Magnet High Schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS have a school similar to TJ in Virginia? What school would that be?

No. They have magnet programs embedded in different schools. The top three in demand are Blair, Richard Montgomery, and Poolesville. But there are many more.
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/high/

Are they any good? Is it a difficult process to get in? I had a foster child this year who went to an engineering magnet middle school and I was shocked at how easy her classes were and how bad her teachers were.

Blair magnet is a rough equivalent of TJ. Probably, slightly less rigorous but equally difficult to get in. RM magnet is humanities so can't be compared to TJ.
Don't know much about Poolesville.

Not sure why you would assert Blair is lass rigorous than TJ. Extra period at Blair and more math electives. I would say Blair is more rigorous based on the larger courseload.

Also, Wheaton's engineering magnet program is excellent!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid at RMIB and I have no idea what all these posters are talking about. Mob protests? What?
I guess I would not be surprised if there were some protests. I remember protesting in HS — nules, English only laws, probably dress codes, whatever. Isn’t that what teens do? I’m not aware of any protests at RM so I guess my teen didn’t even bother to mention them. She seems pretty occupied with her school work and her extacurriculars.
People on this site often have such weird filters where they hyperfocus on one thing. A protest at a Hs? They must be all for SJW mob rule! Nope.

You must live under a rock?

2016:https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/schools/richard-montgomery-students-walkout-wednesday-to-protest-election/

2018:https://www.facebook.com/fox5dc/videos/watch-live-students-at-richard-montgomery-in-rockville-hold-walkout-in-support-o/10156464024897494/

2020: (covid)

2022: https://wjla.com/news/local/montgomery-blair-high-school-students-teachers-silver-spring-maryland-walkout-protest-against-gun-violence-day-control-reform-president-joe-biden-calls-on-congress-take-action-mass-shooting-legislation-tulsa-oklahoma-uvalde-texas-robb-elementary-buffalo

NP. Way to go, RM students!

Yup! This is a sign of thinking, passionate students, not a "mob."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS have a school similar to TJ in Virginia? What school would that be?

No. They have magnet programs embedded in different schools. The top three in demand are Blair, Richard Montgomery, and Poolesville. But there are many more.
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/high/

Are they any good? Is it a difficult process to get in? I had a foster child this year who went to an engineering magnet middle school and I was shocked at how easy her classes were and how bad her teachers were.

Blair magnet is a rough equivalent of TJ. Probably, slightly less rigorous but equally difficult to get in. RM magnet is humanities so can't be compared to TJ.
Don't know much about Poolesville.

Wheaton also has stem magnets.

Only 3 magnets in MoCo HS - PHS, RM/IB, and Blair STEM. Others call themselves "magnet" but they are not true magnets

You are mistaken as others have pointed out. Perhaps you are confused with application vs lottery programs? Wheaton Engineering, Wheaton Biomed, Einstein VAC, Blair CAP and a few others are also application based magnet programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS have a school similar to TJ in Virginia? What school would that be?

No. They have magnet programs embedded in different schools. The top three in demand are Blair, Richard Montgomery, and Poolesville. But there are many more.
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/high/

Are they any good? Is it a difficult process to get in? I had a foster child this year who went to an engineering magnet middle school and I was shocked at how easy her classes were and how bad her teachers were.

Blair magnet is a rough equivalent of TJ. Probably, slightly less rigorous but equally difficult to get in. RM magnet is humanities so can't be compared to TJ.
Don't know much about Poolesville.

No, Blair is definitely more difficult to get in and is honestly a bit more rigorous than TJ

Although smaller Blair has a higher SAT average, Intel scholars, NMSF, members of USA Math & Physics Olympiads and beats the stuffing out of TJ on It's Academic just for fun.

The smaller is the key part. Blair picks the roughly 100 great students out of a similar sized county and TJ picks hundreds every year. They get to dip a lower in the pool due to being lager. That will always dilute your scores. The same effect why Blair has one of the lower SAT scores in the county despite having the program embedded to boost scores and perceptions. The larger school simply drowns out the statistics but one can speculate how low they would rank without importing those almost 100 kids assuming a few make it in form the IB naturally. While Takoma middle puts more kids in the program than any other middle, most of those kids are out of bounds too in the middle magnet except for the 25 set aside seats which were created because local kids were getting squeezed out of the local program by higher testing W kids.

