Middle school magnets - criteria-based

[Anonymous]

Hoping for the best for all of you but the chances are getting in from the lottery are so low. Why stress yourselves out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hoping for the best for all of you but the chances are getting in from the lottery are so low. Why stress yourselves out?

I just want to confirm my child has been identified for HIGH and AIM at our local school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe they ran the demographic numbers against the identified pool and found that the criteria they had adopted for the last two years was so easily influenced by families with means that they weren't getting the same mix they had seen last year, when families didn't have the criteria before their children were past them (and the year before, when the criteria were much broader -- necessarily due to pandemic impact -- making them easy to meet but harder to game).

Maybe, due to a probabilistic anomaly, the lottery run resulted in something so unrepresentative of the pool that they had to ask for permission to re-run it.

Maybe they have projected enrollments in advanced courses at local middle schools and found that there aren't enough teachers able to fill the need, requiring a scramble to put some alternative in place.

Maybe upper management is considering current-year changes based on critiques that have been proffered. Wait...who am I kidding, here?!? Maybe upper management is having central office administrators take time to identify whichever aspects of the pool/lottery data would support their not having to address the critiques as the results come out.

Or maybe, just maybe, there is a really good administrative reason, like illnesses among central office administrators or the same folks being pulled to another high-priority tasking, causing a delay in handling the various pool/lottery/notification steps.

It's only a few weeks, albeit ones that cause some stress. Clear and timely MCPS communication to families, while certainly improving on this subject over prior years, still is inhibited by Byzantine structure and is a work (hopefully) in progress.

You are way overthinking this. They just didn’t get their act together in time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe they ran the demographic numbers against the identified pool and found that the criteria they had adopted for the last two years was so easily influenced by families with means that they weren't getting the same mix they had seen last year, when families didn't have the criteria before their children were past them (and the year before, when the criteria were much broader -- necessarily due to pandemic impact -- making them easy to meet but harder to game).

Maybe, due to a probabilistic anomaly, the lottery run resulted in something so unrepresentative of the pool that they had to ask for permission to re-run it.

Maybe they have projected enrollments in advanced courses at local middle schools and found that there aren't enough teachers able to fill the need, requiring a scramble to put some alternative in place.

Maybe upper management is considering current-year changes based on critiques that have been proffered. Wait...who am I kidding, here?!? Maybe upper management is having central office administrators take time to identify whichever aspects of the pool/lottery data would support their not having to address the critiques as the results come out.

Or maybe, just maybe, there is a really good administrative reason, like illnesses among central office administrators or the same folks being pulled to another high-priority tasking, causing a delay in handling the various pool/lottery/notification steps.

It's only a few weeks, albeit ones that cause some stress. Clear and timely MCPS communication to families, while certainly improving on this subject over prior years, still is inhibited by Byzantine structure and is a work (hopefully) in progress.

You are way overthinking this. They just didn’t get their act together in time.

The litany of maybes was a tongue-in-cheek way of pointing to the likelihood of there simply being a mundane administrative reason. I don't think they don't have their act together for this. They've been on it for a few months. Some recent wrench in the gears, I'm guessing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So it sounds like letters will be going out to provide the results of the lottery. But was there any prior communication to let parents know if a child made it pass the central review and placed into the lottery?

No, you find out with the lottery letter. That's one of the things that's frustrating - if you were mistakenly not placed in the lottery, you can appeal it and get placed on the waitlist, but it's a lot harder for you to get a spot at that point. Would be nice to be able to appeal and have that settled before the lottery.

DP - it would also be nice to be able to express preference for a given program. My DD meets criteria (by grades and MAP scores) for both the math/science and humanities magnets, but has no interest in the latter. Seems like a waste to even consider her for it; god forbid the system take student interest into account.

Just make sure you don’t accept a seat in a program she has no interest in. Another kid will move off the waitlist.

If your child gets accepted to humanities and not math, go ahead Put them in the humanities prgm even if they are not interested…middle schoolers interest change over time….. And if they are not interested down the road they can always move back to their home middle school.

The courses are not easy. If your child is unmotivated, it will be painful to put in the longer hours required and give up preferred electives or extracurriculars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So it sounds like letters will be going out to provide the results of the lottery. But was there any prior communication to let parents know if a child made it pass the central review and placed into the lottery?

No, you find out with the lottery letter. That's one of the things that's frustrating - if you were mistakenly not placed in the lottery, you can appeal it and get placed on the waitlist, but it's a lot harder for you to get a spot at that point. Would be nice to be able to appeal and have that settled before the lottery.

DP - it would also be nice to be able to express preference for a given program. My DD meets criteria (by grades and MAP scores) for both the math/science and humanities magnets, but has no interest in the latter. Seems like a waste to even consider her for it; god forbid the system take student interest into account.

Just make sure you don’t accept a seat in a program she has no interest in. Another kid will move off the waitlist.

If your child gets accepted to humanities and not math, go ahead Put them in the humanities prgm even if they are not interested…middle schoolers interest change over time….. And if they are not interested down the road they can always move back to their home middle school.

The courses are not easy. If your child is unmotivated, it will be painful to put in the longer hours required and give up preferred electives or extracurriculars.

My kid did Fox Chapel and then Clemente. The Clemente program was good and my kid's only complaint was the students in the group projects were smart but had no drive and had to be carried through the completion of the projects. Not sure if that happens in the humanities programs but the same thing occurs in Poolesville SMaCS.

[Anonymous]

Per the website, MCPS has mailed the letters.

"Update: Letters for Grade 5 families with the results of the student’s central review and lottery have been mailed. Families of Grade 5 students should receive their student’s central review and lottery results by early February 2023."

I wish they would also put them on parentvue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Per the website, MCPS has mailed the letters.

"Update: Letters for Grade 5 families with the results of the student’s central review and lottery have been mailed. Families of Grade 5 students should receive their student’s central review and lottery results by early February 2023."

I wish they would also put them on parentvue.

Let the anxious wait begin. Did that update get posted today?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Per the website, MCPS has mailed the letters.

"Update: Letters for Grade 5 families with the results of the student’s central review and lottery have been mailed. Families of Grade 5 students should receive their student’s central review and lottery results by early February 2023."

I wish they would also put them on parentvue.

Let the anxious wait begin. Did that update get posted today?

Yup.

[Anonymous]

Will the letter come out on ParentVUE tonight?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will the letter come out on ParentVUE tonight?

I don't think so. Two years ago we never got anything in ParentVue for CES--they just came in the mail.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will the letter come out on ParentVUE tonight?

I don’t think it has in the past.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will the letter come out on ParentVUE tonight?

I don't think so. Two years ago we never got anything in ParentVue for CES--they just came in the mail.

This isn’t CES, it’s middle school. But they haven’t shared middle school results on parent vue either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will the letter come out on ParentVUE tonight?

I don't think so. Two years ago we never got anything in ParentVue for CES--they just came in the mail.

This isn’t CES, it’s middle school. But they haven’t shared middle school results on parent vue either.

Right, but it's the same thing - they screen eveyrone and then send a letter home. I don't think the process would be different for either program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will the letter come out on ParentVUE tonight?

I don’t think it has in the past.

It always takes longer for it to post on Parentvue.