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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][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]

This is your perspective, and it's your reality—and frankly, it's not far from the truth or pragmatism. No offense at all. Good for you and your child. It was a wise decision, and it warms my heart to know that your kid did well.

For my kids, who were very well-prepared and advanced learners by design, I wouldn’t have chosen the lowest-performing high school just to make my child the "big fish" and get into UMD. Would it have helped? Maybe, maybe not.

My kids are Asian males. They don’t get opportunities just because they’re better students or have a strategic admissions approach. The truth is, they have to have undeniable talent and results, like Eileen Gu or Alyssa Liu. Who can argue with their skill and talent? Regardless of the politics or optics, the undeniable truth is that Eileen Gu and Alyssa Liu have the talent—and the money-making ability. Others gravitate toward them because they need them.

I wanted advanced subjects and coursework for my kids in high school—beyond AP, which by now was pretty basic for them—so they could be exposed to more challenging ideas and content. I wanted learning to be effortless for them later in life. I wanted them to love learning and to know how to master any subject through research, getting the right resources, self-advocacy, experimentation, and organization. I wanted them to have discernment, to see the big picture, and to think long-term. In short, I wanted them to be T5-worthy students in all ways—except for the demographics of being UMC Asian males—and to attend a college where they would have new experiences and pursue the most rigorous education available. I was cultivating their minds so that when they left my care, I could do so with full confidence that they would succeed. College admissions, for me, was the least coveted goal.

During the brief 12 years I had with my kids under my care, I wanted to help them get a strong foundational education across as many subjects as possible—like what’s common in many other countries. I volunteered in the classrooms, eager and optimistic as any mother would be, but soon realized that I couldn't rely on MCPS for even the basics. It was substandard across the board—barely comparable to the mid-level schools I attended in my third-world country of origin. And honestly, it pains me to say this because I came to the U.S. for the opportunities it could provide for my kids, only to find that the American K-12 system is lacking.

Inflated grades and prestige college admissions were never the goal. I’m fully aware of how college admissions work. I had already factored in the bias against UMC Asian high-achieving males. I was 100% certain my kids would get into some college somewhere with their resumes and applications, where they could take the most rigorous courses, hang out with friends, party, date, travel, join clubs, and breeze through their internships and jobs. I wasn't naïve, and I wasn’t in la-la land. I made sure the whole high school and college admissions process was stress-free and fun for my kids because the academic workload, extracurriculars, resume, volunteer work, competitions, and socializing were already covered. Achievements were made with minimal effort, but I wanted their skills, creativity, and knowledge to be undeniable—whether a college picked them or not.

My complaint with MCPS isn’t that they should have provided high-level enrichment in all subjects, but that they didn’t even meet the basic grade-level standards. Please remember, I wasn’t homeschooling my kids; I only supplemented for 1-2 hours a day at home. Whatever happened during the MCPS school day felt like a waste, but at least my kids were happy with their friends. High school is great in some ways because the cream rises to the top and self-selects into AP courses, but year after year, I helplessly watched as standards and programs were eroded, all while the system gave lip service to appeasing low performers.

Good teachers were quitting, and a new vocabulary emerged—"Tiger Parenting," "opportunity hoarding"—along with ugly racial stereotypes and negativity. Why were URMs now being pitted against ORMs? MCPS found collaborators in DEI advocates who, under the guise of leveling the playing field, ultimately harmed all students—especially URM and FARMS students.

The end result is that people like me, who were well-educated, had the know-how, and the resources, ignored MCPS and continued with enrichment and supplementation, so our kids could excel. The supposed "leveling of the playing field" never materialized. Meanwhile, the whole country seems to be dumbing down. And saying anything in the public sphere often leads to someone telling me to "go back." I see the anger toward Eileen Gu and the ugly “Wasian genes” threads on DCUM. I am now fully uncoupled from MCPS.

A mind is a terrible thing to waste.[/quote]

Go outside.[/quote]

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