Reply to America's Most Challenging High Schools

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]NP.  A parent with a kid in Blair SMAC. There are a couple of posters here who are posting obnoxious posts about how Asian kids are superior.  This is bogus and offensive.  Then there are the posters who have been saying critical things about Blair and say the only reason the stats are good is because they have a lot of Asian kids who test well.  This is equally bogus and offensive.  
Blair is a great school with a large and diverse population.  The teachers are great, the curriculum in the non magnet classes is on par with any good MCPS school and the teachers and curriculum in the magnet classes are superb.  The principal and staff are fantastic and the school is run very well.  Their overall numbers might not be great (because they do have a lot of kids who are dealing with challenges that can make academic success hard to achieve).  I would say that my child's academic success is because of Blair not despite Blair.  He is getting an incredible education in the magnet program and he is also getting a very good education in the non magnet classes.  In addition, he is happy to be in a school where all kids are celebrated for who they are and for what they can contribute to the school community.  The school celebrates their scholars, their athletes, their artists, their community builders.  It is a wonderful school period.

Regarding the stats.  I think it is clear that Blair SMAC and RMIB have students who perform at a very high level.  You cannot do that unless you are getting a good education at school - there is no way the AVERAGE writing scores would be around 730 (out of 800) unless these students had a challenging and enriched academic environment in school.  You need both smart kids and a good academic program.  [/quote]

[b]Ever seen the buses taking these kids to after school and weekend tutoring?[/b][/quote]
I am the poster you (the person in bold) is responding to.  No I have not seen the buses you mention - it sounds very nefarious!  Kidding aside, are there children who go to prep classes in the magnet programs?  The answer is yes.  I do not think it is a majority but there is a decent sized group of children who go to prep classes for SAT etc and I believe some of the children who have Chinese parents go to Chinese language and culture (martial arts etc.) classes on the weekend.  I think you might be reading too much into this.  Especially in the high school magnets, everyone who gets in is very smart and hard working and they are not being coached to get them through the program.  You are challenged every single day in school in the magnet classes and would not survive if you needed external help on a regular basis.  I am also not sure whether all or even most of them need to prep so much to do well in the SAT exams etc.  I think part of it might just be a cultural attitude towards studying and being prepared.  I do not mean this to be perjorative.  I actually think most people do have to work hard to do well even if they are very smart.  One of the things I love about the SMAC program is that the teachers really stress the value of hard work, of trying and failing etc.  [/quote]

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