What's up with Piney Branch?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Cold Spring CES is also diverse. We have lots of Asians and even a black kid in one class.

Is this a bad joke or just really out of touch?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For the OP's original question - yes she has a VERY valid concern that her child will get left behind. AA and Latino kids do worse at PBES than other schools. White kids don't always do well either and there is more than one white kid that gets "left out" of the huge CES classes that are not diverse. Its not wise to just the school based on a few anonymous PBES boosters with all evidence pointing in the opposite direction.

The best thing to do is to look at why whites and asian american kids do better and mimic those behaviors when possible. Its not inherent IQ and you don't need to be wealthy.

Many asian americans do not trust the school system to educate their child. They remember how much more rigorous and competitive their own K-12 education was in their home country and do not trust that the lower American standards will yield success for their children. They all know that racial discrimination against asians is rampant in higher education and the workplace. They teach their kids that they need to be twice as smart and twice as good to succeed. They will supplement with a rigorous at home education to fill the gaps. So forget pretending that making cupcakes is really the science of baking and get an account on IXL, sign up for Mathnasium or Kumon. These three programs all include assessments and you can make sure that your child is always 1-2 years of MCPS grade level and more importantly develops skills that MCPS fails to teach. Don't let your kid just read a humor based book for twenty minutes every night. Choose books from magnet or private school reading lists, have your child read more frequently and write a short essay answering one of the guided reading assessment questions that you can find on-line. Its a fallacy that Indian, Chinese, Russian, Korean etc etc families are spending hundreds or more on supplementing or drawing on their graduate degrees to do this. White parents who let their kids watch the Disney channel all the time and are too lazy to supplement tell themselves this.

Many white families ensure their kids success at a school like PBES in a very different way. They get ahead by being aggressive advocates. They never miss an opportunity to point out how their child is not challenged. They put themselves into positions of power within the school. They establish early on that if their kid isn't in the highest reading group that they will complain up the chain as far as they can go. The school knows by the time CES admissions comes up which parents will be a royal pain in the butt if their child isn't admitted. Those kids get admitted and are a BIG part of the reason why there are two rather than one CES class at PBES. Be ready to be that parent. Make sure at every parent teacher conference to stress how bored and unchallenged your child is in school. Join the PTA and support the principal but be ready to ppunce once things don't go well for your child.

PBES is battle for resources and to not left your child fall through the cracks. You have to supplement or you have to be a squeaky wheel.

Whle I don't doubt that this can happen, I think this post implies that it is the norm. My experience at the same school is far from it. I am not a squeaky wheel about academics, I am not involved beyond helping with occasional class parties (literally have never been to a PTA meeting), and though I think my child has been bored I haven't made that known. Our child is certainly capable and we felt they should be in CES, but s/he has not been a lock by any means. Of the five or so other families I know in a neighborly, chat-at-the-park way in CES, none of them are visibly involved or have been vocal (to me) about complaining or making an issue (and this is the stuff we talk about at the park). They are all laid back and pretty easy going people. I can assure you none of us do Kumon.

Is it that impossible to believe that the decisions really are made blindly and that even still, that leaves a critical mass of kids behind that should have benefited from the program, and that would happen at any cut-off class size, and that just universally sucks?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is in 4th grade at PBES - bright but didn't make it into CES. Here's what he said to me this morning: "Mom, I'm frustrated - there are so many kids in my class that don't take school seriously and they are getting all of us in trouble. It's like all the good kids are in CES now." Just about broke my heart. I'm all about expanding opportunities but I'm personally worried about kids like my son falling through the cracks at PBES - even more of a concern now that so many of the "strongest students" are removed from the general population.

Teach your child that words matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is in 4th grade at PBES - bright but didn't make it into CES. Here's what he said to me this morning: "Mom, I'm frustrated - there are so many kids in my class that don't take school seriously and they are getting all of us in trouble. It's like all the good kids are in CES now." Just about broke my heart. I'm all about expanding opportunities but I'm personally worried about kids like my son falling through the cracks at PBES - even more of a concern now that so many of the "strongest students" are removed from the general population.

Teach your child that words matter.

