Are you happy with Thoreau?

[Anonymous]

Do the kids going to Madison from TMS seem to be well prepared for the writing and work load?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do the kids going to Madison from TMS seem to be well prepared for the writing and work load?

If you ask the teachers, the average student from TMS is not as well prepared as from LJMS. However, 100% of the LJMS students are AAP whereas only about 30% of TMS are community AAP. So the cohorts are different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do the kids going to Madison from TMS seem to be well prepared for the writing and work load?

I think you are over-estimating how prepared one needs to be for honors classes at Madison. Seriously. My child was in honors at TMS. She is prepared just fine for honors classes at Madison. It's not some wildly advanced curriculum. Yes, it is high school, but the teachers understand that they are teaching 14 and 15 yr olds.... so they teach them what they expect them to do/know in class. There isn't some secret magic that the AAP kids get (at TMS or LJ) that dooms the non-AAP kids from getting A's in honors classes at Madison. If your kid wants to get good grades at Madison, he or she will put in the effort to do what the teacher asks, and will get good grades. This whole idea that some middle schools prepare you for Madison (or any FCPS high school) and some do not, is just silly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do the kids going to Madison from TMS seem to be well prepared for the writing and work load?

I think you are over-estimating how prepared one needs to be for honors classes at Madison. Seriously. My child was in honors at TMS. She is prepared just fine for honors classes at Madison. It's not some wildly advanced curriculum. Yes, it is high school, but the teachers understand that they are teaching 14 and 15 yr olds.... so they teach them what they expect them to do/know in class. There isn't some secret magic that the AAP kids get (at TMS or LJ) that dooms the non-AAP kids from getting A's in honors classes at Madison. If your kid wants to get good grades at Madison, he or she will put in the effort to do what the teacher asks, and will get good grades. This whole idea that some middle schools prepare you for Madison (or any FCPS high school) and some do not, is just silly.

Totally disagree with this. First, if a middle school has more homework, requires planning ahead and budgeting time, makes kids work for their grades, graders harder, has higher expectations, or teachers a higher level curriculum, that has to - and does - help in high school. My friend is a teacher at Madison and said she can tell which ones went to LJ and which went to Thoreau. She said, by far, the Thoreau students were not used to more rigorous grading and expectations, their writing was inferior and they complained more about the amount of work. Yes, a kid who cares about his grade, will do so regardless of the school, but that doesn’t negate the fact that one middle school can better prepare you for high school than another.

—former teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do the kids going to Madison from TMS seem to be well prepared for the writing and work load?

I think you are over-estimating how prepared one needs to be for honors classes at Madison. Seriously. My child was in honors at TMS. She is prepared just fine for honors classes at Madison. It's not some wildly advanced curriculum. Yes, it is high school, but the teachers understand that they are teaching 14 and 15 yr olds.... so they teach them what they expect them to do/know in class. There isn't some secret magic that the AAP kids get (at TMS or LJ) that dooms the non-AAP kids from getting A's in honors classes at Madison. If your kid wants to get good grades at Madison, he or she will put in the effort to do what the teacher asks, and will get good grades. This whole idea that some middle schools prepare you for Madison (or any FCPS high school) and some do not, is just silly.

Totally disagree with this. First, if a middle school has more homework, requires planning ahead and budgeting time, makes kids work for their grades, graders harder, has higher expectations, or teachers a higher level curriculum, that has to - and does - help in high school. My friend is a teacher at Madison and said she can tell which ones went to LJ and which went to Thoreau. She said, by far, the Thoreau students were not used to more rigorous grading and expectations, their writing was inferior and they complained more about the amount of work. Yes, a kid who cares about his grade, will do so regardless of the school, but that doesn’t negate the fact that one middle school can better prepare you for high school than another.

—former teacher

sorry, don't agree. My child wasn't even in AAP....still getting A- in honors classes at Madison (and she doesn't work very hard as far as I can see). Not that it is easy, but they actually do teach kids what they want them to know/do. 85% of the kids at Madison went to TMS... they are doing fine at Madison because they got what they needed at TMS and then Madison provides what they need to to do well there. If you really believe that the LJ kids at Madison are superior b/c of their different middle school experience, and that has any impact on who succeeds in HS, I have a bridge to sell you in Merrifield.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I really believe it. As does my friend who teaches there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do the kids going to Madison from TMS seem to be well prepared for the writing and work load?

I think you are over-estimating how prepared one needs to be for honors classes at Madison. Seriously. My child was in honors at TMS. She is prepared just fine for honors classes at Madison. It's not some wildly advanced curriculum. Yes, it is high school, but the teachers understand that they are teaching 14 and 15 yr olds.... so they teach them what they expect them to do/know in class. There isn't some secret magic that the AAP kids get (at TMS or LJ) that dooms the non-AAP kids from getting A's in honors classes at Madison. If your kid wants to get good grades at Madison, he or she will put in the effort to do what the teacher asks, and will get good grades. This whole idea that some middle schools prepare you for Madison (or any FCPS high school) and some do not, is just silly.

Totally disagree with this. First, if a middle school has more homework, requires planning ahead and budgeting time, makes kids work for their grades, graders harder, has higher expectations, or teachers a higher level curriculum, that has to - and does - help in high school. My friend is a teacher at Madison and said she can tell which ones went to LJ and which went to Thoreau. She said, by far, the Thoreau students were not used to more rigorous grading and expectations, their writing was inferior and they complained more about the amount of work. Yes, a kid who cares about his grade, will do so regardless of the school, but that doesn’t negate the fact that one middle school can better prepare you for high school than another.

