School Choice and Competence Density: A Case Study
Families optimizing for rigor and peer competence, not branding
Observations
- Preference for sequencing and objective evaluation
- Skepticism toward prestige without depth
- Focus on outcomes over branding
- Optimization for competence density
Challenges
- Signaling often replaces substance
- Prestige can obscure real rigor
- Objective evaluation is difficult
- Competence density hard to measure
Discussion questions
- How can competence density be measured?
- What signals real rigor?
- How do families navigate prestige vs. substance?
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