Most here know I am in wyoming. Been an alo here for a number of years. We have towns where the population is about 200. We have schools, that have kids from numerous towns attending, and the graduating class is still only around 100-200. Schools where NO kid has ever gone to an ivy or similar school, and probably never will. Yet,me have had kids from this "Podunk" schools, get an appointment to the Air Force and other military academies.
I agreed with every word you typed. The only reason I chimed in was to possibly help change a perception. K-12 school ratings are studied hard by many parents. They convince themselves that their children are getting a
better education because of it. Maybe or maybe not. No doubt it is true if you compare an inner city school that has so many distractions or some chronically underfunded programs (or entire states which I will leave nameless) where the teachers are overworked and underpaid. In some places, you will get a substandard education and your kids educational potential
will be compromised. That doesn't mean they won't do great things but rather they fell short of additional greatness.
I did well in stats. I understand that average test scores can be semi-meaningless so long as you are in a fully funded district. Even if a significant (30-40%) of the student body doesn't care too much. The key element for uncompromised K-12 education is that you need a strong pocket of students that
do care and kick butt. In our HS, about 150-200 of the 700 are fairly passionate while another 25% are in a tough spot (mixed demographics).
I grew up poor and went to the same HS as our kids and got very little parent involvement. The word "college" was never spoken and I didn't really think about it till the 12th grade. Our family culture meant that some of my brothers dropped out of HS and I was the only one out of 6 that went to college. It took me years to figure this out by myself so I didn't graduate from college till I was around 28. Yet several of my schools graduates became over achievers and are literally household names today. Their family culture expected performance and they delivered. So the incredible tools were in place yet 35% of the student body tested poorly on the standardized tests which is a very typical number all across MN.
If I'm right, the education is tie between a highly ranked private HS in MN like Blake where 1/3 of their class goes to prominent colleges. I propose they simply shed the underachievers and the parents have the money and motivation to chase the college brand names. That HS has relationships with school insiders. If your goal is to go to an Ivy, then by all means spend $15K a year and send your kid to Blake. I'm not taking anything away from them. More often than not, when you do send your kid to a private, you are convinced you have a better education. By saying this in public, you are suggesting to others that they have an inferior school. I'm not saying anybody here has that attitude.
Back to the SA selection process. This average HS that our kids attended where near zero ever go to Ivy's had several students that went to a SA. They have done very well (as measured by class rank). I don't think these are outliers. I come from a very fiscally conservative district that places little value on going to an Ivy. Therefore the "best and the brightest" often times chose a SA versus an Ivy. All the while about 1/2 of the student body whose parents are in the trades stay in the trades. If we are being honest, the trades on average pay higher than most college grads. It's why our town has the 2nd or 3rd highest average income in MN and only 25% are college grads. I diverge...
To be clear, there WILL be a
strong correlation to a great education and how many go to Ivy's. But that isn't the litmus test nor is looking at the percentage of students that go to college. Hence you need to look deeper and I factually know USAFA does.
As you might guess, I'm a wee bit over passionate on the college topic. I've heard way too many parents tout how incredible their private schools are by reciting average test scores. Our neighbor pulled their kids from the local HS and sent them to a private. A few times, they trashed talked the local HS. Didn't they realize I was 3 feet away? I had to smile and know that people subconsciously look down at our HS because of its average ranking. But on the internet, I can vent a little. I'll get off my soapbox now.
But I enjoyed the conversation.