Has public HS improved that much?

[Ann@thebeach]

I ask because 25 yrs ago my high school education was seriously a joke. And this was in a large high school in the midwest. I wasn't on the AP track because I was graduating early but the classes I took were such a joke.

I remember world history being a film each day and reading a chapter in a text and answering the chapter quiz (with the book right there). No discussion or analysis. I had no government or econ. The only other "social studies" credit I had was a sociology class that was "get the book off the shelf, fill in the questions, done" type of class-again, no discussion. I rarely remember the teacher even speaking!

 

I had one lit class that was OK and a writing class (but writing was my thing so it was easy) but no other LA classes at all!

 

Science was 1 biology in 9th and then one earth science class in 11th that was a joke-no chemistry or physics because I didn't want to take them and no one pushed me. Entering the college of liberal arts didn't require it either.

I graduated with honors but it was such a joke. I seriously don't think I learned anything except how to "beat the system." I know I've learned more about history through my kids history lessons at home!

 

I bring all this up because my DH thinks maybe high school would be good because of the chem and physics and "analysis of world events" that my son would get. He's also worried about DS getting accepted to colleges without a "real" diploma.

I said "are you serious?!" :001_huh:

 

He seems to think schools are much better these days, I don't agree.

 

As homeschoolers I know we all think homeschool is best, but as far as academics-do you think the academics have improved in schools? (this is at public schools, not private schools). Obviously, there are a lot of smart public school kids out there. But do you think it's really the schools or partly the kids really having more intelligence and knowing how to work the system too?

 

Wondering about your thoughts.

[Jackie in NE]

Wait a minute! Did you go to the same high school that I went to? I could have written your post. Honor student and all that, and it was a joke. I could have done so much more. Like you, nobody was pushing me. My parents were just too busy, and "no news is good news", right??

 

Fast forward to dd, 16, and a sophomore. She attends the local public high school part-time. She takes her math and science there. I've been very pleased with it. Her teachers are bright and engaging. My dd now likes math, and she never liked it at home. She will have taken 4 years of math, through calculus 1, and four years of science, through physics and organic chemistry by the time she graduates. That is more than I could have done for her at home. Now, ymmv on the quality of the high school. Ours offers classes that really run the whole spectrum... from vocational, to just passing the time, to college prep. Maybe not all high schools are the same? Also, dd is happy that she is only there part-time. She just hates all the drama and stupidity that goes on there. And one more thing..... your children and mine have very involved parents that are really paying attention. So NOT like my parents. I think that makes a huge difference with ANY track you choose.

 

Warm Regards, Jackie

[MBM]

But do you think it's really the schools or partly the kids really having more intelligence and knowing how to work the system too?

 

No, it's parents like me who afterschool! :D I wouldn't call myself a Tiger Mother, but I do try to shore up the weak areas and supply material for the subjects in which my son is most interested. (Dh is against homeschooling which is why I afterschool.)

 

In our experience school has been a mixed bag of happy and not-so-happy surprises. For example, my son's history class for the past three years has been fabulous. The reason why is that his teacher enjoys teaching and is committed to his students. On the other hand, his English teacher for the past three years has been a slacker extraordinaire who bullies kids and parents. Ugh.

 

You can do much better homeschooling. Truly.

[Crimson Wife]

I think it really varies by school. Some of them have improved dramatically when it comes to academics (socialization is a whole 'nother ball of wax).

 

My mom's alma mater forced students when she went through to choose either honors math/science or honors humanities but not both (and strongly discouraged girls from enrolling in the former). Even the honors math track topped out at Pre-Calculus. Today, the same school offers the full International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma including Calculus.

 

When I went through in the early '90's, my alma mater only offered a single AP course and the math topped out at Calculus. Today, there are 9 AP courses and most of the bright kids take AP Calculus in 11th and post-AP math in 12th.

 

OTOH, the HS for which my kids are zoned doesn't offer a single honors-level class until 11th grade. :glare:

[MIch elle]

from what my dh and I remember.

Math appears to be harder too but that depends on the high school and the advanced classes that are offered and taken. Everything depends on the school.