I’m not sure what you mean by this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is in 4th grade at PBES - bright but didn't make it into CES. Here's what he said to me this morning: "Mom, I'm frustrated - there are so many kids in my class that don't take school seriously and they are getting all of us in trouble. It's like all the good kids are in CES now." Just about broke my heart. I'm all about expanding opportunities but I'm personally worried about kids like my son falling through the cracks at PBES - even more of a concern now that so many of the "strongest students" are removed from the general population.

Teach your child that words matter.

Teach your kids that missing the cut has consequences, just like living in an area with a large amount of poor people and under achievers. Good schools and poor schools don’take huge differences for brilliant hard workers, they make the difference for average kids and bellow average kids by raising the floor on how far they can fall. What most parents fail to grasp is most kids are average or worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is in 4th grade at PBES - bright but didn't make it into CES. Here's what he said to me this morning: "Mom, I'm frustrated - there are so many kids in my class that don't take school seriously and they are getting all of us in trouble. It's like all the good kids are in CES now." Just about broke my heart. I'm all about expanding opportunities but I'm personally worried about kids like my son falling through the cracks at PBES - even more of a concern now that so many of the "strongest students" are removed from the general population.

Teach your child that words matter.

I’m not sure what you mean by this.

I think this a great opportunity to teach compassion and kindness to your son. Empathize with him, and say that you know it’s hard to be in a class full of kids who horse around, but that every classmate of ours deserves our kindness. The “bad” kids perhaps even more so- many of them are going through things at home that are extremely difficult, which can cause them to act out. Encourage your son not to look at it through the lens of “good kids” and “bad kids”, as that can have some pretty ugly consequences.

Source: I’ve been there, done that. I was a disruptive kid when I was younger who didn’t take school seriously. I got in trouble a lot. Your son probably would have called me a “bad kid.” The truth was, my dad had died and my mom had remarried a man who was sexually abusing my sibling and me. I was acting out as a cry for help.There were lots of kids and teachers who wanted nothing to do with me, but a select few teachers and classmates showed me kindness and compassion in a way that I will never, ever forget. If they too would have just written me off as a “bad kid”, I probably wouldn’t be the functional adult that I am today. Encourage your son to do the same- and if he can’t outwardly do it, at least try to reframe his mindset.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the OP's original question - yes she has a VERY valid concern that her child will get left behind. AA and Latino kids do worse at PBES than other schools. White kids don't always do well either and there is more than one white kid that gets "left out" of the huge CES classes that are not diverse. Its not wise to just the school based on a few anonymous PBES boosters with all evidence pointing in the opposite direction.

The best thing to do is to look at why whites and asian american kids do better and mimic those behaviors when possible. Its not inherent IQ and you don't need to be wealthy.

Many asian americans do not trust the school system to educate their child. They remember how much more rigorous and competitive their own K-12 education was in their home country and do not trust that the lower American standards will yield success for their children. They all know that racial discrimination against asians is rampant in higher education and the workplace. They teach their kids that they need to be twice as smart and twice as good to succeed. They will supplement with a rigorous at home education to fill the gaps. So forget pretending that making cupcakes is really the science of baking and get an account on IXL, sign up for Mathnasium or Kumon. These three programs all include assessments and you can make sure that your child is always 1-2 years of MCPS grade level and more importantly develops skills that MCPS fails to teach. Don't let your kid just read a humor based book for twenty minutes every night. Choose books from magnet or private school reading lists, have your child read more frequently and write a short essay answering one of the guided reading assessment questions that you can find on-line. Its a fallacy that Indian, Chinese, Russian, Korean etc etc families are spending hundreds or more on supplementing or drawing on their graduate degrees to do this. White parents who let their kids watch the Disney channel all the time and are too lazy to supplement tell themselves this.

Many white families ensure their kids success at a school like PBES in a very different way. They get ahead by being aggressive advocates. They never miss an opportunity to point out how their child is not challenged. They put themselves into positions of power within the school. They establish early on that if their kid isn't in the highest reading group that they will complain up the chain as far as they can go. The school knows by the time CES admissions comes up which parents will be a royal pain in the butt if their child isn't admitted. Those kids get admitted and are a BIG part of the reason why there are two rather than one CES class at PBES. Be ready to be that parent. Make sure at every parent teacher conference to stress how bored and unchallenged your child is in school. Join the PTA and support the principal but be ready to ppunce once things don't go well for your child.

PBES is battle for resources and to not left your child fall through the cracks. You have to supplement or you have to be a squeaky wheel.

