With plummeting enrollment, this hardly seems a way to stem middle class flight from the public schools, but perhaps that wasnt a priority.
At many private schools, all classes would be honors level. The kids were selected for the school with that in mind.
That may be the case with private schools focused on by the parents on these forums who are focused on buying academic opportunities for their kids, but many other parents choose private schools for other reasons (e.g. religion) with much less emphasis on academics.
Perhaps. But not in the school districts in question in the article, which is what we are discussing. The religious schools appear to be only preschool and elementary based in Culver City. It is unlikely Santa Monica California has a group of religious unacademic schools either
Again, neither school mentioned is in LAUSD. Data above from LAUSD is not relevant. Culver City and Santa Monica have their own school districts.
Yes. And they too have lost students.
Here are the numbers . . .
Culver City High had 2146 students in 2017-18. Last School Year they had 2228. EdData - School Profile - Culver City High
SaMo High had 2826 in 2017-18. Last School Year they had 2806. EdData - School Profile - Santa Monica High
Iâm curious if the schools have been able to show any educational advancement under that approach, because it certainly seems to be coming to schools in the âother Washingtonâ and the whole of the DMV.
Thank you for mentioning the locations of the schools. I do subscribe to the WSJ, but mine got completely soaked in the rain!
Here in the DC area, people call this approach âhonors for all.â
That is a wonderful story. Would you mind sharing where this occurred? Just the state or metro area would be fine.
I think we have both an education and a concentrated poverty problem. The bar set for a HS diploma has been quite low for some time. It wasnât until I lived overseas for a few years that I realized most Americans are undereducated.
I used to think funding was the main issue, but studies have shown that the correlation is not as direct as once shown. I suspect that if one really dove into the numbers, you would see that schools that prioritize smaller classes get better results than those that have larger teacher - pupil ratios.
It was in AZ
LOL, I am dying here!! You bring back a memory of my kindergarten teacher who gave us a âscience lessonâ about how water comes in 2 forms: solid and liquid. I told her that gas made 3 forms, but she was having none of it. Her âscience experimentâ was to leave an ice cube in a bowl overnight, and have the class check on it in the morning, with assurances that it would be liquid. But in the morning, there was no water in the bowl. I told her it had turned to gas. No, she said, the bowl had âdried off.â The imbecile.
No doubt she was thinking âStupid kid. Water canât turn into gasoline.â 
It reminds of my sonâs experience in fourth grade, by which time he had read a number of books on astronomy. He almost had a conniption fit when the teacher told him that the sun doesnât move, or rotate.
This is correct re the details of whatâs happening (I registered just to read the article for free). And you are making the points I was trying to get at above (but making them better than I did 
).
Dâs 7th grade teacher told them that the moon landing was staged. The woman taught science. D & her friend came home and told me that they needed to start fact checking that teacherâs lessons.
I suggest reading this paper and other research by Kirabo Jackson. The conventional wisdom begun with the Coleman report that funding doesnât matter turns out to have been wrong all along. It is not a cure-all, but it matters a great deal.
Or more accurately, per the study, it mattered for children who were born between 1955 and 1985 and studied through 2011, for whom school finance reform programs appeared to result in about 8% higher wages as adults. A well-done study, but of uncertain applicability to todayâs issues.
Thanks for the confirmation. Looked at your posts, and you made the points well. Unfortunately, from the start of the thread, this doesnât seem to have much of anything to do with what is actually happening at these schools. The facts have been distorted or omitted from the beginning to end.
It seems the more about parental outrage at the idea that our precocious kids should have share a classroom with those who parents deem unworthy. That and lots of entertaining anecdotes about just how unworthy the other students and teachers are to be in the presence of our gifted children.
In your reference to your kindergarten teacher being an imbecile, are you speaking from having experience as a kindergarten teacher yourself?