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Happy Mother’s Day

Posted in Gifted, School, tagged on May 13, 2012 | 3 Comments »

Becasue nothing says “Mothers Day” like purple plastic flowers randomly stuck into pastry.

Well hello there! Yes, it’s been a very, very long time. So, you’re asking, why aren’t you posting anymore?  It’s hard to say, but I think, in a nutshell, things just got way better and the urge…the urgency… just isn’t there the same way it was. I don’t know… I write things in my head.  I see educational-related, gifted-related local and national stories that could be the basis for posts, but … but…

And then there is the issue of identifiability (is that even a word? Spell check says no).  Although both girls have done things in the past year that make me as proud as punch, writing about them at any length would just make it all too easy to connect the dots. And really, with them away and my role receding, it’s not my story to tell any more.

HOWEVER, I have been prodded out of hibernation by one-time reader, Perpetual Dissent.  For those who might remember (or care to do the Google) Perpetual was a fellow blogger, and a rather razor smart high school student who occasionally commented here and vice versa.  The other day, he wrote me the nicest email, which I will share with you shortly.

But first a quick update (I can’t resist).  C. is a high school senior, graduating in just three weeks or so.  What can I say?  The past two years have been really, really good.  She has worked incredibly hard at her school.  No, like, crazy hard. But it’s been good hard.  She’s been intellectually challenged. She’s had the independence she’s craved.  She’s found a great group of friends at her school who love her and who she loves back and with whom she has all kinds of crazy adventures.  She’s had a phenomenal advisor who has had her back and gone to bat for her a few times with the school administration, and, overall, super smart, talented and passionate teachers.  We’re so grateful that she’s had this opportunity to attend one of the amazing school.

And she’s still who she is.  Not suffering fools lightly.  Opinionated. Speaking out about injustices, advocating for women, immersed in politics and history (and Sherlock!).  One of the things that tickled us immensely was that she was voted “Most Likely to Rule the World” by her classmates.  Now how cool is that–after only being there 2 years?  It’s who she is. She’s awesome. And she (and I) would like nothing better than to write to that odious middle school magnet coordinator who made our lives hell and tell her, look at me. Look at me now. You were so wrong. Come fall, she’ll be attending university overseas, one of the top universities in the world, and again, we are so excited for her, as it is just the right fit for her on so many levels.

And M.?  She’s blossomed at her school. It was hard in the beginning, not only the academic transition from homeschooling to school, middle school to high school, but the whole roommate, regimentation part of boarding school.  It was tough. I describe her school as “Girl Scout camp meets boot camp.”  There was some self-doubt in those first weeks. But she quickly discovered that “hey, I can do this.” And what’s more, that she is a top student.  She’s being challenged, but there’s a lot of personal attention and support there as well. And because sports are required at boarding school, she’s become something of a runner, cross-country in the fall and track in the spring.  In fact, she was chosen for varsity and competed this weekend in the league championships.  I doubt it would ever have happened had she stayed local. Overall, we’ve seen so much positive growth. This summer she’s going to have an amazing internship opportunity with one of the Smithsonian museums. Again, we’re so grateful.

So, back to the very, very kind email that I received from Perpetual Dissent.  Thank you.  Thank you so much. It really touched me and it’s the perfect thing to share on Mother’s Day.

Hi there!