I don't think this is true. I know some squeaky wheel parents with very bright kids who for some reason did not get into CES. I know the parents advocated (because they were passionate about their kids). It did not make a difference. It used to be that a central office decided on HGC admissions (when it was called that), so it may not be up to individual schools anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the OP's original question - yes she has a VERY valid concern that her child will get left behind. AA and Latino kids do worse at PBES than other schools. White kids don't always do well either and there is more than one white kid that gets "left out" of the huge CES classes that are not diverse. Its not wise to just the school based on a few anonymous PBES boosters with all evidence pointing in the opposite direction.

The best thing to do is to look at why whites and asian american kids do better and mimic those behaviors when possible. Its not inherent IQ and you don't need to be wealthy.

Many asian americans do not trust the school system to educate their child. They remember how much more rigorous and competitive their own K-12 education was in their home country and do not trust that the lower American standards will yield success for their children. They all know that racial discrimination against asians is rampant in higher education and the workplace. They teach their kids that they need to be twice as smart and twice as good to succeed. They will supplement with a rigorous at home education to fill the gaps. So forget pretending that making cupcakes is really the science of baking and get an account on IXL, sign up for Mathnasium or Kumon. These three programs all include assessments and you can make sure that your child is always 1-2 years of MCPS grade level and more importantly develops skills that MCPS fails to teach. Don't let your kid just read a humor based book for twenty minutes every night. Choose books from magnet or private school reading lists, have your child read more frequently and write a short essay answering one of the guided reading assessment questions that you can find on-line. Its a fallacy that Indian, Chinese, Russian, Korean etc etc families are spending hundreds or more on supplementing or drawing on their graduate degrees to do this. White parents who let their kids watch the Disney channel all the time and are too lazy to supplement tell themselves this.

Many white families ensure their kids success at a school like PBES in a very different way. They get ahead by being aggressive advocates. They never miss an opportunity to point out how their child is not challenged. They put themselves into positions of power within the school. They establish early on that if their kid isn't in the highest reading group that they will complain up the chain as far as they can go. The school knows by the time CES admissions comes up which parents will be a royal pain in the butt if their child isn't admitted. Those kids get admitted and are a BIG part of the reason why there are two rather than one CES class at PBES. Be ready to be that parent. Make sure at every parent teacher conference to stress how bored and unchallenged your child is in school. Join the PTA and support the principal but be ready to ppunce once things don't go well for your child.

PBES is battle for resources and to not left your child fall through the cracks. You have to supplement or you have to be a squeaky wheel.

I don't think this is true. I know some squeaky wheel parents with very bright kids who for some reason did not get into CES. I know the parents advocated (because they were passionate about their kids). It did not make a difference. It used to be that a central office decided on HGC admissions (when it was called that), so it may not be up to individual schools anyway.

Or make more money and just move west and surround your kids with others just like them so the teachers don’t have to spend much time trying get a few caught up to something they will never reach

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the OP's original question - yes she has a VERY valid concern that her child will get left behind. AA and Latino kids do worse at PBES than other schools. White kids don't always do well either and there is more than one white kid that gets "left out" of the huge CES classes that are not diverse. Its not wise to just the school based on a few anonymous PBES boosters with all evidence pointing in the opposite direction.

The best thing to do is to look at why whites and asian american kids do better and mimic those behaviors when possible. Its not inherent IQ and you don't need to be wealthy.

Many asian americans do not trust the school system to educate their child. They remember how much more rigorous and competitive their own K-12 education was in their home country and do not trust that the lower American standards will yield success for their children. They all know that racial discrimination against asians is rampant in higher education and the workplace. They teach their kids that they need to be twice as smart and twice as good to succeed. They will supplement with a rigorous at home education to fill the gaps. So forget pretending that making cupcakes is really the science of baking and get an account on IXL, sign up for Mathnasium or Kumon. These three programs all include assessments and you can make sure that your child is always 1-2 years of MCPS grade level and more importantly develops skills that MCPS fails to teach. Don't let your kid just read a humor based book for twenty minutes every night. Choose books from magnet or private school reading lists, have your child read more frequently and write a short essay answering one of the guided reading assessment questions that you can find on-line. Its a fallacy that Indian, Chinese, Russian, Korean etc etc families are spending hundreds or more on supplementing or drawing on their graduate degrees to do this. White parents who let their kids watch the Disney channel all the time and are too lazy to supplement tell themselves this.

