Re: Good Local Grade Schools
Date: June 17, 2012 11:24AM
My kids (now 16 and 18) went to Sunrise Valley, and I thought it was a good experience. I had some perspective, because my older one had gone to Terraset for kindergarten and the first couple of months of first grade. In theory the schools are all equal, but there are some important factors that make a difference.
Sunrise Valley has an army of parent volunteers, making the class size effectively lower. Having served in this army, I can tell you you do real work with small groups of kids, giving them lots of attention per kid and leaving the teacher to work with a smaller group than she would otherwise.
Sunrise Valley is a gifted center. My kids were both in the gifted program, and every one of their teachers was inspired. I guess that's because teachers love to teach kids who love to learn. In theory kids from all the different elementary schools have an equal chance of getting into the gifted program, but I don't think it works that way in practice. (I would imagine FCPS has stats on this, although I never tried to find them.) A friend with a second grader at Terraset told me her daughter's teacher got all excited, telling her the child *might* be one of the one or two kids in the class that would get into the gifted program. Meanwhile, at Sunrise Valley, when my second grader had to be excused from class for a special assembly for kids who had just been accepted to the gifted program, a third of the class went with her. It looks like Sunrise Valley kids have a much better shot at the gifted program just because they're at Sunrise Valley. I certainly am grateful that my kids had that chance.
Upthread are some negative comments about South Lakes High School. My older daughter just graduated from there and I thought it was a good experience for her. South Lakes has the International Baccalaureate program, in which students who are willing to put in extra effort get a diploma that is respected around the world -- a valuable thing these days, I think, when the American educational system has such a lousy reputation. In the IB diploma program, students work at the college level for maybe half their courses for the last two years of high school. (My little one, who just finished 10th grade, took two college-level courses this past year. She took AP Government, one of the few AP courses offered (other advanced courses are IB) as well as Higher-Level IB Math, in which calculus is introduced). South Lakes offers plenty of academic challenges for bright students who want to pursue them.