As a long time reader of the blog, I’d noticed the rate of posts start to slow. Since it’s been just under a year since your last post, I guess it’s safe to say the blog has gone the way of the dodo. I’m curious as to how your kids have been getting on, though, since I’m only a few years older (I’m finishing up my freshman year of college) and could relate to a lot of what you wrote about them.Also, if either of them is still having a rough time in school these days, I’d like to say that as someone whose 13 years of undifferentiated public schooling went about as you’d expect (I was reading Lord of the Rings in 3rd grade, so you can probably imagine how English classes were…), I can promise that things will be so, so, so much better in college. I’m at a ~750 student liberal arts school that has only STEM majors (a STEM major and almost an entire humanities major? BLISS!), and not only am I surrounded by people who are as smart as me, I’m surrounded by people who are smarter! After years of trying to find friends to talk with about the political structure of a zombie-ruled Earth as predicted by a close reading of Oliver Twist, it truly is paradise.Having work that is hard enough, and sometimes even too hard has made me so much more stressed, but also so much happier. Until I got to a school that could truly push me, I didn’t realize just how sorely I needed to be pushed. Having people just as smart, as strange, and as frankly ridiculous as me has made my life so much better. In high school I really never had that feeling of being engaged in life, because everything I did I could coast through. Running into things that are hard, that force me to think, and sometimes that I simply cannot do has forced me to work harder and better than ever. In high school, I could hardly motivate myself to do two hours of homework a night. Now I’m doing 5 or more hours a day, every day, and I love it. I know it’s cliché to say everything gets better in college, but at least for one gifted kid whose so called “top 100″ high school bored him half to death and who’s at a top-20 school and happier than he’s ever been, it’s proved so very true.I also wanted to say how lucky they are to have a mother who gets it. My mom is a wonderful woman, and she really did try to do what was best for me, but it took until midway through high school before she really got it. In elementary school, when I kept acting out (11th+ grade reading levels in elementary school will do that) she tried putting me in a group therapy thing for troubled kids for a few months before it became clear that wouldn’t help. The school recommended an IQ test, so when I was 8 I was given the WISC-III (if I remember right, I hit the verbal ceiling and scored in the mid 120s in processing). She didn’t really know what to do with it, though, so nothing ever came of it apart from giving me a bit of an ego.She never fought to get me differentiated instruction or get me put in advanced tracks because it took her so long to get that that had been my single biggest problem. I spent more time than was healthy on the internet from about 6th grade onward because it gave me the chance to teach myself and to escape bullying and loneliness. I finally started making real, good friends halfway through high school, but that was more because I mastered the art of the chameleon than any uptick in difficulty. I had 5 AP classes at once 2 years in a row (a total of 12) and those were no harder than an ordinary class as far as I was concerned.I know now that she really did her best for me, but there were many times when it felt like even my parents weren’t on my side, and that I was in it all alone, and it made things a lot harder for me.The fact that you get it and have fought for them has probably made more of a difference even than you realize, not just in the quality of the education they get but in the fact that there’s someone out there willing to fight for them. Knowing that makes a huge, huge difference. I certainly hope they’ve thanked you for it, but if not, I’ll do it for them: thank you. Keep fighting the good fight.-An older (and hopefully a little wiser) Perpetual Dissent

Perpetual, I AM SO HAPPY FOR YOU! And again, thank you so much for you letter.  I too am a little, and hopefully a little wiser.

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Decision Time

Posted in education, School on May 14, 2011 | 5 Comments »

March 10th was D-Day in boarding school world. The day that acceptance, denial and waitlist letters went out.  We did our best not to think too much about it, but it was always there, in the background.

Two weeks earlier I got a call at work, from C.’s school.  As a courtesy they wanted to let us know personally that they would not be able to accept M.  I appreciated the gesture and although intellectually I knew that M’s acceptance would have the been a real long shot, and that deep down it really wasn’t the right place for her, it still stung a bit.

Early on the morning of the 10th M. checked her email.  And was greeted with a subject line that read “Congratulations! You’re a ____ Girl!” She was in at the small, New England girls school.  M. was flooded with relief.  It wasn’t her first choice, but…  Now she just had to wait the entire rest of the day for the two other decisions, which would be released at 7 and 8 p.m.  The final school decision would arrive by snailmail.

When the fateful hours arrived, M. held her breath and opened her email.  Waitlist.  Both schools.  Very disappointing.  However, it was a waitlist, not an outright rejection.  There was still a chance, albeit very slim.  We also reminded M. that these are very, very competitive schools in a time of  growing applicant pools.  That she was a  girl, applying with no geographic, athletic, or ethnic “hook,” needing financial aid and with an academic track record that some might say was a bit of a “wild card.”  So the fact that she even made it onto these waitlists was something she should feel good about.  A jump over to College Confidential confirmed this; there were many kids who were outright rejected or waitlisted everywhere this year. (BTW, not accepted at the snailmail school, which definitely surprised us, as that seemed a “match.”)