Many white families ensure their kids success at a school like PBES in a very different way. They get ahead by being aggressive advocates. They never miss an opportunity to point out how their child is not challenged. They put themselves into positions of power within the school. They establish early on that if their kid isn't in the highest reading group that they will complain up the chain as far as they can go. The school knows by the time CES admissions comes up which parents will be a royal pain in the butt if their child isn't admitted. Those kids get admitted and are a BIG part of the reason why there are two rather than one CES class at PBES. Be ready to be that parent. Make sure at every parent teacher conference to stress how bored and unchallenged your child is in school. Join the PTA and support the principal but be ready to ppunce once things don't go well for your child.

PBES is battle for resources and to not left your child fall through the cracks. You have to supplement or you have to be a squeaky wheel.

I don't think this is true. I know some squeaky wheel parents with very bright kids who for some reason did not get into CES. I know the parents advocated (because they were passionate about their kids). It did not make a difference. It used to be that a central office decided on HGC admissions (when it was called that), so it may not be up to individual schools anyway.

Or make more money and just move west and surround your kids with others just like them so the teachers don’t have to spend much time trying get a few caught up to something they will never reach

And yet they will still complain that their kids didn't get into one of the magnets!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the OP's original question - yes she has a VERY valid concern that her child will get left behind. AA and Latino kids do worse at PBES than other schools. White kids don't always do well either and there is more than one white kid that gets "left out" of the huge CES classes that are not diverse. Its not wise to just the school based on a few anonymous PBES boosters with all evidence pointing in the opposite direction.

The best thing to do is to look at why whites and asian american kids do better and mimic those behaviors when possible. Its not inherent IQ and you don't need to be wealthy.

Many asian americans do not trust the school system to educate their child. They remember how much more rigorous and competitive their own K-12 education was in their home country and do not trust that the lower American standards will yield success for their children. They all know that racial discrimination against asians is rampant in higher education and the workplace. They teach their kids that they need to be twice as smart and twice as good to succeed. They will supplement with a rigorous at home education to fill the gaps. So forget pretending that making cupcakes is really the science of baking and get an account on IXL, sign up for Mathnasium or Kumon. These three programs all include assessments and you can make sure that your child is always 1-2 years of MCPS grade level and more importantly develops skills that MCPS fails to teach. Don't let your kid just read a humor based book for twenty minutes every night. Choose books from magnet or private school reading lists, have your child read more frequently and write a short essay answering one of the guided reading assessment questions that you can find on-line. Its a fallacy that Indian, Chinese, Russian, Korean etc etc families are spending hundreds or more on supplementing or drawing on their graduate degrees to do this. White parents who let their kids watch the Disney channel all the time and are too lazy to supplement tell themselves this.

Many white families ensure their kids success at a school like PBES in a very different way. They get ahead by being aggressive advocates. They never miss an opportunity to point out how their child is not challenged. They put themselves into positions of power within the school. They establish early on that if their kid isn't in the highest reading group that they will complain up the chain as far as they can go. The school knows by the time CES admissions comes up which parents will be a royal pain in the butt if their child isn't admitted. Those kids get admitted and are a BIG part of the reason why there are two rather than one CES class at PBES. Be ready to be that parent. Make sure at every parent teacher conference to stress how bored and unchallenged your child is in school. Join the PTA and support the principal but be ready to ppunce once things don't go well for your child.

PBES is battle for resources and to not left your child fall through the cracks. You have to supplement or you have to be a squeaky wheel.

I don't think this is true. I know some squeaky wheel parents with very bright kids who for some reason did not get into CES. I know the parents advocated (because they were passionate about their kids). It did not make a difference. It used to be that a central office decided on HGC admissions (when it was called that), so it may not be up to individual schools anyway.

Or make more money and just move west and surround your kids with others just like them so the teachers don’t have to spend much time trying get a few caught up to something they will never reach

Only because they are used to getting what they want. Once the program gets watered down there be an exodus and I doubt many will care so much in a decade


And yet they will still complain that their kids didn't get into one of the magnets!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is in 4th grade at PBES - bright but didn't make it into CES. Here's what he said to me this morning: "Mom, I'm frustrated - there are so many kids in my class that don't take school seriously and they are getting all of us in trouble. It's like all the good kids are in CES now." Just about broke my heart. I'm all about expanding opportunities but I'm personally worried about kids like my son falling through the cracks at PBES - even more of a concern now that so many of the "strongest students" are removed from the general population.