Edited May 3, 2011 by MIch elle

[katilac]

I think it depends on the school, both then and now. I went to high school about 25 years ago also, and my experience was definitely different from yours. While there was certainly wasted time and stupid assignments, we definitely had a tremendous amount of discussion in history and literature. I didn't take "AP" classes but I did take honors classes - - perhaps that's the difference? I did have one brief experience in a "standard" class, and it came closer to your description. My school also let me skip chemistry and physics, and I paid for it in college :glare:

 

We live near my old high school, and the word is that both behavior and the "standard" classes are worse than ever. But, they have a career academy that I've heard lots of good things about, lots of honor and AP courses, and an International Baccalaureate program. I know one 8th grader who was tops at her private school, and she chose this public school over private and magnet choices (for academic reasons).

 

So, yes, definitely, some public high schools can offer things that one can't duplicate in a home school. You can create a rigorous AP course, altho' labs are difficult for science, but you can't fully duplicate something like the career academy or IB. And it doesn't matter whether high schools in general are better or worse than 25 years ago; it only matters whether the high school your son would attend is a good one or not (and a good fit for him or not). Likewise, it doesn't matter how well other kids do home schooling high school, just yours.

 

Altho' we currently plan to home school thru graduation, I wouldn't dismiss your husband's comments. His concerns are valid. Meaningful discussions and labs for science ARE an important component of the high school experience, so spend your time figuring out how those needs can be met while home schooling. There are so many choices: outside classes, online classes, informal get-togethers with other home schoolers. I do think that high schoolers need more than mom and a sibling or two available sometimes in order to have the best experience in discussion/debate. Notice I say "sometimes;" carefully chosen outside classes and experiences can do the trick, while still home schooling.

 

Use this board and google to find specific examples of how hs'ers are accepted into college. Check a few that ds is likely to apply to; many colleges have a home schooling section right on their web site, telling you exactly what is required.

 

Don't make the discussion revolve around whether public school or home school is "best" - neither one is best for all people at all times. Make it about your son's needs and goals, and how those can be addressed in either setting.

[EKS]

OTOH, the HS for which my kids are zoned doesn't offer a single honors-level class until 11th grade. :glare:

 

The local high school here (supposedly one of the "best" in the state) recently moved to an embedded honors system, which means that there are no honors-specific sections, but students can elect to get an honors designation on their transcript by doing more work. So no honors level discussions or higher level work--just more work. And AP classes can only be taken in 11th and 12th grades.

[Nan in Mass]

Our public high school here is significantly better than mine, and mine wasn't nearly as bad as yours. My oldest went through ours, so I know what it is like.

[emubird]

The parents that live near us think our local high school is really impressive. But when I talk to the kids about what they're doing, it seems to me that they are doing a lot less than I did in high school. And I don't feel like my high school experience was all that stellar.

 

Why do the parents think it's a good school? Because they've seen the test scores. Why are the test scores high? Probably because the parents are mostly educated, have lots of books around the house, and engage in at least some discussion with their kids. The teachers there also talk up the school a LOT. It's mostly PR without much else.

 

The kids tell me they don't do much of anything in class. There are plenty of AP classes offered, but the classes never come anywhere close to covering what needs to be covered on the test. The kids who do well have studied a lot on their own - often with parental help.

 

But that's only one school. There is one other school near us that no one wants to go to, but that may be because it has no theater or music programs. Then there is another school that has a lot of IB courses that everyone raves about, but I don't have any more info about that one.

 

Most of the "bright" kids are off taking college classes in their last 2 years of high school because even the AP classes aren't very good college prep. A lot of the kids struggle the first year in college because they didn't know the sort of things that would be expected of them in terms of writing ability, study skills, and just the amount of hours they would have to put in.

 

When there is the odd high school class here or there that the students find challenging and interesting, my kids are always amazed at what passes for rigor.

[PiCO]

My dd is getting a better education than I got at a private school in New England. Literary discussion and analysis, good science. Math is usually good, but this year her math teacher is questionable. I after-school on and off. Right now we just discuss what is going on in her classes (extensively.)