This is where all the prepping accusations come from (because how dare a kids read a book prior to a test, cheaters) and why the East county wants to consider local peer group for admissions to tip the scales in the local favor. Funny part it is a quiet self own to all people who claim to have bought cheaper houses to get a more “better” peer group but turn around and want considerations for not having better peers for their kids.

Wrong, idiot.

Delusional striver. Blair is a joke to everyone outside the DCC. It is the cheap side of town, anyone can go there, most don’t want to.

I think this applies to RM and Blair both. Without magnets, these two are basically ghetto schools. PHS, I suppose, is fine either way.

The magnet kids go back home and tell stories about how ghetto the local kids are and the crazy stuff they have seen. Don’t believe me? Take a Blair kids word for it. Blair is so proud of the program but it was given to them because the school was consider a lost cause other wise
https://medium.com/@samanthaxcody/magnet-programs-segregation-and-the-anti-blackness-of-the-asian-model-minority-myth-7790df0fb00a" target="_new" rel="nofollow"> https://medium.com/@samanthaxcody/magnet-programs-segregation-and-the-anti-blackness-of-the-asian-model-minority-myth-7790df0fb00a

Read the article. That is not what it says at all. It's about segregation, not how "ghetto" the local kids are. The article is well written. What you are saying is something totally different, denigrating local students.
Mom of local Blair kid who is also in magnet

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS have a school similar to TJ in Virginia? What school would that be?

No. They have magnet programs embedded in different schools. The top three in demand are Blair, Richard Montgomery, and Poolesville. But there are many more.
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/high/

Are they any good? Is it a difficult process to get in? I had a foster child this year who went to an engineering magnet middle school and I was shocked at how easy her classes were and how bad her teachers were.

Blair magnet is a rough equivalent of TJ. Probably, slightly less rigorous but equally difficult to get in. RM magnet is humanities so can't be compared to TJ.
Don't know much about Poolesville.

No, Blair is definitely more difficult to get in and is honestly a bit more rigorous than TJ

Although smaller Blair has a higher SAT average, Intel scholars, NMSF, members of USA Math & Physics Olympiads and beats the stuffing out of TJ on It's Academic just for fun.

The smaller is the key part. Blair picks the roughly 100 great students out of a similar sized county and TJ picks hundreds every year. They get to dip a lower in the pool due to being lager. That will always dilute your scores. The same effect why Blair has one of the lower SAT scores in the county despite having the program embedded to boost scores and perceptions. The larger school simply drowns out the statistics but one can speculate how low they would rank without importing those almost 100 kids assuming a few make it in form the IB naturally. While Takoma middle puts more kids in the program than any other middle, most of those kids are out of bounds too in the middle magnet except for the 25 set aside seats which were created because local kids were getting squeezed out of the local program by higher testing W kids.

This is where all the prepping accusations come from (because how dare a kids read a book prior to a test, cheaters) and why the East county wants to consider local peer group for admissions to tip the scales in the local favor. Funny part it is a quiet self own to all people who claim to have bought cheaper houses to get a more “better” peer group but turn around and want considerations for not having better peers for their kids.

Wrong, idiot.

Delusional striver. Blair is a joke to everyone outside the DCC. It is the cheap side of town, anyone can go there, most don’t want to.

I think this applies to RM and Blair both. Without magnets, these two are basically ghetto schools. PHS, I suppose, is fine either way.

yea, all those JWMS kids of doctors, lawyers, scientists, IT Professionals.. so ghetto. LOL

Agree, the breakdown of SAT averages by demographic per high-school released by MCPS showed that Blair had the highest SATs for the largest cohort common to it and any W, and this wasn't Asians so magnet kids weren't a factor.

Here we go again. I don't know who this nutcase is, but they're only quoting White SAT scores.

IMHO, Blair isn't what it used to be.

1. The lottery has damaged the Magnet program. The best-of-the-best aren't in the MS magnets anymore, which will start affecting HS magnets, not next year but the year after.
2. If you look at Blair overall, it's one of the lower-middle performing schools in MCPS. Remove about 100 Magnet kids jacking up the scores, and it's really a meh.
3. The Blair crowd isn't going to like this part. They can argue all they want, but college admissions boards look at the stats. Remember that U.S. News looks at the whole school, not just a few classrooms, so I do feel very sorry for the Blair kids applying to college this year.

