Read this, just in from an article in the NY Times:
August 18, 2009
Big City
Connecting Anxious Parents and Educators, at $450 an Hour
By SUSAN DOMINUS
If you’re going to do something, do it right.
Such has been the longstanding philosophy of Suzanne Rheault, a 39-year-old mother of two who now lives with her family downtown. A Type-A — make that A-plus — overachiever, even by New York standards, she skated competitively as a kid, finished M.I.T. in three and a half years, and tested out of a chunk of her courseload at Columbia Business School. She conquered the marathon.
She logged long hours and worked on holidays for Morgan Stanley, once flying, with pneumonia and against doctor’s orders, across the country for a technology conference (she paid with a burst eardrum). After marrying and having children, she kept up a grueling schedule, typically traveling two weeks a month.
The key to her success in picking stocks, she always felt, was extensive research. Then came the personal challenge that defied all research, her own Moby Dick: getting her daughter into private school. No Excel spreadsheet would unlock the formula that would guarantee results; all her expertise in statistics and economics failed her.
She particularly struggled with preparing her child for the test that many private schools rely on, the so-called E.R.B., named for the Educational Records Bureau, which administers it. She scoured the Web site Urban Baby and found anxious parents trading conflicting advice: You must prep your child for the test! You must not prep your child for the test, because the testers will know and hold it against you! She wanted to get it right; she had no idea if she would.
“I didn’t like that some people were in the know and some were not,” Ms. Rheault said. Her daughter landed somewhere where she’s happy, but the frustration with the system stayed with Ms. Rheault. Last fall, after once again being unable to attend her daughter’s first day of school, thanks to work, and sensing that the market was about to turn, Ms. Rheault jumped ship from her employer to start her own company. It would be her mission to democratize information for New York’s most competitive elite.
Her company, Aristotle Circle, connects school, testing and admissions experts, who are paid by the hour, with parents eager for authoritative information. So far, she is marketing expertise mostly for people applying to private schools for their children, perhaps because those people are more likely to shell out up to $450 an hour to talk to someone who knows something about what Spence likes to hear in an interview.
Ms. Rheault tells the story of one of her experts, an admissions officer, who was treated to a fancy breakfast by an ex-boyfriend’s sister who was desperate for advice. The officer felt she couldn’t say no when asked; but “honestly, I’d have rather had the money,” she told Ms. Rheault.
Why should everyone pussyfoot around with expensive breakfasts and cringing favor-trading? At business school, they teach you to put a price on it. In a world that caters to some of the country’s most successful financiers, it’s amazing it took so long for someone to find a way to set the market value of that former PTA president at Dalton (not an actual example, but a potential one).
In an even more controversial move, Ms. Rheault and her business partner, Suzanne Starnes (also of M.I.T.), have worked with their experts to create — yours for $500 — an E.R.B. prep workbook, with every element of the test in it. They don’t call it intellectual enrichment, or a learning kit, or educational games; right there, on the cover of the workbook, it says it clearly: “Pre-K and Kindergarten Standardized Test Practice.” Whatever you think about “pre-K” and “test practice” appearing in a phrase together, you have to give Ms. Rheault credit: At least she’s calling it like it is.
Robin Aronow, a consultant who helps parents navigate private and public school admissions, does not encourage prepping for a few reasons: She believes that it makes the kids anxious, which could hurt their scores, or that it might test them into a school they’re not equipped to handle. And yes, she believes, based on experience, that if a child appears obviously prepped, that information will make its way to back to the schools. (Ms. Rheault’s experts say that’s not the case, and the Educational Records Bureau declined to comment.) Also, could it be cruelty to children to drill 4- and 5-year-olds? “Well, it isn’t necessary,” Ms. Aronow said.
Ms. Rheault’s father grew up in a housing project in Roxbury, Mass., and frequently reminds his daughter how “absurd” her latest project is. “I get it,” she said, but argued that if you’re going to stay in New York and not risk the public schools, you might as well get your $35,000-a-year investment right. She feels good about a partnership the business has with the “I Have a Dream” Foundation, a nonprofit group that supports higher education for children in low-income communities.
As for prepping kids for a test, maybe Ms. Rheault’s own experience informs her thoughts. She started training, seven hours a day, as a competitive ice skater when she was only 5, and look how successful she has been.
Even her eardrum has healed — almost.
Would love to hear your comments!
Sandy Eiges, M.S.W.
www.LAschoolscout.com
sandy@LAschoolscout.com
310 926 0050
