Please sign this petition to continue countywide magnets

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will not sign, and my kids have both been in a magnet. One graduated in 2025, and the other is in HS.

It's been a good experience for them, but there's far too much talent in the county to limit the participation to a few hundred students per grade level per year.

This. Regional magnet programs are a good idea.

+1 The "I got mine" posters are out in force, including hijacking parent chat groups at TPMS.

No. More opportunity is good and if we have to "dilute" classes that only 10 kids per year take in MCPS, so be it.

Those classes that only 10 kids take won’t be diluted; they’ll be eliminated because those 10 kids will be distributed among many schools, none of which will have the talent pool to field enough students for these classes. That’s how these STEM programs will be diluted. We’ll have many good programs and no exceptional ones.

If the very good programs provide access to 3x the number of students, as long as the delta between exceptional and very good isn't too large, then that is a win from the perspective of maximizing educational benefit across the county.

I trust the SMCS teachers to know how big the delta is between very good STEM cohorting and exceptional STEM cohorting.

When we were in a race to develop the atomic bomb first or put a man on the moon first, we needed lots of very smart people to work together and a handful of geniuses to get us across the finish line. It seems like it would be beneficial to cater our educational system to both.

Why limit it to Montgomery County then? Why not one magnet for the best and the brightest across the state of Maryland?

NC has a fantastic HS residential magnet, but only for 11th and 12th grade. Logistically, and some point the commute is impossible, or it has to be residential, which is a huge life disruption.

Anyway, the obvious answer is that the right geo scope is whatever can fill classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will not sign, and my kids have both been in a magnet. One graduated in 2025, and the other is in HS.

It's been a good experience for them, but there's far too much talent in the county to limit the participation to a few hundred students per grade level per year.

The petition isn't saying not to add regional programs, it's saying to leave Poolesville, Blair, and RMIB as countywide. You can want to add regional programs and still sign the petition, unless you also think that those programs must be converted to regional.

Yeah because two-tiered systems always work so well.

Yes, they work far better than mixing kids of different ability levels and leaving half the class behind or bored.

[Anonymous]

Taylor: "Strong, existing programs are not being eliminated."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Taylor: "Strong, existing programs are not being eliminated."

You need to know that in the context of that statement, Taylor means they "are not being eliminated" because MCPS is converting the countywide programs to regional programs.

Advocates of the current countywide magnets view that as "eliminating" the program, since it would no longer exist as it has been, as countywide programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Taylor: "Strong, existing programs are not being eliminated."

You need to know that in the context of that statement, Taylor means they "are not being eliminated" because MCPS is converting the countywide programs to regional programs.

Advocates of the current countywide magnets view that as "eliminating" the program, since it would no longer exist as it has been, as countywide programs.

So it's not being eliminated, it's being changed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will not sign, and my kids have both been in a magnet. One graduated in 2025, and the other is in HS.

It's been a good experience for them, but there's far too much talent in the county to limit the participation to a few hundred students per grade level per year.

This. Regional magnet programs are a good idea.

+1 The "I got mine" posters are out in force, including hijacking parent chat groups at TPMS.

No. More opportunity is good and if we have to "dilute" classes that only 10 kids per year take in MCPS, so be it.

Those classes that only 10 kids take won’t be diluted; they’ll be eliminated because those 10 kids will be distributed among many schools, none of which will have the talent pool to field enough students for these classes. That’s how these STEM programs will be diluted. We’ll have many good programs and no exceptional ones.

If the very good programs provide access to 3x the number of students, as long as the delta between exceptional and very good isn't too large, then that is a win from the perspective of maximizing educational benefit across the county.

I trust the SMCS teachers to know how big the delta is between very good STEM cohorting and exceptional STEM cohorting.

When we were in a race to develop the atomic bomb first or put a man on the moon first, we needed lots of very smart people to work together and a handful of geniuses to get us across the finish line. It seems like it would be beneficial to cater our educational system to both.

Why limit it to Montgomery County then? Why not one magnet for the best and the brightest across the state of Maryland?

NC has a fantastic HS residential magnet, but only for 11th and 12th grade. Logistically, and some point the commute is impossible, or it has to be residential, which is a huge life disruption.

Anyway, the obvious answer is that the right geo scope is whatever can fill classes.

Virginia has this. It’s called the Governor’s School. Kids are only there half a day and the other half at their home school.

“The Virginia Governor's School Program has been designed to assist divisions as they meet the needs of a small population of students whose learning levels are remarkably different from their age-level peers. The foundation of the Virginia Governor's School Program centers on best practices in the field of gifted education and the presentation of advanced content to able learners.“


https://www.doe.virginia.gov/teaching-learning-assessment/specialized-instruction/governor-s-schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will not sign, and my kids have both been in a magnet. One graduated in 2025, and the other is in HS.

It's been a good experience for them, but there's far too much talent in the county to limit the participation to a few hundred students per grade level per year.

This. Regional magnet programs are a good idea.

+1 The "I got mine" posters are out in force, including hijacking parent chat groups at TPMS.

No. More opportunity is good and if we have to "dilute" classes that only 10 kids per year take in MCPS, so be it.

Thank you. There are 10,000 students in MCPS going into 9th grade this year. Do these people really claim that only 100 of them are qualified to do SMCS work? We can expand opportunity without watering it down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will not sign, and my kids have both been in a magnet. One graduated in 2025, and the other is in HS.

It's been a good experience for them, but there's far too much talent in the county to limit the participation to a few hundred students per grade level per year.

