What is going on at Holton?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The nastiness of this discussion is pretty surprising. We have two girls at holton and really like the HoS... our impression is that she does an excellent job taking in a lot of information, making hard decisions, and communicating them. The parents who are upset that she isn't giving them more detail about various staff changes / terminations are being so unrealistic and clearly don't understand how employment law works. She is not going to make decisions that please everyone all the time because the parent body is not a monolith; every decision she makes is going to upset someone. At the end of the day, most of the GIRLS are really happy to go to Holton... parents, on the other hand, seem to enjoy finding something to complain about. I really don't think this discussion is representative of the parent body, but of the people who go out of their way to vent their issues. I hope perspective families recognize that these very loud voices are not necessarily the best source of information about the girls' experience as students in the school.

don't know anyone who actually lkes the head of school. everyone just tolerates the situation

Genuinely curious. What are people looking for with the HOS. She runs the school, but I have never attempted a personal conversation with her. Nor with our division head. I don’t see a need. My daughter is happy and thriving. I don’t need to have discussions with them. Are people looking for a personal relationship with the HOS? Or are you going to her with issues? If that’s the case, shouldn’t issues be handled with division director?

Academic issues go to division head. Administration should be involved in overseeing everything, making policy decisions with the board. This is an all girls independent school. Not a publicly traded company. We should love seeing her smiling face every day. Not cringing whenever she opens her mouth.

Based on what she makes, you would think she heads a publicly traded company! The problem is that when she is in advisory or engages with students, she has no integrity. That whole bit with said physics teacher was the worst. Flat out denials when the girls wanted to talk about it. What he did. Why he left. How he left.

[Anonymous]

Going back to the original post, Holton is an excellent school with many great teachers and staff. But, the Board, HoS and school management have definitely made important changes without much transparency or parental input. The elimination of math tracking in MS is a perfect example. Many parents have been unhappy with that decision and the school has not given a good explanation as to how the decision was made or why that is a more effective approach. Furthermore, to reach calculus in 12th grade, a student must now study math over one summer. As a result, numerous parents are now doing math programs after school which defeats the whole reason for attending a private school!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Going back to the original post, Holton is an excellent school with many great teachers and staff. But, the Board, HoS and school management have definitely made important changes without much transparency or parental input. The elimination of math tracking in MS is a perfect example. Many parents have been unhappy with that decision and the school has not given a good explanation as to how the decision was made or why that is a more effective approach. Furthermore, to reach calculus in 12th grade, a student must now study math over one summer. As a result, numerous parents are now doing math programs after school which defeats the whole reason for attending a private school!

Do you have to do math over the summer just to reach calculus in 12th? The old pathway allowed some students (including my DD) to reach calc in 11th then take multi-variable with Landon in 12th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Going back to the original post, Holton is an excellent school with many great teachers and staff. But, the Board, HoS and school management have definitely made important changes without much transparency or parental input. The elimination of math tracking in MS is a perfect example. Many parents have been unhappy with that decision and the school has not given a good explanation as to how the decision was made or why that is a more effective approach. Furthermore, to reach calculus in 12th grade, a student must now study math over one summer. As a result, numerous parents are now doing math programs after school which defeats the whole reason for attending a private school!

Do you have to do math over the summer just to reach calculus in 12th? The old pathway allowed some students (including my DD) to reach calc in 11th then take multi-variable with Landon in 12th.

No. Above poster is incorrect. All the girls will reach calculus by 12th. Perhaps they want to go past calculus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Furthermore, to reach calculus in 12th grade, a student must now study math over one summer.

This is unequivocally false. Now ALL girls will reach calculus by 12th grade instead of just the top 75% of the class. The elimination of tracking now highlights the fact that the bottom 25% of the class were never before given the opportunity to move beyond a placement decision made when they were 11/12 years old. I see that as a huge win.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Furthermore, to reach calculus in 12th grade, a student must now study math over one summer.