 

Socially, there is a large group of kids that do not drink, smoke, have sex, etc. And that seems to be OK with the kids that do- not a lot of peer pressure to partake.

[AnitaMcC]

My high school education was decent. And I attended three high schools. Most of my classes were very good. Some of my elective courses were weak. Consumer education, bookkeeping, typing... just can't see these courses being any stronger than they were-LOL. My core courses were good. We had a lot of discussions and hands on projects, well thought out exams, none were open book.

 

I had a few classes that were jokes but I feel that I still learned a lot... if nothing else I learned to stand up and advocate for my own education.

 

The only classes I felt was a joke was a "remedial" English class and 4th semester of German class. I was in the remedial English class because I requested to repeat my 2nd semester 9th grade English class. I started 9th grade at one high school and was getting an all A's/B's but transfered to a private school and suddenly I earned D+ in English. I had to transfer back to the first high school for 10th grade. I requested to repeat the 2nd semester of English 9. The private school English teacher didn't care about helping the students who were struggling in her classes. I found out she was actually teaching college level English to 9th graders (without any of us being ready for that level). Only about 5 of the students out of 25 student got above 70%.

 

Anyway back at the ps, I ended up with a bunch of kids who didn't care about their education. I got so fed up that I often walked out of the classroom and told the teacher that I was going to do my work in the library and when she got the class under control, to let me know. That was about 6 weeks into semester and I rarely attended class after then. Teacher was able to give me my assignments and arrange to have me sit in another English class to do my work. I was the only student in the class that wanted to learn. The rest were trouble makers.

 

The last semester of German class I took was not great but not the teacher fault. The original teacher got cancer and was absent for that semester (she unfortunately died from the cancer a month after school let out). The sub didn't know any German and the school couldn't find a replacement teacher. So we did what we could and a few 4th year German students taught the classes. They did try and we did learn... just not as much as we normally learned with the original teacher (she was awesome!!! and we missed her very much).

[rlugbill]

My dd is 13- she'll be going into 8th grade next fall. She has been homeschooled all along. But, next year, she will go to a very good private school, because we think it's a good fit. She really wants to go also because she's an only child and wants to be around other kids.

 

We considered the local public school. It's a "good" public school, probably even a "very good" public school, with all kinds of classes, international baccalaureate program, etc. But from what I have learned, it is not that much different from the way it was 20 or 30 years ago- same lockers, same bad food, same football games and cheerleaders and pep rallies, etc.

 

We did some of the same research you are going through. Checking out different schools, asking parents, students, etc. We discovered that there are sort of different schools within each school once you reach middle school and high school. The smarter kids are in the honors classes and the average kids are in the average classes and the slow kids are in special ed and vocational programs.

 

If your child is in the honors programs, they are good. Sort of the equivalent of a private school, although the class sizes are much bigger.

 

We might consider having our dd go to the public school later to do the international baccalaureate program. That is the equivalent of a private school education, IMHO. However, she will probably not want to switch at that point. The 8th grade and 9th grades in our public school system are not as good as the private school.

 

There is still the whole public school culture to deal with. It's hard for me to watch the kids who work hard, study, and excel in some areas like math or science or robotics or music- really great, talented kids who will do well later on. They get put down in high school- they are the nerds. Meanwhile, the pretty and mindless and the jocks with C averages in bogus courses get all the glory and recognition. I don't understand completely why schools do this. It all seems anti-intellectual and contrary to the stated purposes of a school.

 

Anyway, here are a couple of options that you might also consider. One option- opt for the local public school and make sure your child gets in the honors classes (you may have to do some advocacy) and then hire a tutor (or tutors) to ensure your child gets the personal attention and does well in school. Alternatively, you could be the tutor. That way, your child get the equivalent of a private school education because of the tutor giving personal attention.

 

Or, option 2. Keep homeschooling and take classes at the local community college. Community college classes are usually very solid classes and there isn't the high school immaturity and drama. You just go for the classes- without the social life.

 

We opted for a private school because it was a very good fit for us, but I think either of the above options are also possibilities that would give the equivalent of a good private school education with lower cost.

