Lowell High School admissions will return to merit-based system after S.F. school board vote

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids can find a large cohort of strong peers at the top schools like Langley, McLean, Chantilly and Oakton, but not at Lewis or Mount Vernon, so the types of kids who need a Governor’s School in each pyramid can vary. If you look at it that way, the fact that the top kids coming from the low-performing pyramids in general might be just average at a top school doesn’t matter; what matters is that they wouldn’t be challenged at Lewis or Mount Vernon.

How on earth would any regular smart kid not be challenged at Lewis or Mount Vernon? Every single FCPS high school either has a full IB program or a full load of AP classes. The overwhelming majority of kids can be challenged at any base school in FCPS. I know a few full IB diploma graduates of Annandale high school. They did not lack for a peer group or sufficient challenge.

How many National Merit Semifinalists from Annandale, Lewis, and Mount Vernon in recent years? Next to none, which underscores that the most talented kids from those pyramids may not be reaching their potential. Maybe they need TJ more than other kids who’d do just as well at Chantilly or Langley, which clearly have a very strong peer group.

There is no correlation between quality of instruction at the base school and NMS. The low SES schools aren’t failing to develop their kids potential. NMS is just a reflection that affluent kids can invest more resources in prepping for the pSAT

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids can find a large cohort of strong peers at the top schools like Langley, McLean, Chantilly and Oakton, but not at Lewis or Mount Vernon, so the types of kids who need a Governor’s School in each pyramid can vary. If you look at it that way, the fact that the top kids coming from the low-performing pyramids in general might be just average at a top school doesn’t matter; what matters is that they wouldn’t be challenged at Lewis or Mount Vernon.

How on earth would any regular smart kid not be challenged at Lewis or Mount Vernon? Every single FCPS high school either has a full IB program or a full load of AP classes. The overwhelming majority of kids can be challenged at any base school in FCPS. I know a few full IB diploma graduates of Annandale high school. They did not lack for a peer group or sufficient challenge.

How many National Merit Semifinalists from Annandale, Lewis, and Mount Vernon in recent years? Next to none, which underscores that the most talented kids from those pyramids may not be reaching their potential. Maybe they need TJ more than other kids who’d do just as well at Chantilly or Langley, which clearly have a very strong peer group.

There is no correlation between quality of instruction at the base school and NMS. The low SES schools aren’t failing to develop their kids potential. NMS is just a reflection that affluent kids can invest more resources in prepping for the pSAT

There certainly is a difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids can find a large cohort of strong peers at the top schools like Langley, McLean, Chantilly and Oakton, but not at Lewis or Mount Vernon, so the types of kids who need a Governor’s School in each pyramid can vary. If you look at it that way, the fact that the top kids coming from the low-performing pyramids in general might be just average at a top school doesn’t matter; what matters is that they wouldn’t be challenged at Lewis or Mount Vernon.

How on earth would any regular smart kid not be challenged at Lewis or Mount Vernon? Every single FCPS high school either has a full IB program or a full load of AP classes. The overwhelming majority of kids can be challenged at any base school in FCPS. I know a few full IB diploma graduates of Annandale high school. They did not lack for a peer group or sufficient challenge.

How many National Merit Semifinalists from Annandale, Lewis, and Mount Vernon in recent years? Next to none, which underscores that the most talented kids from those pyramids may not be reaching their potential. Maybe they need TJ more than other kids who’d do just as well at Chantilly or Langley, which clearly have a very strong peer group.

There is no correlation between quality of instruction at the base school and NMS. The low SES schools aren’t failing to develop their kids potential. NMS is just a reflection that affluent kids can invest more resources in prepping for the pSAT

There certainly is a difference.

We hired a tutor for $300/hour and they were amazing. DC's score was up 250 points!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids can find a large cohort of strong peers at the top schools like Langley, McLean, Chantilly and Oakton, but not at Lewis or Mount Vernon, so the types of kids who need a Governor’s School in each pyramid can vary. If you look at it that way, the fact that the top kids coming from the low-performing pyramids in general might be just average at a top school doesn’t matter; what matters is that they wouldn’t be challenged at Lewis or Mount Vernon.

How on earth would any regular smart kid not be challenged at Lewis or Mount Vernon? Every single FCPS high school either has a full IB program or a full load of AP classes. The overwhelming majority of kids can be challenged at any base school in FCPS. I know a few full IB diploma graduates of Annandale high school. They did not lack for a peer group or sufficient challenge.