This is unequivocally false. Now ALL girls will reach calculus by 12th grade instead of just the top 75% of the class. The elimination of tracking now highlights the fact that the bottom 25% of the class were never before given the opportunity to move beyond a placement decision made when they were 11/12 years old. I see that as a huge win.

Under the new system, the top 25% don’t have the option of taking geometry in 8th grade any longer. To be on par with girls who enter in 9th grade, they will probably need to take geometry over the summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Furthermore, to reach calculus in 12th grade, a student must now study math over one summer.

This is unequivocally false. Now ALL girls will reach calculus by 12th grade instead of just the top 75% of the class. The elimination of tracking now highlights the fact that the bottom 25% of the class were never before given the opportunity to move beyond a placement decision made when they were 11/12 years old. I see that as a huge win.

Under the new system, the top 25% don’t have the option of taking geometry in 8th grade any longer. To be on par with girls who enter in 9th grade, they will probably need to take geometry over the summer.

So the top 25% who would have taken geometry in 8th are now going to be sitting in math class bored? How does this help them?

I spoke with a mom with a rising 8th grader at Holton and she told me her daughter was so bored last year in math they are applying out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Furthermore, to reach calculus in 12th grade, a student must now study math over one summer.

This is unequivocally false. Now ALL girls will reach calculus by 12th grade instead of just the top 75% of the class. The elimination of tracking now highlights the fact that the bottom 25% of the class were never before given the opportunity to move beyond a placement decision made when they were 11/12 years old. I see that as a huge win.

Under the new system, the top 25% don’t have the option of taking geometry in 8th grade any longer. To be on par with girls who enter in 9th grade, they will probably need to take geometry over the summer.

This past year only 10% of 8th grade took geometry. It is never close to 25%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Furthermore, to reach calculus in 12th grade, a student must now study math over one summer.

This is unequivocally false. Now ALL girls will reach calculus by 12th grade instead of just the top 75% of the class. The elimination of tracking now highlights the fact that the bottom 25% of the class were never before given the opportunity to move beyond a placement decision made when they were 11/12 years old. I see that as a huge win.

Under the new system, the top 25% don’t have the option of taking geometry in 8th grade any longer. To be on par with girls who enter in 9th grade, they will probably need to take geometry over the summer.

This past year only 10% of 8th grade took geometry. It is never close to 25%.

Exactly! Only a handful of top top students were able to take Geometry as an 8th grader anyway. And often these new girls coming in at 9th can't keep up with Alg 2 and have to drop down to Geometry anyway. Everyone wants to believe their daughter is a math genius, but this truly only impacts a small cohort of students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Furthermore, to reach calculus in 12th grade, a student must now study math over one summer.

This is unequivocally false. Now ALL girls will reach calculus by 12th grade instead of just the top 75% of the class. The elimination of tracking now highlights the fact that the bottom 25% of the class were never before given the opportunity to move beyond a placement decision made when they were 11/12 years old. I see that as a huge win.

Under the new system, the top 25% don’t have the option of taking geometry in 8th grade any longer. To be on par with girls who enter in 9th grade, they will probably need to take geometry over the summer.

This past year only 10% of 8th grade took geometry. It is never close to 25%.

Exactly! Only a handful of top top students were able to take Geometry as an 8th grader anyway. And often these new girls coming in at 9th can't keep up with Alg 2 and have to drop down to Geometry anyway. Everyone wants to believe their daughter is a math genius, but this truly only impacts a small cohort of students.

My daughter took algebra 1 in 7th and there were 15 7th graders her class and they all did well. There was only 1 girl who opted to drop from the honors algebra 2 to regular algebra 2 in 9th. Maybe my daughter's class was an anomaly. And my daughter is not gifted in math. She just enjoys it. But honestly for a kid like her to take 2 years to cover algebra 1 would be painfully boring and probably loose interest in math. That would be my concern is the girls who love math are going to loose their love of math with this program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Furthermore, to reach calculus in 12th grade, a student must now study math over one summer.

