<p>Not only are middle school kids getting expensive private tutoring to compete for high school admissions, elementary school kids getting expensive private tutoring to compete for middle school admissions. Depressing...
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/16/education/new-york-citys-tutoring-industry-grows-with-competition-for-admissions.html?_r=1%5B/url%5D">http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/16/education/new-york-citys-tutoring-industry-grows-with-competition-for-admissions.html?_r=1</a></p>
<p>Poor kids.</p>
<p>This is so pathetic. I get “those” kids for college interview and by the time they’re graduating from high school there is no “kid” left in them. </p>
<p>They’re overly coached, can’t think collaboratively, are stressed out, and can’t get off the script. They’ve come to believe their entire life rests on grades and scores and when rejected (and they are rejected) want to cry foul. Their parents drive them to the interview or worse - hover and want to run over and inject things into the conversation (interviews held at a local coffee house).</p>
<p>It’s pretty sad.</p>
<p>It is sad and pathetic, but in more ways than parents living outside of NYC can understand. </p>
<p>Many of the zoned schools for elementary school are awful. Low standards, inadequate supervision, roaches/rodents/mold, generally unsafe in ways that are hard for people living outside of it to understand. Same is true for middle schools, only now add in that in some districts in NYC, there are NO zoned middle school, so admissions are all based on test scores, and sometimes interviews. Many of the middle schools are horror shows, academically and socially. There are no zoned high schools in NYC at all, so if your kid isn’t competitive and/or lucky, your 14yo could end up traveling 1 1/2 hours on the subway each way to get to a cruddy, and perhaps unsafe, school in a different borough than you live. (No school buses in NYC beyond 5th grade unless the kid is special needs/special ed.) </p>
<p>I didn’t prep my kiddos for entry into any of their schools/tests, I am very opposed to the idea and don’t have a budget that would allow for prep classes, but I do understand what prompts many parents to do so. IQ tests used to be what were used to determine eligibility and possible admission to the gifted elementary programs. These were determined to be biased, so testing was switched to something else <em>that could be and has been prepped for over the past several years.</em> This, of course, has led to even more bias and division among schools, and different programs within schools.</p>
<p>I’ve known a lot of committed, caring, educated parents who began in the public school system in NY, determined to live their commitment to political ideals, and happy to see little Susie in a heterogeneous, integrated, non-elitist kindergarden classroom. By third grade, many give up because no matter how much they participate, offer support, organize fundraisers; it just isn’t working. Those that can afford it switch to private schools, those that can’t afford private, or decide it isn’t worth it–move out of the city, and those that are left behind, well, some of them are the families that you read about in the article, and others are holding their breath when their kids head out for school each day.</p>
<p>I don’t think I am anything like the parents in this article. But, I do have some sympathy for them.</p>
<p>Ask yourself this question: Is the real problem that 3rd/4th graders are studying for a standardized test that will largely determine which middle schools they might attend, or is the problem that they have to take a standardized test which could well eliminate them from attending a high quality middle school?</p>
<p>This is so eye-opening. Wow.</p>
<p>“I’ve known a lot of committed, caring, educated parents who began in the public school system in NY, determined to live their commitment to political ideals, and happy to see little Susie in a heterogeneous, integrated, non-elitist kindergarden classroom. By third grade, many give up because no matter how much they participate, offer support, organize fundraisers; it just isn’t working.”</p>
<p>While this may seem like a local phenomenon, I believe that, like many trends before, this is spreading across the country. This sentiment is certainly prevalent here. I asked an ed policy colleague recently where she thinks education is heading nationally, and the answer was “those that can will seek private, and everyone else will stay in public.” I know that’s not news in urban areas, but breaks my heart for our future. Are we to be the next Argentina or Brazil?</p>
