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High schools are changing too. Baby boomer parents have started movements against homework, stringent graduation requirements, class rankings; it's as though they believe their children should never have to suffer the indignity of being evaluated. Pity those kids when they get their first job. Last month Laila Kouri, 16, reflected on the SAT as she sat through an expensive coaching class in ritzy Westport, Conn. "I know people who blow off classes, are failing school and walk into the SAT and get a 1200 the first time," she sighed. "How can this be a fair test?" Well, as Kouri has learned, no one ever said life's tests were fair.
--Reported by Matt Baron/Chicago, Leslie Everton Brice/Atlanta, Daren Fonda, Andrew Goldstein, Jodie Morse, Desa Philadelphia and Rebecca Winters/New York, Marc Hequet/St. Paul, Kathie Klarreich/Miami, and Jeff Ressner/Los Angeles