—former teacher

How long ago did you have this conversation and did it account for fact that LJ kids at Madison were all AAP, and Thoreau students at Madison were mostly non AAP kids? That's changed now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do the kids going to Madison from TMS seem to be well prepared for the writing and work load?

I think you are over-estimating how prepared one needs to be for honors classes at Madison. Seriously. My child was in honors at TMS. She is prepared just fine for honors classes at Madison. It's not some wildly advanced curriculum. Yes, it is high school, but the teachers understand that they are teaching 14 and 15 yr olds.... so they teach them what they expect them to do/know in class. There isn't some secret magic that the AAP kids get (at TMS or LJ) that dooms the non-AAP kids from getting A's in honors classes at Madison. If your kid wants to get good grades at Madison, he or she will put in the effort to do what the teacher asks, and will get good grades. This whole idea that some middle schools prepare you for Madison (or any FCPS high school) and some do not, is just silly.

Totally disagree with this. First, if a middle school has more homework, requires planning ahead and budgeting time, makes kids work for their grades, graders harder, has higher expectations, or teachers a higher level curriculum, that has to - and does - help in high school. My friend is a teacher at Madison and said she can tell which ones went to LJ and which went to Thoreau. She said, by far, the Thoreau students were not used to more rigorous grading and expectations, their writing was inferior and they complained more about the amount of work. Yes, a kid who cares about his grade, will do so regardless of the school, but that doesn’t negate the fact that one middle school can better prepare you for high school than another.

—former teacher

How long ago did you have this conversation and did it account for fact that LJ kids at Madison were all AAP, and Thoreau students at Madison were mostly non AAP kids? That's changed now.

She’s mentioned it multiple times over the years. The last time she mentioned it was about a month and a half ago.

[Anonymous]

But the LJ kids are self selecting, too. The more serious, academic focused kids are more likely to choose LJ than the less academic focused kids who are smart, in AAP, but not all about academics. So when the Madison teachers see these kids what exactly are they comparing. Those kids going to LJ may have looked every bit as good if they had chosen to go to and spent two years at TMS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But the LJ kids are self selecting, too. The more serious, academic focused kids are more likely to choose LJ than the less academic focused kids who are smart, in AAP, but not all about academics. So when the Madison teachers see these kids what exactly are they comparing. Those kids going to LJ may have looked every bit as good if they had chosen to go to and spent two years at TMS.

Exactly. Many of those kids are now choosing Thoreau and even more will do so in the future as LJ's reputation declines, which is already happening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But the LJ kids are self selecting, too. The more serious, academic focused kids are more likely to choose LJ than the less academic focused kids who are smart, in AAP, but not all about academics. So when the Madison teachers see these kids what exactly are they comparing. Those kids going to LJ may have looked every bit as good if they had chosen to go to and spent two years at TMS.

Exactly. Many of those kids are now choosing Thoreau and even more will do so in the future as LJ's reputation declines, which is already happening.

What’s your basis for saying lj’s Reputation is declining?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do the kids going to Madison from TMS seem to be well prepared for the writing and work load?

I think you are over-estimating how prepared one needs to be for honors classes at Madison. Seriously. My child was in honors at TMS. She is prepared just fine for honors classes at Madison. It's not some wildly advanced curriculum. Yes, it is high school, but the teachers understand that they are teaching 14 and 15 yr olds.... so they teach them what they expect them to do/know in class. There isn't some secret magic that the AAP kids get (at TMS or LJ) that dooms the non-AAP kids from getting A's in honors classes at Madison. If your kid wants to get good grades at Madison, he or she will put in the effort to do what the teacher asks, and will get good grades. This whole idea that some middle schools prepare you for Madison (or any FCPS high school) and some do not, is just silly.

Totally disagree with this. First, if a middle school has more homework, requires planning ahead and budgeting time, makes kids work for their grades, graders harder, has higher expectations, or teachers a higher level curriculum, that has to - and does - help in high school. My friend is a teacher at Madison and said she can tell which ones went to LJ and which went to Thoreau. She said, by far, the Thoreau students were not used to more rigorous grading and expectations, their writing was inferior and they complained more about the amount of work. Yes, a kid who cares about his grade, will do so regardless of the school, but that doesn’t negate the fact that one middle school can better prepare you for high school than another.

—former teacher

How long ago did you have this conversation and did it account for fact that LJ kids at Madison were all AAP, and Thoreau students at Madison were mostly non AAP kids? That's changed now.

She’s mentioned it multiple times over the years. The last time she mentioned it was about a month and a half ago.

??? You realize that the kids who did AAP at Thoreau (in the first year of the AAP program there) are only in 11th grade right now (since TMS didn't do AAP until a few years ago). So, if we are talking about last year or the year before, those kids would have been in 10th or 9th grade. ALL of the other kids at Madison in the past years were kids who came from TMS doing honors.... and somehow, by the grace of God (or tutors), Madison still had a stellar reputation! Go figure! Must have been in large part based on those TMS slackers!

[Anonymous]

OP, just go to both schools and then make a decision. I assure you, you cannot make a bad decision here (even if you make a decision on bad information). Both options are good. Different. But both will put your child where s/he needs to be for HS. Guaranteed.

[Anonymous]

FCPS's curriculum has declined in general. I'm not sure it matters because I don't think most FCPS classes are taught at a very high level. Maybe an AP class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCPS's curriculum has declined in general. I'm not sure it matters because I don't think most FCPS classes are taught at a very high level. Maybe an AP class.

Nice opinion bro. I'll get off your lawn now.