Harvard Hopeful

perazziman
Tue, 22 Jan 2013 14:16:33 +0000

^There are always exceptions, that is why I said it is almost impossible. Yes son is a borderline example of 4 SD improvement. This is why I am so interested in this subject and have been searching for other kids like him, to see how they do. I have not found any so far. The 1 SD is what most studies suggest is possible and mentioned in the book Mismatch by Richard Sander.

Usually, the huge swings occur in cases where kids speak a foreign language and are not familiar with the test language. For example, Xiggi and Silverturtle could take the SAT in Sanskrit today and do very poorly. Then, they can rapidly learn Sanskrit and do exceptionally well. Similarly, a truly underperforming school that does not teach to potential can create kids with poor skills. In my son’s case, the schools were over 80%+ URM mostly Hispanic, 10% white and 70%+ economically disadvantaged. As you know he was there because his mom is Hispanic and we lived in a Hispanic neighborhood. Then, son moved to a regular school when he started high school. This is when the change took place. Unfortunately poor Hispanics and Blacks are not given these opportunities, in my opinion because of barriers created by socieity.