Whitman made #1 in Maryland and #104 in National rankings this year.
Wootton #2 MD, #167 National
Poolesville #4 MD, #248 National
Churchill #5 MD, #294 National
MCC, RM, WJ, NW, QO, Damascus all scored higher than Blair (#34 in MD, #1,476 in National rankings)

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/maryland/rankings

The only score that surprised me was Poolesville. At first, I expected it to be higher than Whitman, but the lightbulb went on when I saw the SAT and AP/IB passing scores. Although Poolesville edged out Whitman in meeting UofMD college entrance requirements, on the national requirements (e.g. SAT, AP/IB), Whitman did spank Poolesville a bit.

Remember that the point of HS is college readiness at the National scale. No one cares what MCPS equity thinks - they care about who is Nationally (and Globally) competitive. In that respect, yes, Whitman is currently #1.

You clearly don't know Blair. Any lottery component to Blair admission would have been very recent. Even in 2020, when magnet admissions centralized, there was no lottery component, Blair still retained admissions control, and all magnets required essay and recs. Class of '22 was admitted under the old system that was completely separate apps for each program with absolutely no lottery factor. So, there is no way you can support your claim with data as the data on having a lottery component to an application based threshold hasn't been tested (if that is even in effect). I think getting more students into the program who haven't been able to get the outside enrichment on their own would be better for the students and be better educating. I frankly think we need more magnet seats overall.
I really hate this one-upmanship from the W people (and from some of the mag parents as well). Let's just continue to invest in the kids!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS have a school similar to TJ in Virginia? What school would that be?

No. They have magnet programs embedded in different schools. The top three in demand are Blair, Richard Montgomery, and Poolesville. But there are many more.
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/high/

Are they any good? Is it a difficult process to get in? I had a foster child this year who went to an engineering magnet middle school and I was shocked at how easy her classes were and how bad her teachers were.

Blair magnet is a rough equivalent of TJ. Probably, slightly less rigorous but equally difficult to get in. RM magnet is humanities so can't be compared to TJ.
Don't know much about Poolesville.

No, Blair is definitely more difficult to get in and is honestly a bit more rigorous than TJ

Although smaller Blair has a higher SAT average, Intel scholars, NMSF, members of USA Math & Physics Olympiads and beats the stuffing out of TJ on It's Academic just for fun.

The smaller is the key part. Blair picks the roughly 100 great students out of a similar sized county and TJ picks hundreds every year. They get to dip a lower in the pool due to being lager. That will always dilute your scores. The same effect why Blair has one of the lower SAT scores in the county despite having the program embedded to boost scores and perceptions. The larger school simply drowns out the statistics but one can speculate how low they would rank without importing those almost 100 kids assuming a few make it in form the IB naturally. While Takoma middle puts more kids in the program than any other middle, most of those kids are out of bounds too in the middle magnet except for the 25 set aside seats which were created because local kids were getting squeezed out of the local program by higher testing W kids.

This is where all the prepping accusations come from (because how dare a kids read a book prior to a test, cheaters) and why the East county wants to consider local peer group for admissions to tip the scales in the local favor. Funny part it is a quiet self own to all people who claim to have bought cheaper houses to get a more “better” peer group but turn around and want considerations for not having better peers for their kids.

Wrong, idiot.

Delusional striver. Blair is a joke to everyone outside the DCC. It is the cheap side of town, anyone can go there, most don’t want to.

I think this applies to RM and Blair both. Without magnets, these two are basically ghetto schools. PHS, I suppose, is fine either way.

yea, all those JWMS kids of doctors, lawyers, scientists, IT Professionals.. so ghetto. LOL

Agree, the breakdown of SAT averages by demographic per high-school released by MCPS showed that Blair had the highest SATs for the largest cohort common to it and any W, and this wasn't Asians so magnet kids weren't a factor.

Here we go again. I don't know who this nutcase is, but they're only quoting White SAT scores.

IMHO, Blair isn't what it used to be.

1. The lottery has damaged the Magnet program. The best-of-the-best aren't in the MS magnets anymore, which will start affecting HS magnets, not next year but the year after.
2. If you look at Blair overall, it's one of the lower-middle performing schools in MCPS. Remove about 100 Magnet kids jacking up the scores, and it's really a meh.
3. The Blair crowd isn't going to like this part. They can argue all they want, but college admissions boards look at the stats. Remember that U.S. News looks at the whole school, not just a few classrooms, so I do feel very sorry for the Blair kids applying to college this year.