Teach your child that words matter.

I’m not sure what you mean by this.

I think this a great opportunity to teach compassion and kindness to your son. Empathize with him, and say that you know it’s hard to be in a class full of kids who horse around, but that every classmate of ours deserves our kindness. The “bad” kids perhaps even more so- many of them are going through things at home that are extremely difficult, which can cause them to act out. Encourage your son not to look at it through the lens of “good kids” and “bad kids”, as that can have some pretty ugly consequences.

Source: I’ve been there, done that. I was a disruptive kid when I was younger who didn’t take school seriously. I got in trouble a lot. Your son probably would have called me a “bad kid.” The truth was, my dad had died and my mom had remarried a man who was sexually abusing my sibling and me. I was acting out as a cry for help.There were lots of kids and teachers who wanted nothing to do with me, but a select few teachers and classmates showed me kindness and compassion in a way that I will never, ever forget. If they too would have just written me off as a “bad kid”, I probably wouldn’t be the functional adult that I am today. Encourage your son to do the same- and if he can’t outwardly do it, at least try to reframe his mindset.

This is a great point. Thanks for sharing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is Piney Branch: https://ibb.co/hhJts9

This is Rolling Terrace: https://ibb.co/dPrwC9

This is East Silver Spring: https://ibb.co/bvhskU

This is Flora Singer: https://ibb.co/eYXxKp

I asked for actual links multiple times which the PP was unable to produce, and now posting photoshopped images on some random website doesn't cut it either. I'll stick with the Great Schools data thank you very much.

Luckily for us, Great Schools has been updated and it verifies the scores shared by previous posters from the Maryland Report Card. It also demonstrates that OP was right to have some concerns about how kids of color and low-income kids perform at PBES.

With the caveat that GS lumps the various grades together, here's what we learned from the updated Great Schools:

Piney Branch (percent proficient across all grades)

Black: ELA - 22%, Math - 26%,

Hispanic: ELA - 22%, Math 20%

FARMS: ELA - 13%, Math - 16%


East Silver Spring (percent proficient across all grades)

Black: ELA - 34%, Math - 36%,

Hispanic: ELA - 20%, Math 25%

FARMS: ELA - 28%, Math - 33%


Rolling Terrace (percent proficient across all grades)

Black: ELA - 19%, Math - 33%,

Hispanic: ELA - 9%, Math 25%

FARMS: ELA - 7%, Math - 21%


Flora Singer (percent proficient across all grades)

Black: ELA - 25%, Math - 27%,

Hispanic: ELA - 15%, Math 22%

FARMS: ELA - 16%, Math - 21%


The takeaway for me, as someone who has send kids through two of the above schools, is that middle class white kids do well anywhere but some of these schools are doing a better job than others with kids who, at the population level, experience systematic disadvantages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

My son is in 4th grade at PBES - bright but didn't make it into CES. Here's what he said to me this morning: "Mom, I'm frustrated - there are so many kids in my class that don't take school seriously and they are getting all of us in trouble. It's like all the good kids are in CES now." Just about broke my heart. I'm all about expanding opportunities but I'm personally worried about kids like my son falling through the cracks at PBES - even more of a concern now that so many of the "strongest students" are removed from the general population.

I'm sorry that this is happening to your son. You could press the principal to get your son into the CES. Everyone is doing this but sometimes the squeaky wheel does get the grease. If so many kids are coming off the waiting list, its much more likely that for some their parents simply pitched a fit rather than their scores being the highest on the waitlist. If your son did really badly on the test and does do well on other tests like PARCC etc then its unlikely the principal will let him in even if he's brilliant. It would reflect badly on her if too many kids in her local CES program were scoring poorly.

This is likely to continue through ES and MS. Schools intentionally do whatever they can to balance the classes and sprinkle the remaining high achievers (or low achievers depending on which is more numerous/rare at the school) throughout different classes. Its unfair to teachers who are evaluated on scores for one teacher to get all the high performers and another to get all the low performers.

