How a Florida math teacher turns smart kids into champions

[Anonymous]

How a Florida math teacher turns smart kids into champions

Spoiler alert: ignore every single rule of pubic school.

https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/the-secrets-of-americas-greatest-high-school-math-team-11657791000?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=ASWzDAgUt0C6f-jr2JzWuPqcYrO6OLJp5qsQQiith0q8yMPE1CJvSXXhg1rXwV0EkKg%3D&gaa_ts=68351858&gaa_sig=rwcJTQ4mnsgHQ6sOPJm31-Iq5r-fIjlhQIc9M0njBoerKFtcqpA9vDe4e0WEg8H6H5jJHezcIBSbVwd7XOrcIg%3D%3D


https://www.mainstreetdailynews.com/education/the-frazer-school-expands

https://frazerschool.org/championships

https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/c7f62878-ae4c-41c5-912d-5edbb2a3ea12/FrazerSchoolProfile-e0b03c4.pdf

* Be a retired bond trader, not a trained schoolteacher

* Throw the pubic school curriculum in the trash

* Teach core math content at twice the rate

* 80 class hours of summer school

* Rent a church room to teach public school in person during covid lockdown.

* Eventually, launch a charter school ($8000 subsidy per student from Florida government) dedicated to "competitive academics", with 20 kids per grade taking 19 AP classes in HS and averaging 1550 SAT.

[Anonymous]

I suppose if you recruit the children of university professors on the basis of test scores, you will probably get a good math team. Private schools do this all of the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I suppose if you recruit the children of university professors on the basis of test scores, you will probably get a good math team. Private schools do this all of the time.

There are college towns all over USA. They aren't all like Gainesville/Buchholz. Look at Boston/Cambridge, or Palto Alto.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I suppose if you recruit the children of university professors on the basis of test scores, you will probably get a good math team. Private schools do this all of the time.

This.

[Anonymous]

We attended MathCounts for the FCPS divisons this year, our child was a participant. There were three chapters there. Not one private school kid made it to State and none of the private school teams placed in the top 2 teams. Two of the FCPS chapters are large enough that they send 2 teams and 8 individuals, yet not one kid from a NOVA private made it.

It is less about the school and more about the parents who are interested in enrichment early on and kids who love academics or tolerate their parents pushing them in academics.

And I don’t think programs based on kids taking summer school and not having a chance to enjoy summer vacation are things I would tout.

[Anonymous]

I read a few of the articles, so this sounds like Basis of McLean, an academic grind school.

The school only provides academics, no music, art, PE, or elective type classes. I can't read the WSJ article because it is behind a pay wall.

It sounds miserable. I'll keep my kid in his public school, allow him to choose his after-school activities, which right now includes math competition classes, and be ont he same playing field as the kids at this school where all they do is grind academics. Nothing about it sounds like an enjoyable school experience.

[Anonymous]

This sounds like one of those private boarding schools for athletes. IMG Academy only for math competitions.

It's interesting as far as that goes, but neither one is a particularly useful model for schools that educate a broad range of kids for outcomes other than success in competitions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This sounds like one of those private boarding schools for athletes. IMG Academy only for math competitions.

It's interesting as far as that goes, but neither one is a particularly useful model for schools that educate a broad range of kids for outcomes other than success in competitions.

+1

Irrelevant when looking at the bigger picture.

Public schools teach all kids. We don’t want to defund them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We attended MathCounts for the FCPS divisons this year, our child was a participant. There were three chapters there. Not one private school kid made it to State and none of the private school teams placed in the top 2 teams. Two of the FCPS chapters are large enough that they send 2 teams and 8 individuals, yet not one kid from a NOVA private made it.

It is less about the school and more about the parents who are interested in enrichment early on and kids who love academics or tolerate their parents pushing them in academics.

And I don’t think programs based on kids taking summer school and not having a chance to enjoy summer vacation are things I would tout.

This isn't true: at least private school kid (from Westminster) made it to state.

That aside, you can't use NOVA Mathcounts chapter stats, which are dominated by 2-3 public schools that are among the best in the country, to say that private schools are not as good as public schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This sounds like one of those private boarding schools for athletes. IMG Academy only for math competitions.

It's interesting as far as that goes, but neither one is a particularly useful model for schools that educate a broad range of kids for outcomes other than success in competitions.

Is it necessary to choose one model of school for all the students?

[Anonymous]

I'm impressed by the moxie of a public school employee hosting a private in person class for public school students while schools were officially locked down.

[Anonymous]

On the other hand, Florida has lots of scam charter schools.

http://interactive.sun-sentinel.com/charter-schools-unsupervised/investigation.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We attended MathCounts for the FCPS divisons this year, our child was a participant. There were three chapters there. Not one private school kid made it to State and none of the private school teams placed in the top 2 teams. Two of the FCPS chapters are large enough that they send 2 teams and 8 individuals, yet not one kid from a NOVA private made it.

It is less about the school and more about the parents who are interested in enrichment early on and kids who love academics or tolerate their parents pushing them in academics.

And I don’t think programs based on kids taking summer school and not having a chance to enjoy summer vacation are things I would tout.

This isn't true: at least private school kid (from Westminster) made it to state.

That aside, you can't use NOVA Mathcounts chapter stats, which are dominated by 2-3 public schools that are among the best in the country, to say that private schools are not as good as public schools.

The whole point of the article and school that the OP is pushing, is that this charter school does a better job of teaching to academic competitions then the public schools. I have no clue what the Florida competition scene looks like, but I doubt that the kids at that school would be cruising in our area. The school in the article sounds a lot like BASIS in McLean and I don't see them doing all that great in the various academic competitions in this area.

Westminster sent one private school kid. Carson sent 5 kids. Cooper and Longfellow sent 5 or 6 kids each. Katherine Johnson, a solid school but not seen as one of the TJ feeders, sent a good number of kids, I think 3 but it might have been 5. An Elementary school sent a team. I can't access the results website at work.

The entire premise of the article is that the private school will have better results than the public schools. But in this area, the public schools regularly wipe the floor with the private schools in the NOVA chapters. I love seeing the private schools that boast programs for kids gifted in math posting about their kids that finished 16th in the chapter. Yes, it is a competitive chapter, but they didn't make the state cutoff. And it isn't just mathcounts, that is the example I know off the top of my head.

The top public kids in this area are stronger than the top privates in STEM. And they get to take electives and fun classes at HS if they want.

[Anonymous]

This is why I support charter funding. These kids would be neglected in public school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I read a few of the articles, so this sounds like Basis of McLean, an academic grind school.

The school only provides academics, no music, art, PE, or elective type classes. I can't read the WSJ article because it is behind a pay wall.

It sounds miserable. I'll keep my kid in his public school, allow him to choose his after-school activities, which right now includes math competition classes, and be ont he same playing field as the kids at this school where all they do is grind academics. Nothing about it sounds like an enjoyable school experience.

The school requires a full year of fine arts, like most schools.