When is the plan for new HS programs coming out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ETA: and the Blair and RM parents who are complaining about the quality of the program declining if it becomes regional are horrible snobs. Your gifted kid can learn with other gifted local kids! They don’t have to be with only gifted kids from all around the whole county! Give me a break. So snobby!

Is MOP snobby?

The quality of the program would definitely decline if, instead of taking top 100 kids it took the top 1000. It’s already a very tough, challenging program that only the top third or so truly excel in. Expanding without reducing the standards will just set some kids up for failure or more likely dilute the program.

You're assuming that the 100 kids in the program are the top and would forever be. You are also assume there is not another 900 kids who could/would succeed in such program if the seats and program structure were available.

DP - yes. I don't really understand the elitist attitude at all. My children are younger, so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about, but I always hear that MCPS is great if you can take full advantage of the magnets. But then that's a major caveat, because middle school magnets are lottery based and high school magnets are very, very selective. We should be serving more qualified children.

For the parents who are endorsing the Blair magnet and the RM IB program (for example) as they are, is it because your kids already got in? Or are you really not worried about your younger children making the cut? I am a little baffled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ETA: and the Blair and RM parents who are complaining about the quality of the program declining if it becomes regional are horrible snobs. Your gifted kid can learn with other gifted local kids! They don’t have to be with only gifted kids from all around the whole county! Give me a break. So snobby!

Is MOP snobby?

The quality of the program would definitely decline if, instead of taking top 100 kids it took the top 1000. It’s already a very tough, challenging program that only the top third or so truly excel in. Expanding without reducing the standards will just set some kids up for failure or more likely dilute the program.

You're assuming that the 100 kids in the program are the top and would forever be. You are also assume there is not another 900 kids who could/would succeed in such program if the seats and program structure were available.

DP - yes. I don't really understand the elitist attitude at all. My children are younger, so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about, but I always hear that MCPS is great if you can take full advantage of the magnets. But then that's a major caveat, because middle school magnets are lottery based and high school magnets are very, very selective. We should be serving more qualified children.

For the parents who are endorsing the Blair magnet and the RM IB program (for example) as they are, is it because your kids already got in? Or are you really not worried about your younger children making the cut? I am a little baffled.

Maybe they need to build more magnets but not restrict by regions. So a magnet won’t be just selecting students from 5 high schools. That certainly dilutes the magnet program cohorts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ETA: and the Blair and RM parents who are complaining about the quality of the program declining if it becomes regional are horrible snobs. Your gifted kid can learn with other gifted local kids! They don’t have to be with only gifted kids from all around the whole county! Give me a break. So snobby!

Is MOP snobby?

The quality of the program would definitely decline if, instead of taking top 100 kids it took the top 1000. It’s already a very tough, challenging program that only the top third or so truly excel in. Expanding without reducing the standards will just set some kids up for failure or more likely dilute the program.

You're assuming that the 100 kids in the program are the top and would forever be. You are also assume there is not another 900 kids who could/would succeed in such program if the seats and program structure were available.

DP - yes. I don't really understand the elitist attitude at all. My children are younger, so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about, but I always hear that MCPS is great if you can take full advantage of the magnets. But then that's a major caveat, because middle school magnets are lottery based and high school magnets are very, very selective. We should be serving more qualified children.

For the parents who are endorsing the Blair magnet and the RM IB program (for example) as they are, is it because your kids already got in? Or are you really not worried about your younger children making the cut? I am a little baffled.

Maybe they need to build more magnets but not restrict by regions. So a magnet won’t be just selecting students from 5 high schools. That certainly dilutes the magnet program cohorts.

Hmm yes this is technically true but I guess the question is how much it actually dilutes the cohorts, coupled with (and I think this is extremely important) the value for a public school system to meet everyone's needs. From the groupings I saw before the slides were removed, I thought the proposed regions looked like a good effort to balance programing across diverse populations across east and west. I understand the blowback Option 3 of the boundary study is getting, but this is choice programing and the perfect way to mix Whitman kids with DCC kids, for example.

[Anonymous]

so the regions would let kids just lottery into other schools that have space? That seems...idk...opposed to the idea of neighborhood schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ETA: and the Blair and RM parents who are complaining about the quality of the program declining if it becomes regional are horrible snobs. Your gifted kid can learn with other gifted local kids! They don’t have to be with only gifted kids from all around the whole county! Give me a break. So snobby!

Is MOP snobby?

The quality of the program would definitely decline if, instead of taking top 100 kids it took the top 1000. It’s already a very tough, challenging program that only the top third or so truly excel in. Expanding without reducing the standards will just set some kids up for failure or more likely dilute the program.

You're assuming that the 100 kids in the program are the top and would forever be. You are also assume there is not another 900 kids who could/would succeed in such program if the seats and program structure were available.

DP - yes. I don't really understand the elitist attitude at all. My children are younger, so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about, but I always hear that MCPS is great if you can take full advantage of the magnets. But then that's a major caveat, because middle school magnets are lottery based and high school magnets are very, very selective. We should be serving more qualified children.

