Reply to Does the school pyramid really make a difference in the long run?

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Reply to "Does the school pyramid really make a difference in the long run? "

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP everyone seems obsessed with “outcomes”.  I’m not sure how bad your high school was if you didn’t consider this: I went from a crummy high school with 2 AP courses taught very very badly, admin was focused on football and trying to stem teen pregnancy.

I did excellent in high school, it was laughably easy for me, did pretty good on SAT and ended up at an elite university.

And almost flunked out.  It was like whiplash, going from a non-academics high school where I was the blue whale in a koi pond, to barely able to finish basic freshman math or history classes.  For the kids from elite public and private schools, college was actually way easier, so they had the luxury of developing new interests and friendship (which translates to later networking of course), while I spent hours trying to study enough to make up for my academic deficiency.

Now maybe folks will pipe up that curriculum is the same across FCPS, but I think for quality of education versus topics covered you will see a spectrum between schools.[/quote]

It can be said that every high school in FCPS offers either a large number of AP classes or a large number of IB classes.  Some of the IB schools also offer a handful of AP courses, but not the full array.  In terms of electives, it's already been shown there are differences among the schools.

There are also demonstrable differences in the percentages of kids at different schools both taking and passing the AP/IB exams.  Some will ascribe that to income, as if income alone explains all the variations.  If one were looking for other correlations, they can be found.  Labeling a course "AP" or "IB" doesn't necessarily mean that all students are getting the same education, if they have different levels of preparedness when they take those courses as sophomores, juniors, and seniors. [/quote]

Income is a proxy for so many things.  Higher-income families are more likely to pay big bucks for tutoring and test-prep.  Higher-income kids are also more likely to have special accommodations that allow them more time on their tests.  Keeping-up-with-the-Jones pressure is real in these pyramids.  It also results in more stressed out kids.
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People invariably suggest the temperature of the porridge at their school is just right, and too hot or too cold everywhere else.  There is a whole vocabulary to accompany it.  For every "stressed-out" kid at an alleged "pressure cooker," there is an unmotivated "slacker" at a "low-performing" school.

There really isn't any way to challenge the competing assertions, other than to ask how many of the assertions are likely based on experience and how many on envy. 
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Exactly. Do you. Stop labeling other people's experiences that they enjoy and think are right for their kids. Some people want their kids more relaxed for a variety of reasons and some people want a more competitive school for the same wide variety of reasons. They can both be good experiences.[/quote]

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