Are middle schools and high schools impacted by 2.0?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is reverse snobbery. Aka jealousy and envy.
What are you even envious of? That some white collar dual income family worked their butts off in school, grad school, jobs and saved up and bought a house in 20816. You must hate a lot of people then. Because, someone, somewhere, will always have a nicer house, car or savings account than you. Time to grow up!

This thread is an example of people who are so proud that families that live miles from Blair turn it down (regardless if their kid goes there), that they support a dysfunctional expensive public good.

I don't know about you but Teqch to Potential should be the goal. Not politics. Not juicing school test scores. Not offerings that have such collateral damage that they are turned down for logistics reasons.

I don't understand this post at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Are you implying that everyone who lives in Bethesda/Potomac is rich? If you stretched your budget to buy a house for $500K or $600K in one of these neighborhoods a few years ago you are not rich by Mont. County standards. Selling that house and paying all the taxes and fees to buy a house in SS would be beyond the means of most of the people I know. Perhaps I should have planned for the eventuality that my child would not be adequately served in his home school and would be accepted into and want to attend a middle school magnet program. I didn't have a crystal ball then. If my child then does not get into a high school magnet like Blair would you suggest I am "rich" enough to then sell my home in SS (pay those taxes, fees and realtor fees again) and move back to Bethesda? Think before you throw words like "entitled" around. There is a lot of reverse snobbery on this forum. I wouldn't care except when it is used to dismiss the concerns I might have for my child's education.

I am implying (in fact, I am explicitly saying) that most people who live in Bethesda/Potomac are affluent. Because they are. If you can stretch your budget to buy a house for $500,000 or $600,000, you are affluent. It doesn't matter that there are lots of people in Montgomery County who have more money than you. That doesn't make you non-affluent. It makes them even more affluent.

And yes, if you think that the affluent people who can afford to live in the areas that go to the best (by reputation) schools in Montgomery County should also get great access to the magnet schools, that's basically the definition of entitled. If your son gets into the middle school magnet program, then you decide whether it's better for him to have a long commute and go to the magnet school or to have a short commute and stay in his home school, just like most other people in Montgomery County.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Are you implying that everyone who lives in Bethesda/Potomac is rich? If you stretched your budget to buy a house for $500K or $600K in one of these neighborhoods a few years ago you are not rich by Mont. County standards. Selling that house and paying all the taxes and fees to buy a house in SS would be beyond the means of most of the people I know. Perhaps I should have planned for the eventuality that my child would not be adequately served in his home school and would be accepted into and want to attend a middle school magnet program. I didn't have a crystal ball then. If my child then does not get into a high school magnet like Blair would you suggest I am "rich" enough to then sell my home in SS (pay those taxes, fees and realtor fees again) and move back to Bethesda? Think before you throw words like "entitled" around. There is a lot of reverse snobbery on this forum. I wouldn't care except when it is used to dismiss the concerns I might have for my child's education.

I am implying (in fact, I am explicitly saying) that most people who live in Bethesda/Potomac are affluent. Because they are. If you can stretch your budget to buy a house for $500,000 or $600,000, you are affluent. It doesn't matter that there are lots of people in Montgomery County who have more money than you. That doesn't make you non-affluent. It makes them even more affluent.

And yes, if you think that the affluent people who can afford to live in the areas that go to the best (by reputation) schools in Montgomery County should also get great access to the magnet schools, that's basically the definition of entitled. If your son gets into the middle school magnet program, then you decide whether it's better for him to have a long commute and go to the magnet school or to have a short commute and stay in his home school, just like most other people in Montgomery County.

Yes the "W" schools tend to be better than the rest and that is one reason why housing (and property taxes) are higher in these areas. If your child is above average they will probably have a better experience in a "W" school where they will have a large peer group and plenty of advanced course offerings. But if you have a child who is in the top 5% they will not be adequately served in any regular MCPS school. The magnet schools exist to serve THIS population regardless of their parents' socioeconomic status. I fail to see how penalizing these children helps children in another part of the county. It is just mean spirited. btw the median household income in MoCo is around $100K and the median value of owner occupied housing which is close to 70% of housing in the county, is $460K (U.S. Census Bureau 2008-2012). If you are implying that the fifty percent of homeowners whose houses are worth more than that are the 'elite' your definition of elite is different from mine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Are you implying that everyone who lives in Bethesda/Potomac is rich? If you stretched your budget to buy a house for $500K or $600K in one of these neighborhoods a few years ago you are not rich by Mont. County standards. Selling that house and paying all the taxes and fees to buy a house in SS would be beyond the means of most of the people I know. Perhaps I should have planned for the eventuality that my child would not be adequately served in his home school and would be accepted into and want to attend a middle school magnet program. I didn't have a crystal ball then. If my child then does not get into a high school magnet like Blair would you suggest I am "rich" enough to then sell my home in SS (pay those taxes, fees and realtor fees again) and move back to Bethesda? Think before you throw words like "entitled" around. There is a lot of reverse snobbery on this forum. I wouldn't care except when it is used to dismiss the concerns I might have for my child's education.

