Honors vs. Regular classes at McLean High School

[Anonymous]

Not Longfellow or McLean, but my kids' experience has been that all honors is the way to start. Some kids need four weeks to really get in the swing of things and adjust to each teacher's style, after which you can decide together with their teacher/counselor if they should stick with honors or drop down. Dropping down to regular in one or even two classes is not a big deal. However, being "stuck" on a regular track if the student is capable or doing honors work is a problem. Self-doubt, established peer group, comfort zone. All these make it difficult to step up to honors if the student did not start there in 9th grade. Good luck, OP!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mclean parent - it depends. The advice the counselors always give about only doing honors on classes they are passionate about is a well intentioned effort to dial down the stress level at an intense school BUT a lot of HS students will do well in classes they aren’t “passionate” about and the fact of the matter is that these decisions can impact college options down the road.

My suggestion is if you are going to try honors, 9th grade is a good year to do it. Honors bio is probably the easiest science to take honors. After 9th grade the differences between honors and regular classes can really intensify. Some of that is teacher related though. There are several 10th grade English teachers and one is much more difficult than other honors teachers.

I will say that dropping down is kind of a hassle. It can be difficult with scheduling to change classes because the options you want may be over enrolled. It’s a potential option but I wouldn’t go in expecting to just easily change a bunch of things.

NP.

Also a McLean parent, and I agree. We received the same, tired, “one size fits all” advice from the counselors when DD was choosing 9th grade classes:

“don’t take all-honors, because it will be too difficult for YOUR child.”

Sorry - but that is only true for some students. Maybe most students.

But parents should help make the decision on all-honors at McLean based on two factors:

- is your child hard-working? (on their own), and does your child easily succeed at the most rigorous courses at Longfellow?

More Longfellow students than you might imagine can answer “yes” to both questions. One of my children did well with all-honors.

And kids just beginning HS last year often take college-level classes (AP) during freshman year. It’s now possible to take up to 3 APs freshman year at McLean. BTW, we did not supplement for our children (other than letting them do the school-based Math Counts club).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mclean parent - it depends. The advice the counselors always give about only doing honors on classes they are passionate about is a well intentioned effort to dial down the stress level at an intense school BUT a lot of HS students will do well in classes they aren’t “passionate” about and the fact of the matter is that these decisions can impact college options down the road.

My suggestion is if you are going to try honors, 9th grade is a good year to do it. Honors bio is probably the easiest science to take honors. After 9th grade the differences between honors and regular classes can really intensify. Some of that is teacher related though. There are several 10th grade English teachers and one is much more difficult than other honors teachers.

I will say that dropping down is kind of a hassle. It can be difficult with scheduling to change classes because the options you want may be over enrolled. It’s a potential option but I wouldn’t go in expecting to just easily change a bunch of things.

NP.

Also a McLean parent, and I agree. We received the same, tired, “one size fits all” advice from the counselors when DD was choosing 9th grade classes:

“don’t take all-honors, because it will be too difficult for YOUR child.”

Sorry - but that is only true for some students. Maybe most students.

But parents should help make the decision on all-honors at McLean based on two factors:

- is your child hard-working? (on their own), and does your child easily succeed at the most rigorous courses at Longfellow?

More Longfellow students than you might imagine can answer “yes” to both questions. One of my children did well with all-honors.

And kids just beginning HS last year often take college-level classes (AP) during freshman year. It’s now possible to take up to 3 APs freshman year at McLean. BTW, we did not supplement for our children (other than letting them do the school-based Math Counts club).

you mentioned one child did well with all honors classes. What about the other(s) ?.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mclean parent - it depends. The advice the counselors always give about only doing honors on classes they are passionate about is a well intentioned effort to dial down the stress level at an intense school BUT a lot of HS students will do well in classes they aren’t “passionate” about and the fact of the matter is that these decisions can impact college options down the road.

My suggestion is if you are going to try honors, 9th grade is a good year to do it. Honors bio is probably the easiest science to take honors. After 9th grade the differences between honors and regular classes can really intensify. Some of that is teacher related though. There are several 10th grade English teachers and one is much more difficult than other honors teachers.

I will say that dropping down is kind of a hassle. It can be difficult with scheduling to change classes because the options you want may be over enrolled. It’s a potential option but I wouldn’t go in expecting to just easily change a bunch of things.

NP.

Also a McLean parent, and I agree. We received the same, tired, “one size fits all” advice from the counselors when DD was choosing 9th grade classes:

“don’t take all-honors, because it will be too difficult for YOUR child.”

Sorry - but that is only true for some students. Maybe most students.

