Reply to Marshall HS 9th Grade Open House

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It's been a difficult week for us after attending the Marshall High school presentations.  DC has had several emotional meltdowns. The session was mostly about the IB program, advanced placement classes, advanced placement diploma, etc. DC has an IEP for ADHD and anxiety, needs support and scaffolding to get through school and complete assignments. I wonder whether the school supports students like this or whether the focus is primarily on the more advanced students. Seemed like a pressure cooker to me and I'm wondering whether it's the right environment for a student like DC. [/quote]

Former Marshall parent of a student with an IEP here.  I'd look at it two ways.

First, on a day-to-day basis, we found Marshall (i.e., the teachers and counselors) quite supportive of our kid with an IEP.  I think it's a legacy of GCM once having been the smallest school in FCPS in terms of enrollment and having a more diverse student body than some other schools.  That resulted in their caring about all the kids, whereas some other schools have more of a "sink-or-swim" attitude (it's a rounding error at a wealthier school if a kid drops out or flunks a class).  The school is bigger now, but I think some of that legacy carried forward.

Second, in its public-facing role, Marshall has a bit of a chip on its shoulder compared to Madison and McLean, two nearby, wealthier schools.  That has resulted in Marshall focusing attention on things that differentiate Marshall from Madison and McLean - namely, the IB diploma program and the Marshall STEM Academy.  And they've also done things that, at least from our perspective, seemed mostly intended to boost the school's ratings, such as making IB English the default English course for most 11th and 12th grade students.

During an orientation session, you're naturally going to get more of the latter and less of a sense of the actual day-to-day experience of a student.  But if I had another HS-age kid with your kid's profile, I'd rather have them at Marshall than at McLean or Madison (or Langley).  It just feels kinder and less competitive.

Very helpful feedback. THANK YOU.

Some have also suggested that Falls Church, with which Marshall shares a border, is less of a pressure cooker, and it could be an alternative to Marshall, especially for a kid who isn't interested in IB (Falls Church is AP).  Personally, we also thought the Academy courses at Falls Church were more interesting than the Academy courses at Marshall.  On the other hand, Falls Church generally has a higher-needs population than Marshall, so there are going to be more students that require attention from the school in order for them to graduate on time.  So it's possible that a non-ESOL/non-FARMS student who has an IEP might have a harder time getting enough attention there, not sure.

If you do want to explore a pupil placement for high school, you have through May 1 to put in an application.

Hope that helps.  Sorry that an orientation session that was no doubt intended to be informative ended up being stressful instead. [/quote][/quote]

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