How many National Merit Semifinalists from Annandale, Lewis, and Mount Vernon in recent years? Next to none, which underscores that the most talented kids from those pyramids may not be reaching their potential. Maybe they need TJ more than other kids who’d do just as well at Chantilly or Langley, which clearly have a very strong peer group.

There is no correlation between quality of instruction at the base school and NMS. The low SES schools aren’t failing to develop their kids potential. NMS is just a reflection that affluent kids can invest more resources in prepping for the pSAT

There certainly is a difference.

We hired a tutor for $300/hour and they were amazing. DC's score was up 250 points!

Only white parents are wealthy enough to pay $300/hr private one on one tutors for SAT, school subjects, writing etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids can find a large cohort of strong peers at the top schools like Langley, McLean, Chantilly and Oakton, but not at Lewis or Mount Vernon, so the types of kids who need a Governor’s School in each pyramid can vary. If you look at it that way, the fact that the top kids coming from the low-performing pyramids in general might be just average at a top school doesn’t matter; what matters is that they wouldn’t be challenged at Lewis or Mount Vernon.

How on earth would any regular smart kid not be challenged at Lewis or Mount Vernon? Every single FCPS high school either has a full IB program or a full load of AP classes. The overwhelming majority of kids can be challenged at any base school in FCPS. I know a few full IB diploma graduates of Annandale high school. They did not lack for a peer group or sufficient challenge.

How many National Merit Semifinalists from Annandale, Lewis, and Mount Vernon in recent years? Next to none, which underscores that the most talented kids from those pyramids may not be reaching their potential. Maybe they need TJ more than other kids who’d do just as well at Chantilly or Langley, which clearly have a very strong peer group.

There is no correlation between quality of instruction at the base school and NMS. The low SES schools aren’t failing to develop their kids potential. NMS is just a reflection that affluent kids can invest more resources in prepping for the pSAT

There certainly is a difference.

Of course there is. Why do you think Corbett Sanders is getting $40 million spent on West Potomac so kids can avoid Mount Vernon? Or why self-styled progressives like Keys Gamarra leave Lewis under-enrolled year after year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids can find a large cohort of strong peers at the top schools like Langley, McLean, Chantilly and Oakton, but not at Lewis or Mount Vernon, so the types of kids who need a Governor’s School in each pyramid can vary. If you look at it that way, the fact that the top kids coming from the low-performing pyramids in general might be just average at a top school doesn’t matter; what matters is that they wouldn’t be challenged at Lewis or Mount Vernon.

How on earth would any regular smart kid not be challenged at Lewis or Mount Vernon? Every single FCPS high school either has a full IB program or a full load of AP classes. The overwhelming majority of kids can be challenged at any base school in FCPS. I know a few full IB diploma graduates of Annandale high school. They did not lack for a peer group or sufficient challenge.

How many National Merit Semifinalists from Annandale, Lewis, and Mount Vernon in recent years? Next to none, which underscores that the most talented kids from those pyramids may not be reaching their potential. Maybe they need TJ more than other kids who’d do just as well at Chantilly or Langley, which clearly have a very strong peer group.

There is no correlation between quality of instruction at the base school and NMS. The low SES schools aren’t failing to develop their kids potential. NMS is just a reflection that affluent kids can invest more resources in prepping for the pSAT

There certainly is a difference.

Of course there is. Why do you think Corbett Sanders is getting $40 million spent on West Potomac so kids can avoid Mount Vernon? Or why self-styled progressives like Keys Gamarra leave Lewis under-enrolled year after year?

I don't doubt that some people imagine there is based on their prejudices and fears. The major difference is whether there are 2 or 4 sections in some AP classes. Not whether there are other smart students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Most have families who shell out $20k for prep classes so by my definition they're wealthy.

Curie costs $6250 for a rising 7th grader for classes until they complete 8th grade.
$4050 if they skip summer and 2nd semester of 8th grade.

So if most start training in 6th, roughly $16k for the usual 2.5 years of prep?

No. $6250 total for 7th and 8th combined, if you do summer and 2nd semester 8th.
6th grade has different classes, and might not even have a TJ prep. I saw things like robotics for $400.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

So they are going to dictate admission criteria to a private college? Why stop there? Why not tell business how they should hire too! As much as I have little faith in this court, even they are unlikely to go there.

