If you have highly motivated kids how much does the school really matter?

[Anonymous]

I'm guessing I was what you would have considered a highly motivated kid. We lived in PA and I went to an average elementary school, a good but not great middle school and transferred in 10th to an excellent private school because I was bored and lonely and needed a change. I probably would have been ok at the average high school in my home town, but the difference in peer group and course work at the private school was incredible. I went on to a top 10 university - which I expect I would have done either way, but I was definitely more prepared coming out of the private school.

I know of a few kids from my home town who graduated from the average high school and went on to selective colleges and universities (including Ivies), but most did not. As PPs have said, peers matter, but also expectations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm guessing I was what you would have considered a highly motivated kid. We lived in PA and I went to an average elementary school, a good but not great middle school and transferred in 10th to an excellent private school because I was bored and lonely and needed a change. I probably would have been ok at the average high school in my home town, but the difference in peer group and course work at the private school was incredible. I went on to a top 10 university - which I expect I would have done either way, but I was definitely more prepared coming out of the private school.

I know of a few kids from my home town who graduated from the average high school and went on to selective colleges and universities (including Ivies), but most did not. As PPs have said, peers matter, but also expectations.

I'm the PP who said that having a good peer group matters, but that the whole school doesn't need to be cut from the same cloth. I'll also add this. At my kids' mediocre-ranked public elementary school, there are plenty of high performing kids who are NOT middle class white kids. Yes, there are more middle class kids in the high performing reading and math groups (and then, later, the higher performing classes) but it's not Stand and Deliver up in there. There are a plenty of highly motivated first generation kids who are working just as hard, and often with fewer advantages. It's actually been really good for my kids to compete with kids who are doing more with less.

[Anonymous]

If you have a highly motivated kid I don't think choice of school matters.
But such kids are really rare... my 4th grade twins are in a grade of about 120 kids and I can think of 1 or 2 who are truly "highly motivated". The rest are smart and bright and do what is asked of them.

And NO, You can't tell if your kid is "highly motivated" at freaking age 4.

[Anonymous]

I think OP is looking in MD based on the W reference, but I personally feel our mediocre (by DCUM standards) FCPS pyramid is great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have been searching for houses in "excellent" school districts and the more and more we do the numbers the more we realize we just can't afford it. The best we can do is average. My older child who starts k this fall is highly motivated and extremely intelligent.

We put great importance on education and we will be totally involved in helping our kids be successful so basically I would just like to get some real world experiences if you couldn't afford a house in a "W" school.

Highly intelligent and motivated kids + involved parents = academic success. We are in MoCo. Our peers live in W school neighborhoods. We live in what is considered "Bumfuckistan" on DCUM. Kids excel in MCPS school and outside of it.

You have to be savvy about getting them the enrichment and opportunities that MCPS does not provide - in W schools and in so called "ghetto" schools. MCPS is equal opportunity low bar in education organization. However, private schools are even worse and MCPS is still better than majority of US. To have truly well educated and successful students in this country - you have to put in place a parallel system of education for them. You cannot depend on any school to do what is best for your student. You have to do that yourself.

So, basically we bought a house we liked and are living a great lifestyle on our 5%er HHI (300K) because of our low mortgage - we have cleaners, lawn service, fully funded college and retirement, tutors, EC activities, yearly foreign jaunts.

[Anonymous]

Look for an average school with small class sizes, and buy in that district. You don't want your child ignored in K because he needs less help, either.

That's my strategy.

[Anonymous]

Does the school really matter for motivated kids? Yes and no.

Montgomery County uses the same curriculum countywide (which I'm not thrilled with), so that shouldn't be a factor. However, how principals run their schools varies widely (and principals in elementary change often as that position is viewed as a stepping stone to higher positions.) More critical yet is the teacher who implents the curriculum in the classroom. My kids who are two years apart had profoundly different experiences at the same school (immersion, not W).

My experience is that a child who is advanced academically, and isn't given the chance to progress, will eventually resign themselves to not learning and start to lose their motivation. MCPS has some great programs for these kids, but they don't start until 4th grade, and the four years preceding that (K-3), can be terribly demoralizing if they aren't lucky enough to get teachers who are willing to challenge them.