I am implying (in fact, I am explicitly saying) that most people who live in Bethesda/Potomac are affluent. Because they are. If you can stretch your budget to buy a house for $500,000 or $600,000, you are affluent. It doesn't matter that there are lots of people in Montgomery County who have more money than you. That doesn't make you non-affluent. It makes them even more affluent.

And yes, if you think that the affluent people who can afford to live in the areas that go to the best (by reputation) schools in Montgomery County should also get great access to the magnet schools, that's basically the definition of entitled. If your son gets into the middle school magnet program, then you decide whether it's better for him to have a long commute and go to the magnet school or to have a short commute and stay in his home school, just like most other people in Montgomery County.

Yes the "W" schools tend to be better than the rest and that is one reason why housing (and property taxes) are higher in these areas. If your child is above average they will probably have a better experience in a "W" school where they will have a large peer group and plenty of advanced course offerings. But if you have a child who is in the top 5% they will not be adequately served in any regular MCPS school. The magnet schools exist to serve THIS population regardless of their parents' socioeconomic status. I fail to see how penalizing these children helps children in another part of the county. It is just mean spirited. btw the median household income in MoCo is around $100K and the median value of owner occupied housing which is close to 70% of housing in the county, is $460K (U.S. Census Bureau 2008-2012). If you are implying that the fifty percent of homeowners whose houses are worth more than that are the 'elite' your definition of elite is different from mine.

The 5% are not being penalized. The school district had to choose somewhere to house these programs and they chose a location that made sense for the county as a whole, not these particular children, but the good overall. There is nothing mean spirited about the location. Magnet schools throughout the country are placed in schools that are not the richest in the district to improve the schools that house them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The 5% are not being penalized. The school district had to choose somewhere to house these programs and they chose a location that made sense for the county as a whole, not these particular children, but the good overall. There is nothing mean spirited about the location. Magnet schools throughout the country are placed in schools that are not the richest in the district to improve the schools that house them.

Ha ha ha. They choose a location that made sense... For them! For juicing their test scores of suboptimal host schools, or as you say " improve the schools that house them". If they made the host school less inconvenient they'd suffer from high uptake and then serve an even smaller percentage of gifted students than they currently do. Then the cat would really be out of the bag on what a tiny HGC magnet program mcps is running (in absentee and relative terms), and how low a priority it is, esp versus fairfax' G&T programs, right across the river...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Are you implying that everyone who lives in Bethesda/Potomac is rich? If you stretched your budget to buy a house for $500K or $600K in one of these neighborhoods a few years ago you are not rich by Mont. County standards. Selling that house and paying all the taxes and fees to buy a house in SS would be beyond the means of most of the people I know. Perhaps I should have planned for the eventuality that my child would not be adequately served in his home school and would be accepted into and want to attend a middle school magnet program. I didn't have a crystal ball then. If my child then does not get into a high school magnet like Blair would you suggest I am "rich" enough to then sell my home in SS (pay those taxes, fees and realtor fees again) and move back to Bethesda? Think before you throw words like "entitled" around. There is a lot of reverse snobbery on this forum. I wouldn't care except when it is used to dismiss the concerns I might have for my child's education.

I am implying (in fact, I am explicitly saying) that most people who live in Bethesda/Potomac are affluent. Because they are. If you can stretch your budget to buy a house for $500,000 or $600,000, you are affluent. It doesn't matter that there are lots of people in Montgomery County who have more money than you. That doesn't make you non-affluent. It makes them even more affluent.

And yes, if you think that the affluent people who can afford to live in the areas that go to the best (by reputation) schools in Montgomery County should also get great access to the magnet schools, that's basically the definition of entitled. If your son gets into the middle school magnet program, then you decide whether it's better for him to have a long commute and go to the magnet school or to have a short commute and stay in his home school, just like most other people in Montgomery County.

Yes the "W" schools tend to be better than the rest and that is one reason why housing (and property taxes) are higher in these areas. If your child is above average they will probably have a better experience in a "W" school where they will have a large peer group and plenty of advanced course offerings. But if you have a child who is in the top 5% they will not be adequately served in any regular MCPS school. The magnet schools exist to serve THIS population regardless of their parents' socioeconomic status. I fail to see how penalizing these children helps children in another part of the county. It is just mean spirited. btw the median household income in MoCo is around $100K and the median value of owner occupied housing which is close to 70% of housing in the county, is $460K (U.S. Census Bureau 2008-2012). If you are implying that the fifty percent of homeowners whose houses are worth more than that are the 'elite' your definition of elite is different from mine.

