<p>My little brother attends a school in Los Angeles where their API (I think that is what it is called) is 3. (out of a scale of 10). It really is an extremely under performing school and right now, even though my family is doing decent financial wise, we are unable to help him transfer schools because private high school cost way too much (partly due to a chunk of my parents' paycheck going toward my UCLA tuition) and other high schools are very far from his home. I see him as a genius (very biased, I know) and I want to transfer him to another school where they will allow him to get a solid education without worrying about people bullying him around or basically get an education that will allow him to succeed in life. He is turning junior and college is right around the corner. In those two years is there anything I can do to help him out? He is a straight A student with AP classes already as a 10th grader. Not only am I fearing his school will be shutdown, I am afraid he might stop doing his marvelous work and basically give up in an environment that does not concern education first.</p>
<p>Could he try homeschooling and working on test prep (if he's a genius, he should do very well)--or maybe taking classes at a CC?</p>
<p>Are there any public magnet schools he could transfer into?</p>
<p>If his school offers multiple AP classes for 10th graders, how bad can it really be?</p>
<p>There was an article in the LA Times years back that investigated the quality of these AP classes in underperforming schools and they can be pretty bad.</p>
<p>The AP classes may be bad but if he is able to supplement and to get good scores on the AP exams, that should be okay.</p>
<p>There are at least two issues here. I know they are often to be found in the same place but they need to be disentangled: 1. bullying. How much is it a concern?
2. course offerings. If he can take APs as a sophomore and take the exams and do well, maybe the school, bad though it is in general, can serve him adequately.
3. Is the school uniformly bad? Our high school, by some conventional standards, is underperforming since the average SAT scores are lower than the national average. But that's because there is a very high rate of participation in the SATs and the scores of the low performers bring the average down. Looked at it another way, there is a group of high performers for whom the school is more than adequate. This intepretation is vindicated by their admission into top schools.
3. the school, if it is threatened with closing, probably will not close before next fall. Can he fulfill all requirements and graduate one year early?<br>
4. If the school is bad and your parents cannot afford the private school fees, can they afford to pay for some online courses?</p>
<p>To supplement the responses you've gotten already, you may also want to ask about scholarships at the private schools. I know that my (very expensive) school offers a couple of full tuition scholarships.</p>
<p>Your brother is very lucky to have you looking out for him.</p>
<p>Obviously, you can't change the school, & if a private isn't feasible, you need to focus on your brother. Scholarships do exist, but I'm afraid it's too late in the year for that.</p>
<p>Colleges will look very positively at your brother for doing so well, despite his HS. Courses at the local community college would be a good idea, or self studying for what ever APs he want. Is he involved with ECs?</p>
<p>If your brother has been motivated up to this point, I'm hopeful that it won't change. The most important thing you & your parents can do right now (without being on top of him) is to see that he stays on track.</p>
<p>I taught in the San Jose area for a while, and I think the LA area is the same in that the overall rating of the school is meaningless. The AP courses could be excellent, and the small group of kids in them could be great students. That's what matters. At the SJ school where I taught, the overall population didn't graduate (20% graduation rate), yet they also had a 1600-SAT scorer who went to MIT and a 1590-scorer who went to Harvard. </p>
<p>Go visit the school and the teachers; you're in the same city. Pick your brother up at school once a week and talk to him about his classes. Let your brother know you want him to go to UCLA too!</p>
<p>Where in LA does your family live? Is it possible to get a boundery exception and attend a different public school? How about classes at the Santa Monica Community College (or whatever CC is closest?) to supplement? Did you go to the same school? I think one of the biggest factors in his continued success will be the friends that he has. Does he hang out with similar students that are also college bound?</p>
<p>if he goes to an LA public high school, that means he can participate in the magnet program from LAUSD, where every year in January you get this packet in the mail asking you if you want your son or daughter to be in a magnet. it has nothing to do with income, and they basically pick up your son or daughter from the school closest to home and busses them to another school, depending on the type of magnet he or she wants to be in.</p>
<p>Go to the school and ask if it is still to late to do CHOICES(that's what the program is called)</p>
<p>Also the one school within LAUSD that is probably the most academically challenging and strongest is LACES(it's a magnet)</p>
<p>Your brother can try applying to Beverly Hills High School, it's a public school not a private, but then he faces the problem of commuting.</p>
<p>The one good thing I believe results at your brothers school is that most likely he'll be in the top 3 percents of his graduating class meaning that he's guaranteed a spot at a UC. It may be hard to achieve this at a school where other kids are as competitive as him. He might end up ranking beyond the 10 percent of his school meaning he'll probably have a hard time ge tting into schools that require you to be in top 10 percent of your class.</p>
<p>A number of public schools have 'sub-cultures' within them. For example, even if the school doesn't rank highly due to lots of low-achievers, as long as the school has a reasonable number of AP classes available, one can still do well and they'd be surrounding themselves with other similar high-achievers. It can almost be like a school within a school. My D ended up taking nothing but AP classes in her junior and senior years and did very well as did many of her classmates despite the fact that plenty of students at that same HS took the minimum, did very poorly, dropped out, etc.</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins (& many other excellent Us) offer some excellent on-line courses via that your brother may qualify for which are well-recognized as excellent courses. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05231/556731.stm%5B/url%5D">http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05231/556731.stm</a>
<a href="http://cty.jhu.edu/cde/ap/%5B/url%5D">http://cty.jhu.edu/cde/ap/</a></p>
<p>It would be very worthwhile inquiring about these options--you could start by asking schools near where your brother & folks live, including "dual enrollment" which will allow him to be enrolled in HS & college at the same time & get credits for both.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>If changing schools, according to some of the excellent suggestions above, does not work out....</p>
<p>Are there one or more excellent teachers at his current school to mentor and continue nurturing his educational excellence. Although helicopter parents are frowned on at the college level and can be a pain in the neck at the hs level, I'm thinking that a helicopter sibling might be able to scout out a principal/teacher, ask for a conference, share your concerns and maybe map out the best plan for your brother at this school - if 2 more years there will be his lot.</p>
<p>Hi, I just read that Stanford is starting an on-line high school for gifted students, which I believe is starting this fall. I don't know about financial aid, but given that Stanford University admission is need-blind and they're very generous with need-based financial aid at the college level, I would hope they'd consider your brother's financial situation if he applies. Maybe he could stay in his high school, but take a couple of the Stanford online courses to enrich? Also, I wonder if it's too late for local Catholic schools. Loyola is very good for gifted students, maybe talk to them and if they're already full, they might be able to offer helpful suggestions.</p>
<p>Doesn't UCLA also have a school for the Gifted? That would be a possibility I had not thought of.</p>
<p>so your brother goes to uni high... whats better near you? beverly hills high? </p>
<p>wouldnt it possibly be more hurtful for your brother to transfer to another hs so late in his career? (unless he hates where he goes)</p>
<p>what does your brother think? it's nice your looking at for hi, but does he agree with you? your parents? </p>
<p>finally, most of LAUSD is awful, but the very top students there regardless get into places like cal and ucla. if your brother works hard at uni (or wherever he is) he can still succeed.</p>