news-record.com

All of our schools would make this ranking if we
made all students apply to attend public school and only allowed the students on the campus that
we wanted to allow....

This just indicates the intelligence of the selection pool...not necessarily...the staff and the schools teaching ability. Students at this level can teach themselves and would be successful at any of our schools.

So What?, I agree totally with your comments. From what I understand, most of their students are high performing when they are admitted and actually show little or no GROWTH in performance on their EOC tests. Yes, they can teach themselves, and probably do better on the tests than the teachers would. Also, how are they to be compared to other schools if there are only 100 or so students enrolled. Heck, with those small numbers, they should be doing more! What, about 5 out of their 100 students get free and reduced lunch? Give me a break. Let's concentrate on the majority of students in Guilford County who do not come from priviledged backgrouds and who do not get personal attention and coddling.

You just cant please some people. Some are just not happy unless they are complaining.

I am a Grier critic too but I think that we have to be proud that a school like this exists in GC.

Proud....of What?

Brian....research time?
What is the cost per student of sending a student to this campus versus their home school?
What is the benefit?...
How many students?
How many students are offerred this opportunity?

How would these students fair in the general population? As well as those that are in the top 10 % in the classrooms with 40 or more students in them....or do they need a 1/10 teacher to student ratio to do well.

They do not participate in sports...what about after school activities....What about the drama of a morning/lunch/afternoon fight?

I could name the student but will not... but....
I hardly think that it is fair to the rest of our students to send a bus from Guilford College to Gibsonville, pull up in the driveway, and pick up 1 student. With a handful of students on this bus the ride is shorter than my son has to his community school.

Yet...my son lives 10 minutes from the school and has an overcrowded 1 45 minute bus ride....morning and afternoon
Why?

How do these graduates fair in college?

My son went to one of the five lowest rated
schools in the county....yet his first year in college he had a 4.0 GPA. He currently has a 3.8 GPA at NC State......

So the kids with the great teachers and school with a 1 - 10 ratio should be geniuses and colleges should expect higher test score and grades when reviewing them for entrance!!!

I

AMEN!- "We are only as great as the least of us"

The negativeness that exists in this community about anything good with GCS came from the long years of Terry Griers reign.
Its going to take a long time for forgive and forget.

I know people from where I live will find it hard to forgive. Our school was well and trully screwed by Grier. Only now with the dedicated help of a good principal, good teachers and "some" dedicated parents are we getting our school spirit back!

This is very good for Guilford County. Its well deserved national recognition.Congratulations to all the teachers and GCS Staff who have worked so hard for this.

Cant forget the kids either can we.

We also cant forget the many other kids in GC that are as bright as these kids and do just as well as the kids at E.College.

I get tired of hearing about the "success" of schools in Guilford that should be performing well anyway because they do not have challenging student bodies. The faculty and staff at these schools are always lauded for their "hard work" and dedication when in fact they have to do less work and give little effort to teach the students that walk through their classroom doors. I understand that one teacher there just shows power points to students every day and calls that teaching. It's much easier to teach a child who has been to London three times (so to speak) than one who hasn't been taught to read and right effectively over 14 years of schooling. I think we need to focus our celebratory education stories on the hard working teachers who walk into the difficult situations in traditional schools and dig in hard to help struggling students improve their performance. It's these untold stories that I want to hear about. If that's negative- than so be it.

My, my I cannot believe the bitterness, resentment or envy I hear in some people's comments. I would think you would be proud of the recognition to a school in our county but like a previous poster said, some people are not happy unless they are complaining.

But it is obvious some of the people commenting have no idea about the ECG high school. The students can, and many do, participate in sports. They simply return to their home school, via their own transportation, to attend practices, games, etc. There are plenty of after school activities and clubs to join. Any student can apply to start their own club if they want and the interest is there.

All students are required to do service hours each semester - at least 40 hours. My daughter graduated from the ECG and did her service hours helping every Tuesday at a Title I elementary school tutoring. Many other kids do similar projects in other schools. I like to think they are giving back to our school district through this volunteerism.

I don't think any of her classes had a 10:1 student/teacher ratio, at least not in the 9th and 10th grades. There are usually 50 kids in each grade so I don't see how there could be a 10:1 ratio.

It is selective in who it admits but I still think it is a great school and we should be proud of its recognition.

No envy here. In fact, I am quite satified with my children's school and they do very well. I am a consciencious tax payer. It sounds like a private school to me using public funds. I am happy that you daughter had a good experience, but how about giving to "charity" by sending your child to the traditional school in your district and give that extra money used for school and transportant to someone who needs it more.

Not Impressed:

I don't understand what you mean by giving the extra money used for school and transportation to someone who needs it more. Why would the kids at ECG not deserve any money spent on their transporation and other costs? Do we not spend money on other programs and magnet schools to bus those kids? Why do you feel the money is wasted on the ECG kids and where do you think it could be better spent?

