Let's Talk About Calgary High Schools

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Nancy

The Fraser Institute has managed to successfully cultivate the impression that there is a big difference between schools.

http://alberta.compareschoolrankings...chooltype=high

I suspect once you control for income and special needs the results align quite a bit. They have an interesting stat in there of course mark vs exam mark. It shows the grade inflation at weber in years past quite well.

[FireGilbert]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Does your son play football? Because if he does, its likely that he will be kidnapped and forced to play at Francis.

The highlight of my high school football career was winning a 2nd half against Francis. No need to mention they were up 28-0 after the 1st and put in all their backups for the rest of the game.

[kootenayguy9]

If your child has never experienced a "sense of belonging" in any school environment don't forget to check us out at Alternative High School.

http://schools.cbe.ab.ca/b863/testimonials.htm

[calgarywinning]

I went to Grandin and was flunking out due to boredom and the terrible classroom format. Went to Carroll and grades went to honour role level.

The people that failed at Carroll were the ones who could not self-learn. What Carroll teaches is self-learning skills which are useful for life. I found when the students could not handle themselves, that it would spiral pretty quick and they would languish.

I did, however, find many ways to kick off and focus on personal interests over the mundaneness of high school.

[PIGL]

My son has just gone through the AP saga and I would say this. He was a stellar math student in Grade 9 in a school where he was able to complete advanced Math 10 in Grade 9. He came into high school (on the advice of the counselors there) registered in AP Math 20 and AP Science 10. Understanding that Math 20 is probably the most difficult course in high school, his grades in Math for the first time took a huge tumble and he is struggling now in regular Math 30 owing probably to the difficulties he faced in AP Math 20 and the fact that he didn't acquire the tools he needed to move on to Math 30. I think it's going to be ok, but in speaking with his Math 30 teacher, she is of the view that it was a mistake for him to have taken AP Math because we risked this very scenario (a quicker pace that perhaps was more focused on "supplemental" math topics at the expense of more time dealing with the building blocks for more senior courses), for absolutely no upside. In short, AP Math was a mistake for our son (who used to be an excellent Math student, brimming with confidence, but now is struggling a bit). I'm not sure what it really gets you other than a risk of lower grades (which matters) in return for having "AP" on your transcript (which doesn't matter if that grade is substantially lower than the normal stream). Just my views based on what I've seen with my son and I'm sure every kid is different.

[Northendzone]

Thanks all, some great insights here.

My wife tells me that my son is going to back off of the AP stream. Carroll is his first choice due to the self directed structure and the hockey program

Hockey as a credit subject - hopefully the teach things like the left wing lock, how to be a shut down d-man and scoring goals to the ungifted slow winger.

[N-E-B]

O'Byrne has a really fun hockey program. I took it there for three years. Downside is there's a lot to do around BOB, and lots of places to go with the train. Very easy to start skipping there. Plus the smoke pit has become the vape pit, and everybody knows vaping is no good (unless used as a substitute to quit smoking, but these kids just vape to look "cool").

[Locke]

Originally Posted by calgarywinning

I went to Grandin and was flunking out due to boredom and the terrible classroom format. Went to Carroll and grades went to honour role level.

The people that failed at Carroll were the ones who could not self-learn. What Carroll teaches is self-learning skills which are useful for life. I found when the students could not handle themselves, that it would spiral pretty quick and they would languish.

I did, however, find many ways to kick off and focus on personal interests over the mundaneness of high school.

[calgarywinning]

Honored you would point that out. Lol

[wooohooo]

If he has interest to go into Engineering or even Medicine I think the work ethic and how to study is very import for when they get to University. Not always the case, but I can definitely see a difference with my peers. And also I think the breadth of material covered is more so it's more of a review for them in their first year than learning. Huge plus IMO.

If they have the ability to do AP or IB do it - they can even get credit for some courses if they do well enough.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by calgarywinning

Honored you would point that out. Lol

I'm sorry. Had to be done.

[Flames Fan, Ph.D.]

Originally Posted by AltaGuy

I dunno - I did full IB too and it allowed me to finish undergrad in three years instead of four (guess it depends what your "higher" levels were), so that's a pretty big savings!

