Adding online lockers is a nice attempt, but doesn't solve the problem.
The whole point of standardized testing is to level the playing field, so folks are admitted by demonstrated ability and not what prep school they went to or what neighborhood they grew up in.
If a student can get into the top 5% of their class by GPA, and if the university believes that school is capable of providing the standards required to judge which students make up the top 5%, how does that not help choose the most elite students from each school while giving the school the flexibility to determine how and what they can teach, as long as it meets the university's standards?
If a school doesn't have the resources to teach the students effectively, why do we even send our kids to that school? Saying "because we have to" is a cop out. The school needs to be fixed or realized for what it is- a school that is ineffective at teaching at an elite level.
I said the school had to meet the standards of the university. If the school is extremely difficult and the top 5% of the class doesn't have the same GPA as someone from another school that is less stringent but still meets the standards of the university, then students from the top 5% GPA of both schools would be able to apply.
And what is wrong about providing incentive for the best students to get into schools that are not performing quite as well but are still certified by the university as being adequate? It is much better for top performing students to spread out and raise the bar.
It is far from a race to the bottom. It's about bringing up the bottom.
The only way this works is through public education, where the K-12 system is tightly coupled with an elite public university system, and public policy can drive both into a tight partnership. There's a system somewhat like this in California called TAG; any student who signs up and makes grades in community college can usually get guaranteed entry into a UC. It only works because the California community colleges are required to teach all "transfer courses" at the UC level in terms of content, etc. It might be possible to extend this kind of guaranteed enrollment down to K-12.
Just as an illustration, consider one of the "goals" of Admissions Officers at one of the Ivies. This particular Ivy, some time ago, set itself a goal of admitting one male, and one female, from every state in the union. Simply selecting the top candidates via "demonstrated ability" will not allow them to meet this goal. It would be difficult to find elite students in Arkansas, Alabama and Montana who would compare favorably to elite students from Massachusetts, New Jersey or Minnesota. So it's plain that this goal had to be satisfied via other means. Programs like those the article talks about are a part of achieving these lesser known admissions goals.
I'm suggesting that you have to be within the top 5% class GPA to get in. So, some students may actually have a lower GPA, but still have a chance to get in, because they were in the top 5% of their class.
I'm also saying that students don't have to have the resources to take SAT prep courses, because they would only have to do well at their own schools.
If the public or private school was not accredited for possible acceptance into an Ivy League school, parents should know that and be able to do something about it, and so should the state or county.
But more importantly, poorly performing schools need to be identified and fixed. If they can't be, then it needs to be obvious that they are not able to prepare students for elite education.
It is not right for only those from wealthy families to be the only ones that can be adequately prepared, because they can go to prep schools and train for and retake standardized tests.
I think most districts in the U.S. have similar processes to attend an alternate school, but barriers remain high in low-income areas, ranging from stigma to logistics (e.g., transportation to a more distant school). Even when structures are in place, the ability to attend a different school is a stretch for some.