Magnet middle school

[Anonymous]

Our school tells us that there is only like a few kids get selected and go to magnet middle school every year. Is that true? We are interested and looking at Roberto Clemente Middle School in Germantown. How competitive to get in? They say it is also depends on your grades and lottery based. My child is strong in math and above average in language.

[Anonymous]

It's hard to get in to the Magnet Middle Schools (Eastern, Clemente, MLK and Takoma Park) especially because it is now a lottery system instead of application. Each program is only 100-150 students out of thousands.

But there is also the Magnet Middle School consortium that you can apply to.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/middle/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our school tells us that there is only like a few kids get selected and go to magnet middle school every year. Is that true? We are interested and looking at Roberto Clemente Middle School in Germantown. How competitive to get in? They say it is also depends on your grades and lottery based. My child is strong in math and above average in language.

There are lots of threads on this because the answer is complex. But the short explanation is that your student has to have quite high MAP scores and A grades in the relevant subjects. (The MAP scores are adjusted for the income level of the student's elementary school.) If your student qualifies, they are placed in a lottery that draws names to assign magnet places. PP is right that thousands of kids qualify for a very small number of spots. The chances that any student will get a seat is very small. Make sure to have multiple plans for middle school that both you and your child can be happy about: you can hope for the magnet (but dont talk it up too much), plan for your local MS, and also try to get a place in the MSMC. Ideally you will end up in a situation where you at least have a choice, but if not, you will have the knowledge and some interest in your home school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school tells us that there is only like a few kids get selected and go to magnet middle school every year. Is that true? We are interested and looking at Roberto Clemente Middle School in Germantown. How competitive to get in? They say it is also depends on your grades and lottery based. My child is strong in math and above average in language.

There are lots of threads on this because the answer is complex. But the short explanation is that your student has to have quite high MAP scores and A grades in the relevant subjects. (The MAP scores are adjusted for the income level of the student's elementary school.) If your student qualifies, they are placed in a lottery that draws names to assign magnet places. PP is right that thousands of kids qualify for a very small number of spots. The chances that any student will get a seat is very small. Make sure to have multiple plans for middle school that both you and your child can be happy about: you can hope for the magnet (but dont talk it up too much), plan for your local MS, and also try to get a place in the MSMC. Ideally you will end up in a situation where you at least have a choice, but if not, you will have the knowledge and some interest in your home school.

I wonder how well this lottery system demonstrates student success in the magnet programs. It's certainly the less expensive way to identify students.

[Anonymous]

My kid went through Clemente back when selection was primarily CoGAT based. I would not send my kid to a program selected by lottery.

[Anonymous]

There are more than 11,000 fourth graders enrolled in MCPS this year, across 137 elementary schools.

Each of the two upcounty magnet middle schools has 63 seats for students who aren’t already zoned for those schools. Each of the downcounty magnet middle schools has 125 seats for students who aren’t already zoned for those schools.

That averages out to 2-3 students from each elementary school getting admitted to the magnet middle school programs.

[Anonymous]

Your best chance of getting in to Takoma Park middle school, for example would be to move in bound. Much higher chance of getting in if your kid is eligible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are more than 11,000 fourth graders enrolled in MCPS this year, across 137 elementary schools.

Each of the two upcounty magnet middle schools has 63 seats for students who aren’t already zoned for those schools. Each of the downcounty magnet middle schools has 125 seats for students who aren’t already zoned for those schools.

That averages out to 2-3 students from each elementary school getting admitted to the magnet middle school programs.

I believe the numbers are 50 for those not in-bounds locally for the upcounty magnets and 100 for those not in-bounds locally for the downcounty downcounty magnets. My understanding is that there are 12-13 separate program seats for students locally-in-bounds to the school, except for TPMS, which has 25. I could be wrong about that.

If not,
With about 300 locally in-bounds TPMS students total, there's something like an 11% overall chance of being in the magnet if living in a home zoned to TPMS. If only about 15% of students qualify for the lottery in the first place, there would be a greater than 70% chance of getting placed in the magnet if identified as eligible. With 100 seats for the rest of the lower ~2/3 of the county and close to 8000 students per grade (2/3 of about 12,000), 7700 taking out the 300 local to TPMS, there's something like a 1.3% overall chance of being in the magnet and under a 9% chance of getting placed if among the about 15% identified.

Whatever the actual numbers are, your chances if local, to TPMS particularly, of being offered a program seat are multiples higher than your chances if living outside the magnet's local boundary. Unless they drop the local set-aside or shift slots from local in-bounds reserve to those offered outside the local boundary so that the odds are close to the same for each.

[Anonymous]

^^ s/b about 8% overall and about 56% if identified chances for a student living in the TPMS bounds (not ~11% & more than 70%). Still multiple times the chance of those invited from outside.

[Anonymous]

Not sure many of those who would otherwise choose west county would choose to live in TP for that purpose. There is a strong bias against it in these parts.

But for those who don’t have have a preference, that would make sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are more than 11,000 fourth graders enrolled in MCPS this year, across 137 elementary schools.