For the parents who are endorsing the Blair magnet and the RM IB program (for example) as they are, is it because your kids already got in? Or are you really not worried about your younger children making the cut? I am a little baffled.

Maybe they need to build more magnets but not restrict by regions. So a magnet won’t be just selecting students from 5 high schools. That certainly dilutes the magnet program cohorts.

From 5 high school, there will be enough kids who will do great to form a group of 100 students per grade. I don't think dilution should be an issue here.

[Anonymous]

it also seems to be antithetical to what some have suggested here -- that peeling off the top-performing kids that are motivated from the worse-performing schools will just make those schools spiral downward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:so the regions would let kids just lottery into other schools that have space? That seems...idk...opposed to the idea of neighborhood schools.

Slides were up so briefly but I think it's based on program interest and student qualifications, as opposed to "I'd just rather go to Whitman," etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:so the regions would let kids just lottery into other schools that have space? That seems...idk...opposed to the idea of neighborhood schools.

Slides were up so briefly but I think it's based on program interest and student qualifications, as opposed to "I'd just rather go to Whitman," etc.

so it'll be like CES where there are far more qualified students than spaces, and then there's a lottery?

this is all so gross.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:it also seems to be antithetical to what some have suggested here -- that peeling off the top-performing kids that are motivated from the worse-performing schools will just make those schools spiral downward.

I'm sure this is the idea behind spreading out academic specialities. Sure some families are going to be more motivated to get out of their neighborhood school than others, but you can spread out these programs. I don't know why Blair currently has SMCS and CAP, but if you move the CAP to Northwood (for example), you're going to get more families interested in Northwood than there are currently -- without losing interest in Blair SMCS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:so the regions would let kids just lottery into other schools that have space? That seems...idk...opposed to the idea of neighborhood schools.

Slides were up so briefly but I think it's based on program interest and student qualifications, as opposed to "I'd just rather go to Whitman," etc.

so it'll be like CES where there are far more qualified students than spaces, and then there's a lottery?

this is all so gross.

No? Seems like it will be like it is now for the HS programs, but wth smaller catchment areas for each.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:it also seems to be antithetical to what some have suggested here -- that peeling off the top-performing kids that are motivated from the worse-performing schools will just make those schools spiral downward.

I'm sure this is the idea behind spreading out academic specialities. Sure some families are going to be more motivated to get out of their neighborhood school than others, but you can spread out these programs. I don't know why Blair currently has SMCS and CAP, but if you move the CAP to Northwood (for example), you're going to get more families interested in Northwood than there are currently -- without losing interest in Blair SMCS.

for those not in the know, what is SMCS and CAP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:so the regions would let kids just lottery into other schools that have space? That seems...idk...opposed to the idea of neighborhood schools.

Slides were up so briefly but I think it's based on program interest and student qualifications, as opposed to "I'd just rather go to Whitman," etc.

so it'll be like CES where there are far more qualified students than spaces, and then there's a lottery?

this is all so gross.

So I have the complete opposite reaction but obviously I know very little. I thought that the whole point was increasing the number of available programs across the county so that more students could be served.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:it also seems to be antithetical to what some have suggested here -- that peeling off the top-performing kids that are motivated from the worse-performing schools will just make those schools spiral downward.

I'm sure this is the idea behind spreading out academic specialities. Sure some families are going to be more motivated to get out of their neighborhood school than others, but you can spread out these programs. I don't know why Blair currently has SMCS and CAP, but if you move the CAP to Northwood (for example), you're going to get more families interested in Northwood than there are currently -- without losing interest in Blair SMCS.

for those not in the know, what is SMCS and CAP?

SMCS is the science math and comp sci magnet and CAP is the communication arts program

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:so the regions would let kids just lottery into other schools that have space? That seems...idk...opposed to the idea of neighborhood schools.

Slides were up so briefly but I think it's based on program interest and student qualifications, as opposed to "I'd just rather go to Whitman," etc.

so it'll be like CES where there are far more qualified students than spaces, and then there's a lottery?

this is all so gross.

No? Seems like it will be like it is now for the HS programs, but wth smaller catchment areas for each.

so it will just be 100 kids in each of these very competitive lotteries, and then everyone else gets...nothing? I'm so lost as to the model here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:it also seems to be antithetical to what some have suggested here -- that peeling off the top-performing kids that are motivated from the worse-performing schools will just make those schools spiral downward.

I'm sure this is the idea behind spreading out academic specialities. Sure some families are going to be more motivated to get out of their neighborhood school than others, but you can spread out these programs. I don't know why Blair currently has SMCS and CAP, but if you move the CAP to Northwood (for example), you're going to get more families interested in Northwood than there are currently -- without losing interest in Blair SMCS.

for those not in the know, what is SMCS and CAP?

SMCS is the science math and comp sci magnet and CAP is the communication arts program

so the magnet seems so small as to be something not worth mentioning. I don't understand why people think these magnets improve the entire school. Perhaps that make the average grades higher, but otherwise it's just more resources for a small amount of lucky kids.