Thread: Info needed on National Young Scholars Program

I am a teacher in an urban elementary school in a predominantly blue-collar neighborhood. I would like to ensure that the parent's and student's trust in the credibilty of their teachers is not being used to "promote or market" what appears to be a very, very expensive summer camp program.

The premise appears to be that proud parents everywhere, whether they can afford to or not, will always try to do the best for their children. The package put out by the National Young Scholars Program is very glitzy and impressive, and "implies" that a nomination to attend is some sort of official recognition of academic achievement which would give the "scholar" an advantage or credentials, i.e., build their academic resume, to be used as the student progresses to secondary and higher education.

My concern arises from the fact I can find very little of substance about the company or the program. What criteria is used to select the teachers who make the nominations?, and/or what criteria are these teachers given to make their student nominations?

I do not want to see the parents in my community who can least afford to, send their children to a very expensive program thinking it will help their children's chances for admission to a particular secondary or higher educational institution, when in fact it would not.

Are there any Admissions people out there who can say that attendance at one of these programs improves a students chances for acceptance?

If this is indeed just a summer camp program, then call it what it is. Also, selecting and using real teachers to "nominate" scholars has got to be one of the slickest marketing strategies conceived.

P.S. I am also posting this message on a similar thread in this Forum. I hope my cynical assessment is incorrect, but I do not want to see parents who can ill afford to, sending their children to a program that is not what it appears to be. Ask the nominating teacher what criteria they we given .... the teacher may become defensive or angry, but ultimately should be grateful, if they were "duped" as well.

I've never heard of this program, although I'm wondering if it is the one sitting on my desk in a pile of mail to be dealt with. I got something similar, at least, recently, but haven't looked into it.

Some of these types of programs can be worthwhile, although I agree with the note of caution that HankC (If I remembered the handle correctly) offered.

My students, while worthy, are not in the economic class of people who have discretionary funds for extra education, so if I offer information about an outside program, it will be something affordable.

Iksa, Scroll back a page or 2 on elementary education to about July or early August. There is a thread started by me regarding this program and a lot of good discussion. My daughter attended last year and we had a bad experience. Send me a private message if you want more specifics.