Check it out. The Post reported on Thursday that Virginia has approved another Governors School:
In the works for two years, the governor’s school received the go-ahead from the Virginia Board of Education last week and is expected to open in September 2010 to rising high school juniors in Prince William County, Manassas and Manassas Park. The rigorous school, which will be at George Mason University’s campus in Manassas and will eventually have about 150 students….
The governor’s school will offer a partial-day program, with students returning to their home school in the afternoon for English, government and elective classes, said Hubbard, one of the roughly 35 educators and parents who helped plan the school. The program will weave science, technology, engineering and math concepts together with the core curriculum focused on environmental issues.
And Maryland? Nada. We have nothing like this, on a multi-county level. Why? I guess the assumption is that our schools are so fabulous that our gifted students are well served. If anything, Montgomery County is going in the opposite direction, not “marketing” certain programs as targeted to the creme de la creme, and rather “spreading the wealth.” That strategy, a la Malcolm Gladwell makes a certain amount of sense (Harvard is only going to accept X number of students from a single school). But it doesn’t really serve exceptional students who would benefit from a concentrated grouping of peers and resources.
MCPS offers some opportunities for early college, mostly through Montgomery College, our local community college. But they are largely targeted to at-risk kids and vocational training. The Early College Scholars Program at Northwood High School has a relationship with University of Maryland, but states
It is NOT designed to shorten the time a student spends in college, but rather to provide a support for the student as they learn to navigate the demands of being successful in college.
All strictly lay out GPA requirements and the requirement of junior and senior status. And in all these cases, parents pay: $387.60 for each 3 credit hour semester class, plus books. In contrast, look at Minnesota’s Post-Secondary Enrollment Options (PSEO).
The PSEO program covers all course tuition and fees and text books. It also covers consumable supplies that are required specifically for a class, such as art supplies, film, etc.
Notice who is eligible. “The Minnesota Legislature established the PSEO program in 1985 to give students an opportunity to enhance the education that they receive at their local high schools, alternative area learning centers, charter schools or home schools. (emphasis added.)
The University of Maryland has provisions for dual or concurrent enrollment–even for homeschoolers–but man, is it complicated. And there is that persistent obstacle to acceleration and early college for students who don’t homeschool, namely the four years of English requirement. If you can’t accelerate a year somewhere along the way, you’re screwed. It doesn’t seem to matter how advanced your English classes are, four years are four years. Meanwhile, math acceleration in MCPS grows willy-nilly and increasingly we will have kids who “run out” of math at their high schools. But provide a path for kids who are verbally gifted? Fuggedaboutit.
I heard that Alexandria City Public Schools (and maybe Arlington) were really upset about Thomas Jefferson (that was the first Governor’s School, right?) because they said it would cause a “brain drain” as their best students were drawn there. Would Maryland’s worst-performing districts (Prince George’s and Baltimore) feel the same way? Maybe that would be good reason to put those kind of programs in those jurisdictions.
We are just back from Singapore, and find the trend in Maryland disheartening to say the least. We are even considering a MOVE TO VA! We lived in Arlington before our kids were born, so we think we might fit in in Farifax County.
Virginia? Gasp!