A few days later, the confirmatory fat envelope arrived from the Flower School, and we all laughed when green and gold sparkle stars spilled out into her hands.  Nice touch.  Better yet was the financial aid package, which equaled the one her sister had received and spoke of M.’s academic excellence and promise.  That meant the world to M. The saying goes “love the school that loves you” and here was a school saying very loudly and clearly: “We want you.  We think you can thrive here and be a credit to our school.”

C. came home for spring break the next day (love those long school vacations!) and she was excited for her sister, asking that when the time can she wanted a school sweatshirt. Even though C. is happy and thriving at her school, there is something about the Flower School’s quaint traditions that really speak to her.  Her sister’s enthusiasm certainly helped M. warm up to it.

A few weeks later Dear Husband, M. and I drove up to Rte 95 for the school’s revisit day.  It was cold and rainy–we had been hoping for some glorious spring weather, as the last time we visited the school it had been 17 degrees and snowing.  Oh well.  Perfect opportunity to wear those Hunter boots. When we entered the lobby to check in, I introduced my myself and M. was automatically greeted with “Hello M.!”  That felt nice.  M. was given a t-shirt and one of those rubber wrist bands with the school’s name on it.  There was mingling and then welcome speeches in the auditorium, then a chance to sit in on an English class where they were reading the Aeniad.  The teacher, herself an alum, was young and dynamic.  Typically there are 12 students in the class, and to break the ice with the visitors, she had the students suggest a bonus question for the introductions. They chose, “Name your favorite kitchen utensil,” lol.  The class was interesting and the students engaged, which definitely created a positive impression for M.  Then it was back into the rain.  Husband Dear and I headed to the “dance barn” for the adults’ lunch (excellent), while M. went with the kids to the actual dining hall (also excellent).  We sat at a table with the head of the math department and a few other parents and we got a very good feeling from the math guy.  Afterwards music and dance performances were planned, but we ditched the performances and snooped around campus a bit.  Things finished up with a reception in the sports building:  a cappella chorus serenade, house brand artisanal sodas, fancy flower-shaped lollipops.

And then the long drive home.

It had been an intense two days.  So much to consider.  A few things still niggled.  In the presentations there had been a lot of emphasis on relationships and traditions, but I would have liked to hear a bit more about the intellectual life of the school, the academics. I decided to follow up with the school librarian, who upon M.’s acceptance had sent me a congratulatory email and the offer to answer any questions we might have.  Not only is she the librarian (you can always count on a librarian ),  but she is married to a department chair and has two girls at the school–that she had homeschooled.  We had a good, frank chat, homeschool mom to homeschool mom.   Forty-five minutes later I got an unsolicited email from the Director Admissions, fully and convincingly addressing my questions.  Talk about responsive.

Love the school that loves you.  Love the school that loves your child.

Indeed.

M. said yes.

Premature empty nest here we come.

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Buh-Bye Jerry Weast, Hello Joshua Starr

Posted in In the News, School, tagged , , , , , , on April 25, 2011 | 1 Comment »

As you can probably guess, I have absolutely zero sadness at the departure of Jerry Weast. Words cannot adequately capture the smarmy arrogance of the man.  I had one final chance to catch him in action at the March 28 Board of Education meeting.  An overflow crowd of parents representing  various interests  — including GTA’s Challenge Every Child campaign (do be sure to check out the online petition and read the 850 comments) — had turned out that evening.  In the midst of public testimony, which people were trying to listen to, Jerry strolled in to tell the gathered crowd that they should be sure to show up at the County Council budget meetings to support his budget. Lame.  Condescending.  I short, you won’t find me at the Jerry Farewell Lovefest. (www.WeastLegacy.com.  Really? So modest.)

So it was with great interest that I awaited the announcement of the new MCPS superintendent.  This evening, with much drama, the announcement was made (pending Board Approval):  Joshua Starr, Superintendent from Stamford, Connecticut.

Starr, 41, has three children and began his career in special education.

Since July 2005, Starr has been schools chief for the Stamford school district, which has around 15,000 students and 20 schools. He began his career as a special education teacher in Brooklyn and later helped guide reforms in early childhood education and gifted and talented education in the New York City school district, according to his career biography. Starr has a doctorate in Education Administration, Planning and Social Policy from the Harvard University.

Starr, 41, is married and has three children.

You can read the MCPS announcement here, and a story from the Stamford Times here. And more are being published by the minute.