ECG may require an application process but still is open to ANY student in Guilford County, not unlike the IB programs at the various other high schools in our county.

As far as my charity goes, I have personally donated cash and time to my districted school for the past 5 years though I have not had a child in the public school system for the past 2 years. I have always supported the public schools in Guilford County, regardless if my child is currently a student or not.

Forgive me you have 50 kids in each grade level... We only have 400....and we have teachers teaching classes with 44 students in it.I am not bitter...but when we are turned down and told that there is no money to send us another teacher so our classrooms with 40+ students and one teacher can be split....my opinion is a little tainted......

Early college is successful because they only take the top 5 -10 % student from the general schools.... not because of anything that GCS did or anything that the teachers did.....They could have been given a library and a computer and done as well....
Behavior problems.....???
Gangs??
Teachers being cussed out on a daily basis?
what parent would not want this for their child?

I know I would like my kid to be in a school where everyone had to apply to get in. They know what college they want to attend in 8th grade and take the SAT in 8th grade....

What a wonderful world it would be....
I think we should take the top 10% that are college bound out of every school and make one big high school.

What a pride of Guilford county it would be?

I am actually more impressed with the AP Scholars from Andrews, Smith, Dudley, Norhteast, Eastern, Southern......they live in the real world and still succeed....There is no separate and unequal education

NI,

My children have also done very well in a traditional school via AP. My son started NC state as a sophomore because of his AP grades gained at our traditional school. I still find myself very happy for the EC kids and proud of this school in GC.

Try not to bitter and Jealous. With people like you GCS will never win.

This is a E-Mail I sent Mo.

"From your Web page":

"Congratulations to The Early College at Guilford and Weaver Academy for ranking among the nation’s best high schools, according to U.S. News & World Report. The Early College at Guilford ranked 17th on the magazine’s list of America’s top 100 high schools and received gold medal status while Weaver was granted honorable mention"

From US News:
"The first step determined whether each school's students were performing better than statistically expected for the average student in the state. We started by looking at reading and math results for all students on each state's high school test. We then factored in the percentage of economically disadvantaged students (who tend to score lower) enrolled at the school to find which schools were performing better than their statistical expectations"

.Shame shame shame on you,

These schools did well because the students had to be selected/qualified for acceptance into that school.
Of course they will exceed you have gammed the system

You started out with the brightest kids.
They could teach themselves.
Ever Heard Of August Wilson? Look him up. It will be an education.

Early College only has 150 students. ( selected )
Weaver has 229 ( also selected with significantly less on major college track)

The idea of the rankings is to identify schools doing a good job of educating everyone.
Hell,why not simply test into more schools and get more awards.

It is a joke.
You are here. Belly up to the bar and do things right.
Set a standard for all the people on your staff
Your Mom taught you better.

Your system can't stand me but that is because I care about kids
You have inherited a system that most "educators" ( other than fox hole teachers ) are more involved in managing their careers then helping kids

Here is his reply

"Thanks for email. I think we fairly characterized the acknowledgement bestowed by U.S. News and World Report, including its own language. Mo."

Decide for yourselves.

Wow,

All I can say is "Wow"....I have not ventured over to the Chalkboard in a very long time and when I do, I see the same jeolous, ungrateful posters as in the past and I remember why I stopped reading.

Congratulations to the staff, parents and students at The Early College at Guilford. They are an excellent bunch and we should be embracing their achievements.

I'm so sorry for the negative posters here who seemingly cannot for one second, come out of their selfish bubbles and be happy that our system has a nationally recognized school that is being emulated all over the country. It's a school that gives our students yet another choice. I remember the day when most of the comments on the Chalkboard were about having choices in our system!

I'm so sad to read such negative comments from adults who supposedly want a good system. It seems you do not practice what you preach. Shame on you and Kudos to all those that have made The Early College a success.

GCS is bragging on the high performance of their schools....Are they?

How do you measure it?

Would these students be just as successful at their traditional school?

Are we spending this money on a very few students so that "we look good on paper?"

At what cost?

Early college and Weaver have high scores ...because the students that attend are hand selected......I know this because they contacted me wanting my son to attend...why his SAT score from 8th grade.

I am not sure that when you start with students with the highest scores and grades that they are measuring the schools success properly.

Are these students performing at a higher rate than their peers in a traditional schools?

Why don't we expand this option throughout the county and only allow students into our high schools that meet the same requirements as the students at the Early College and Weaver Academy meet.

If we do this we will have the most successful school system in the country and all of students will be offered the same educational opportunities.

SOU,

I totally agree. These people are nothing more that pea brained.

Tax payer and Enlightened.

GC is spening a lot of money at other schools too. My son takes his AP biology class with another 6 kids. These kids are all smart and I am sure they will all pass very well.