Whitman made #1 in Maryland and #104 in National rankings this year.
Wootton #2 MD, #167 National
Poolesville #4 MD, #248 National
Churchill #5 MD, #294 National
MCC, RM, WJ, NW, QO, Damascus all scored higher than Blair (#34 in MD, #1,476 in National rankings)

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/maryland/rankings

The only score that surprised me was Poolesville. At first, I expected it to be higher than Whitman, but the lightbulb went on when I saw the SAT and AP/IB passing scores. Although Poolesville edged out Whitman in meeting UofMD college entrance requirements, on the national requirements (e.g. SAT, AP/IB), Whitman did spank Poolesville a bit.

Remember that the point of HS is college readiness at the National scale. No one cares what MCPS equity thinks - they care about who is Nationally (and Globally) competitive. In that respect, yes, Whitman is currently #1.

You clearly don't know Blair. Any lottery component to Blair admission would have been very recent. Even in 2020, when magnet admissions centralized, there was no lottery component, Blair still retained admissions control, and all magnets required essay and recs. Class of '22 was admitted under the old system that was completely separate apps for each program with absolutely no lottery factor. So, there is no way you can support your claim with data as the data on having a lottery component to an application based threshold hasn't been tested (if that is even in effect). I think getting more students into the program who haven't been able to get the outside enrichment on their own would be better for the students and be better educating. I frankly think we need more magnet seats overall.
I really hate this one-upmanship from the W people (and from some of the mag parents as well). Let's just continue to invest in the kids!

Yes, it's true that the segregated schools will have a higher overall average since there are fewer low-income students dragging down the averages, but the quality of education available at Blair is head and shoulders above that available elsewhere. Sure, it's a diverse school so ya the averages aren't comparable but the top third of kids at Blair are far more prepared for college than the top kids 1000 students at any other school in the state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS have a school similar to TJ in Virginia? What school would that be?

No. They have magnet programs embedded in different schools. The top three in demand are Blair, Richard Montgomery, and Poolesville. But there are many more.
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/high/

Are they any good? Is it a difficult process to get in? I had a foster child this year who went to an engineering magnet middle school and I was shocked at how easy her classes were and how bad her teachers were.

Blair magnet is a rough equivalent of TJ. Probably, slightly less rigorous but equally difficult to get in. RM magnet is humanities so can't be compared to TJ.
Don't know much about Poolesville.

Wheaton also has stem magnets.

Only 3 magnets in MoCo HS - PHS, RM/IB, and Blair STEM. Others call themselves "magnet" but they are not true magnets

They draw students from outside of their zone and are competitive using an application. How is that not a magnet?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS have a school similar to TJ in Virginia? What school would that be?

No. They have magnet programs embedded in different schools. The top three in demand are Blair, Richard Montgomery, and Poolesville. But there are many more.
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/high/

Are they any good? Is it a difficult process to get in? I had a foster child this year who went to an engineering magnet middle school and I was shocked at how easy her classes were and how bad her teachers were.

Blair magnet is a rough equivalent of TJ. Probably, slightly less rigorous but equally difficult to get in. RM magnet is humanities so can't be compared to TJ.
Don't know much about Poolesville.

Wheaton also has stem magnets.

Only 3 magnets in MoCo HS - PHS, RM/IB, and Blair STEM. Others call themselves "magnet" but they are not true magnets

They draw students from outside of their zone and are competitive using an application. How is that not a magnet?

They are. Just ignore that poster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only 3 magnets in MoCo HS - PHS, RM/IB, and Blair STEM. Others call themselves "magnet" but they are not true magnets

Anonymous wrote:They draw students from outside of their zone and are competitive using an application. How is that not a magnet?

Because Larla goes to one of those three. She's special!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS have a school similar to TJ in Virginia? What school would that be?

No. They have magnet programs embedded in different schools. The top three in demand are Blair, Richard Montgomery, and Poolesville. But there are many more.
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/high/

Are they any good? Is it a difficult process to get in? I had a foster child this year who went to an engineering magnet middle school and I was shocked at how easy her classes were and how bad her teachers were.

Sounds about right. Welcome to the club.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid at RMIB and I have no idea what all these posters are talking about. Mob protests? What?
I guess I would not be surprised if there were some protests. I remember protesting in HS — nules, English only laws, probably dress codes, whatever. Isn’t that what teens do? I’m not aware of any protests at RM so I guess my teen didn’t even bother to mention them. She seems pretty occupied with her school work and her extacurriculars.
People on this site often have such weird filters where they hyperfocus on one thing. A protest at a Hs? They must be all for SJW mob rule! Nope.