By comparison to MCPS, Stamford is tiny. Its entire gifted and talented program takes one webpage, this.

Here’s a link to the Stamford School Profile from 2008.  20 public schools.  3.6% percent identified as Gifted and Talented!  That was all of … 529 students!  Dr. Starr, you’re not in Kansas anymore.

Connecticut News Teacher Talk blog ran a interesting series of stories about and interviews with Dr. Starr earlier this year.  You can see them here:

This comment does not bode well for those interested in GT (from Connecticut News Teacher Talk blog):

…what you hear here from Stamford parents and teachers is the frustration of a group of people that want all kids to excel and not only the lowest group. We are in the process of alienating and shutting out our highest performing students and their parents.

The whole heterogeneous grouping movement and forcing higher achieving students to become academic role models to inspire lower performing students to improve academically serves only one student group.

I, as most parents, are not against heterogeneous classrooms. They are appropriate for non-core subjects. But for math, science, reading and writing it is a recipe for disaster. Especially if you consider the diversity of the Stamford school population.

Here’s some more skinny on gifted education in Stamford (from StamfordParents.com). (StamfordParents.com, meet Parents’ Coalition):

Gifted and Talented Program: the program that never happened agai

The gifted and talented program called “Extraordinary Learners Program” was cut in 2003/04 after nearly 10% of 2nd and 20% of 5th graders participated. Board members said it failed to serve the truly gifted students because the selection process became watered down, and some students were staying in the program because of parental pressure.  So in early 2007 a new gifted and talented program was proposed. We have some kids who are very, very high achievers, and we want to make sure we have the right instructional environment for them,” Superintendent Joshua Starr said. “It’s a distinct educational need that a certain segment, albeit a small one, has.” The district will hire four teachers trained in gifted and talented instruction. The program would cost $575,000 next year and be geared towards 3rd and 4th graders.  Albeit it never happened. As far as I know, is was cut out of the budget and there is no program in place as of now, to help the kids that are truly gifted and challenge them at an appropriate level.

In 2008 a  9 week long Math/Science Enrichment program was offered for students in grades 5 and 8. Students had to score in the 95th percentile and above on the 2007 CMT  in math. Students would meet one day per week for two hours at Turn of River Middle School.

Uh oh, and here we really have it:  Stanford Residents for Excellence in Education:  http://stamfordree.org/.  Looks like Dr. Starr was engaged in quite a nasty fight over “detracking.”

  • Detracking in the Stamford, CT Public School System – Pablo Corcel Relincha blog 12/11/09
  • Another View Regarding Middle School Reform – Stamford Advocate 1/14/10
  • Forum sparks dialogue over middle school reform – Stamford Advocate 1/22/10
  • Middle School Reform:  Superintendent’s Response – Stamford Advocate 10/28/10
  • Nasty tactic regarding mid-school reform unnecessary – Stamford Advocate 11/3/10
  • Response to Stamford Residents for Educational Excellence - longer response by Dr. Starr
  • 1/21/10 Forum on Middle School Reform at Rogers – the good, the bad and the ugly.  Quote: “During the Q&A came some good news.  In response to an SREE member’s question, Dr. Starr FINALLY went on record in front of a crowd saying that tracking and grouping are different, and that, for instance, Westover’s model of flexible ability grouping in math and reading is not tracking and gets good results.  Pretty big breakthrough.
    THE BAD: But then, as if catching himself for giving away too much, he continued down an unfortunate path, switching gears mid-answer to address tracking again.  He said that many people in the community would like to keep the practice of tracking in place for the benefit of their own kids in the top tracks, with the side effect of denying kids in the low tracks (many of who are minorities) the opportunity to grow.  This is a disturbing tactic — to make up a non-existent “other side” that is pro-tracking and then position their beliefs, agenda and goals in order to try to manipulate support. Unfortunately, given control of the microphone, Dr. Starr was left mostly unchallenged on this. And left unchallenged, it seemed plausible to some who have not been closely following the conversation..
    THE UGLY: When many SREE members in the audience raised hands to comment that no one supports tracking, and remind him that he even just said 5 minutes earlier that tracking and grouping are not the same and that grouping works, Dr. Starr abruptly cut off Q&A.  Some of this dialog was covered in the Advocate’s article.  One SREE member commented, “if this is how he treats the public, no wonder the teachers and administrators won’t come forward to voice dissent.”
  • Dr. Starr quoted in Should Your School Detrack to Close the Achievement Gap?  In the April Education Update feature, “Should Your School Detrack to Close the Achievement Gap?,” Stamford School District (Conn.) Superintendent Josh Starr discussed one of the barriers to community support for detracking: language. Being able to explain things clearly and simply—parsing for parents terms like differentiated instruction, tracking versus ability grouping, professional learning communities, and how tests will be used—is a vital, ongoing part of Starr’s work. “Without being too technical, parents need to understand what’s going to change and need to see evidence of their kids doing solid academic work,” he says.

