<p>What’s your outcome measure? There’s your bias right there. Not everyone would agree that higher SAT scores (accompanied by being less well-rounded) is a “better outcome.” Or that admission to the highest-end college is the supreme goal for everyone. You are, of course, free to think that a 2400 SAT and admission to Harvard is what everyone unilaterally shoots for, but that’s not realistic. Admission to Harvard et al is a goal for a relatively small % of the American student population, so “failing” to achieve that isn’t a “failure” for most American students who don’t have one iota’s worth of interest in that in the first place.</p>