...we were part of that group who went through the difficult experience a year or so back when it turned out the talent search agencies were administering questionnaires to our kids about motivation, self perceptions regarding ability, etc. before the Explore w/out telling the parents. I was not totally happy with the way that went even though the practice was discontinued after it came to public light.
Cricket2, I had not heard of this issue and don't quite understand what the problem was--were they trying to do some kind of psychological study without the parents' permission? Or trying to screen kids for how well they thought they would do in school or some other program? We're new to this stuff and it's good to know what to look out for.
The thread would be so old that I can't find it, but there was a huge long thread and discussion about this a year or so back when it came to light. Apparently for years the major talent search agencies were essentially conducting studies of our kids during the Explore without our permission or knowledge. The kids were given questionnaires before the test with questions like, "are boys or girls better at math?" and, "do you think that you are better at math or reading?"
The survey ran along the lines of Carol Dweck's work that kids who believed that they did well b/c they were just naturally able were more likely to give up when tasks were hard vs. kids who believed that hard work mattered in success. Part of the concern, aside from the lack of permission to administer the questionnaires, was implanting an idea in kids' minds right before they take a hard test.
One of the parents here found out about it from her child, asked the local talent search, and posted here about it. That turned into a lot of us contacting our local talent searches and they were all in on this together. My local TS director admitted that she had always felt bad about not informing parents, that it didn't feel right, but none the less she didn't inform or ask our permission even if it didn't feel right and kept allowing it to happen year after year.
All of the TS agencies insisted that the data was not being used for anything b/c no informed consent had been gathered, but it apparently had been going on for many years none the less. When all of the complaints started coming in and some of us also contacted the agency that administers the Explore, they all agreed to discontinue it.
My kids never participated in talent search again after that, though.