Oh dear.  So much for hoping to start off with a reasonable person on a positive note.  Looks like GTAMC is going to have its work cut out for it.  Challenge Every Child couldn’t have come at a better time.

On what was a positive note, Gifted and Talented Association President Fred Stichnoth was invited to take part in off the record interview of the Superintendent candidates.  Fred has always been very forthcoming in his reporting of GT issues, and I look forward to his take on the new Superintendent.

UPDATE:  There have been many more stories published, plus information gathered.  GTAMC has rounded it up in an announcement here.

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Under a Bushel

Posted in education, Gifted, In the News, School, tagged , , , , , , , on February 28, 2011 | 5 Comments »

Congratulations to Montgomery Blair High School!  Blair was honored on February 16 with the Maryland Excellence in Gifted and Talented Education (EGATE) award. It is one of just five schools statewide—and the only high school—to receive the prestigious award, which recognizes outstanding gifted and talented education.  MCPS actually issued a press release!  For those readers outside of MCPS, Blair’s Math Science and Computer Science program is a perennial of rival of Fairfax’s Thomas Jefferson High School for most Intel wins.  The school also houses a highly regarded communications arts program.

Here are the application requirements for an award to the school.  ALL criteria must be met to qualify:

  • Administrator shows leadership in expanding/improving programs and services for gifted and talented students in the school or school system.
  • Administrator allocates resources (time, people, money) to expand and improve gifted and talented education programs and services.
  • Administrator leads the expansion or improvement of parent, community, and/or business partnerships that directly support the education of gifted and talented students.

But wait!  There hasn’t been any mention of this on the school’s own website.  No announcement on the school listserv.  Nor in the school’s award winning paper.  What gives?  Isn’t the school justifiably proud of the award?

Hmmm.  Well there is this story in Silver Chips.

…Student Member of the Board of Education (SMOB) Alan Xie spoke with members of Blair’s Students for Global Responsibility (SGR) about the Gifted and Talented (GT) label Today. SGR is working with the countywide organization Montgomery County Education Forum (MCEF) to remove the GT label in elementary schools across the county.

Student Member of the Board of Education (SMOB) Alan Xie met with Blair’s SGR after school today.
According to SGR sponsor George Vlasits, the club is currently working to inform Blazers about how the Montgomery County Public School (MCPS) system begins separating students in second grade. After seven-year-olds take a test, they are sorted into the GT track or the non-GT track. “The [non-GT] kids get very little opportunities,” Vlasits said. “They would like to try more challenging material but those things won’t fly.” According to Vlasits, due to a discrepancy in teacher expectations, it is hard for students not on the GT track to get into magnet middle schools or magnet high schools. “If [non-GT] are constantly told they cannot perform as well as GT kids, they will eventually believe it,” he said. “It gets back to what we do early on….”
Ah, it’s our good friends the MCEF, they of the “no labels, no limits” campaign!  (I’ve written about them in the past, such as here.) I don’t know about you, but it strikes me as rather…icky…to have a club adviser pushing a personal agenda through a student group.   Particularly one that essentially is about sowing divisiveness in the school’s community.
Worse, Mr. Vlasits’ comments are patently wrong.  “They would like to try more challenging materials but those things won’t fly.”  Fly by whom?  Please!  Last time I checked there is no gatekeeping for accelerated and enriched instruction in MCPS (some would argue that’s the problem).  Any student or parent of a student showing the willingness and interest for more advanced instruction ask for it and get it.  Not there is a lot to ask for–we’re essentially talking accelerated math instruction, and in future that is going to be ratcheted back now that MCPS has decided that it over-accelerated in the past.  Plus a smattering of William and Mary.  So please show me this “GT Track” because I and other GT parents haven’t been able to find it in the 10+ years I’ve been around MCPS.  Instead we hear over and over and over again that GT identification is completely meaningless.  (40%+ identified as GT.  Thanks MCPS!)  Is he talking the Centers for the Highly Gifted perhaps?  Well, that program is there to meet the legitimate needs of outlier students whose needs can’t be met in a regular classroom.  Kids who would otherwise be bored and alienated in school. Is that what he’s advocating?   Denying the right of every student to learn something new every day?  Because it seems like the total elimination of all honors, magnet, Center, accelerated etc. etc. classes and programs is the only thing that will satisfy.