Would you cut that opportunity for my son?

I suppose you would prefer everyone of all levels in the same class with no differentiation.

When all students are given the same opportunities to take the same AP courses with AP qualified teachers....then I will jump on the GCS band wagon.....

It is sad when a school with over 1200 students can not even offer one decent AP Chemistry class or AP Biology class.

I am sure that the teachers at these schools work hard and so do the students...but they should have the highest scores.

To whom much is given, much is expected.....

Their scores should be higher on the AP exams given what they start off with. Fours and fives on their AP exams should be the norm.

There is nothing to brag about here.

If it were up to these people there would be no AL classes, Aim, no AP, IB, Lincoln or Weaver.

The Early college is a fast track to college program. its a very tough curriculum that many kids are not good enough to get through. Some get accepted and just drop out after six months because its too tough and others get thrown out because there grades arent good enough.

This is a great program and opportunity for those that are good enough for it.

Well done to all the kids that go to Early college. They are the kids that really deserve this accolade and we should all be very proud of them.

We should be very proud of these kids but let's do something for our many other schools that are failing our kids. I am talking about the schools where discipline is not inforced (most of our high schools and middle schools, drugs are sold in broad daylight with witnesses, gangs recruit new kids and beat up others that won't join, teachers don't have enough supplies, teachers don't have assistants, schools don't have enough nurses, the drop out rate runs rampant and on and on and on.

Kudos to Early College kids but let's remember the majority of the students, families and teachers in Guilford County.

What has Mo done so far other than set up a blog and hire a top PR person that doesn't match the job description GCS's own website post for the job? We paid mo money for Mo. Let's get mo done!

My goodness, you folks are so bitter and twisted.
You will never be happy.

You are turning me into something I'm not.

Early college is a great I repeat great program.
I don't want to see it go away. It is the false rating crap
that bothers me.

"The first step determined whether each school's students were performing better than statistically expected for the average student in the state"

That's a gimme it has been pre ordained.
Everything else is commentary.

It is like NC basket ball playing in the special Olympics

Great scoring but who cares

Enlightenned,

Your hole is getting deper and deeper.

"Kudos to Early College kids but let's remember the majority of the students, families and teachers in Guilford County."

Are you serious? So no accolades for any school until all 117 schools are mentioned in Newsweek?

Selfish, selfish, selfish! You people boggle my mind! I can see why the board of education can't function, NOTHING makes some of you happy! Would you be happier if we had no schools receiving national attention? Would it be better if all the schools were crappy?

So then no schools for low learners? No schools for high learners? No schools for handicapped, just the SAME, SAME, SAME for all?

NUTS, JUST PLAIN NUTS!

Congrats Early College! Ignore the peanut gallery and wallow in your glory!

You miss my point.

I have no beef with Early College.
It is a superb school.

My Beef is with US News and Newsweek that have simply found a scheme to increase circulation by giving out meaningless awards.

Which the people running our system pat themselves on the back with.

Think about it. Newsweek says Smith is in the top 5% of all schools in America.

If that is true we are doomed..

Deeper and deeper!

Enlightened,

Let me enlighten you:

#1: Early College is indeed a great school. One that we should be proud to call our own and work to create more similar programs. So, congratulate them. Didn't your parents teach you any manners? Congratulate them without a "BUT" in your sentence.

#2: If your beef is with Newsweek, go whine to them.

#3: Smith is also doing great things. What's your beef with Smith? The principal there is making great strides, the students are responding and unless you have visited there recently and have a different story, don't publicly bash them.

Our system will continue to border on CRAP if we cannot take the good and run with it. So here's a good article about Early College, let's turn off the negativism and just run with it. There is no reason why we cannot create more schools that give special attention to our special populations. But it won't start by bashing our schools.

Enlightened, does any of this make sense to you or do you just have the need to complain.
I hope you're not going to try to steal Christmas too?

a Scrooge amongst,

Why are you attacking me with such venom?

“Didn't your parents teach you any manners?
“ go whine to them.”
“steal Christmas too?”

I have attacked no individual. None,

“Our system will continue to border on CRAP”
You implied our system borders on crap not me.
I said
“It is the false rating crap”
Also I did not bash a school.
I have simply stated in my way that if Smith is the standard for top 5% in America we are in trouble.
Perhaps doomed is a poor choice of words. I
was simply pointing out the nonsense of the rating system. If we focus on education self esteem will occur.

However if we keep telling ourselves how great we are when we are not we will never improve.

I have simply stated my perceptions and my opinion based on them.

You might consider doing do the same.
Nothing more, nothing less

Enlightened (David Colin)

Oh, by the way. I believe we should create more schools like Early College.
However I also believe if we did much of that the community would be up in arms.
Be careful what you wish for you might get it