Originally Posted by HowlerKarma
Interestingly-- the elite school that DD is in the process of applying to, they also want to know about parental educational attainment and employment.

That makes a great deal of sense to me as a harbinger of a student's likely potential for success at such an institution-- it's a proxy for the values that a student has re: education, for the student's likely native ability, etc.
But HK, elite schools ask for parental background so that they can adjust the academic achievement of "privileged" students *downward* to reflect they advantages they have had, whereas your logic would argue for an upward adjustment.