[Ann@thebeach]

As I was thinking more about this I realized I got a much better education, in general, in junior high. Our junior high was 7,8,9 and high school was 10,11,12.

I took spanish in 7-9 which was very good (and counted towards my grad requirements) and my English teacher was very good and I can probably thank her for my writing skills. I had one terrible science teacher (close to retiring) but one very good one.

I also had 2 good math teachers.

Maybe the junior teachers felt like we were still "moldable" at this age so they worked harder on us and in high school the teachers just gave up ;)

[creekland]

I went to a very good high school many moons ago. I now work in an average high school in a different area (slightly below average for the state of PA and PA is slightly above average overall, so I consider my school average).

 

There's no comparison. My education was miles better than what the students I work with are getting. It's why I pulled mine out to homeschool when the oldest reached the high school years. It's also why I cringe when my youngest is back in school for 9th grade (his choice).

 

I work subbing math/science so I see ALL the math and science classes at the high school level. Today I was in for Geometry. In every.single.class students (10th - 12th grades) had to use calculators to do the most basic of math -> like 18 + 8 or -4 x 2. This is common.

 

We supply the lower end of the SAT/ACT/PSAT range of kids. The sad part is that many of these kids are fully capable of so much more. They just don't get exposed to it. (This goes for English and History as well as Science and Math.)

 

Here's an example I posted of the actual final exam given for World History last semester:

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=237109

 

My homeschooled (up till then) 9th grader passed easily without having had the course. My homeschooled 11th grader got 100% even though he hadn't done world history since 8th grade. No student actually in the class got 100% and many of the answers were SAD!

 

If we lived in a different area where kids actually learned things in school I doubt I would have ever homeschooled. But we don't.

[Matryoshka]

Anyway, here are a couple of options that you might also consider. One option- opt for the local public school and make sure your child gets in the honors classes (you may have to do some advocacy) and then hire a tutor (or tutors) to ensure your child gets the personal attention and does well in school. Alternatively, you could be the tutor. That way, your child get the equivalent of a private school education because of the tutor giving personal attention.

 

This is what we're considering doing. Our local ps is very, very well regarded, but I still told my kids there was no reason for them to be there if they weren't in the honors classes. I'd be hoping for them to have peers who study and want to succeed (and I don't think this is unrealistic at this school) - if they're in classes with the slackers, the negatives would far outweigh the positives.

 

I'm considering the PS because I'm not sure I can do as well across all subjects than if they were in honors and AP classes there. But I have no doubt that I could do better than the "regular" classes. (I would take a part-time option, but that's not available here. And the CC classes cost $$ and are usually not as good as honors/AP high school classes - at least around here).

[twoforjoy]

I think many high schools are offering more higher-level classes to more students than was the case in the past. When my parents were in high school, it was pretty much unheard of to take calculus; neither of their schools even offered it. When I was in high school, they offered one AP calc course for people who were really serious about math and planning on going into math or science fields in college. Now, it seems almost routine for college-bound seniors to take a calc course, at least in some school districts.

 

Whether that's an improvement, I don't know. Opening up more opportunities for more students is good, but I do think that many students are simply being rushed through their courses, especially at the high school level, so they can take advanced classes they just don't have the foundation for.

[Hunter's Moon]

My old school is ranked #2 on GreatSchools.org and it is supposed to be one of the best in the district :svengo:

 

They go off of 8th grade state testing to place you, even if you have shown in 9th and 10th grade that you don't belong on the Honors/AP track.

 

The classes always had a handful of students who didn't care and ruined it for everyone else.

 

We weren't pushed to our full potential at all and I was on the Honors/AP track. Everyday there were disruptions by students who didn't care to be there but had to because of their 8th grade testing. Most were failing by some were just scraping by because they'd get in trouble at home. I'm not speaking of the kids who were struggling, I'm speaking of the children who openly disrupted the class and disrespected the teachers.

 

The language classes here, a joke. There is only one language class that I've ever heard students speak highly of and it was Spanish. The others --- Italian, Chinese, French, German, and Latin --- were seen as classes to play around in. Especially Italian and Chinese.