You indicate that your child is highly intelligent, but not necessarily academically advanced, and enjoys learning how things are put together and work. I suspect your child may find the pace of learning to be slow. However, MCPS focuses a lot on experiential/discovery type learning. Rather than just lecturing about a math topic, for example, they like to give the kids manipulatives, so that they can discover the concepts themselves. It sounds like this approach might really appeal to him.

Peers, as previous posters have suggested are important. At W schools, you will find the advantages that tend to correlate with high SES. However, most MCPS schools probably have kids that could offer your son a peer group. We live in Rockville, and a lot of the families I know are middle-class professionals who are highly invested in their children's education. You can get data about individual schools here:

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/glance/

As an aside, I don't know why posters have been assuming the child is four. As the cutoff date is September 1, anyone who turned 5 on September 2, 2016 or later would be starting K this fall. It seems more likely, at this point, that a child starting K would be 5 years old rather than 4. This doesn't even count kids who might have been red-shirted for whatever reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A highly motivated toddler works hard to master his butt-whipping technique!

OP, I'm as tiger as they come, but you are being utterly ridiculous. 'Academic motivation' in preschool?

So toddler is now defined as a child turning 5? No. I never said "highly motivated Acadmically" I didn't use the term academic at all. He is highly motivated-asks tons of intelligent questions, extremely interested in how things are put together and work. Enjoys learning things and flourishes in structured tasks. That is what I meant. Some of you people are extremely rude so maybe it's for the best that my children won't go to school with yours and grow up to be this rude and hateful to people they don't even know.

OP, I am sure your kid is wonderful, but he's no different than most PKers around here. Which is to say- he's going to be fine. They will all be fine.

[Anonymous]

Do you need to be in a GS 8 or 9 school to get a very good education? no. People at that level are just paying to self segregate.

Can you get a very good education at a school rate 5 or lower - possible but harder. They're going to typically offer less (either extracurricular or class variety) and also more likely to have social issues you aren't thrilled about.

Schools in the middle (GS 6 - 8) are in my view ideal since i have no desire to plop my already kind of anxious ES kid into a pressure cooker environment, but they're more likely to have a decent cohort of middle class kids to help set general expectations for (normal levels of) hard work.

[Anonymous]

We used to call our DD a CEO in training at 18months and that drive and focus held all the way through and now, at age 33, not in training any more. My #2 DD was head in the clouds for a very long time but super smart and I would never have guessed she would be top of class law but I saw #1 internal focus and drive as that young toddler. It did not come from me, my style of parenting, the programs she was in. Scoff all you want - I have no doubts that PP has a highly motivated academic kid - and understand wanting to do all you can BUT mine would have found her way where ever she was

[Anonymous]

I don't think the school matters nearly as much as the student's goals & drive, and the family's ability and commitment to supporting the student.

[Anonymous]

I think this is school-by-school. My kids are at a school that, to steal a phrase, is in Bumfuckistan part of the county. Also sometimes called Ganginfestlandia on these boards.

They are cared for, challenged, and nurtured by their teachers and administrators. While I see folks on this very board complaining that their "W feeder" school doesn't grade classwork, or doesn't grade schoolwork, we have 4-5 field trips a year and classwork comes home graded once a week.

I'm guessing we just got lucky with our Focus School, and other folks got unlucky with their W feeders. But there's no shortcut. There are Title I and Focus Schools I'd happily send my child to, and those I'd bankrupt myself to avoid based on first-hand experience from friends. There are also W feeder schools I'd be ecstatic to give my kids access to, and those I'd avoid at all costs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Peers matter.

not as much as the internal drive of the individual student. Wish we hadn't moved to the higher income/high rated school. Wish we had stayed in the lower rated school with the great community and connections. We thought our child would blossom with better teachers and peers. Now we know -- it's baked in for the most part.

But you just proved the point.

For you, "higher income/higher rated school" didn't equal better peers, but "great community and connections" did, and I'd guess that would hold true for most people.

[Anonymous]

You don't need high test scores. You need eager, motivated teachers and involved parents. A motivated kindergartner may not be a motivated 3rd grader.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Peers matter.

bingo. So important.

This. Only when my DC did not have a strong peer cohort was there trouble in the form of boredom, lack of motivation and work ethic because everything was "easy." But there are magnets for those kids. Visit the schools and trust your gut regarding cohorts, and try to suss out the school's commitment to differentiation.