Roberto Clemente feedback wanted

[Anonymous]

Hey y'all - any recent experience with the magnet at RCMS?
Pros, cons? Teachers, admin, hw, the niceness of the kids, and the quality of non-magnet classes? Also pls note your home school as that's obviously a factor in whether you choose to attend and if you are happy. Our home school is pretty good. Thanks!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hey y'all - any recent experience with the magnet at RCMS?
Pros, cons? Teachers, admin, hw, the niceness of the kids, and the quality of non-magnet classes? Also pls note your home school as that's obviously a factor in whether you choose to attend and if you are happy. Our home school is pretty good. Thanks!!

Rcms has gone downhill in my opinion. The magnet coordinator is very lazy and is not as interactive as the old magnet coordinator. I feel like the admin has really dropped the ball in engaging the magnet community, especially after Covid. Also, the science classes are the same between magnet and regular classes, what I mean is there is no real enrichment between the magnet and non magnet science classes. I was told this directly by the eight grade science teacher. The cohort is nice….but at least half if not more is very competitive spirited and like to compare map scores and make those that score below them feel bad. Anyways, my two scents. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Not recent, but I attended the magnet program there many many years ago. Loved the teachers and classes, other more local kids were pretty brutal. It was normal occurrence to get shoved in the hallways and see fights happen. Ultimately it was fine, and probably toughened me up a bit. I don’t think I’d want to send my own kids there.

[Anonymous]

My child is in 5th grade at McAuliffe and also got in. She’ll attend as it’s her home school. However if it was not, I would not put her in that school. The kids at her school are rough. There are lots of fights and few engaged parents. I’m hoping it will be better next year and that the Clemente admin has better control but I’m not hopeful.

[Anonymous]

Oh that is too bad. This is off-topic, but does anyone know if it’s the same situation at MLK MS magnet?

[Anonymous]

Would Eastern/Takoma be described the same way? I.e rough except for the magnet?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would Eastern/Takoma be described the same way? I.e rough except for the magnet?

My DC had a kid who went to Eastern for a year and really didn’t like the school environment. Ended up back at the home MS.

[Anonymous]

As much as people on this board don't want to admit it, schools in this county vary a lot in regard to safety and atmosphere. Each child reacts differently to the school environment. If your child is sensitive to seeing a lot of fighting, cussing, and disrespectful behavior, then you should choose your school wisely. It's not that your child will be directly involved in the altercations, it's just how your child reacts to witnessing them.

I am the PP with the child at McAuliffe. We moved to the area from a further down county home with everyone assuring us that the curriculum was the same and everything was the same. We got a great home and have nice neighbors. The school is not the same. We regret the move. Our child went from loving school and us thinking that she could be successful anywhere to a child who hates school, is scared of class, and has really regressed in a lot of ways. We are praying that Clemente will be better as it is at least bigger and she will be in the magnet classes so we hope that helps. If not, we will be looking at private school for 7th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As much as people on this board don't want to admit it, schools in this county vary a lot in regard to safety and atmosphere. Each child reacts differently to the school environment. If your child is sensitive to seeing a lot of fighting, cussing, and disrespectful behavior, then you should choose your school wisely. It's not that your child will be directly involved in the altercations, it's just how your child reacts to witnessing them.

I am the PP with the child at McAuliffe. We moved to the area from a further down county home with everyone assuring us that the curriculum was the same and everything was the same. We got a great home and have nice neighbors. The school is not the same. We regret the move. Our child went from loving school and us thinking that she could be successful anywhere to a child who hates school, is scared of class, and has really regressed in a lot of ways. We are praying that Clemente will be better as it is at least bigger and she will be in the magnet classes so we hope that helps. If not, we will be looking at private school for 7th grade.

No MCPS school can be considered fully safe if you look at each school individually. Most of the "magnet" programs were put at these specific schools to draw the higher achieving kids to these schools to boost scores. We put our kid in one and ended up transferring back to our home school as there was nothing impressive about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would Eastern/Takoma be described the same way? I.e rough except for the magnet?

