Reply to How can kids be successful in average MCPS schools?

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[quote=Anonymous]My oldest child graduated last year two years ago from what would be considered an average MCPS high school in the East County Consortium.  She is a diligent and highly motivated student, and we found that, in some ways, she and her peers were able to stand out more than they might have in one of the W-schools that people always talk about. She had a very nice cohort of like-minded students throughout her tenure in MCPS.  I didn't notice that her high school was lacking in AP level coursework, so although it's likely that the school was offering fewer sections of these classes than some high schools, she had many opportunities to be challenged.   The group of students leaning toward these higher levels coursework was relatively small at her school, so she and her friends often had similar course schedules and benefited from knowing and supporting each other both inside and outside the classroom.  At some schools, the existence of more sections of each higher level class might prevent this from happening as much.  We also felt that the teachers got to know this group of students and provided opportunities for ample challenge and opportunity.  This is not to detract at all from what is happening at schools in MCPS that have a larger number of students who take this pathway - I'm just trying to point out that there are some benefits when that group is smaller.  I have heard stories from friends in the county about very strong students from Bethesda or Potomac who are denied admittance from University of Maryland, not because they are unqualified, but likely because there are SO SO many students of that caliber applying from their individual high schools.  At our smaller ECC school, my daughter and a number of her peers were accepted not only in the the university, but into UMD's Honors Program.  This is just my own belief, but I think it could be because UMD can only accept so many students from each high school.  If there are dozens and dozens of students whose weighted GPAs far exceed a 4.0, some will be excluded.  At our high school, there were maybe a couple of dozen students who were known for this level of achievement.  When coming from a more average school, high achieving students can, in some ways, be recognized and rewarded more for their achievements.

I hope I have stated this well.  My comments are in no way meant to offend or to degrade any school or other family's experience.  We were fortunate in the sense that our child was very motivated to do well in school.  If she had not been as motivated, it's possible that we would have felt differently about her experience in this particular high school. [/quote]

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