V07-37

Question

During the last several years, students at Jasper County’s public high schools have been performing worse at the standardized college-entrance exams than their peers at Nesbit County’s public high Schools, a result caused by adoption of the modern education system at Nesbit County's schools. In recent years, more and more Jasper County residents have been enrolling their children in private high schools, where the teacher-to-student ratio is traditionally higher than that in public schools, and enrollment in Jasper County’s public high schools has dwindled as a result. 
 
For the residents of Jasper County whose children go to the county’s public schools, which of the following options would most likely ensure an improved performance of their children in standardized college-entrance exams, only on the basis of the information given in the passage?

A. Keep their children enrolled in Jasper County’s public schools.
B. Stay in Jasper County and enroll their child in a private school. 
C. Provide home schooling for their child rather than enrolling the child in either a public or private school. 
D. Move away from Jasper County and enroll their child in a private school. 
E. Move to Nesbit County and enroll their child in that county’s public schools.

Bunuel · Answer

Official Solution:

During the last several years, students at Jasper County’s public high schools have been performing worse at the standardized college-entrance exams than their peers at Nesbit County’s public high Schools, a result caused by adoption of the modern education system at Nesbit County's schools. In recent years, more and more Jasper County residents have been enrolling their children in private high schools, where the teacher-to-student ratio is traditionally higher than that in public schools, and enrollment in Jasper County’s public high schools has dwindled as a result. 
 
For the residents of Jasper County whose children go to the county’s public schools, which of the following options would most likely ensure an improved performance of their children in standardized college-entrance exams, only on the basis of the information given in the passage?

A. Keep their children enrolled in Jasper County’s public schools.
B. Stay in Jasper County and enroll their child in a private school. 
C. Provide home schooling for their child rather than enrolling the child in either a public or private school. 
D. Move away from Jasper County and enroll their child in a private school. 
E. Move to Nesbit County and enroll their child in that county’s public schools.

It is stated in the passage that the better performance of students in Nesbit's public school than those in Jasper’s is attributed to the “adoption of the modern education system at Nesbit County's schools”. The argument for enrolling a child in a private school rather than a public school is weak because it depends on the additional, unsubstantiated assumption that a high teacher-to-student ratio results in a better performance in standardized college-entrance exams - the right option must be selected “ only  on the basis of the information given in the passage”.
 
A. Not changing the current school is not likely to improve the performance. One may argue that since the number of students in Jasper’s public schools has been decreasing, it is likely that the teacher-to-student ratio has been rising. However in the passage, the better performance is attributed to adoption of the modern education system, not to the high teacher-to-.student ratio.
 
B. In the passage, better performance is attributed to the adoption of the modern education system, not to the high teacher-to-.student ratio (in private schools).
 
C. In the passage nothing has been mentioned about homeschooling. It has not been stated whether homeschooling causes a better performance at the standardized college-entrance exams.
 
D. In the passage, better performance is attributed to the adoption of the modern education system, not to the high teacher-to-.student ratio (in private schools).
 
 E. CORRECT The passage conclusively states that students of Nesbit’s public schools perform better than those of Jasper County’s because of adoption of the modern education system. Therefore enrolling the children in Nesbit county’s public school instead of Jasper county’s entails likelihood of improved performance of these children.

Answer: E

Bunuel · Answer

The question or/and solution has been revised and edited. Thank you  sayantanc2k  !!!

MyNameisFritz · Answer

Another reason to eliminate B is that we do not know how well or not so well private school kids perform on the standardized tests. All we know is that there is a lower teacher-to-children ration in the classrooms. But it does not say anything whether it improves the scores or not.

yashhw · Answer

I want to explore a hypothetical answer choice that isn't listed:
→ Move to Nesbit County and enroll the child in a private school there.

My reasoning is that this option would combine two positive signals from the passage:
1. Private schools have a higher teacher-to-student ratio (mentioned as the reason Jasper residents prefer them)
2. Nesbit County as a whole seems to have adopted the modern education system (the passage says Nesbit's schools outperform due to this adoption, but doesn't explicitly restrict this to public schools alone)

So the hypothetical option layers both advantages - Nesbit's modern education system AND the higher teacher-to-student ratio of private schools.
Would this hypothetical answer choice be stronger or weaker than E, and why?

Specifically, are we justified in inferring that Nesbit's modern education adoption extends to its private schools, or does the passage restrict that claim strictly to public schools? If the latter, does the higher teacher-to-student ratio alone make this option better or worse than E?

AbhishekP220108 · Answer

yashhw  thats quite a thought lets look how we can identify.

Responding to your 1st query about Hypothetical choice that " Move to Nesbit County and enroll the child in a private school there" as stronger or weaker in comparison to E.

For this we have to look at the question stem "  For the residents of Jasper County whose children go to the county’s public schools, which of the following options would most likely ensure an improved performance of their children in standardized college-entrance exams, only on the basis of the information given in the passage" it specifically mentioned " whose children go to the county’s public schools " So the hypothetical version is neither strengthening nor weaken because it fails to capture county public specificity.

Now to your second query " are we justified in inferring that Nesbit's modern education adoption extends to its private schools, or does the passage restrict that claim strictly to public schools? If the latter, does the higher teacher-to-student ratio alone make this option better or worse than E?"

Now it is not JUSTIFIED, we can't infer that info, we only told about modern education adoption in Nesbit county Public High school, enrollment in private is happening may be because of the frustration from Jasper county or better resources in comparison, or maybe modern education in private schools is adopted before Nasbit but the actual reason is not known, and all these reasons can be a possibility. Inference is something which is 100% justifiable from argument. Also, the question is about county public school, how the teacher student ratio is playing the part in improving the scores we dont know.

Hope this helps

INeel · Answer

I like the solution - it’s helpful.

GaganB · Answer

The question states " which of the following options would most likely ensure  an improved performance of their children in standardized college-entrance exams,  only on the basis of the information given in the passage".

As per the argument, the reference of improved performance of children in standardized college-entrance exams is mentioned only while talking about comparison with  Nesbit County’s public high Schools.

The part two of the argument   '   In recent years, more and more Jasper County residents have been enrolling their children in private high schools, where the teacher-to-student ratio is traditionally higher than that in public schools, and enrollment in Jasper County’s public high schools has dwindled as a result'    there is no reference mentioned of standardized college-entrance exams, and if we think somehow that private schools because of high teacher-to-student ratio would result in improved performance for college-entrance exam - that will be our assumption and that is something the question explicitly asks us not to use; and answer only on the basis of the information given in the passage.

Hence, we can eliminate all other options and pick E - which states -   Move to Nesbit County and enroll their child in that county’s public schools.

That was my thought process while answering this question. Hope that helps.

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