Housing prices are higher in the W areas, but property taxes are the same. Which is the point, in a county-based school system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Ha ha ha. They choose a location that made sense... For them! For juicing their test scores of suboptimal host schools, or as you say " improve the schools that house them". If they made the host school less inconvenient they'd suffer from high uptake and then serve an even smaller percentage of gifted students than they currently do. Then the cat would really be out of the bag on what a tiny HGC magnet program mcps is running (in absentee and relative terms), and how low a priority it is, esp versus fairfax' G&T programs, right across the river...

Of course MCPS chose the location that made sense for MCPS. How should they have chosen instead? Should they have chosen the location that makes sense for the people in Bethesda/Potomac/Chevy Chase?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Ha ha ha. They choose a location that made sense... For them! For juicing their test scores of suboptimal host schools, or as you say " improve the schools that house them". If they made the host school less inconvenient they'd suffer from high uptake and then serve an even smaller percentage of gifted students than they currently do. Then the cat would really be out of the bag on what a tiny HGC magnet program mcps is running (in absentee and relative terms), and how low a priority it is, esp versus fairfax' G&T programs, right across the river...

Of course MCPS chose the location that made sense for MCPS. How should they have chosen instead? Should they have chosen the location that makes sense for the people in Bethesda/Potomac/Chevy Chase?

They could have put one in the eastern part of the county and one in the western part perhaps. OR they could have one math and science and one humanities magnet in the east and one of each in the west with the capacity for 75 students in each one for a total of 300 middle school magnet students. The lower part of the county is densely populated and has a lot of traffic congestion so having both in the same area is not a good solution.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Are you implying that everyone who lives in Bethesda/Potomac is rich? If you stretched your budget to buy a house for $500K or $600K in one of these neighborhoods a few years ago you are not rich by Mont. County standards. Selling that house and paying all the taxes and fees to buy a house in SS would be beyond the means of most of the people I know. Perhaps I should have planned for the eventuality that my child would not be adequately served in his home school and would be accepted into and want to attend a middle school magnet program. I didn't have a crystal ball then. If my child then does not get into a high school magnet like Blair would you suggest I am "rich" enough to then sell my home in SS (pay those taxes, fees and realtor fees again) and move back to Bethesda? Think before you throw words like "entitled" around. There is a lot of reverse snobbery on this forum. I wouldn't care except when it is used to dismiss the concerns I might have for my child's education.

I am implying (in fact, I am explicitly saying) that most people who live in Bethesda/Potomac are affluent. Because they are. If you can stretch your budget to buy a house for $500,000 or $600,000, you are affluent. It doesn't matter that there are lots of people in Montgomery County who have more money than you. That doesn't make you non-affluent. It makes them even more affluent.

And yes, if you think that the affluent people who can afford to live in the areas that go to the best (by reputation) schools in Montgomery County should also get great access to the magnet schools, that's basically the definition of entitled. If your son gets into the middle school magnet program, then you decide whether it's better for him to have a long commute and go to the magnet school or to have a short commute and stay in his home school, just like most other people in Montgomery County.

Yes the "W" schools tend to be better than the rest and that is one reason why housing (and property taxes) are higher in these areas. If your child is above average they will probably have a better experience in a "W" school where they will have a large peer group and plenty of advanced course offerings. But if you have a child who is in the top 5% they will not be adequately served in any regular MCPS school. The magnet schools exist to serve THIS population regardless of their parents' socioeconomic status. I fail to see how penalizing these children helps children in another part of the county. It is just mean spirited. btw the median household income in MoCo is around $100K and the median value of owner occupied housing which is close to 70% of housing in the county, is $460K (U.S. Census Bureau 2008-2012). If you are implying that the fifty percent of homeowners whose houses are worth more than that are the 'elite' your definition of elite is different from mine.

Housing prices are higher in the W areas, but property taxes are the same. Which is the point, in a county-based school system.

Not you again. are you the property tax RATE semantics pest?

Yes, we all know that a county has the same $$ RATE per $100 of assessed property value.
We also all know that the same property placed in Bethesda will generate a higher assessed value, thus higher total tax bill, than if it were in silver spring or farther out of the beltway. This is due to shorter commutes to large office districts (Tyson's, Bethesda, downtown DC, 270 corridor), higher performing schools, less crime and clusters of amenities (restaurant, centers, community pools, hiking/biking trails, etc.).

Thus a 2500 sq foot house in silver spring, assessed at $600k pays less total tax to the kitty than a 2500sq foot house in Bethesda assessed at $1000k. The county is extremely large (in top 50 most populous) and redistributes its tax revenues, teachers, mobile classrooms, and school construction funds as it wishes.