This. Regional magnet programs are a good idea.

+1 The "I got mine" posters are out in force, including hijacking parent chat groups at TPMS.

No. More opportunity is good and if we have to "dilute" classes that only 10 kids per year take in MCPS, so be it.

Thank you. There are 10,000 students in MCPS going into 9th grade this year. Do these people really claim that only 100 of them are qualified to do SMCS work? We can expand opportunity without watering it down.

+1. There is no reason to claim that only 100 kids are highly gifted when the selection is based on nothing more than MAP-M or MAP-R scores which are not even a test of cognitive ability.

[Anonymous]

TLR

Parent of PHS Global student. Commute 35 min. Carpool to bus stop makes it very doable.
Can’t say enough great things about this program. One of if not the most unique program in the country. Will not be able to replicate this gem of a program. I hope they keep this one. Will really be a shame if they don’t. My kid will be done before any change takes place and we will forever be grateful for this Incredible opportunity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will not sign, and my kids have both been in a magnet. One graduated in 2025, and the other is in HS.

It's been a good experience for them, but there's far too much talent in the county to limit the participation to a few hundred students per grade level per year.

This. Regional magnet programs are a good idea.

+1 The "I got mine" posters are out in force, including hijacking parent chat groups at TPMS.

No. More opportunity is good and if we have to "dilute" classes that only 10 kids per year take in MCPS, so be it.

Thank you. There are 10,000 students in MCPS going into 9th grade this year. Do these people really claim that only 100 of them are qualified to do SMCS work? We can expand opportunity without watering it down.

+1. There is no reason to claim that only 100 kids are highly gifted when the selection is based on nothing more than MAP-M or MAP-R scores which are not even a test of cognitive ability.

For 10000 students, the top 1% translates into 100 highly gifted students. You can use whatever metrics, but you can’t say top 10% are highly gifted

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.change.org/p/preserve-the-smcs-program-at-phs-and-countywide-magnet-programs-in-montgomery-county?recruiter=19740431&recruited_by_id=27a47f40-c296-012f-08fa-4040b09128dc&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=petition_dashboard&utm_medium=copylink

Done and shared. Best of luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will not sign, and my kids have both been in a magnet. One graduated in 2025, and the other is in HS.

It's been a good experience for them, but there's far too much talent in the county to limit the participation to a few hundred students per grade level per year.

This. Regional magnet programs are a good idea.

+1 The "I got mine" posters are out in force, including hijacking parent chat groups at TPMS.

No. More opportunity is good and if we have to "dilute" classes that only 10 kids per year take in MCPS, so be it.

Thank you. There are 10,000 students in MCPS going into 9th grade this year. Do these people really claim that only 100 of them are qualified to do SMCS work? We can expand opportunity without watering it down.

Then there's no need to blow up the existing program!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will not sign, and my kids have both been in a magnet. One graduated in 2025, and the other is in HS.

It's been a good experience for them, but there's far too much talent in the county to limit the participation to a few hundred students per grade level per year.

This. Regional magnet programs are a good idea.

+1 The "I got mine" posters are out in force, including hijacking parent chat groups at TPMS.

No. More opportunity is good and if we have to "dilute" classes that only 10 kids per year take in MCPS, so be it.

Thank you. There are 10,000 students in MCPS going into 9th grade this year. Do these people really claim that only 100 of them are qualified to do SMCS work? We can expand opportunity without watering it down.

absolutely. it's not even 100, it's less. but you need to account for selection error.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will not sign, and my kids have both been in a magnet. One graduated in 2025, and the other is in HS.

It's been a good experience for them, but there's far too much talent in the county to limit the participation to a few hundred students per grade level per year.

This. Regional magnet programs are a good idea.

+1 The "I got mine" posters are out in force, including hijacking parent chat groups at TPMS.

No. More opportunity is good and if we have to "dilute" classes that only 10 kids per year take in MCPS, so be it.

Thank you. There are 10,000 students in MCPS going into 9th grade this year. Do these people really claim that only 100 of them are qualified to do SMCS work? We can expand opportunity without watering it down.

+1. There is no reason to claim that only 100 kids are highly gifted when the selection is based on nothing more than MAP-M or MAP-R scores which are not even a test of cognitive ability.

Selection is based on demonstrated interest and commitment to the sort of advanced, accelerated, and enriched STEM work the magnet supports. It's not solely based on MAP-M, and SMCS doesn't even look at MAP-R.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It worked very well when we kept the CESs, but added ELC and made parents feel like their kids were getting the CES experience at their home schools. Why don’t we add a few extra cohorted math and science classes to each region, tell parents that’s the magnet experience, but still keep the existing STEM magnets so the truly gifted kids [b]can still take these tiny, super specialized advanced classes? Everyone will be happy.

Are they?

Right now bulk of Magnet seats are taken by WJ/Churchill/Wootton. I doubt that most tryly gifted kids are attending these magnets. They will be distributed all over the county.

Nobody is saying that there are no truly gifted kids who aren’t taking these highly specialized classes; what we’re saying is that the kids who do take these highly specialized classes are truly gifted. Each sixth of the county can’t necessarily field enough of these students to offer these classes.

A some portion of trully gifted attend magnet. If Entire portion can attend regional magnets then population size may be big enough to offer super specialized courses.

At 6 different locations?

Even worse, they are planning to slash the cohort sizes in half, from 100 to 50, which will obviously render the most advanced classes impossible to populate.