Each of the two upcounty magnet middle schools has 63 seats for students who aren’t already zoned for those schools. Each of the downcounty magnet middle schools has 125 seats for students who aren’t already zoned for those schools.

That averages out to 2-3 students from each elementary school getting admitted to the magnet middle school programs.

I believe the numbers are 50 for those not in-bounds locally for the upcounty magnets and 100 for those not in-bounds locally for the downcounty downcounty magnets. My understanding is that there are 12-13 separate program seats for students locally-in-bounds to the school, except for TPMS, which has 25. I could be wrong about that.

If not,
With about 300 locally in-bounds TPMS students total, there's something like an 11% overall chance of being in the magnet if living in a home zoned to TPMS. If only about 15% of students qualify for the lottery in the first place, there would be a greater than 70% chance of getting placed in the magnet if identified as eligible. With 100 seats for the rest of the lower ~2/3 of the county and close to 8000 students per grade (2/3 of about 12,000), 7700 taking out the 300 local to TPMS, there's something like a 1.3% overall chance of being in the magnet and under a 9% chance of getting placed if among the about 15% identified.

Whatever the actual numbers are, your chances if local, to TPMS particularly, of being offered a program seat are multiples higher than your chances if living outside the magnet's local boundary. Unless they drop the local set-aside or shift slots from local in-bounds reserve to those offered outside the local boundary so that the odds are close to the same for each.

I dont think this is true. I called the offce and they confirmed it's random lottery, not based on race, gender or population of the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are more than 11,000 fourth graders enrolled in MCPS this year, across 137 elementary schools.

Each of the two upcounty magnet middle schools has 63 seats for students who aren’t already zoned for those schools. Each of the downcounty magnet middle schools has 125 seats for students who aren’t already zoned for those schools.

That averages out to 2-3 students from each elementary school getting admitted to the magnet middle school programs.

I believe the numbers are 50 for those not in-bounds locally for the upcounty magnets and 100 for those not in-bounds locally for the downcounty downcounty magnets. My understanding is that there are 12-13 separate program seats for students locally-in-bounds to the school, except for TPMS, which has 25. I could be wrong about that.

If not,
With about 300 locally in-bounds TPMS students total, there's something like an 11% overall chance of being in the magnet if living in a home zoned to TPMS. If only about 15% of students qualify for the lottery in the first place, there would be a greater than 70% chance of getting placed in the magnet if identified as eligible. With 100 seats for the rest of the lower ~2/3 of the county and close to 8000 students per grade (2/3 of about 12,000), 7700 taking out the 300 local to TPMS, there's something like a 1.3% overall chance of being in the magnet and under a 9% chance of getting placed if among the about 15% identified.

Whatever the actual numbers are, your chances if local, to TPMS particularly, of being offered a program seat are multiples higher than your chances if living outside the magnet's local boundary. Unless they drop the local set-aside or shift slots from local in-bounds reserve to those offered outside the local boundary so that the odds are close to the same for each.

This is correct.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are more than 11,000 fourth graders enrolled in MCPS this year, across 137 elementary schools.

Each of the two upcounty magnet middle schools has 63 seats for students who aren’t already zoned for those schools. Each of the downcounty magnet middle schools has 125 seats for students who aren’t already zoned for those schools.

That averages out to 2-3 students from each elementary school getting admitted to the magnet middle school programs.

I believe the numbers are 50 for those not in-bounds locally for the upcounty magnets and 100 for those not in-bounds locally for the downcounty downcounty magnets. My understanding is that there are 12-13 separate program seats for students locally-in-bounds to the school, except for TPMS, which has 25. I could be wrong about that.

If not,
With about 300 locally in-bounds TPMS students total, there's something like an 11% overall chance of being in the magnet if living in a home zoned to TPMS. If only about 15% of students qualify for the lottery in the first place, there would be a greater than 70% chance of getting placed in the magnet if identified as eligible. With 100 seats for the rest of the lower ~2/3 of the county and close to 8000 students per grade (2/3 of about 12,000), 7700 taking out the 300 local to TPMS, there's something like a 1.3% overall chance of being in the magnet and under a 9% chance of getting placed if among the about 15% identified.

Whatever the actual numbers are, your chances if local, to TPMS particularly, of being offered a program seat are multiples higher than your chances if living outside the magnet's local boundary. Unless they drop the local set-aside or shift slots from local in-bounds reserve to those offered outside the local boundary so that the odds are close to the same for each.

This is correct.

MCPS’s own presentation on the middle school magnet program says there are 63 seats in each upcounty magnet for out of area students.

[Anonymous]

Wow... Do kids that did CES and compacted math at 4th grade and 5th grade feel 6th grade or 7th grade really easy if they go to their home middle school (not magnet middle school)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow... Do kids that did CES and compacted math at 4th grade and 5th grade feel 6th grade or 7th grade really easy if they go to their home middle school (not magnet middle school)?

Yes. With the exception of math, everything else in non-magnet middle school felt easy to my kid.