Is your son going to Forge?

Hi there,

I have a son going into 6th grade next year.

He will be attending Forge Prep.

In tech, they call this “dogfooding”.

Side note:I never understood why they called it this and so I looked it up. It refers to a 1970s dog food commercial where the creators of the dog food gave it to their own dogs first.

Anyways, I prefer the term “eating what I’m cooking”, and I’m certainly doing that.

Alright, now let’s get to the topic of the day.

Smart kids.

As always, there will be some other randomosity sprinkled in.

And even some images of the Honey Badget mascot below.

Our public schools just don’t value smart kids

From "No child left behind"
To "No child gets ahead"

See the below from this public school teacher.

We hear stories like the above from so many families applying to Forge Prep who have curious, creative, bright kids in public schools that have only speed limits and no fast lane.

In fact, their kids get punished or reprimanded for going ahead.

In-san-ity.

Too many of our public schools have zero interest in bright, driven kids

Why?

Incentives (as always).

Public schools get more funding for higher graduation rates, IEPs, enrollment, 504s, etc. Heck, they’ll take a curious, capable kid who is bored and label her ADHD as that might mean more funding.

They have little economic interest (aka state funding) in ensuring "smart kids" are being challenged and growing intellectually & socially.

Of course, once the smart kids leave (and they almost always will), it starts a downward spiral in those same public schools. See NYC below.

Progress over perfection

What would a better report card look like?

We've been thinking about this a lot at Forge.

Cuz a PDF with "B+ in Math" just kinda sucks.

(And all the research also reveals that grades kill learning and murder motivation)

Grades takes a whole semester of a student's work and shrink it to a single letter. All that work for a letter.

And to make things worse, it tells parents close to nothing about what their child can actually do.

So we asked: What if we measured progress instead of perfection?

Instead of a quarterly verdict, could we make it a continuous record of growth? And what if it came with evidence, i.e. real work that you could see?

Like: Your daughter built a diabetes calculator using proportional relationships. You can see the project, the math she used, and what she's working on next.

So that's what we're building
We call it the Proof Transcript.

One living record that updates continuously.
Parents see real-time progress.
Students work as fast or as slow as they need.

Their goal: Get a bit better every day.

Not optimize for a grade.

Progress over perfection.
That's what a better report card looks like.

Meanwhile in China

BTW, while US public schools tell our brightest kids to pump the brakes and go slower, China selects 100,000 teens for their genius classes every year.

I am not sure we need to replicate this model, but I am pretty sure that ignoring bright kids is not a recipe for student success (or long term national success).

Feb 15th deadline

Regular admissions for Forge Prep ends Feb 15th. We’ve got 13 of our 30 founding family spots left.

You can apply here.

Interviews and decisions will be made as applications come in until we have our 30 student Founding Family class finalized so applying earlier is to your advantage.

Huh-knee ba-jers (clap, clap…clap, clap, clap)

We’re trying to get our Honey Badger mascot created.

We want that Savannah Bananas energy

Playful but polished
Dynamic not intimidating
Tough AND fun

Here’s what we have so far. WDYT?

Like these (or any particular one)?

Living in my head rent free

I posted the below table about NYC private school tuitions on X, and it went supernova.

There were lots of takes.

Some were thoughtful. Most in typical X fashion were unhinged and dumb.

These tuition rates are the natural consequence of what I discussed above. As public schools increasingly ignore curious and capable students, those students flee.

That demand drives up prices at these schools.

Add in that these schools are also great status signals and you realize these prices are very rational (even if we might wish they weren’t this high).

Alright, that’s all for today.

Hit me back with ideas, feedback. Or if you’ve seen some cool education data or cognitive/developmental research focused on education.

Heck, if you hated this newsletter, tell me that too along with what would make it better.

I read all the responses and as long as you aren’t mean or trying to sell me isht, we’ll get a conversation going.

BTW, we’re at almost 3000 subscribers. Thanks for spreading the word.

Have the best day.

Forge ahead,

Anand

Co-founder, Forge Prep

P.S. We’re looking for a videographer to shoot some videos at our Livingston campus and nearby. If you know anyone, lmk. We’d really love to hire a middle or high schooler who knows their stuff for this role.

P.P.S. LMK what you think about the Honey Badger mascot.