This is unequivocally false. Now ALL girls will reach calculus by 12th grade instead of just the top 75% of the class. The elimination of tracking now highlights the fact that the bottom 25% of the class were never before given the opportunity to move beyond a placement decision made when they were 11/12 years old. I see that as a huge win.

Under the new system, the top 25% don’t have the option of taking geometry in 8th grade any longer. To be on par with girls who enter in 9th grade, they will probably need to take geometry over the summer.

This past year only 10% of 8th grade took geometry. It is never close to 25%.

Exactly! Only a handful of top top students were able to take Geometry as an 8th grader anyway. And often these new girls coming in at 9th can't keep up with Alg 2 and have to drop down to Geometry anyway. Everyone wants to believe their daughter is a math genius, but this truly only impacts a small cohort of students.

Sounds like the HoS is chiming in. Who else talks this way? condescending tone. choice of words?

[Anonymous]

We are new family entering 6th. I, for one, believe that the school will do its best to meet the needs of that small cohort. It would make no sense for Holton to hold back girls who really need to fly in math. It’s not to their advantage either. The past 18 months were unprecedented. Let’s give them benefit of the doubt here!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are new family entering 6th. I, for one, believe that the school will do its best to meet the needs of that small cohort. It would make no sense for Holton to hold back girls who really need to fly in math. It’s not to their advantage either. The past 18 months were unprecedented. Let’s give them benefit of the doubt here!

I hope the math mess in middle school is sorted out before your daughter enters 7th grade. It is hard to justify paying close to 50k for crappy math instruction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Furthermore, to reach calculus in 12th grade, a student must now study math over one summer.

This is unequivocally false. Now ALL girls will reach calculus by 12th grade instead of just the top 75% of the class. The elimination of tracking now highlights the fact that the bottom 25% of the class were never before given the opportunity to move beyond a placement decision made when they were 11/12 years old. I see that as a huge win.

Under the new system, the top 25% don’t have the option of taking geometry in 8th grade any longer. To be on par with girls who enter in 9th grade, they will probably need to take geometry over the summer.

This past year only 10% of 8th grade took geometry. It is never close to 25%.

Exactly! Only a handful of top top students were able to take Geometry as an 8th grader anyway. And often these new girls coming in at 9th can't keep up with Alg 2 and have to drop down to Geometry anyway. Everyone wants to believe their daughter is a math genius, but this truly only impacts a small cohort of students.

Sounds like the HoS is chiming in. Who else talks this way? condescending tone. choice of words?

I completely agree. If the administration and their supporters want to debate the issue and address our concerns, why did they never hold fora or panels with parents?? I agree this website is a bad place to discuss but parents were given no other options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Furthermore, to reach calculus in 12th grade, a student must now study math over one summer.

This is unequivocally false. Now ALL girls will reach calculus by 12th grade instead of just the top 75% of the class. The elimination of tracking now highlights the fact that the bottom 25% of the class were never before given the opportunity to move beyond a placement decision made when they were 11/12 years old. I see that as a huge win.

Under the new system, the top 25% don’t have the option of taking geometry in 8th grade any longer. To be on par with girls who enter in 9th grade, they will probably need to take geometry over the summer.

This past year only 10% of 8th grade took geometry. It is never close to 25%.

Exactly! Only a handful of top top students were able to take Geometry as an 8th grader anyway. And often these new girls coming in at 9th can't keep up with Alg 2 and have to drop down to Geometry anyway. Everyone wants to believe their daughter is a math genius, but this truly only impacts a small cohort of students.

My daughter took algebra 1 in 7th and there were 15 7th graders her class and they all did well. There was only 1 girl who opted to drop from the honors algebra 2 to regular algebra 2 in 9th. Maybe my daughter's class was an anomaly. And my daughter is not gifted in math. She just enjoys it. But honestly for a kid like her to take 2 years to cover algebra 1 would be painfully boring and probably loose interest in math. That would be my concern is the girls who love math are going to loose their love of math with this program.

Yes, the school is not being fully honest about the history, as you point out. Every grade is different but it has worked well in the past for large sections of advanced/extra interested students in some grades.