You must live under a rock?

2016:https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/schools/richard-montgomery-students-walkout-wednesday-to-protest-election/

2018:https://www.facebook.com/fox5dc/videos/watch-live-students-at-richard-montgomery-in-rockville-hold-walkout-in-support-o/10156464024897494/

2020: (covid)

2022: https://wjla.com/news/local/montgomery-blair-high-school-students-teachers-silver-spring-maryland-walkout-protest-against-gun-violence-day-control-reform-president-joe-biden-calls-on-congress-take-action-mass-shooting-legislation-tulsa-oklahoma-uvalde-texas-robb-elementary-buffalo

Nope, not a rock. 3 protests in 6 years doessn't really seem like a lot to me, especially when the "protest" is walking out of a class for a few minutes to make a silent statement. It's not even like they shut anything down for even a day!
Honestly, if it were up to me, I wish the HS kids in the states with senators voting against gun control would SHUT THOSE STATES DOWN with protests. (I am from one of those states!) In MoCo, it's totally symbolic (not like they need to make this point with Rep. Raskin!), but I appreciate the kids' efforts to stand for what they believe in.
A big part of the IB program is civic engagement and critical thinking about the world, so if you're uncomfortable with teens forming opinions about world events, then I think it is probably not the right school for your family. The thing we like most about the school is that the kids seem really engaged and like they have active conversations and debates about issues that affect them and their world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only 3 magnets in MoCo HS - PHS, RM/IB, and Blair STEM. Others call themselves "magnet" but they are not true magnets

Anonymous wrote:They draw students from outside of their zone and are competitive using an application. How is that not a magnet?

Because Larla goes to one of those three. She's special!

Actually, I’m a teacher. And the students we send to those programs are as special as the ones we send to Poolesville, Blair, and RM. So are many of their peers who don’t get in or don’t even apply. More seats are needed. MoCo is full of talented and hardworking youth.

[Anonymous]

OMG OMG OMG another thread from 10 years ago is back!

[Anonymous]

Best decision I ever made was to decline Blair acceptance many years ago. I did end up knowing a few kids in college who went to Blair. That said, if your kid is totally focused only on math and science it might be a good fit, if they don't have to bus for too long.

Thinking back, and seeing MCPS now and esp. all the CES programs. What is the point? Really? This is a genuine question.

I think these kinds of programs create/contribute more to huge disparities in schools, esp. as there seems to be no mixing. If school admin is not superb, it's easy for them to focus on their high profile program and let everything else slide into the gutter.

[Anonymous]

I am the parent of a recent Blair graduate (2021) and would like to correct some misinformation in this thread.

About 1/3 of Blair students attend ivy-plus schools each year - many more get in. My child attends an ivy and credits her admission in great part due to the education and resources Blair offered her. Top colleges know about magnet programs beyond US NEWS rankings and a special "Blair magnet program" letter is attached to every child's college application.

The math and science teachers at Blair are incredible, the student body is collaborative, and Mr. Ostrander (magnet coordinator) will move boulders for his kids. They have a class dedicated to research internships that provides them with resume correction, interview techniques, and connections that have taken previous Blair juniors for research positions. In Senior Fall, the program helps students enter all major science fair competitions. This is only one example of the incredible guidance that accompanies academic coursework.

If your child is passionate about engineering, Blair may be the wrong choice. Math classes are great: calc, differential equations, discrete, logic, advanced geometry, complex analysis, linear algebra... However, engineering classes can be subpar. In this area, clubs are superior and the Robotics team regularly wins awards at Worlds. Robotics is definitely a commitment, consisting of a 25+ student team staying 3+ hours after school during Build season. It does become, as one would expect, into a tight knit family. Additionally, Math/Physics classes are exceptional and provide a great foundation for any engineer. However, Wheaton may be better if you want to get right into engineering classwork beginning in 9th grade.

I can not fully speak to the Lottery aspect of current admissions, but from my understanding this is currently impacting the middle school magnets rather than the high school magnets. Blair still has autonomy over admissions and teachers have conferences during non-teaching periods to hand-select kids alongside Mr. Ostrander. This may have changed in the last year, but I am hopeful that is not the case.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS have a school similar to TJ in Virginia? What school would that be?