TPMS definitely wouldn’t

[Anonymous]

That’s true about the wide variation in schools. My DC is in a magnet program which is full of engaged and educated parents, and the students are all friends. The non-magnet kids are rougher in contrast, and bully each other. This school is in a higher income area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey y'all - any recent experience with the magnet at RCMS?
Pros, cons? Teachers, admin, hw, the niceness of the kids, and the quality of non-magnet classes? Also pls note your home school as that's obviously a factor in whether you choose to attend and if you are happy. Our home school is pretty good. Thanks!!

Rcms has gone downhill in my opinion. The magnet coordinator is very lazy and is not as interactive as the old magnet coordinator. I feel like the admin has really dropped the ball in engaging the magnet community, especially after Covid. Also, the science classes are the same between magnet and regular classes, what I mean is there is no real enrichment between the magnet and non magnet science classes. I was told this directly by the eight grade science teacher. The cohort is nice….but at least half if not more is very competitive spirited and like to compare map scores and make those that score below them feel bad. Anyways, my two scents. Good luck!

I’m the above poster. The three years my child was at rcms, they never actually saw any fights or kids being pushed in the locker. Most of the time the home school kids were nicer and more friendlier than the Uber competitive magnet kids. The math and computer science class is magnet level and the science class is not. The math, computer science, and science classes are taken only with magnet kids. The rest of the classes are taken with hom3 school kids and sometime sprinkled in with some or none magnet kids. In my honest opinion, if your home middle school is good, I would stay there!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey y'all - any recent experience with the magnet at RCMS?
Pros, cons? Teachers, admin, hw, the niceness of the kids, and the quality of non-magnet classes? Also pls note your home school as that's obviously a factor in whether you choose to attend and if you are happy. Our home school is pretty good. Thanks!!

Rcms has gone downhill in my opinion. The magnet coordinator is very lazy and is not as interactive as the old magnet coordinator. I feel like the admin has really dropped the ball in engaging the magnet community, especially after Covid. Also, the science classes are the same between magnet and regular classes, what I mean is there is no real enrichment between the magnet and non magnet science classes. I was told this directly by the eight grade science teacher. The cohort is nice….but at least half if not more is very competitive spirited and like to compare map scores and make those that score below them feel bad. Anyways, my two scents. Good luck!

I’m the above poster. The three years my child was at rcms, they never actually saw any fights or kids being pushed in the locker. Most of the time the home school kids were nicer and more friendlier than the Uber competitive magnet kids. The math and computer science class is magnet level and the science class is not. The math, computer science, and science classes are taken only with magnet kids. The rest of the classes are taken with hom3 school kids and sometime sprinkled in with some or none magnet kids. In my honest opinion, if your home middle school is good, I would stay there!

This makes me hopeful that the behavior at Clemente is better than the feeder elementary school. My DD sees a fight at least weekly at recess. It’s ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

As a magnet parent, imo your kid probably needs a tougher skin to be able to deal with the pressure cooker kids, the non-magnet kids, and to be able to keep up with the more accelerated curriculum. My kid was surprised at how rough the non-magnet kids are and had to adapt. I was very concerned for her during the adjustment period because she seemed depressed and not herself. She did adjust and is now doing well again. Sometimes the school is too rough or the kid is too deeply feeling to handle this, in which case you might want to shelter your kid. But in most cases it’s not good to overprotect imo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As much as people on this board don't want to admit it, schools in this county vary a lot in regard to safety and atmosphere. Each child reacts differently to the school environment. If your child is sensitive to seeing a lot of fighting, cussing, and disrespectful behavior, then you should choose your school wisely. It's not that your child will be directly involved in the altercations, it's just how your child reacts to witnessing them.

I am the PP with the child at McAuliffe. We moved to the area from a further down county home with everyone assuring us that the curriculum was the same and everything was the same. We got a great home and have nice neighbors. The school is not the same. We regret the move. Our child went from loving school and us thinking that she could be successful anywhere to a child who hates school, is scared of class, and has really regressed in a lot of ways. We are praying that Clemente will be better as it is at least bigger and she will be in the magnet classes so we hope that helps. If not, we will be looking at private school for 7th grade.

Before covid, I had a child at Rocky Hill (a "good" school) and a child at Clemente (a "bad" school). Rocky Hill did not have any less fighting, cussing, or disrespectful behavior than Clemente.