Word: testing
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Test prep and tutoring have been around awhile, along with one-on-one private college counseling, services usually purchased by the wealthy. But the advent of Achieva signals something very different. The company is the first to join all three jobs in one program, micromanaging a student's life. Achieva's pitch is simple: while others boast they'll increase a student's grade by one letter or an SAT score by 100 points, Achieva says all of last year's 1,050 clients got into college, and 85% ended up at one of their top two choices...
...Test-preparation giants Kaplan and the Princeton Review, reacting to Achieva, have launched their own plans to compete with the upstart's full-scale service. This approach, which costs $300 to $5,000, is expected to become almost as common as braces. But it's a development many in education view as hysterical and unnecessary. "Getting into college is not rocket science," says Jon Reider, an associate admissions director at Stanford. "This is crazy...
...East Side Union school district contracted with Achieva for college counseling, it marked perhaps the first time a business had been hired in public schools to handle an academic area. And this year Fred deFuniak, principal of Silver Creek High School, is thinking of hiring Achieva not only for test prep but also to teach reading and writing skills. "This may be controversial, but you have to be innovative to get results," he says. "Parents and legislators are demanding accountability...
...student-to-counselor ratio to 650 to 1. Moreover, the person hired would be saddled not only with giving college advice but also with staying on top of disciplinary and psychological problems. For the same amount of money, DeFuniak is planning to employ three Achieva counselors to do only test prep, a service he expects to translate into a 50-point jump in SAT scores. He says such gains are more likely to help his kids--87% of whom are minorities, many from disadvantaged families--make college an option...
Nicholas Lemann, author of The Big Test, a look at the SAT and educational meritocracy, says Achieva's success is the result of crazed but confused parents. Only nine universities take less than a quarter of applicants. In fact, 1,900 of the 2,100 four- year colleges accept at least half those who apply. Thus it is the families, more than most schools, that can afford to be selective. But then there is the perception that unless a kid goes to Harvard, his life is over. "The parents get obsessed, which makes the kids obsessed," says Lemann. "It turns...