Hi,
I�m new to the forum. My DS is 13 years old, he recently got into JHU SET and we are waiting for his DYS results. Professor from SET recommended him to apply for a magnet high school in our area that ranked top nationally. It is hard to get into this school, not only do they have several tests to get in, they also look at the GPA, etc.

Our dilemma is that our DS has always been strong in reading and English, and that is how he got into SET. But he recently only got B+ in his English, which puzzled me. With his English, he is unlikely to get into the magnet high school. Private school is expensive and there are not many good choices either in our area. I�m wondering what went wrong with his English. Is it that his ADHD finally starts to get in the way of studying, if so, why he scores so high in his other tests? Does anyone have similar experience? Should I contact his English teacher or counselor? The middle school is an ok school, certain teacher doesn�t even respond to email inquiries.

I'm not trying to be offensive but what is your sons take on all this? Does he want to go to the magnet school? Just my opinion but junior high is about the time students advocate for themselves. That's why you may not be getting responses from certain teachers.

Our experience with an HG+ kid is that doing well in 6-12 is more about executive function than it is about cognitive ability, and possibly it is all about executive function.

He thinks it is great if he can get in, but if not, he's fine with local high school as well. For some skills (e.g. self advocate, social, etc.) some people are born with it, some needs to be trained a few times, some takes years to learn. My DS is the last type.

Thank you Kai. Could you please elaborate a little bit?

a quick update:
I got the email response from the teacher, and we got on the phone to talk about my DS yesterday. Quite surprisingly, she thinks DS is doing pretty well at school, both academically and socially. The B+ I saw hasn't included many other scores yet so it is the preliminary.

I'm happy that I had the chance to talk to the teacher. I'm especially happy with her comments about his social skill, which has been always falling behind his peers.

My DS did send emails. Some teacher responded right away but some never replied. So it really depends on which teacher he contacted.

Hi Kai, thanks for your reply. Can you please elaborate on why you think it is all about the executive function for kids 6-12.

Can you please share your experiences?

I am desperately trying to find some advices and I often struggle with which area we should put more focus on for our DS. Thanks!

Thank you nicoledad. We did ask our DS to send emails, some replied and some didn't. I guess it really depends on which teacher...

I'm not convinced that a B+ is a bad grade. It sounds like a pretty good grade to me. Honestly, if a B+ will keep someone out of a magnet high school, would a student really want to go there? That kind of emphasis is a way to create fear of failure and burnout in a child.

Children have to make their own way, and getting all As isn't necessary for success. There are many good colleges, and again, students don't have to have all As to get in or succeed.

Now, this is all my opinion, and I think it's very important to involve the student in the decision. At 13, he's old enough to have a lot of say in the decision. So where does your son want to go to high school? What does he say?

ASVA, I would investigate why his grades in his areas of strength are dipping suddenly to B+. If he has a consistent record of performing at a particular level in a subject and there is a big deviation in recent months, it needs some investigation. If your school provides online breakdown of the grading, you can look at the scores for each section along with your son to see where it has dropped since the last report card. Sometimes, my son has a temporary drop in grade if he turns in an assignment late or gets just a single vocabulary word wrong in a single test and it picks up back to normal levels in a couple of months because the grading is based on various factors. There could be other issues like burnout, being bored, vision problems, stress etc going on and only your son can tell you what it is. If you conclude that there is nothing of concern happening, go ahead and apply to the magnet school. As you said, these schools have multiple admissions tests and some of them are standardized tests like the ISEE and your son might do very well in those tests. Most of them look at the whole child and not at the grades in one semester to get a good idea on who they will admit. Ask your son to do a shadowing day at the magnet school to see if he likes the school. Also, have your son prepare a portfolio of his best work, his qualifying scores for SET and other accomplishments and write a letter to the school on why he thinks that he would be a good fit in that school and also how that school fits his interests.
Good luck.

Ashley,
Thank you so much for your thoughtful suggestions. I feel it is exactly what we need to do to help him get back on track. Previously, we just reminded him about test and asked him to prepare for it, but we never sat down with him to analyze what have caused the drop in grade. We knew we didn't get the right coaching method but we had no clue, or maybe forgot how we should coach our ADHD kid, until I saw your post. Your suggestion is very enlightening and I do appreciate your every single input.
Best,

Thank you Val for your nice comments. We wish he could make his own decision, which will make everything easier.