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Sir Ken Robinson on Homeschooling

Posted in Homeschooling, Learning, School, tagged , , on January 29, 2011 | 2 Comments »

Hello Readers! Thank you for the recent kind comments. So where have I been? Well, here. Between work whose demands are picking up (but not salary–everyone took a 10% pay cut in early December :-( ), homeschooling and momming, and shepherding M. through the application process this fall to 5 boarding schools and a local application program…well things got kind of busy. More on that later. But for now, I offer you Sir Ken Robinson on homeschooling. You probably know Sir Ken for his *wildly* popular TED talk on creativity. Here’s his very complimentary view on homeschooling.

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Race to Nowhere: Counterpoint

Posted in education, Gifted, In the News, School on December 8, 2010 | 3 Comments »

Welcome new readers!  I’ve been told that the link to my previous blog about the recent Race to Nowhere screening was shared on a local high school listserv….

Yesterday morning’s New York Times greeted the nation with a stark rebuke to the message of Race to Nowhere.  The headline reads, “In PISA Test, Top Test Shanghai Scores Stun Educators.”

With China’s debut in international standardized testing, students in Shanghai have surprised experts by outscoring their counterparts in dozens of other countries, in reading as well as in math and science, according to the results of a respected exam…..

…“Wow, I’m kind of stunned, I’m thinking Sputnik,” said Chester E. Finn Jr., who served in President Ronald Reagan’s Department of Education, referring to the groundbreaking Soviet satellite launching. Mr. Finn, who has visited schools all across China, said, “I’ve seen how relentless the Chinese are at accomplishing goals, and if they can do this in Shanghai in 2009, they can do it in 10 cities in 2019, and in 50 cities by 2029.”

This isn’t really news.  Back in 2007, the film 2 Million Minutes hit the screen.  (I checked my archives, and sure enough I had blogged about it.  Seems like an eternity ago.)  Here’s the trailer:

But should we really be worried?  Last week the New York Times’ Room for Debate hosted a discussion on college education in China.  The piece, “High Test Scores, Low Ability” argued,

Keju is dead now but its spirit is very alive in China today, in the form of gaokao, or the College Entrance Exam. It’s the only exam that matters since it determines whether students can attend college and what kind of colleges they can attend. Because of its life-determining nature, gaokao has become the “baton” that conducts the whole education orchestra. Students, parents, teachers, school leaders and even local government officials all work together to get good scores. From a very young age, children are relieved of any other burden or deprived of opportunity to do anything else so they can focus on getting good scores.

The result is that Chinese college graduates often have high scores but low ability. Those who are good at taking tests go to college, which also emphasizes book knowledge. But when they graduate, they find out that employers actually want much more than test scores….

Sounds kind of like where we’re headed with AP…

For years, Americans have been able to dismiss Chinese education for the reasons noted above.  “They’re machines,” we scoffed.  “They lack the creativity of Americans.  We care about the ‘whole person’.” But now it seems that the Chinese are harnessing their famously killer work ethic to meaningful educational reforms, such as improving teacher salaries and freedom to experiment in the classroom.  Couple that with the fact that “Chinese students spend less time than American students on athletics, music and other activities not geared toward success on exams in core subjects” and one can see that the prognosis for U.S. competitiveness is not looking so good.

