No, you'll not have to raid your retirement accounts to pay for your children's education. IRA's which allow you to put aside tax deferred money to fund educational expenses. The standardized tests your child is taking now are, to some degree, content driven. That is, they measure what he knows about a particular subject. By contrast, the SAT is an exam that rewards critical thinking skills and efficiency of information processing.
Content is secondary.
But at many Ivy League schools, for example, undergraduates never see professors, or classes of fewer than 50. Ahhh, the question of the ages. An Accord may drive as well as a Mercedes, but you may still want that Mercedes. The elite schools have largely earned their reputations and they are great places to go and learn, but there are hundreds of other outstanding schools that may in fact better meet a particular students needs and desires. Seek them out.