I was curious what everyone's experience or observation has been...Would you regard the number of Nat'l Merit Scholarship semifinalist/finalist a particular high school produces an indication of its general academic excellence? Or could it be a function of the school having a high concentration of high achievers from the start?
Our local paper recently published the names of the Natl Merit Scholarship semifinalists from our region and while most HS only produced 2-3, one HS had 15. Now, that particular HS with 15 is known to have a very rigorous IB program, so it attracts the high-achieving kids anyway from the tri-county area.
The reason why I ask, and I'm sure it really depends on the case...is that in couple years, my DD will have to make the decision of choosing to continue with her MYP IB and attend that "high achieving" IB high school, or attend our local HS with AP courses, a typical high school with 3-4 NMSP semifinalists.
She loves her current MS IB program and would like to attend the IB High School. She's grown up through a self-contained GATE class Elementary school and really shines most in creative problem-solving (in math) and creative projects (science, writing, drawing etc). While she needs the acceleration and challenge, she is not the serious,"hard-studying" type of kid though (at least not yet). She's a type of kid, loves to learn and have fun with it. Really hates the "studying drudgery".
I'm a big recent fan of Cal Newport, and I really would like my DDs HS experience to be intellectually challenging but also with enough free time to pursue real interests, especially since DD is a type of kid, who given the time, would come up with interesting and meaningful interests to pursue...I just hate for her to be so tied down to required IB classes, assignments and tests, vs having the flexibility to chose your courseload, which the AP route allows. (in fact in our area, since the State and the District also has graduation requirements, an IB student trying to fulfill the IB requirements have to take a 6-week PE classes during one of their summers! I find that not the best use of their summer mornings, but, perhaps its a necessary sacrifice if one chooses)
But, if indeed the IB HS is clearly the more enriching and intellectually challenging program that PRODUCES academic excellence (as indicated by the number of NMSP finalists), then I would certainly encourage her to attend there. In fact, I've poked around the IB HS teachers websites and I like the IB curriculum taught, from that distant vantage point...there is a lot of emphasis on deep thinking, active learning, and integration of knowledge.
As a side note, I have a colleague, whose son is now a Junior at the IB HS, has many good things to say about the IB program. Now his son may or may not have been GATE-identified earlier on, (I just don't know but he did not in the self-contained GATE program that our District offers), but attended the IB MS and now HS, likely is very hard-working, and recently scored high 700s in the SATs and SAT2 without any SAT prep courses etc, just studied on his own. My colleague attributes his son's success to the IB school. Other people have high opinion of the school, many others think that the IB kids over-work themselves, and few, I know even had to pull their kids out because it was downright too intense and stressful for their child with all the projects, tests, and general "competitive" environment.
My DDs would probably not be bothered with the "competitive" environment and can likely handle the difficulty, it is the matter of the workload, and how much free time would they have afterwards for anything else?
Its a big question in my mind...as one would wish one's child the best enriching, challenging but balanced option for HS...