So where does this leave us?  Throwing every kid into AP classes is not the answer.  I say, for starters, let loose our brightest kids.  Reward and don’t shy away from excellence.  Confront the forces of anti-intellectualism and feel-good self esteem that are often found in the teaching profession itself.  And let’s take another look at the role of sports in school.  Seriously, the amount of energy and resources and recognition that goes into sports is insane.  School should be primarily about… school.  Schools should be trying to do fewer things really really well.  For example, algebra–and none of this MCPS  “everyone take it in middle school but a C demonstrates mastery.”  Make sure every kids is rock solid with algebra, whether they take it “early” or “late.”  Writing–real, substantive writing.  By middle school kids should be writing 5 paragraph essays in their sleep.  A semester for health?  A full year of some bogus tech class?  In my world, they’d be gone.

I like this diagram that I found on blog Headrush:

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The AP Drug

Posted in education, Gifted, School on December 8, 2010 | 4 Comments »

Parents concerned about the crazy stress your high school students are under, look no further.  We have met the enemy…and he is your own school system administrators. The  Washington Examiner recently published article on declining AP pass rates in Fairfax and Montgomery Counties.

Fairfax School Board member Jane Strauss credited higher AP exam participation rates on “pushing it like crazy.”

“[Our students] know that AP courses and how well they do in them are important in their quest to attend the college of their choice.”

“Pushing it”… like a drug.  Montgomery County is no better:

A teacher at Sherwood High School said most Montgomery high schools have special committees to identify minority students who should take AP courses.

“Like kids who haven’t taken any AP classes but have been getting Bs and Cs, or if their GPA is above 2.0, they’ll try to target that student and enroll them in an AP course,” said the teacher, who spoke on background. “They know the subgroups they’re trying to increase [participation for]. It’s not a secret.”

Of 19 subjects areas offered, 50 percent or more of black test-takers failed 12 subject areas. On nine of the exams, at least half of Hispanic students failed.

Can you tell me how it benefits kids to meet this rate of failure?  Why it’s okay to take kids who are marginally prepared and tell them the stakes are really really high.  Oh, right:

But there were benefits to taking AP classes, even if a student didn’t pass the year-end exam: “You’re being exposed to challenging material. You’re with a different group of kids than you would otherwise be with,” the Sherwood teacher said.

The “optics”.  You don’t want to walk by a class room and only see one demographic group represented.  Oh, and the Jay Mathews High School Challenge Index ratings.

So we are willing to trade some people’s sensitivities for killer stress on kids, crushing failure and missed opportunity to really and deeply learn material at an appropriate level.  Hello people!  AP courses are ostensibly college level classes and the exams test college level material.  Whatever happened to doing college in — gasp — college?  Meanwhile, gifted kids who maybe could handle advanced work and yes, college in high school, are often barred from AP classes.

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Race to Nowhere: Ground Zero

Posted in education, Learning, School on December 4, 2010 | 3 Comments »

This week I finally had the opportunity to see the documentary Race to Nowhere.  I first wrote about it back in January, when was it a mere twinkle in the eye of a few education bloggers.  Fast forward ten months, and it’s been making the rounds of county high schools in PTA screenings, eliciting tears in some audiences. (“I laughed.  I cried.  It was better than…” Oh, never mind.)

I didn’t detect any tears last night, although there were several points of knowing laughter:  Watching families argue about homework late into the evening; the dash to the car mid-chew for yet another activity; the student wondering aloud about the relevance of studying The Scarlet Letter; the stress expert who confessed that even he falls victim to worrying if his kids will get into a “good” college.  After the movie was over we were asked to take a minute to share our impressions with our neighbors.  (Bless my friends with the right attitude for these kinds of exercises:  “If I had to wear that school uniform,” the dad whispered, “I would hate to go to school too.”)

There followed a panel of students and teachers, to whom we were encouraged to submit questions.  May it go on the record, I was NOT the person who submitted the first question, the one that essentially made the case for homeschooling and asked whether the panel thought this might be a viable option for some.  The response to that question was a kind of stunned silence.  The remaining questions hewed more closely to the themes of the movie.  Were the students shown representative of the students in this local school? (yes)  Did students at this school feel similarly stressed?  (yes)  Would teachers consider cutting homework? (yes…and no).  The one comment that had me nodding came from an administrator who noted that some schools in the county were considering the total elimination of honors-level English, leaving only on-level and AP.  Some choice.  She stated emphatically that she would never support such a move at this school.  Good for her.