The Civil Rights Act has some things to say about who businesses can hire and not hire based on race.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
DP, but the issue will be whether a facially race-neutral policy adopted with a discriminatory intent is a violation. If they’d just switched over to allocating seats by middle school without creating the record that their intent was to reduce the percentage of Asian kids it would be a non-issue. In this case, the decision to switch over to middle school quotas was because they thought it would pump up the % of Black and Hispanic kids and reduce the % of Asian kids.

Loudoun got around this problem when they changed admissions to Academies of Loudoun by putting up a slide at the school board meeting saying
'Geography is not being used as a proxy for race.' and the speaker explained that to do so would not hold up legally.
In the same meeting they said their goal was to 'increase the number of black and brown kids.'

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
The South Asians who immigrated here and populate NOVA are likely in the top quarter of the distribution curve in their countries of origin. That’s how many of them earned the right to immigrate here. Natural ability is more concentrated in that population.

Much higher than top quarter. The IQ levels in these countries is pretty low, though this may be based on rural populations.
It is quite possible that the grandkids and later generations of these immigrants will not be standing out so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The South Asians who immigrated here and populate NOVA are likely in the top quarter of the distribution curve in their countries of origin. That’s how many of them earned the right to immigrate here. Natural ability is more concentrated in that population.

Much higher than top quarter. The IQ levels in these countries is pretty low, though this may be based on rural populations.
It is quite possible that the grandkids and later generations of these immigrants will not be standing out so much.

Stop quivering. Asians have the highest average IQ - no need to try to splain it away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The South Asians who immigrated here and populate NOVA are likely in the top quarter of the distribution curve in their countries of origin. That’s how many of them earned the right to immigrate here. Natural ability is more concentrated in that population.

Much higher than top quarter. The IQ levels in these countries is pretty low, though this may be based on rural populations.
It is quite possible that the grandkids and later generations of these immigrants will not be standing out so much.

Stop quivering. Asians have the highest average IQ - no need to try to splain it away.

LOLZ

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Most have families who shell out $20k for prep classes so by my definition they're wealthy.

Curie costs $6250 for a rising 7th grader for classes until they complete 8th grade.
$4050 if they skip summer and 2nd semester of 8th grade.

So if most start training in 6th, roughly $16k for the usual 2.5 years of prep?

No. $6250 total for 7th and 8th combined, if you do summer and 2nd semester 8th.
6th grade has different classes, and might not even have a TJ prep. I saw things like robotics for $400.

For that you could hire that $300/hour tutor!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The South Asians who immigrated here and populate NOVA are likely in the top quarter of the distribution curve in their countries of origin. That’s how many of them earned the right to immigrate here. Natural ability is more concentrated in that population.

Much higher than top quarter. The IQ levels in these countries is pretty low, though this may be based on rural populations.
It is quite possible that the grandkids and later generations of these immigrants will not be standing out so much.

Stop quivering. Asians have the highest average IQ - no need to try to splain it away.

The recent case of Korean identical twins separated at birth with a 20-point IQ disparity illustrates that it isn't exactly the best measure of intelligence and is impacted by external factors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids can find a large cohort of strong peers at the top schools like Langley, McLean, Chantilly and Oakton, but not at Lewis or Mount Vernon, so the types of kids who need a Governor’s School in each pyramid can vary. If you look at it that way, the fact that the top kids coming from the low-performing pyramids in general might be just average at a top school doesn’t matter; what matters is that they wouldn’t be challenged at Lewis or Mount Vernon.

How on earth would any regular smart kid not be challenged at Lewis or Mount Vernon? Every single FCPS high school either has a full IB program or a full load of AP classes. The overwhelming majority of kids can be challenged at any base school in FCPS. I know a few full IB diploma graduates of Annandale high school. They did not lack for a peer group or sufficient challenge.

How many National Merit Semifinalists from Annandale, Lewis, and Mount Vernon in recent years? Next to none, which underscores that the most talented kids from those pyramids may not be reaching their potential. Maybe they need TJ more than other kids who’d do just as well at Chantilly or Langley, which clearly have a very strong peer group.

There is no correlation between quality of instruction at the base school and NMS. The low SES schools aren’t failing to develop their kids potential. NMS is just a reflection that affluent kids can invest more resources in prepping for the pSAT

There certainly is a difference.

No there isn't. Are you implying that Langley is producing Merit finalists because Langley's AP math and AP English teachers are significantly better than Mt. Vernon's IB math and IB English teachers? That assumes that over the years, as teachers move and retire, Langley somehow manages to constantly have an objectively better set of teachers. It's clearly not because of teachers and instruction. It's the kids and their parents.