Our situation is much like cricket's by the way-- while it's a quiet/low profile place on the national scale, the competition/toxicity and ethnic mix here is very reminiscent of places like PAUSD and that in the article.
Fixing the problem isn't a school-side thing-- it can't be, because that isn't what drives some of it, and even if administrators could fix it, it'd be deep into custodial interference, because parents are the ones clamoring for a lot of the pressure, ironically.
Our SD has nearly 30% of students ID'ed as GT, and ironically, because of that, resources that would actually be needed/helpful for PG kiddos are in such high demand from overly-pushy parents of kids who don't really belong in them... that the 1% of kids in this town who are truly EG+ get left out in the cold unless they have pushy parents too.
You definitely learn who your friends are, that's for sure, when you live in an area like this and your kid is one that effortlessly makes the others look not so extraordinary by comparison. School administrators and teachers know dross from gold there-- but they've learned not to say so to parents who want their kids to have all of the "right" credentials.
IMMV, of course. But DD began making her own observations (mostly horror and concern) by the time she was 11 or 12, and seeing her very bright-to-moderately-gifted peers struggling under the load.
It was also made clear that local HS administrators hold a fairly high level of disdain-- poorly masked, too-- for "average" students. Hearing my DD's PSAT scores changed the landscape significantly re: seating her for the SAT with accommodations. I found that disgusting.