But back to the movie.  Much of it rang true in terms of the sleep deprivation, the cram-it-in-and-forget-about-it approach to “learning,” the “and?…” feeling that teens have of never being “enough.”  (For a window into that world, check IBFMyLife.com or the High School Life board on College Confidential. At the moment one of the threads is “Most Sleep You’ve Gotten in One Night This School Year.”)

It had me thanking my lucky stars that C. has crafted her own escape.   At her new school she takes five classes, the standard load, instead of seven.  Her class sizes are ridiculously small so that there is discussion and meaningful work; it’s not an assembly line sausage factory.  And her school year is shorter.  She started school in early- to mid-September, had a full week off at Thanksgiving, will have three full weeks at Christmas, two and a half weeks for Spring break and wraps the whole thing up by June 2nd.  Does she still work incredibly hard, with late nights and too little sleep?  Absolutely.  Does she push herself relentlessly in pursuit of attending what in her opinion are “top schools?”  Totally.   But there still seems to be time for her to enjoy meals, engage in multiple activities including the mandatory sport — in her case, yoga :-) — and watch bad movies on Netflix streaming video (busted!).  Her pressure cooker MCPS magnets had her work like a machine, and now she’s reaping the rewards of a relatively more balanced — for her — life.

For me, a noteworthy moment in the film was when Dr. Denise Pope, Co-Founder, Challenge Success at Stanford University, stated that we have taken an education meant for the top 2-3% of students (AP classes, intensely academic) and mandated it for all.  Amen sister.  Many kids crave and thrive on this level of challenge — and they should get it.  But why isn’t it PC to say it’s not for everyone?

It was also fun to “see” a blogger I’ve read and corresponded with, Sara Bennett, make the case against homework, especially at the elementary level.  (What?  Six-plus hours a day isn’t enough of my kid’s life?)

I was also struck by the plight of the few low-income kids featured in the film.  They felt tremendous academic pressure because without merit aid they might not be able to attend college.  It also struck me that many have been sold a complete bill of goods.  Many were struggling.  To the girl with the tears in her eyes who mentioned that she was “thinking Harvard”—but hadn’t passed the state assessment, I wanted to pat her on the hand and say, “Honey….”

When the lights came up part of me felt frustration.  Evidently this school’s Health and Safety Committee is going to try to continue the dialogue sparked by the film.  Great!  Let the dialogue about student stress continue.  But I also wanted to say, People, you needed to be focusing your energy on the curriculum committee years ago.  That’s when the crazy ass math curriculum was rolled out that — whoopsie! — the county now acknowledges was deeply flawed in how it over-accelerated students, setting kids up for failure and/or tutoring and remediation down the road.  You needed to be paying attention two years ago, when MCPS started rolling out its Seven Keys to College Readiness propaganda, successfully scaring the bejeezus out of elementary school parents while quietly admitting that its grade level classes will insufficiently prepare a child for college.  You need to be in the trenches right now, fighting for programs like the Visual Arts Program and threatened vocational education opportunities.  You need to be fighting the advocates of one-size-fits- all education who want to pressure kids into classes for which they are not prepared, the result often being failure or dumbing down of classes.

Asking the teachers if they would go to a no homework policy seems unfair, as they are mere pawns.  They just happen to be at ground zero of the NCLB testing diktat, the creeping state graduation mandates (don’t get me started on that Technology class….), MCPS achievement boosterism.   Polite chat about drug and alcohol abuse and stupid start times ultimately will change nothing.  Parents need to engage with the educational power structure at the county, state and national levels, the folks who actually have the ability to set policies.  (By the way, here’s the MCPS Homework Policy:  “In Grades K-8 homework should be assigned three to five times a week and should be considered the rule rather than the exception to daily activity.”)

Two more points.  A certain area school that shall not be named has been touting itself as an antidote for much of what Race to Nowhere depicts.  Um, no.  And in a case of fortuitous timing, it was interesting to read a story in the New York Times this week about burned out PTA mothers who are simply saying no more to volunteer obligations around school.  Yes, something has to change, but saner homework expectations is just the tip of the iceberg.

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