language immersion schools

[ringler24]

I attended Moravian from 3-12th grade. I went to a top rated university and an Ivy League grad school and found college and grad school a breeze. Most of my peers attended similarly high ranked colleges and universities. I worked my tail off at Moravian as that is the general expectation. There were no real "slackers" when I was in high school. I had a 3.8 GPA as wasn't even close to the top of my class. Well maybe I was, but there were only 60 of us. The class sizes were tiny. We are probably relocating back to the LHV and sadly we will never be able to afford Moravian. We have 4 kids!

[ichiroll]

Originally Posted by toobusytoday

Great list! I wish our school had one that showed more than just one year: Class of 2013 Post-Graduate Plans

Sorry but this list isn't very impressive.

I've been leaning toward relocating to Southern Lehigh district (based on feedback I received from other residents) as opposed to sending my kids to a private school like Moravian, wouldn't mind saving the money instead of spending it on 2 kids and 12+ years of private school tuition, but this list makes me worry. Too bad there aren't numbers next to the colleges to show the distribution.

I'm worried about the potential adverse effects on our kids of going to a place like Moravian but not at the expense of their education.

[toobusytoday]

My aim was not especially to impress you with a list of elite colleges. I've been doing this parent thing for almost 30 years. What I've found out is where a student goes to HS or college matters little in how they end up in life. My daughter and her friends who graduated from SL 10 years ago are now happy self supporting adults. Her friends went on to medical and law and grad school. One of them teaches at Moravian.

[blazerj]

Originally Posted by ichiroll

Sorry but this list isn't very impressive.

I've been leaning toward relocating to Southern Lehigh district (based on feedback I received from other residents) as opposed to sending my kids to a private school like Moravian, wouldn't mind saving the money instead of spending it on 2 kids and 12+ years of private school tuition, but this list makes me worry. Too bad there aren't numbers next to the colleges to show the distribution.

I'm worried about the potential adverse effects on our kids of going to a place like Moravian but not at the expense of their education.

I don't think any public school district in the LV consistently churns out ivy/ elite school kids. I'm sure it's possible to get into those schools in any district. I wonder what the numbers at Moravian are. I'm sure they are good enough to convince many parents to pay for the tuition.

I know there are a bunch of public school districts in Nj that do churn out ivy/ elite school grads, and I'm sure there are some on the main line that do as well. Maybe hunterdon county does (I heat they have great schools).

As TBT said, none of this means your kids won't be successful and happy.

[lrmsd]

Originally Posted by greenplum

The curriculum at MA is accelerated and generally described as being one year ahead of academic standards. For example, a 4th grade class would use a 5th grade text and curriculum for core subjects. I'm sure schools like MA & Swain would be happy to share more info about their curricula to anyone that's interested.

Hope this has been helpful.

'Advanced' is also about how in depth the material is covered, not the 'specific grade affiliated textbook' [the assignment and content of which also varies widely by district, etc. You do realize how vast the textbook industry is, right? Just doing a hybrid homeschool charter program where I live, for example, I was given the choice of dozens of textbook series, just for elementary grades.]. Content breadth and depth is usually a key indicator of advanced pacing, not which grade level standard text is used.

Also, while IS, Charter schools, etc have more freedom to choose new approaches, this is not a guarantee that said school will be advanced; innovation doesn't always pan out, years down the road, when stats and results come in.

Success of innovation/advanced programming is also correlated with teaching 'styles', not curriculum 'content'. Many of the most touted approaches today, for example, include PBL [project based learning, Constructivism, tiered learning, etc]. They are not related to what material is covered in a text book, but how it is presented and integrated across subjects, rather than in isolation. In some cases, this includes not using texts at all, but rather primary sources or research, even in lower grades. This is what has traditionally been the approach in gifted public school programs.

Also, this thread is interesting overall. Determining success solely based on acceptance to Ivy League schools is one option....

It's fairly well known that socio-economic factors, small class sizes and hospitable physical environments (ie, again with the innovation=often set up for comfort and learning, with facilities updated as such] are major contributing factors to the success of private or independent schools and for some charter schools, as well.

Good luck ya'll with your continued discussion.

[Gettingouttahere]

I agree with toobusy and also lrmsd -- at a certain level of intelligence and socio-economic status, where you go to school doesn't matter as much. I went to public school in a pretty mediocre area, but the classes were "phased," as it was called, and the level of education was slightly better for those of us in the highest phase. And my socio-economic background was comfortably middle class and the expectations from my parents were high. I did as little as possible for a couple of my high school years, then kicked it into gear and managed to get a full ride to a mediocre liberal arts college. I went to a state university for grad school but didn't finish my thesis. All in all, not a great resume for effective use of education -- nonetheless, I'm working at pretty much the top level in my career. So education can be a tool and a help, but a person's characteristics -- intelligence, socio-economic status, opportunity, ambition, etc. -- can overcome a lot.

That said, I know how much I screwed things up as a teenager and I'm trying to close some of those loopholes my parents weren't aware of. (I also know that *no* kid today has the luxury of phoning it in for two years of high school and recovering enough by graduation to get a scholarship, as I was lucky enough to do.)

I would much rather my kid was in a culture where academic excellence is valued by her peers, not scorned, as it was by my peers at this age (and certain adults too these days, I'm sorry to see).

Hopefully that continues to be the case at Moravian through high school -- it seems to be the case in middle school right now.

[toobusytoday]

Good point Gettingouttahere. I believe that your peers can have more influence on a teen than a family at times. My kids all tended to hang out with the geekier groups - band, drama, robotics, speech and debate - so the influence of the peers was not a bad one, but I know other people whose kids did not fare so well. I imagine the peer influence is one of the biggest challenges for kids at the city schools.

[ringler24]

"I would much rather my kid was in a culture where academic excellence is valued by her peers, not scorned, as it was by my peers at this age (and certain adults too these days, I'm sorry to see)."

And this ^^^ is what you find at Moravian. It truly was cool to be smart. Kids were really competitive to keep a high GPA. That's why I would consider sending my own kids there despite be deeply committed to teaching in public education and sending my kids to public school thus far. I do have other concerns about it, mostly centering around issues of entitlement as well as kids with plenty of money to buy drugs and alcohol. With almost every kid in my class given a brand new car at 16, we did a lot of driving around and getting into tons of trouble. It's a miracle I survived with my life in tact along with my stellar GPA. One of my classmates did not and I simply can't shake that. Perhaps that's a problem everywhere. All I know is it definitely was one at Moravian.

[Gettingouttahere]

Yep, the entitlement/wealth is definitely a culture at Moravian. I am not that pleased with it either. But I guess I'd rather she aspired to the BMW owned by the kid of a Fortune 500 exec rather than the BMW owned by the local drug dealer. I don't know how mutually exclusive those things are, though! Yikes!

We've seen some stuff we don't like -- she is ashamed of our house, for one, and balks at inviting certain classmates to visit. And "everyone" has the latest iPhone and everything else. Sigh. I don't know how different that is from anywhere else, though. And there's not a damn thing I can do about the house.

[toobusytoday]

I remember a presentation by the local police when one of my kids was in elementary school and they said that there are drugs an alcohol in every school. The only difference is the cost of the drugs. There are snobs at every school. I'm glad that the atmosphere at our HS is fairly inclusive. I know kids that live in million dollar homes whose kids go to State U's and kids from row homes in the borough that go to private colleges. The overwhelming majority of students do go to college, which is what we were looking for when we were house shopping.