No. They have magnet programs embedded in different schools. The top three in demand are Blair, Richard Montgomery, and Poolesville. But there are many more.
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/high/

Are they any good? Is it a difficult process to get in? I had a foster child this year who went to an engineering magnet middle school and I was shocked at how easy her classes were and how bad her teachers were.

Blair magnet is a rough equivalent of TJ. Probably, slightly less rigorous but equally difficult to get in. RM magnet is humanities so can't be compared to TJ.
Don't know much about Poolesville.

No, Blair is definitely more difficult to get in and is honestly a bit more rigorous than TJ

Although smaller Blair has a higher SAT average, Intel scholars, NMSF, members of USA Math & Physics Olympiads and beats the stuffing out of TJ on It's Academic just for fun.

The smaller is the key part. Blair picks the roughly 100 great students out of a similar sized county and TJ picks hundreds every year. They get to dip a lower in the pool due to being lager. That will always dilute your scores. The same effect why Blair has one of the lower SAT scores in the county despite having the program embedded to boost scores and perceptions. The larger school simply drowns out the statistics but one can speculate how low they would rank without importing those almost 100 kids assuming a few make it in form the IB naturally. While Takoma middle puts more kids in the program than any other middle, most of those kids are out of bounds too in the middle magnet except for the 25 set aside seats which were created because local kids were getting squeezed out of the local program by higher testing W kids.

This is where all the prepping accusations come from (because how dare a kids read a book prior to a test, cheaters) and why the East county wants to consider local peer group for admissions to tip the scales in the local favor. Funny part it is a quiet self own to all people who claim to have bought cheaper houses to get a more “better” peer group but turn around and want considerations for not having better peers for their kids.

Wrong, idiot.

Delusional striver. Blair is a joke to everyone outside the DCC. It is the cheap side of town, anyone can go there, most don’t want to.

I think this applies to RM and Blair both. Without magnets, these two are basically ghetto schools. PHS, I suppose, is fine either way.

yea, all those JWMS kids of doctors, lawyers, scientists, IT Professionals.. so ghetto. LOL

Agree, the breakdown of SAT averages by demographic per high-school released by MCPS showed that Blair had the highest SATs for the largest cohort common to it and any W, and this wasn't Asians so magnet kids weren't a factor.

Here we go again. I don't know who this nutcase is, but they're only quoting White SAT scores.

IMHO, Blair isn't what it used to be.

1. The lottery has damaged the Magnet program. The best-of-the-best aren't in the MS magnets anymore, which will start affecting HS magnets, not next year but the year after.
2. If you look at Blair overall, it's one of the lower-middle performing schools in MCPS. Remove about 100 Magnet kids jacking up the scores, and it's really a meh.
3. The Blair crowd isn't going to like this part. They can argue all they want, but college admissions boards look at the stats. Remember that U.S. News looks at the whole school, not just a few classrooms, so I do feel very sorry for the Blair kids applying to college this year.

Whitman made #1 in Maryland and #104 in National rankings this year.
Wootton #2 MD, #167 National
Poolesville #4 MD, #248 National
Churchill #5 MD, #294 National
MCC, RM, WJ, NW, QO, Damascus all scored higher than Blair (#34 in MD, #1,476 in National rankings)

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/maryland/rankings

The only score that surprised me was Poolesville. At first, I expected it to be higher than Whitman, but the lightbulb went on when I saw the SAT and AP/IB passing scores. Although Poolesville edged out Whitman in meeting UofMD college entrance requirements, on the national requirements (e.g. SAT, AP/IB), Whitman did spank Poolesville a bit.

Remember that the point of HS is college readiness at the National scale. No one cares what MCPS equity thinks - they care about who is Nationally (and Globally) competitive. In that respect, yes, Whitman is currently #1.

You clearly don't know Blair. Any lottery component to Blair admission would have been very recent. Even in 2020, when magnet admissions centralized, there was no lottery component, Blair still retained admissions control, and all magnets required essay and recs. Class of '22 was admitted under the old system that was completely separate apps for each program with absolutely no lottery factor. So, there is no way you can support your claim with data as the data on having a lottery component to an application based threshold hasn't been tested (if that is even in effect). I think getting more students into the program who haven't been able to get the outside enrichment on their own would be better for the students and be better educating. I frankly think we need more magnet seats overall.
I really hate this one-upmanship from the W people (and from some of the mag parents as well). Let's just continue to invest in the kids!