Reply to College admissions from low SES

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Kids are compared against their peers in their high school first.  So yes standing out gives one an advantage in college admissions.

Many FCPS high schools are schools within schools.  A group going on to college, a group taking advantage of vocational training opportunities and a group where high school is the terminal education point.

Having a 1580 SAT and a 4.5 GPA at West Potomac is going to stand out more than those same figures at TJ or McLean or Langley.  [/quote]

It’s less likely you’ll end up with that 1580 SAT if you’ve come up through the West Potomac pyramid.  And only a few schools are going to care about making sure they offer seats to kids from every FCPS high school.  
[/quote]

Bullshit. Pyramids don’t produce 1580’s. Paying for tutoring does. [/quote]

We’d see better NMSF/CS results at the lower ranked schools if all the UMC families needed to do was buy into those schools and then pay for tutoring.

Nope, if you want to prepare your kids well, you make sure they attend schools with high performing peers, not schools that focus on the bare minimum needed to get kids to graduate.

[/quote]

My kid's at a low SES school, and I can say firsthand that the schools aren't doing the bare minimum. My kid's taking advanced courses, is challenged, and is thriving.

A constant refrain I hear is that a class at a high SES school is better than than a class at a lower SES school. As someone whose kids have attended both high and low SES schools, they've had good and not-so-good teachers at both. The hands-down worst teacher ever was at the high SES school.

My kids have taken advanced courses, and yes, there is a "school-within-a-school" aspect of doing so. My kids are surrounded by high-achieving peers in their advanced courses -- and yes, such a peer group exists at low SES schools. But believe it or not, even kids NOT taking the advanced classes can be high achieving. There are kids from lower incomes, often working part-time while in high school, and they plan to be the first in their family to attend college.

Are there as many advanced courses as higher SES schools? No. Are there smaller classrooms? Yes. I'll also add that my kids have encountered far fewer hallway fights at the lower SES school than they did at the high SES school. Like FAR fewer. [/quote]

It’s not difficult to check the number of incidents that raised safety concerns on the VDOE report cards. For the last school year reported Herndon had 256 and Langley 37. [/quote]

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