 

All of that to say there were some pretty amazing teachers who tried to control their students or teach how they wanted but either couldn't get enough support from the school officials to kick the trouble makers out permanently, or they were told to teach to the test (last year of state testing is 10th).

 

From what I've heard from my mother, schools here have gotten horrific and she went to school when there were race riots in the halls and classrooms, so that is saying something....

[mcconnellboys]

If you have good schools in your area, then it might be good.

 

My older son insisted on returning to school and our only decent option here, in my opinion, was a private school. Our public high schools are 2000-3000 kids. The one we're slated for has begun to have gang violence in it. There's also the usual round of drugs, bullying, etc.

 

The school we put him in gets good reviews, and maybe it offers decent classes to those kids who are placed in a top track, but most of his classes were a joke. I was terrified that he'd lose knowledge during that three years he was there and have trouble when he got to college (he has some auditory processing problems and memory problems that go along with that).

 

While his AP history teacher was terrific at telling stories, he did absolutely nothing to prepare his kids for taking the AP exams and only about half or less of them even passed. There also seems to be some problem with the grading of the tests as many received failing grades, then questioned those and found out they in fact had passing grades (but that's related to the AP exam agency, not the school).

 

He had two different chemistry teachers and they were both crazy as loons. One kept taking homework home with her to grade, then losing it. She made him make up a bunch of homework during the week before mid-terms when he should have been studying for exams! The other one began making so many improper advances and comments to the students before the end of the school year that they had to remove her before finals! Then there was no prep for the final (and all such tests are made up by one teacher of the subject to be used for all grades, even though all teachers don't teach the same things, so you may not even have studied what's on the test). With no idea of what sorts of topics are going to be on the test, chances of doing well on the test are cut quite a bit.

 

The Honors American Lit teacher spent most of his time talking about his love life and his clothing, rather than class. His selections for lit were abysmally boring and he never graded a single paper.

 

The "Drama" teacher spent virtually no time teaching much of anything at all and my drama loving son got into trouble with him over and over again (but still took a second class under him, LOL).... The teacher made my son and a friend clean out the props closet during the course of the second class and they played the entire time. Think giant dress-up chest of wonders.... Even I could have done a better job with drama than this guy....

 

Choir wasn't much either.... All this made me wonder why on earth schools try to claim that homeschoolers just can't stack up to what they do. That certainly was not the case for this school.... Oh, and it had won a "National Blue-ribbon School of the Year" award the year before he entered, by the way....

 

His other math and science teachers were mediocre, at best (geometry, trig/pre-calc, calc, physics, biology).

 

He had to take a "computer applications" course. They were not taught anything about using Word, Power Point, etc. that would have been useful (and certainly nothing regarding programming). They also were not taught to type by touch. Instead, they were told that they had to do timed writings with their hands covered whether they knew how to type by touch or not. They did a few business letters, but it was really just another waste-time, meaningless course.

 

My son had two really good teachers for the three years he was there: Honors British Lit (terrific curriculum, too) and Honors World History.

 

Oh, and he did take Spanish, too. His Spanish II instructor was very good and he felt he learned a lot with her (she also taught the AP courses there). He was inducted into the honor society. In spite of the fact that his grades and his induction into the honor society qualified him to take the honors level Spanish, it was not offered to him. He wanted to take the honors level course, however, so applied and received permission. He took Honors Spanish III the next year and while the instructor was very kind, he really felt that he lost ground in that class because of the way it was taught.

