In our experience, success of math programs at schools are highly dependent on having an enthusiastic math teacher that supports the kids.

We had never heard of the AMC's, etc but son's middle school (which was about an hour commute away) participated and he qualified for AIME in 6th. The middle school had a great teacher that really encouraged the kids and was excited about math.

When our son returned to our local public high school last year for 9th, his Calc BC teacher kindly agreed to proctor the AMC's. My son could not find more than 3-4 kids to take the AMC 12/10. He spoke to several teachers and they would give him names but were not interested at all. (The high school has 2000 kids.) We live in a relatively high-income area, the kids are just not interested.

Seeing this, son tried to find a group of middle school kids to teach and posted fliers at schools, spoke to teachers, posted fliers at a local Indian market and really searched but no one was very interested. He finally has a group of 3 middle school kids that he teaches number theory and combinatorics each weekend.

Last year he was probably the first kid from our county to qualify for ARML, yet no one around here has any idea what it is or means to qualify.

An enthusiastic teacher makes a huge difference.