@4MyKidz today’s email said that graduating seniors should show up on Friday and will graduate on time as long as no unexcused absences between now and graduation on 5/23 and they complete all course requirements. But still no word on 9th, 10th and 11th graders. I know that our high school teachers have been told they have to report for work for 5 additional days after the previously scheduled end of school but the District hasn’t said what will happen to the students’ schedule.
@Corinthian Each school district is different, but mine has built in extra days in our school year, in addition to bad weather days. So even with a week strike our students would still probably finish the school year on time. And I don’t know about AZ’s DOE, but here in TX, there seems to be a waiver for just about anything! But yes, teachers will be held to their contract days. Kind of sux because without kids there’s only so much professional development to do. Hopefully they will use that time for content mastery with students. It’ll work out.
Just getting caught up here for the day, this has been a busy board! I can’t believe in a year this whole whirlwind will be over. Here’s to us getting it done without a lot of anxiety. :((
@dfbdfb my kid is going to check out St. Mary’s U also. We are in San Antonio, and she didn’t want to go to school in state or anywhere nearby. Things have been evolving, so I took a look at their website and remembered that I know a professor there. Then I see that they give pretty decent merit aid. So we will definitely go take a look once school is out. We’ve lived in S.A. over 12 years and have hardly done any Fiesta events. It is a fun city! If my D decides to go to St. Mary’s, it’s far enough away from home that it should feel different. We are not Catholic either, but this U doesn’t make chapel mandatory. I am eagerly awaiting your review for St. Mary’s!
Regarding AP credits…both of my college kids used their AP credit to place into higher level classes with no problem.
My kid is taking AP stats instead of AP calc BC, but since he is interested in psychology it was a foregone conclusion. Also, the calc BC teacher has a nasty reputation for favoritism and the stats teacher has a ‘tough but fair’ reputation. The quality of the teacher makes a huge difference in a high school math class.
You may want to have your kid grab hold of any graduating seniors while they are still around and ask advice on the relative strengths of the classes. They are the ones with the most direct recent experience.
@Corinthian I had no idea that teachers had walked out in AZ! I’m an 8th grader teacher in Maryland and honestly I wish we were able to walk out. We had a period of about 5 years where no one received a step or cost of living increase, we were all stuck at our same salary level. The past three years we have had small increases but nothing significant. And our healthcare costs have gone up that any raises we receive disappear and out net pay gets lower. I found a paycheck from 10 years ago and the net pay was generally the same as it is today! Our county executive is not supportive of teachers but it’s an election year and all of a sudden he has decided we are getting two steps next year - one in September and one the end of January 2019. Makes me nervous that he is going to be supportive because he wants to be reelected but then the support will disappear next year. He owns a restaurant chain here in Maryland and he sent an email to all of the teachers in my county and said that he wanted us to know he supported teachers and offered a discount if we dined at his restaurant. LOL - that DID NOT go over well! I told my husband his restaurant is on permanent boycott!!
@homerdog, good luck to your son in history on Saturday! SAT 2 is a no go zone for D19. If we had started test prep earlier, maybe she would have been up for it. But we were so ignorant and blissful . . . 
I like the mantra idea “calm and focused”. My favorite is “everything’s gonna be alright” a la Bob Marley.
@SDCounty3Mom, I see you had an SAT realization like we did (only ours came pretty late!). D is also scheduled for June in case something goes wrong on Saturday, or in case she feels up to continuing to prep and a 2nd go. I think you hit the nail on the head with “over prepared”. That’s how my D needs to feel–ready, early, checking it twice. I’m a roll-out-of-bed, coffee-in-the-car person, so thanks for reminding me to focus on breakfast and early arrival.
Kiddo got his SAT score back from the April 10th sitting. 1350, 730RW and 620 math. We knew all along that the ACT was his test (32) this just confirms it. He scored pretty low on the essay but after reading his essay I’m not surprised, he didn’t put a lot of effort into it and it’s barely a page long.
Warning, local politics below, avoid if you really don’t care.
@kona2012 That’s funny about your county exec. I’m fairly involved in our county board of education foofaraw. There is serious animosity between our county exec and the governor/state so they are always throwing obstacles at one another. The county exec appointed an interim superintendent and then shoved her through the county BOE without public review and without nominating any competing candidates. The state BOE just shot her down and said that she can’t be more than interim without those steps. County exec is running for governor and the pissing matches are beginning to take serious collateral damage.
