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#191841 - 05/20/14 03:36 PM
Re: When Everyone Loves the School, but You??
[Re: blackcat]
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Member
Registered: 09/30/07
Posts: 99
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I think that parents of average kids are going to find schools like this great. The 60 percent (or maybe even 80 percent) of the kids right in the middle are served well. As for the other 20 percent....the parents have either accepted the situation, or they don't want to talk about it because then they will look like one of "those" parents. The parents who brag about how smart their kid is, or the pushy tiger parent. I have told very few people how I feel because generally they are one of those 80 percent and they cannot relate to my concerns at all. Our area does have a gifted chapter where parents can discuss things more openly, and that helped me to realize that I'm not the only one with frustrations. Yes, I agree that it is probably a great school for most. I think I posted to get some perspective and yours and everyone's responses have helped so much.
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#191842 - 05/20/14 03:37 PM
Re: When Everyone Loves the School, but You??
[Re: 22B]
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Member
Registered: 09/01/07
Posts: 3296
Loc: California
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Sometimes a "good school" is one where almost all students are "proficient" (i.e. meet some mediocre minimum level on academic tests). This just means that one way or another, they have managed to keep out academically weaker students. Ouch! We have a high-performing lottery school in our district. When DS12 was 4, I was thinking of putting his name in for the drawing, and I called them to ask about the school. The woman I spoke to admitted to me that "We don't take special ed. students. They are better-served in the other schools in this district."
Edited by Val (05/20/14 03:38 PM)
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#191849 - 05/20/14 04:36 PM
Re: When Everyone Loves the School, but You??
[Re: cmguy]
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Member
Registered: 07/25/10
Posts: 480
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Yup. Got this situation too. Great neighborhood school within walking distance. After testing we were advised not to use it ... ever. In fact we were advised not to use most schools in our area ever.
In our district the "GT" population is something like 10% of the kids (maybe this is political - it would be hard to get support for programs for 2% of the kids I guess). It could easily be true that 10% or even 20 or 30% of the kids are over 130 FSIQ. In these small towns with 'great schools' it's not a random sample, but one selected for high income and interest in education. So it could be that because of the skewed population 30% of the kids are over 130 and 2 or 3% are PG. But instead of having more than one level of enrichment they are so caught up in how well they cater to 'the gifted' that they forget kids are on a spectrum.
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#191852 - 05/20/14 05:08 PM
Re: When Everyone Loves the School, but You??
[Re: Mom2Two]
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Member
Registered: 02/05/11
Posts: 5181
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Exactly, Tallulah. The result is such myopic rigidity that the schools really DO NOT work for the HG+ kids in them. Which can be, as you note, a fairly sizeable percentage of the kids. Our town's district ID's a full 30% as "gifted." I don't know that it's wrong, since the major employers in town are a fortune 25 hi-tech company, a regional medical complex, and a state flagship uni. So yeah, there ARE a lot of ideally bright and probably MG kids in town. No question. But what gets aimed at that group doesn't suffice for the kids who are actually EG or PG, and it's all the more maddening to listen to the administrators, teachers, and school board patting themselves on the back for doing such a bang-up job of it all when you ask them questions ABOUT that minority group of students.It's as though it doesn't compute, your question-- as though you couldn't POSSIBLY have actually asked it, because you don't understand how Super Awesome their program is. 
_________________________
Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.
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#191861 - 05/20/14 08:00 PM
Re: When Everyone Loves the School, but You??
[Re: Mom2Two]
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Member
Registered: 04/26/14
Posts: 4039
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So this reminds me of the old rule of thumb in education (plastered all over RTI/MTSS guides, for those of you up on educational fads/buzzwords): no matter what you do, as long as you do it consistently, it will work for 80-85% of your population...be "meh" for 10-15%...and fail for 5-10%. Regardless of the composition of your student body, 15-20% will need something other than/in addition to your regular programming. And that last 5-10 will need something really different.
Edited by aeh (05/20/14 08:01 PM)
_________________________
...pronounced like the long vowel and first letter of the alphabet...
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#191865 - 05/20/14 08:23 PM
Re: When Everyone Loves the School, but You??
[Re: aeh]
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Member
Registered: 02/10/13
Posts: 1228
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So this reminds me of the old rule of thumb in education (plastered all over RTI/MTSS guides, for those of you up on educational fads/buzzwords): no matter what you do, as long as you do it consistently, it will work for 80-85% of your population...be "meh" for 10-15%...and fail for 5-10%. Regardless of the composition of your student body, 15-20% will need something other than/in addition to your regular programming. And that last 5-10 will need something really different. That sounds like someone patting themselves on the back. The reality is some educational practices are a failure for the overwhelming majority of students. On the other hand, they shouldn't dismiss 10-15% of students as inevitably unservable (as if to say, why bother anyway).
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#191867 - 05/20/14 08:27 PM
Re: When Everyone Loves the School, but You??
[Re: Mom2Two]
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Member
Registered: 09/01/07
Posts: 3296
Loc: California
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Well, it all depends on how you define "it works." If they don't complain and can pass the high-stakes test, it works! Oh dear, I'm feeling extra cynical today.  Or maybe I'm just filling the void created by lack of JonLaw.
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