I did find way less busywork in IB and I'm sure the same in AP - actually reading stuff instead of making nice looking posterboards or whatever. Come to think of it, I did no homework since the grades tended to reflect how you did on exams/quizzes only as far as I remember. So that was nice.

Samesies.

I did french IB at Western and found the coursework challenging. However, the mistake I made was to use the IB classes to get out of Chem 201 and various other introductory classes at U of C. In retrospect, I should have sat through the classes and gotten the A to boost my GPA.

[Clarkey]

Put him in the school that he will do best socially (friends are going to etc.) and the rest will work out.

[REDVAN]

Originally Posted by calgarywinning

I went to Grandin and was flunking out due to boredom and the terrible classroom format. Went to Carroll and grades went to honour role level.
.

Obviously not in English class.

On topic: I went to Henry Wise Wood and took a partial IB programme. I've advised everyone since to either take the full program or none at all.

Maybe the full ride gets you a semester or two of easy university but doing only a few classes didn't get me anywhere further, and frankly, I might have enjoyed the overall high school life better if I'd been learning with the plebs rather than the "gifted" snowflakes.

[ben voyonsdonc]

Originally Posted by PIGL

My son has just gone through the AP saga and I would say this. He was a stellar math student in Grade 9 in a school where he was able to complete advanced Math 10 in Grade 9. He came into high school (on the advice of the counselors there) registered in AP Math 20 and AP Science 10. Understanding that Math 20 is probably the most difficult course in high school, his grades in Math for the first time took a huge tumble and he is struggling now in regular Math 30 owing probably to the difficulties he faced in AP Math 20 and the fact that he didn't acquire the tools he needed to move on to Math 30. I think it's going to be ok, but in speaking with his Math 30 teacher, she is of the view that it was a mistake for him to have taken AP Math because we risked this very scenario (a quicker pace that perhaps was more focused on "supplemental" math topics at the expense of more time dealing with the building blocks for more senior courses), for absolutely no upside. In short, AP Math was a mistake for our son (who used to be an excellent Math student, brimming with confidence, but now is struggling a bit). I'm not sure what it really gets you other than a risk of lower grades (which matters) in return for having "AP" on your transcript (which doesn't matter if that grade is substantially lower than the normal stream). Just my views based on what I've seen with my son and I'm sure every kid is different.

I did AP in Grade 10 but had just moved here from another province. I definitely didn't benefit much from it and dropped it for my grade 11 courses. The main benefit is that you could get university credit if you completed the AP program and passed the AP exam.

[Flacker]

Holy crap! This thread prompted me to looking into tuition fees for West Island College. It is approximately $20K/kid/year, once you factor in busing, etc, that's insane.

[Armchair Quarterback]

Bit of a different viewpoint here - I teach at a university, and I'm not sure if AP courses are the best thing for student success in post-secondary.

It will look good on your transcripts for admission, but only if your grades are actually good; you have just as much of a shot of being admitted if your grades are good in "regular" courses.

AP credit sometimes allows a student to skip, say, the first prerequisite course in a discipline (in my field of teaching that would be Political Science or History). But not all universities treat AP credit the same, so sometimes if you have a low grade in AP they'll make you take the course you were supposed to get AP credit for anyways.

Also in my experience teaching AP students, it puts them at a disadvantage in terms of their learning. Sure they sometimes have the convenience of being able to skip "Intro to PoliSci" or Canadian history, but it doesn't do them any favours when they're in the next course up and don't remember/master the concepts that were presented in the intro course.

Just my two cents.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by calgarywinning

Honored you would point that out. Lol

Roll with it!

[Weitz]

I wish I had a choice of High School.

In Red Deer you only get a choice if you weren't in the Catholic system.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Originally Posted by Flacker

Holy crap! This thread prompted me to looking into tuition fees for West Island College. It is approximately $20K/kid/year, once you factor in busing, etc, that's insane.

I used to think private school tuition was nutso until I realized that it's more or less what I pay for day care....

(recognizing it's for 12 years vs 4....)