Update from AZ: the legislature worked through the night. The gallery, plaza and public areas were filled with teachers all night. At 6 am the governor signed a bill that is a start at restoring the cuts from the last 10 years. So hurray school is back in session on Friday after 6 missed days. Waiting for word on whether instructional time needs to be made up. Also we got an email last night about a study session for APUSH and AP English Language in the library this morning. @Kona2012 there was a split of opinion apparently about the legality of the AZ teacher walkout. There is some 47 year old attorney general’s opinion saying they’re public employees and can’t strike. So it was risky for the teachers but they obviously felt it was worth it.
@ninakatarina that’s a pretty solid attempt for the SAT. Maybe he could prep on math a but and try again, and end up with a nice super score. My son was kind of opposite of yours, so he had to study the English section for his 2nd attempt and did better on it, so now his super score is pretty good. I asked my son if he wanted to try another ACT and he said no way.
Hope your son isn’t bummed out, it just a test score, and he has a nice 32 in the bag already. Sometimes on test day it’s just not the kid’s day… maybe they’re tired, stressed, confused, get a hard version of the test etc.
Son19 is taking some SAT subject tests this weekend to get them out of the way in case he needs them, and then he said he’d try the SAT one more time in late summer I think.
At breakfast with D19, I mentioned the teacher walkout happening in nearby states. Out loud, I read a blurb from an NPR article and my D19 was quick to express support of the teachers. She said teachers are the key factor in determining student success. She added that pretty school buildings and the latest technology are nice but it’s the teachers that matter. I was surprised by how strongly she seemed to feel but pleased she appreciates the value and hard work that goes into the “job” (which it’s so much more).
I told D that I think we have spent more money changing her tests than we paid for the actual tests! We postponed SAT subject test last June because we went to NYC instead, postponed August SAT because she wasn’t ready, postponed April ACT because she didn’t prep over spring break… I don’t mind though - I’d rather have her feel confident than force her to take the test when she si stressed out. Which seems to be always right about now! between AP tests, AICE exams, ACT, talking about college all the time she needs a break. She is sleeping in today because she was up all night vomiting for the third time in two months. Not sure if it is a virus or partly due to stress? She works with pre schoolers so she could be picking up germs there.
We have been all over the past few weeks. DH & I went to Charleston for a music festival and we did a self guided tour of College of Charleston. Then last weekend D & I (along with her friend and her mom) went to visit Clemson and did a very quick walk through of Emory.
College of Charleston:
I had never been to Charleston - it was so great! Beautiful, walkable, on the water, amazing food. I had read that COC was kind of a city school without that campus feel but I didn’t think so. It is just about two blocks from King Street (the main touristy shopping street) but if you look at a map pf campus it does have sort of a core campus then it spreads out a bit into the city. I liked that it had a bit of both- it had a big green grassy area outside the library/student center (which also had a Starbucks and a big patio with tons of tables) and another beautiful green area across from admissions but it didn’t seem like people used that one as much. I thought it was very cool and would love D to check it out this summer.
Clemson:
D really had no interest in looking here at first - she thought she wouldn’t want to go to school in the south and thought it might be too preppy. She is also not the most “school spirit” type person so I was a little nervous that would turn her off. Her best friend had seen the school when she was a freshman and loved it so we decided to all go up together. It is the biggest school we have looked at (about 19,000 undergrad) but the campus was pretty compact and very walkable. I think you could walk from one end of the campus to the other in under 12-15 minutes. It was a little bit hilly but not like other schools you think of - its just that we live in flat FL so we aren’t used to hills! I had heard you could see the lake and mountains from campus but I never saw that view.
We came in very late Thursday night and had to drive right through town to get to our hotel. People say its a small town but we liked it - it is just behind campus and probably had over a dozen restaurants, several stores (of course they all only sold Clemson t shirts :)) ) and there was a little deli that also had a few convenience store things. Everything else you could need was within about a 2 mile radius (grocery store, CVS…)
Friday morning we met with the Honors College at 9:45 - not too many student around yet but already D pointed out that every single person was wearing a Clemson shirt. The meeting was just our two girls and two boys who had already been admitted and were trying to make their final decisions. We had a nice information session with an Honors College admissions rep and a student then a quick walk around the new honors college building which has 3 dorms (2 just for honors, 1 mixed), lots of study spaces and work rooms and a food court with things like a sandwich shop and a taco shop. Honors college has typical benefits like nice dorms, earlier class registration, some smaller classes.