<p>These parents should consider home schooling. The wonderful thing about home schooling is that you can tailor the education to the child. A child who needs a rigorous, demanding education can easily find materials that will challenge him, and a struggling learner can get appropriate help. The home schooling community is huge and thriving, and overall it is a great alternative to the public-private school dilemma.</p>
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<p>@DadFrog: yes.</p>
<p>The speedy rise in test scores, combined with widespread tutoring, makes me suspect some of the “tutoring” is better known as “giving the answers ahead of time.” </p>
<p>See: [Why</a> Kindergarten-Admission Tests Are Worthless – New York Magazine](<a href=“http://nymag.com/news/features/63427/]Why”>Why Kindergarten-Admission Tests Are Worthless -- New York Magazine - Nymag).</p>
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<p>A logical question would be, why are there only 400 spots?</p>
<p>Standardized tests are a reality; students should learn how to take them. And while tests fail to capture much that is important, the tests do have some educational value. Working a few extra hours on math drills and memorizing hard vocabulary are both fine ways to spend enrichment time.</p>
<p>Prepping for these tests does not have to be expensive. There are plenty of resources available for free, at the library, or under $25. </p>
<p>Which is more fair… awarding spots on a blind lottery? Or awarding spots to those who put in extra effort and study for an entrance exam?</p>
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<p>Unfortunately - that would be me. I do sympathize - although I still worry that the extreme end of this sends us mindless automaton’s that can’t think their way out of paper bag. Still - if I were in the situation that @123mama describes, I’d be pretty ruthless in doing whatever it took to get my kid out of that environment. I just wish that once the kid is “in” the parents would take a breath and relax so the kid can have some semblance of a childhood.</p>
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<p>To attempt to tutor a four year old for an IQ test is obscene. I don’t remember anything from my fourth year on this earth. I doubt any “learning” about standardized tests at that age could be retained. </p>
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<p>Bostdad2, since you ask, awarding spots on a blind lottery, if the test-takers are 4 years old. It might also be more effective. </p>
<p>Look, there’s no virtuous decision to “put in extra effort and study for an entrance exam” on the part of a four year old. It’s not virtuous on the parents’ part, either. It’s a tactical move to attempt to gain an advantage in the competition for a limited good. And when you hire people who have seen the exam, or buy materials produced by those people, you are trying to circumvent the point of an IQ test. </p>
<p>I have great sympathy for the parents who are caught in this situation. In the aggregate, however, they create and perpetuate the insanity.</p>
<p>I have the joy of fostering critical thinking skills in a required community college course. Most of these students have come through the public school systems, and have been extensively prepped for the MAP test. They start out tentative and feel very uncomfortable in my classroom, where there are no right or wrong answers. Once they get the idea that the class is about expressing their own independently created thoughts, these students come alive in the classroom.<br>
No more black and white. We adventure through the grey.</p>
<p>Yes it’s insane about the article. This situation started about 20 yrs ago when people who would ordinarily move back to the suburbs to raise families decided to stay. Part of it had been urban renewal, part a great economy of the time, part a great pr campaign by NYC to keep young families in place. Unfortunately the Board of Ed has not moved with the times and thus the competition for spaces heats up.
However I see this similar competition (not for spaces to Middle School, but for scores/grades) all across the country. In most affluent spots, people have their kids tutored in one way or another - a kid paying Kaplan, vs. spending hours learning from a book, vs spending time with a parent, is still being tutored. Competition for a spot at a college that will give people a leg up in future jobs is intense. Its more intense (go ahead throw rotten tomatoes at me) if you are a white middle class kid with fairly normal extra curricular activities, that cant give a college some sort of “star” by curing cancer, running a 2 min. mile, heading an orchestra. The only thing these kids and their families can control are grades and scores. That primarily is why they chase them so singlemindedly.
