Thank you all for your thoughtful responses. I truly appreciate them.
Indigo, I read the first 3 articles you referenced over the past year, actually, so thank you for the feedback...it does make me feel better that I was on the right track. Also, DD is not exceptionally gifted. I only know this because school was so lame last year that I got her tested to better assess if school became so easy because of her aptitude, or because it did not present enough challenge to the above average smart kid (she had been tested in VA and was ID gifted based on group OLSAT but never had indiv test there).
Neither myself or my husband ever attended public school (catholic school all the way through for him; catholic elem and private HS for me). We made a conscious decision to give the VA public schools a try, mostly to try to assimilate into the community, when we moved there when DD started 2nd gr (she was private school here before then). Turns out, the VA schools really did devise programs to meet the needs of different types of students. Bottom line, it made be a believer that public schools can do great things. If a big school district can do it, surely a small well funded one with a much higher-educated parent base can. Or should!
What frustrates me is the MS principal's absolute belief that the school cannot possibly do anything because 'it already offers such a rigorous academic environment'. Her support for that opinon is the school's strong standardized test scores (gee, demographics have nothing to do with that! Don't get me started...), and 'how successful the students are'. I'm sorry, 20% of the school having straight A's and 60%+ having a 3.5 GPA or above is not an indication of rigor...it's the opposite!
My DD has shadowed at a few private schools. In fact, my younger kids both go to different private schools that meet their needs best (one quirky smarty pants DS whose school only goes to 3rd grade, and another DD at Catholic school which just works for her personality, but which older DD did not consider due to its extremely small 7th grade).
DD liked the private schools she checked out, but didn't love them. The biggest difference she noticed was 'less kids who were tuned out because the classes were smaller' and more back and forth interaction (hmm, teaching?) between the students and teachers. Because there is no private school in town, it's upheaval for the fam, and missing out on forming relationships with locals, if she goes private, not to mention the financial sacrifice. DD really wanted the MS to work out here..and,
I didn't want to go down now without a fight.
In a school district with far more $ (average student expenditures= $14K per student, average teacher salary = $97K, and a school-supporting nonprofit pours in additional $500K a year for whatever is needed), 3% ESL, and about 10% 'socioceconomically disadvantaged...does it get any easier to step it up a notch?
The rest of this post is a rant.
I met with the MS principal today to discuss what could be done to offer more meaningful engagement given she will not consider independent study. After the principal saying 'your daughter is the 1% and there is absolutely no way I can make classes more challenging while still meeting the needs of everyone else' and me suggesting that the stats suggest there is opportunity for challenge for a group much larger than just my daughter (the other 20% straight A-ers, for example), I suggested the very basic idea of offering advanced academics core classes. The absolute answer was no, not gonna happen. Clearer than that, 'there is nothing, absolutely nothing, we can do in the classroom, but you can consider more extracurricular activities.' Left me speechless.
I'd found copies of current research articles, position statements from the NAGC/NMSA regarding meeting the needs of high ability and high potential learners, and a dissertation on 'Designing a Middle School Education Program of Excellence' that speak to the value of challenge, authentic learning, and working with appropriate peer groups. But advocating is difficult when you are dealing with a principal who will not move off the premise of 'there's nothing we can do'. Her level of ignorance is astounding.
Master of none, it seems there are lots of involved parents in elem years in public school here. But I think it takes parents all of 6th grade to figure out that their kid adjusted fine to MS, and another 1/2 year to figure out the MS is an academic joke, then, who wants to move their kid at the end of 7th grade, when the high school is decent? Ha, maybe we are in the same school district !
I actually could care less about grades. I care about my child's passion for learning...fueling that while getting her comfortable that the pursuit of knowledge can and should take effort is what I want, so that she ultimately relies on her own skills and sensibilities to pursue whatever opportunities she chooses to in life.
Blue Magic, I too would love to know who this 'someone' is who decided hanging out in MS until any passion you ever had for learning just for the sake of learning is a faint glimmer. If it were up to me, we'd go back to the K - 8 model.
DD is taking algebra currently, in 7th grade. She likes it because she's learning. I'm not necessarily a huge fan of cramming everything down but in the absence of anything else challenging, I encouraged her try it because who cares if she decided to retake it in 8th grade. She's sort of mathy so it's been fine.
BTW, as far as DD getting all 100's, there's so much extra credit available that basically if you are an A student and do even some EC, you'll end up with a 100 average. DD will do some EC because she cares, and wala, straight A+'s. I'm not a huge HW fan but because she's rarely got more than 45 minutes, never any on the weekend, etc. it's not hard to do a little EC.
Thank you again for your responses. I'll go back to lurking now:)
Master of None, I will look into the art of problem solving (I reviewed awhile ago for my younger son but have to revisit).
So we're like moving to private school for 8th grade, just so my daughter gets some confidence that she will be prepared for HS. But I'm not leaving without providing feedback to the school board. I've paid my property taxes for 20 years in this town so I feel I'm entitled to it!