The meeting was pretty long but we had time for a quick lunch downtown before the regular tour at 1. At this point more and more kids were out and about and D looked at me and said, “everyone is wearing orange, everyone!” I told her it was probably more than normal because it was the last day of classes but she was right - it was a sea of orange. :)) I don’t think it turned her off, I think she was just surprised at just how much school spirit a place can have!
Information session was very short - about 1/2 hour total and really only went over admissions procedure not much information about the school. Four extremely spirited tour guides came in had lists of who would be on each tour. When they called out your name you had to shout Go Tigers! - this was not a good start for two quiet girls but they got over it. Tour was VERY long - I think over an hour and a half. Campus is nice, some pretty buildings some not so pretty. Went into one classroom which was super ugly, all cinderblock - not sure why they would pick that one except to show they are not all huge lecture halls?
After the tour we drive over to check out the private beach on the lake - it was awesome! They had one section for the sailing team and then a big, sandy beach with floating docks, a volleyball net, paddle board and kayaks to rent (I think for free.) As it was Friday afternoon and the last day of classes it was packed and the kids looked like they were having a great time.
Overall D liked it enough to keep on the list. She thought it was a pretty campus but not as pretty as some we have seen (pretty grounds but buildings not as pretty), she likes that it is not too far from home, I’m not sure exactly how she feels about the school spirit part yet.
Emory:
We did a very quick walk through at Emory on the way home. It is about 6 miles from downtown Atlanta and I’m pretty sure you can walk to the train that takes you there. Campus was beautiful - class buildings were all white marble type around a main quad. Very different from what we have seen in the past, D said she felt like she wasn’t at a college but was walking around the grounds of a museum. We joked that the kids did seem more studious here although they were in the middle of finals! The town is right next to campus- it was cute and small, probably 10 restaurants. They also have a Barnes& Noble and the largest campus Starbucks n the country right there.
D thought it was pretty and would love the location (easy to get to from here and easy access to a city) but it os so hard to get in I don’t think she will put it on the list. We only drove by because it was so convenient on the way home.
All the teacher walkouts make me want to dissuade D19 from her professed goal of going into K-12 teaching. Which is sad! I want her to both be fulfilled and not have to constantly advocate for herself. Her grandma was a public school teacher for 41 years and tells D not to follow in her footsteps. I do want D to explore various career options before she pursues one direction, but really we should be celebrating when a bright motivated kid wants to be a classroom teacher, instead of discouraging her. Who’s going to teach our grandchildren?
D19 is taking AP Stats next year instead of Calc AB and I think she’s going to like it. She’s more of a conceptual math person so I think it’s going to click better with her. She’s truly not a STEM kid. She wants to major in education and/or religious studies or anthropology. I have worried a teensy bit if this is non-ideal on her transcript from the college perspective, but I tell myself she’s got 6 APs overall, honors classes in every major content area (math, science, Spanish, English, history), and is in the top 10% of her class of 500ish so if I’m worried about this then I need to find better things to fill my mind.
I refuse to believe that kids get rejected from selective schools for things like taking one advanced math class instead of another. I think what kids get rejected for is just being lumped into the “Positive Standard” category, and for not being good fits with the school, where “fit” can mean various things, many of which may be outside of one’s control (being another molecular biology major when they have too many of those already, playing trumpet when they need trombones, displaying zero clue about the ethos of the school).
On AP credits, as others have said, proceed with caution when your child uses those APs to leapfrog over early college courses. I have a friend who has been on the faculty at San Diego State for years and says students need the scaffolding of introductory courses as they’re learning to manage college life, course loads, different expectations, etc. So at least for some kids, AP credits might be best used to give a little breathing room to the schedule and not necessarily to jump ahead in a course sequence. I went to college with 4 AP credits and regret using any of them to reduce my course load, to be honest. Now looking back on it, I should’ve taken as many classes as possible to learn as much as possible when I had the chance, especially since my tuition was a flat fee. Of course that’s easy for me to say now…
Chiming in on something @SDCounty3Mom said: As a college professor, I agree that using AP credits to jump into more advanced work is often dangerous (though less so for some fields—e.g., the languages—than others). No matter what the College Board says, AP courses are not generally precisely equivalent to introductory college courses, and in fact for some fields—e.g., history—the content of methods taught in AP curricula are radically different from the directions those fields are taught in postsecondary institutions.