But to read the vitriol in post #3 about kids without a creative thought in their minds, being coached non-stop by their parents is even more sad. And as to parents driving them? These are 17 yr old kids. Have you stopped to think they may not own cars or their parents haven’t put them as drivers on their insurance for financial reasons, or myriad other reasons?</p>
<p>@STLMom23 - we are such kindred spirits. When I work with elementary students I talk about creative and science topics and get regurgitated answers from students overly prepped for state exams. I usually tell the teachers “You know we’re going to have to beat the creativity and higher order thinking back into them, right?”</p>
<p>I spent time in an at-risk elementary school in Oklahoma and allowed each teacher to choose the topic for their workshop. The students chose instead and developed projects before I arrived. One teacher said, “This is why I got into teaching. It’s nice not teaching to the test for a change.”</p>
<p>Also it’s ironic that my mother just informed me that my “acceptance” into a gifted, tracked program in 1st grade was the result of an IQ test administered by the district (we thought it was just a game). When my sister “failed” the test, they attempted to track her into regular classes. Knowing that “gifted” kids got advanced material, math and foreign language instruction not offered to other students, she threatened the district with action. Back then we were poor, but she was feisty and hands-on about our education in and out of the classroom. Decades later, it was discovered that the sister who “failed” the test had an IQ higher than mine by about 20 points and went on to join me at MIT (where she was clearly brighter than me 
). </p>
<p>It is a terrible thing having bureaucrats pass judgement and decide the fates of young students based on a test heavily influenced by whether the child is in a household that exposes them to a wide variety of experiences or not. It weights heavily against the poor and condemns them to mediocrity for the rest of their lives because they’re starved of the right “nutrients” to grow. We develop - in a sense - a permanent underclass by labeling them and then giving them an unequal education.</p>
<p>It’s hard to homeschool when both parents are working as is almost always the case for any family trying to navigate public schools in NYC.</p>
<p>I pay for tutoring because my kid has had math teachers who could not do fractions. Wait, let me be more direct. They suck. My kid is not going to Exeter or any of the other top schools but I have spent a ton of money on tutors and my poor kid has had to suffer thru a public school system that focuses soley on prepping for standardized testing and making sure no kid gets left behind. The half smart kids whither on the vine and the smart ones die on it.</p>
<p>When I think about all the things my kids know, the books they’ve read, their understanding of math and history, art and literature - I realize that they have learned less than 1 percent of that in their public school. Hell, the art teacher told my daughter that Picasso’s Guernica was painted about the war of 1812. This made my d wonder what other idiotic things she had been told, but didn’t know were false. And since she doesn’t have an appropriate school to go to next year, we’re trying to do everything we can to cobble something resembling high school for next year. She’s already decided to do math independently so that she will at least be able to get her SAT math between 750 and 800 since she’ll be applying to college a few years sooner than she wanted to.</p>
<p>So Weatherby, you’re not alone. We have a science teacher who didn’t know that a little three above a number meant “cubed.” And mhmm, you’re absolutely right. She’ll study like hell for the SAT just so no one can say they weren’t high enough. All this is assuming that she even has the heart to apply anywhere where her scores from when she was 12 wouldn’t do. I don’t know if she will after two years of “We like you a lot - but not that much.” Middle class white girls in the humanities - a dime a dozen. </p>
<p>So yeah, tutors - whether parents or professionals - are needed just so some kids don’t starve to death. I just don’t know how much longer I can keep it up.</p>
<p>I’d rather have admissions based on tests and interests than the so-called “holistic” admissions model that gives kids brownie points for things that they have no control over. I strongly suspect that they only take the application “in context” and “holistically” when they have to justify something lacking in it.</p>
<p>/end rant</p>
<p>Yeah, I’m a bit jaded. Maybe it’s because I’m really tired of being the tutor.</p>
<p>Gee Neato thats a toughie. I really feel for you. Its easy to make dismissive comments about tutoring when your kid is in a great school.I totally feel your frustration when your only option is a school system that is failing your child. Lucky for your daughter, she has a Dad who cares enough to go the extra mile to give her the opportunity she deserves. Kudos to you and best of luck to your daughter :)</p>
<p>Thanks MDMom; and while her Dad is pretty terrific, I’m her Mom ;)</p>
<p>The thing is, I feel guilty as hell because I don’t feel like I can give her the opportunity she deserves…not by a long shot. She deserves to be able to be in a place where she can be with other kids who are interested in stuff (that’s not on TV) and where her teachers appreciate her desire for more rather than resent it. Right now, they either ignore her completely or are openly hostile towards her for having applied out not only once, but twice. </p>
<p>I am absolutely terrified at what her college decisions are going to look like, if prep school is any indication. She has been WLed by 13 different schools (and very different schools) over the past two years. At some point, I am going to need some admissions officer out there to be honest with me and tell me what it is about her that I just don’t see so we can try to remedy it.</p>