Could you afford private school? The Catholic schools are much, much less expensive than the "big three" type schools and would still have students that take school seriously. Your other option , I hate to say it, is to move to a school with more highly capable and serious students. WJ cluster is the closest to you and usually less expensive than the BCC area.

And then ... she will be accused of racism. I am not sure how to navigate this sort of thing, either. I am sure every one of the kids with behavior problems deserves compassion, and help, and more time than my UMC white kid who works on grade level. But my kid is miserable in this class. If I advocate for him, I am pulling resources from those other kids who need the resources more. If I pull him out to home school or for private, I am isolating him from students of color and lessons he could learn about difference and compassion.

I have ideas about how to make this work for all kids. Those ideas take money the school system doesn't have, and the ones that don't are not something anyone cares to hear about anyway. And maybe they're wrong. Even if they did care, or I knew how to present them to the right people, or they were the right ideas, they wouldn't be implemented in time to fix my son's elementary education. So how do I live my liberal values and not make my kid feel like I've abandoned him, or set him up for a poor outcome?

Would they let me come volunteer in the math classroom? Every day? Maybe, but I have to work, too.

[Anonymous]

Using one data point from one year that is itself unusual but while cherry picking schools seems dishonest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the OP's original question - yes she has a VERY valid concern that her child will get left behind. AA and Latino kids do worse at PBES than other schools. White kids don't always do well either and there is more than one white kid that gets "left out" of the huge CES classes that are not diverse. Its not wise to just the school based on a few anonymous PBES boosters with all evidence pointing in the opposite direction.

The best thing to do is to look at why whites and asian american kids do better and mimic those behaviors when possible. Its not inherent IQ and you don't need to be wealthy.

Many asian americans do not trust the school system to educate their child. They remember how much more rigorous and competitive their own K-12 education was in their home country and do not trust that the lower American standards will yield success for their children. They all know that racial discrimination against asians is rampant in higher education and the workplace. They teach their kids that they need to be twice as smart and twice as good to succeed. They will supplement with a rigorous at home education to fill the gaps. So forget pretending that making cupcakes is really the science of baking and get an account on IXL, sign up for Mathnasium or Kumon. These three programs all include assessments and you can make sure that your child is always 1-2 years of MCPS grade level and more importantly develops skills that MCPS fails to teach. Don't let your kid just read a humor based book for twenty minutes every night. Choose books from magnet or private school reading lists, have your child read more frequently and write a short essay answering one of the guided reading assessment questions that you can find on-line. Its a fallacy that Indian, Chinese, Russian, Korean etc etc families are spending hundreds or more on supplementing or drawing on their graduate degrees to do this. White parents who let their kids watch the Disney channel all the time and are too lazy to supplement tell themselves this.

Many white families ensure their kids success at a school like PBES in a very different way. They get ahead by being aggressive advocates. They never miss an opportunity to point out how their child is not challenged. They put themselves into positions of power within the school. They establish early on that if their kid isn't in the highest reading group that they will complain up the chain as far as they can go. The school knows by the time CES admissions comes up which parents will be a royal pain in the butt if their child isn't admitted. Those kids get admitted and are a BIG part of the reason why there are two rather than one CES class at PBES. Be ready to be that parent. Make sure at every parent teacher conference to stress how bored and unchallenged your child is in school. Join the PTA and support the principal but be ready to ppunce once things don't go well for your child.

PBES is battle for resources and to not left your child fall through the cracks. You have to supplement or you have to be a squeaky wheel.

Whle I don't doubt that this can happen, I think this post implies that it is the norm. My experience at the same school is far from it. I am not a squeaky wheel about academics, I am not involved beyond helping with occasional class parties (literally have never been to a PTA meeting), and though I think my child has been bored I haven't made that known. Our child is certainly capable and we felt they should be in CES, but s/he has not been a lock by any means. Of the five or so other families I know in a neighborly, chat-at-the-park way in CES, none of them are visibly involved or have been vocal (to me) about complaining or making an issue (and this is the stuff we talk about at the park). They are all laid back and pretty easy going people. I can assure you none of us do Kumon.

Is it that impossible to believe that the decisions really are made blindly and that even still, that leaves a critical mass of kids behind that should have benefited from the program, and that would happen at any cut-off class size, and that just universally sucks?

+1