What AP coursework does give you (and what the AP exams do give you feedback on), however, is experience in dealing with a wide variety of issues focused on a single academic subject. In this way, yes, AP courses and exams are a fabulous transition to college learning—but it’s not not really a replacement for first-year courses in the way we tend to think it is.
(I’ll soften this, though, with the following: If a student is using AP credits to sidestep gen-ed coursework where they’re never going to take anything higher-level, though? Like, say, someone going into engineering who wants to score well enough on the AP history exam to never take a history course in college, ever? Yeah, given the mess that is most colleges’ gen-ed curricula, I’ve got no quibbles with that. But for a history major to get out of introductory history courses that way? That’s dangerous.)
My kid’s plan is to use AP credit, if he gets any, to get out of gen-ed, if the college he decided to go to accepts it. He’s not taking the Calc AB test, so he’ll have English Language and Psychology for this year, Stats, physics and English Lit for next year. Unless, of course, we tumble his schedule around completely in August. We have done that every year of high school so far so it’s a tradition at this point.
My first year writing course was one of the best classes I took in college so I’m encouraging him not to skip it wherever he goes. Most of the colleges we are looking at seem to have the ‘freshman seminar’ type of writing course, and a lot of the course topics sound very interesting.
Heh. Every now and then I read a course catalog and look wistfully at the calendar and count the days until I can retire and find a nice local college to audit classes at.
Just going to sound a contradictory note here. My two college students both used AP credit to head right in to upper level courses even in their major fields as well as in the @dfbdfb approved method of filling core requirements. This has allowed D15 to double major with tons of freedom to take extra interesting classes within and outside of her majors. For D16 she should be able to graduate in 4 years in a school/major famous for 5 years despite taking only a half load one semester.
But I totally get the cautions above. I guess I just want to say realize that like everything else it all come down to the individual student and school. If the college is advising against it or the high school teacher recommends against it for your particular student, I’d listen.
And unfortunately as we are all aware high school AP courses and especially AP teachers are not created equal. Even graduating from the same school one year apart my two had vastly different levels of college readiness. D15 got fantastic writing prep from AP lang and AP comp. D16 also took those classes, same school, same AP test scores, different teachers and college writing still knocked her for a loop. And yes, some of it is due to the fact that they are very different kids but I also (as an English major myself) I paid a lot of attention to the homework assigned and could tell that D15 was getting a much more rigorous course.
@homerdog I’m also going to echo @carolinamom2boys and say that my CS kid is taking lots of stats.
And one final note for those whose kids are going from calcAB this year to CalcBC next. D16 did that and we thought fall semester would be easy because of it and it still kicked her butt. At our school it is common for the kids who take AB then BC to do much worse than those who just take BC. Part of that is the very best math minds go straight to BC but it is also because kids come in thinking they know all this and can coast and then just get hammered.
@momtogkc if you have any questions about Clemson or CofC, please feel free to PM me. What you experienced at Clemson , is everyday. The school has so much school spirit. In the Fall, they have parades , make floats on the lawn of Tillman Hall, burn " Cocky" ( gamecocks mascot) for Homecoming .
I think if you scored a 5 on Calc BC test and did well on placement test, there is no reason not to take the calc 3 directly in college. My D’17 did just that. It seems a good amount of her college of engineering friends went straight into Calc 3. On the other hand, I also know kids repeated Calc 2 in hope to get better GPAs.
Phew. Our school district just confirmed no changes to the student calendar despite the 6 day walkout. My D19 is booked on a flight to Seattle the evening of the last day of classes. She’s going with her choir (not a school choir) to a festival and the whole choir has been worrying about this issue.
Son is done with IB math testing. Next up, AP physics on Tuesday. He needs to finish a bunch of biographical info. so he can sit down with the teachers who agreed to write his letters. I know he’s ready for the semester to be over, but I’m starting to freak out realizing how much needs to get done this summer, and I want him to have a fun summer too.