[Himfirst]

There have been so many good points that I don't want to restate them; however I would like to point out something else. I drive a school bus for a local high school. (9th-12th grade) As many others mentioned, this school offers both AP and IB classes, as well as professional classes such as Med Pro. What I would like to point out is that looks can be deceiving. Yes...the school pushes kids from middle school up to take more advanced classes; however this is almost ALL children. Meaning those who can't handle it just fail or do very poorly. Many kids I have talked to end up taking remediation to make up for not being able to pass end of course tests. (Even the bright kids) In addition, the grading scale is easier than when I was in school. When I was in school you had to score 95% or higher to receive an A. (I was an honor graduate, btw) At this school, the grading scale is now 90% or above is an A. Many of the teachers also give tons of extra credit, grade on a curve, or otherwise manipulate things to bring kids grades up. There are good teachers, but many struggle to teach well because there are so many behavior problems disrupting class. I could go on, but you get the point. Yes, your husband's opinion is valid. But, before making a rash decision, I would check into all your options: Dual enrollment in college while still at home, finding a good homeschool co-op that offers classes you can't or won't cover at home, some private schools will allow you to receive accredidation through them while homeschooling, etc. Also, check into colleges and/ or career paths your child may be interested in and see how they view homeschool diplomas. Sometimes it just means using an accredited curriculum. Research before deciding.

 

My prayers are with you.

[flyingiguana]

Many schools are pushing a lot of their students to take AP tests who aren't really ready for them. The percentage of kids in a school who take AP tests moves the school up in some ranking or other, making them look like a "good" school. The ranking does not factor in scores. If all the kids at a school took a bunch of AP tests and got 1's, the school would be high in the ranking.

 

FWIW, the high school near us has lots of drugs, drinking, wild parties, many drug arrests, shootings in the school parking lot, and even a death due to a knifing incident. However, my kids hang out with a group of kids from that school who are perfectly well-behaved and now doing quite well in college (many got into very high class colleges). It's all about who one chooses to hang out with.

 

Oddly, a lot of these kids got into places like Harvard and Yale, while the prep school kids (the school is just a mile away) don't seem to be able to get into Ivy League schools. I'm guessing getting into Ivy League schools is more about "diversity" than qualifications. These kids are probably equals in terms of test scores and rave reviews. But the kids from the public high school in an inner city are sought after by the Ivy Leagues, even though their parents are all highly educated and they live in a very nice neighborhood that just happens to funnel into that inner city high school -- and it's the very same neighborhood that sports that prep school.

[Ellie]

Nope, not at all.

[4wildberrys]

Nope, not at all.

:iagree: Lots of smoke and mirrors, especially reading any news about public schools and their 'AP' or 'Honors' classes that just...aren't. Not doubting that there are a FEW good public schools out there, but it is most definitely very regional and very dependent on higher socioeconomic and educational status of the population surrounding the school.

 

Of course, I'm not a believer in public education for reasons beyond academics....;)

[creekland]

Kids regularly take Calculus in our high school. They even get A's. However, they discontinued offering the AP test when only one or two kids a year could get a 2.

 

Many of the kids who get A's in Calculus test into remedial math once they do college placement testing at the schools they go to.

 

I'm still teaching geometry for a teacher who just had a miscarriage. These are regular kids - not honors nor learning disabilites. They can't do (-4)/2 without their calculator... one was arguing with me that the answer was -7 because that's what her calculator told her. It took me a bit to convince her she must have typed -14 in instead of -4. She had to pull out her calculator to double check.

 

They can't write the equation of a line from two points (that's actually an Alg 1 deal) since their calculators won't do that for them.

 

Few kids have a desire to learn. Most want to pass just to move on with life. And they want to pass with as little effort as possible.

 

When you get kids who want to learn, those classes are fun, but usually, there are just a few in a class - not whole classes.

[twoforjoy]

Few kids have a desire to learn. Most want to pass just to move on with life. And they want to pass with as little effort as possible.

 

I don't think that's a change from when we were younger, though, or our parents, or their parents.

 

I do think what's changed is that we're now expecting more and more students to take cover more and more material, and so they're being rushed into classes they aren't ready for. Plus, I think we focus way more on grades now than in the past, so who can really blame students for wanting to pass with as little effort as possible when they're being sent the message that the grade they get matters more than what they learn? I just think we'd be far better off if the focus was on making sure students had the basic skills they need to do college-level work, rather than trying to get them into classes covering college-level work that they are not at all ready for.