But parents should help make the decision on all-honors at McLean based on two factors:

- is your child hard-working? (on their own), and does your child easily succeed at the most rigorous courses at Longfellow?

More Longfellow students than you might imagine can answer “yes” to both questions. One of my children did well with all-honors.

And kids just beginning HS last year often take college-level classes (AP) during freshman year. It’s now possible to take up to 3 APs freshman year at McLean. BTW, we did not supplement for our children (other than letting them do the school-based Math Counts club).

you mentioned one child did well with all honors classes. What about the other(s) ?.

Our other child is at TJ.

[Anonymous]

What about Oakton? I've been told that at Marshall and Falls Church, you have to take Honors no matter what, but what about the schools with a more homogeneous population?

[Anonymous]

Best way to look at FCPS classes. AP is what honors used to be, honors is what GenEd was, regular classes are what SpecEd was in the past.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Best way to look at FCPS classes. AP is what honors used to be, honors is what GenEd was, regular classes are what SpecEd was in the past.

There was a recent thread on regular classes at Langley and people were fairly vehement that regular classes were not remedial or "SpecEd" classes in terms of rigor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Best way to look at FCPS classes. AP is what honors used to be, honors is what GenEd was, regular classes are what SpecEd was in the past.

This is 100% not true for all FCPS high schools. One thing that is frustrating is that a class with the same name - lets say Biology (not honors) is significantly easier at some schools. In theory all FCPS schools should be teaching the same courses. But that's decidedly not true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Best way to look at FCPS classes. AP is what honors used to be, honors is what GenEd was, regular classes are what SpecEd was in the past.

This is 100% not true for all FCPS high schools. One thing that is frustrating is that a class with the same name - lets say Biology (not honors) is significantly easier at some schools. In theory all FCPS schools should be teaching the same courses. But that's decidedly not true.

So FCPS has an equity problem? Which means the boundary changes will lead to winners and losers from an academic standpoint.

[Anonymous]

"Honors" classes at Longfellow, outside of AAP are a joke. I am very concerned about my child being prepared for high school next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My student was told to only take Honors in classes she really liked/was passionate about, and to not take all Honors Freshman Year. This was from the McLean Counselors coming to visit LMS to help choose classes.

This. My kids got the same advice from counselors. Also, Longfellow made everything "honors" to soothe parents with egos, but I'm going to assume your child had what were actually honors classes. That said, McLean honors is a big step up. I agree with sticking to what your child truly loves for honors, but know there is a safety net and plenty of students switch down to regular. One of my kids was in a regular chemistry class a few years ago and it started as a trickle of kids switching down from honors, but by winter break, the class was jam packed because so many students switched down. Also, FYI behavior issues were worse when the honors students joined, but it may be because friends were together.

I agree with the person who said to ignore the snobs. There are some excellent regular classes. I will say maybe freshman year there might be more behavior problems in general in regular and even honors, though not as much, BUT one of my kids started freshman year after the pandemic so students were FERAL. For my other kid I would say there weren't as many behavior issues in either class freshman year or maybe I just didn't hear about it. Also, they had changed the phone policy by then and both my kids noticed classes were calmer and friendlier once phones were banned. AP also had behavior issues sometimes too though I will say it was less likely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If child is college bound then take all honors.

One of my kids took mostly regular classes, and just 2 APs-no honors. He and everyone he knows who took mostly or even all regular classes is in college now. That said, he got to use both APs for credits so that was a nice boost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not Longfellow or McLean, but my kids' experience has been that all honors is the way to start. Some kids need four weeks to really get in the swing of things and adjust to each teacher's style, after which you can decide together with their teacher/counselor if they should stick with honors or drop down. Dropping down to regular in one or even two classes is not a big deal. However, being "stuck" on a regular track if the student is capable or doing honors work is a problem. Self-doubt, established peer group, comfort zone. All these make it difficult to step up to honors if the student did not start there in 9th grade. Good luck, OP!

Your district may be different. I have a good friend whos kids attended a different FCPS high school once they moved. When her older kid started at McLean he struggled with honors and needed to drop down. They moved and he flourished in honors and then AP, but got 3s on most APs. It worked out well for him. He enjoyed being considered one of the top students and it was a less competitive atmosphere. Meanwhile at McLean in one of my kids' AP math classes, kids who got Bs and Cs got 5s on the AP. The rigor was different. She even said the demand level, complexity of exams, etc for honors classes was less than what she saw at McLean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Honors" classes at Longfellow, outside of AAP are a joke. I am very concerned about my child being prepared for high school next year.

Me too!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Honors" classes at Longfellow, outside of AAP are a joke. I am very concerned about my child being prepared for high school next year.

At Carson, Honors and AAP are the same.