[Treebound]

'Where there is smoke, there is fire."
I firmly believe that some of this exists at Stanford and other elite institutions.  These classrooms are competitive and a certain percentage of students will seek out a path to be granted extra time on tests or other accommodations.  My kids have talked about the pervasiveness of this approach at Stanford, even amongst their friends and classmates.

What's even more concerning is that this has happened in large numbers at the high school and middle school levels, guided by parents who buy into the arms race to give their kids advantages in test taking and grades - ultimately hoping that it will help them get into "a great school."   Who wouldn't want an extra X hours on the SAT, ACT or AP test?   

I don't know what the answer is here, but in the era of Varsity Blues, many people will go to great lengths to get any kind of advantage.   The current system rewards it.

[Treebound]

'Where there is smoke, there is fire."
I firmly believe that some of this exists at Stanford and other elite institutions.  These classrooms are competitive and a certain percentage of students will seek out a path to be granted extra time on tests or other accommodations.  My kids have talked about the pervasiveness of this approach at Stanford, even amongst their friends and classmates.

What's even more concerning is that this has happened in large numbers at the high school and middle school levels, guided by parents who buy into the arms race to give their kids advantages in test taking and grades - ultimately hoping that it will help them get into "a great school."   Who wouldn't want an extra X hours on the SAT, ACT or AP test?   

I don't know what the answer is here, but in the era of Varsity Blues, many people will go to great lengths to get any kind of advantage.   The current system rewards it.