Eh, six in one, half dozen in the other….it’s all circular. Bottom line for me, the API scores ain’t perfect, but they do reflect the prevelant values of the student body (and the families they come from) as a whole. The scores are what they are, and the underlying root causes for them don’t really concern me. Nature versus nurture, whatever. I want my kid to have every advantage possible, and that includes going to schools that have lots of kids oriented toward academics and who are doing well, for whatever reason. I’ll leave the “why” to social scientists to mull over between now and the next ice age.