 

This isn't the time of year for me to discuss this, because I'm being deluged by e-mails from desperate students who "need" an A (or to pass) my class, and will do *anything* to make that happen. Why this didn't occur to them earlier than two days before final grades are due, I don't know. Anyway, the fallout from this attitude that all that matters is the grade you get and what your transcript looks like--who can have the most impressive-looking classes and the highest GPA is all that matters, and if you can manage that while not actually learning anything, all the better--is a big part of why we decided to hs. It is so rare for me to have a student who cares about learning at all, much less who cares more about learning than about the grade they get.

[creekland]

I don't think that's a change from when we were younger, though, or our parents, or their parents.

 

 

 

It's a big change for me as I went to a good high school where top kids actually did [mostly] want to learn. We had study groups and regularly talked about things from school besides the opposite gender. We also had kids (myself included) who regularly did well on AP tests. I don't see that at all (very, very rarely) in the high school where I work.

 

Granted, below the "top kid" level, things might not have changed as much. Perhaps some of them are being pressed into doing more than they are capable of. But, I suspect the problem lies more in not having the foundations they need to learn higher level materials coupled with the modern "twitter/text" society that only wants to learn in short bits of info. One can't really learn "in-depth" material in short bits of info.

 

There's no change in demographics between the high school I went to and the one I teach in now - if anything - the local one has higher demographics. There's a huge change in expectations of what kids are capable of as well as what kids are willing to do (or not).

[distancia]

The parents that live near us think our local high school is really impressive. But when I talk to the kids about what they're doing, it seems to me that they are doing a lot less than I did in high school...

 

The kids tell me they don't do much of anything in class. There are plenty of AP classes offered, but the classes never come anywhere close to covering what needs to be covered on the test.

 

Same here. The public h/s dd attended up until last year (Jan 2010) puts out a lot of impressive news, and a huge number of students take AP courses, while others are in the IB program, but the bottom line is that most of the students do not pass the AP exams. And dd has friends in IB who seldom had any homework!

 

The other thing that I find strange is that dd was never a fantastic student while in h/s, she was surrounded by others who were straight As and always winning awards. But when it came down to PSAT and SAT scores, these same straight A students were usually only so-so (mid 500s in SATs) whereas dd was significantly higher. Most of her once high-achieving friends have gone to mediocre schools and are now doing mediocre work. Baffling.

 

I do believe the students in high schools today are rushed through math and science at a quicker pace. There is so much more classtime missed due to "Peer Counseling Seminar" and "Communication Skills Workshop"--you know, all that p/c stuff--that something has to give. Unfortunately, it's academics.

 

The fact that dd chose to continue being homeschooled for her senior year as opposed to returning to public school says it all!

Edited April 28, 2011 by distancia

[ondreeuh]

I graduated 15 years ago, and my school was WAY more rigorous than that. My dd's school is rigorous and taught by passionate teachers.

 

I hope that your PS experience is far below average. I wouldn't assume your dd would have the same experience. Tour the school and talk to current kids & parents to see what their classes are like.

[creekland]

 

The other thing that I find strange is that dd was never a fantastic student while in h/s, she was surrounded by others who were straight As and always winning awards. But when it came down to PSAT and SAT scores, these same straight A students were usually only so-so (mid 500s in SATs) whereas dd was significantly higher. Most of her once high-achieving friends have gone to mediocre schools and are now doing mediocre work. Baffling.

 

I do believe the students in high schools today are rushed through math and science at a quicker pace. There is so much more classtime missed due to "Peer Counseling Seminar" and "Communication Skills Workshop"--you know, all that p/c stuff--that something has to give. Unfortunately, it's academics.

 

 

 

This sounds like our school - 'cept I had to delete the part about having AP and IB courses.

 

To me, a "good" public school would have at least the same bell curve the SAT/ACT tries for in their scoring. This means 1% of their students should test into the top 1%. Our school doesn't have any that test into the top 10% on a regular basis... Of course, I'm talking about the college-bound when I say this. A "good" school would also have tech classes and a path for the non-college bound IMO. We don't have all that much in that line either - but my "good" high school that I attended had both.

 

Perhaps that's how I get my definition of "good." It really does bother me that the typical ps student around here doesn't have nearly the opportunities other places have.