Educator: Some experimental educational programs,

Educator: Some experimental educational programs, based on the principle that children’s first education should take place at home, instruct parents in how to be their child’s “first teacher.” The school performance of the children in these programs is better than average. This shows that these programs are successful and should be expanded. Which one of the following, if true, most weakens the educator’s argument?

A: Not all small children enjoy being taught by their parents.
B: Most of the parents participating in the programs have prior experience as educators.
C: Survey show that most parents would approve expanding the programs.
D: The cost of expanding programs has not been precisely determined.
E: Some children who did not participate in the programs performed exceptionally well in School.

LSAT

Most of the parents participating in the programs have prior experience as educators. Correct Answer - B

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Merging topics. Please check the discussion above.

The add on to that point is there will always be outliers. Just as there are some who did exceptionally well, there will be some who did exceptionally poor. But we are concerned about the average.

This just adds on to why E is incorrect.

Hi VeritasKarishma GMATNinja EducationAisle, can you please help me here, I was stuck b/w B and E and ended up selecting E, but now I can see why B is a better choice.

Option B says the performance was better on average, so it could be the case that students whose parents didn't have experience as educators were still performing below average but the other group of students whose parents have experience as educator performed well, thus driving the overall results to be better than average. Hence, if we expand the program, it could fail because the success of the pilot program was because of most(majority) of parents having experience as educators.

I can now see why E is wrong/or not as good as "B" because it states ''Some'' performed exceptionally well and given there would always be outlier we can eliminate E(well this is the best reason I could think now to eliminate E), My question is had E said "performed better than average" what would have been the correct answer then?

Appreciate your time and response. Thanks in advance!

An experimental program instructs parents in how to be their child's "first teacher."
The school perfomance of the children in these programs is better than average.

Conclusion: These programs are successful and should be expanded.

The program teaches parents how to teach their child before school starts. These children perform better than avg. So the argument concludes that the program is a success. What will weaken it? What will say that expanding the program may not have the desired effect?

(A) Not all small children enjoy being taught by their parents.

Irrelevant. How children feel about it doesn't matter.

(B) Most of the parents participating in the programs have prior experience as educators.

Correct. The parents who participated were educators. So when the program is expanded and other "regular" parents are included, the expected results may not be obtained. They may not be able to bring out better than avg performance among the kids.

(C) Surveys show that most parents would approve expanding the programs.

If anything, this would help, not weaken. If parents approve, they may participate.

(D) The cost of expanding the programs has not been precisely determined.

Cost is irrelevant.

(E) Some children who did not participate in the programs performed exceptionally well in school.

The argument says that the program led to "better than avg" result among those who participated as against "average" that we would expect in any sample.
Some non participants performed exceptionally well is irrelevant. The performance of some non participants does not impact our conclusion. In fact, the performance of "some" participants doesn't impact the argument either. There will be outliers.
RohitSaluja - Even if "some had performed better than avg", it wouldn't matter. As I said, performance of "some" students wouldn't matter. We are looking at averages.

Answer (B)