a test like PSAT would give too large of an advantage to the wealthier kids, then the solution is easy.  Offer a free TJ-prep afterschool club at the lower SES middle schools.  If a kid is not naturally bright enough to do well without prep and not willing to put in the work when a free prep class is offered after school, why do you imagine that the kid would be successful at a school like TJ?[/quote]

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