[Anonymous]

I just checked my Eastern magnet program directory and there are 11 pages of Silver Spring addresses vs. 7 pages of addresses from the rest of the catchment area: Bethesda, C. Chase, Potomac, Rockville, Olney, Burtonsville, Gaithersburg, Kensington. So unless you think there are 60% more qualified kids in Silver spring, I think the location does disadvantage kids who live far away from the MS magnet programs which are both located in the same area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just checked my Eastern magnet program directory and there are 11 pages of Silver Spring addresses vs. 7 pages of addresses from the rest of the catchment area: Bethesda, C. Chase, Potomac, Rockville, Olney, Burtonsville, Gaithersburg, Kensington. So unless you think there are 60% more qualified kids in Silver spring, I think the location does disadvantage kids who live far away from the MS magnet programs which are both located in the same area.

You are missing one of the reasons that magnets were created - to bring higher achieving kids into higher poverty schools.

In my opinion, he far bigger disparity is the quality of the non-magnet middle schools in w schools vs. east county. Many families in silver spring see the magnets as a way out of a not so great school. I think access to high quality regular middle schools more than makes up for the distance to a magnet that your kid may or may not get into.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just checked my Eastern magnet program directory and there are 11 pages of Silver Spring addresses vs. 7 pages of addresses from the rest of the catchment area: Bethesda, C. Chase, Potomac, Rockville, Olney, Burtonsville, Gaithersburg, Kensington. So unless you think there are 60% more qualified kids in Silver spring, I think the location does disadvantage kids who live far away from the MS magnet programs which are both located in the same area.

You are missing one of the reasons that magnets were created - to bring higher achieving kids into higher poverty schools.

In my opinion, he far bigger disparity is the quality of the non-magnet middle schools in w schools vs. east county. Many families in silver spring see the magnets as a way out of a not so great school. I think access to high quality regular middle schools more than makes up for the distance to a magnet that your kid may or may not get into.

Should that really be the goal of a magnet?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just checked my Eastern magnet program directory and there are 11 pages of Silver Spring addresses vs. 7 pages of addresses from the rest of the catchment area: Bethesda, C. Chase, Potomac, Rockville, Olney, Burtonsville, Gaithersburg, Kensington. So unless you think there are 60% more qualified kids in Silver spring, I think the location does disadvantage kids who live far away from the MS magnet programs which are both located in the same area.

My child was in an HGC, but we didn't even bother to apply to a MS magnet because of the distance and length of the bus ride.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just checked my Eastern magnet program directory and there are 11 pages of Silver Spring addresses vs. 7 pages of addresses from the rest of the catchment area: Bethesda, C. Chase, Potomac, Rockville, Olney, Burtonsville, Gaithersburg, Kensington. So unless you think there are 60% more qualified kids in Silver spring, I think the location does disadvantage kids who live far away from the MS magnet programs which are both located in the same area.

You are missing one of the reasons that magnets were created - to bring higher achieving kids into higher poverty schools.

In my opinion, he far bigger disparity is the quality of the non-magnet middle schools in w schools vs. east county. Many families in silver spring see the magnets as a way out of a not so great school. I think access to high quality regular middle schools more than makes up for the distance to a magnet that your kid may or may not get into.

Should that really be the goal of a magnet?

+1. I don't think it should be the goal of a magnet program for academically advanced kids.
Also if you are in an advanced class in a silver spring middle school like SSI or Newport Mill or Sligo you will have a peer group that is comparable/the same as the peer group in a "W" school and the curriculum IS the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just checked my Eastern magnet program directory and there are 11 pages of Silver Spring addresses vs. 7 pages of addresses from the rest of the catchment area: Bethesda, C. Chase, Potomac, Rockville, Olney, Burtonsville, Gaithersburg, Kensington. So unless you think there are 60% more qualified kids in Silver spring, I think the location does disadvantage kids who live far away from the MS magnet programs which are both located in the same area.

You are missing one of the reasons that magnets were created - to bring higher achieving kids into higher poverty schools.

In my opinion, he far bigger disparity is the quality of the non-magnet middle schools in w schools vs. east county. Many families in silver spring see the magnets as a way out of a not so great school. I think access to high quality regular middle schools more than makes up for the distance to a magnet that your kid may or may not get into.

Should that really be the goal of a magnet?

+1. I don't think it should be the goal of a magnet program for academically advanced kids.
Also if you are in an advanced class in a silver spring middle school like SSI or Newport Mill or Sligo you will have a peer group that is comparable/the same as the peer group in a "W" school and the curriculum IS the same.

But there are no advanced classes in middle school anymore except math and English. I like east county schools, but this is my biggest concern for my kids education in silver spring. I think your comment does apply in high school.

I think the history of the magnets is that they are a fairly non controversial way to integrate schools. I'm not sure how well it works in practice, but it seems to have boosted Blair's reputation.