Can we fight to put more of the academic magnets in middle & high FARMS schools? (no humanities at Whitman, etc)
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Anonymous
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Putting strong criteria-based academic magnets in higher-FARMS/lower-SES schools has been done in MCPS and other districts around the county for decades for a variety of good reasons. It generally increases economic and racial diversity at the host school, gives the lower-resourced local students the lowest barriers to participation (many of whom would not travel to a distant school to attend a magnet but would do so at their local school), has spill-over effects as far as improving academic and extracurricular offerings for all local students, and can sometimes turn the quality and reputation of an entire school around.
MCPS seems to be completely ignoring this in the proposed distribution of regional programs, with what seem destined to be deeply inequitable results, especially paired with MCPS's plan for extra seats for host-school students (but would still be deeply problematic without that.) The most egregious example I've seen is the proposed humanities magnet at Whitman, which has absolutely no need for the benefits of hosting an academic magnet, is very far away geographically from most of the poorest families in the region (many of whom also don't want that kind of school environment for their kids), and who very much should not get the extra admissions boost of a local set-aside (although that may end up being a moot point because so few DCC families will likely even consider going.) But skimming the other regions I see a number of other examples as well. (Would love for folks familiar with other parts of the county to point those out!) I don't think there needs to be a hard and fast policy that there should be zero academic magnets at low-FARMS schools-- but there should certainly be an attempt to prioritize the higher-FARMS schools where possible (which there clearly hasn't been-- there's no reason why the humanities magnet can't be at Northwood rather than Whitman, for example, and I see a number of other regions where poorer schools have no academic magnets while richer schools do.). I think MCPS ought to make sure that all high-FARMS schools have at least one criteria-based academic magnet, and that high and medium FARMS schools are prioritized for these magnets, with them only going to the richest schools when there is a specific and strong justification. Any ideas on how to raise this issue holistically to try to push for a better distribution of programs across all regions? (If there's no broader energy and interest on this, I can just focus on trying to get the region 1 humanities program out of Whitman-- but it really does feel like an overarching issue and I'd love to advocate not just for what's best and fairest for our region but for all regions.) |
Anonymous
| Can you fight, yes? Will MCPS care, probably not. You are right, but they just don't care. They want it where their kids go to school, not ours. |
Anonymous
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Leaving any of these poorer or even middle-FARMS schools without an academic magnet will result in a "brain drain" where many of the most advanced kids will leave without many or any transferring in from other schools in return, making it harder for these schools to offer advanced classes for local students. (This is not generally an issue for low-FARMS schools because they typically have enough of a critical mass of advanced students that losing some to magnets will not usually decrease their offerings.)
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Anonymous
| Oh, I think I had missed this about humanities at Whitman and also find it disappointing (we are zoned Blair) as a humanities person myself…. TBD for my kids I guess. I think MCPS thinks humanities are less desirable and important, though. |
Anonymous
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What you are proposing is what the original/current magnet program is. Now they're moving to a regional program where each school would have a magnet. This likely weakens the county wide magnets but maybe increases accessibility give the commutes that were needed to go to a county wide magnet.
If they are going to go the magnet in every school then Humanities makes sense at Whitman because the school doesn't need a high profile magnet to attract strong students. |
Anonymous
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The humanities magnets are in the richest school in every region.
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Anonymous
It’s too far from Einstein, Northwood and Blair. BCC and Whitman students will get it all to themselves. Same with the BCC IB program. |
Anonymous
Wow, you are absolutely right. That's incredible. |
Anonymous
No, it isn't. https://www.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/DKRJWU4F383C/$file/10.01%20Program%20Analysis%20Boundary%20Studies%20Comm%20Engage%20Plan%20Update%20250821%20PPT%20REV.pdf Region 1 - BCC already has IB Region 2 - IB is at Springbrook. Sherwood has lower FARMs rate than Springbrook Region 3 - Kennedy, which definitely is not the richest in that region, and also they already have the IBDP Region 4 - RM, not the richest in the region, and already has establish IBDP Region 5 - Watkins Mill. Also includes Crown, so not sure about FARMs rate, but Damascus is in that region and has a lower FARMs rate than WM. But, WM already has an IB program The new humanities program is yet to be decided, except in Region 5 in Poolesville. There, you are correct. Unless, MCPS came out with another slide that I'm not aware of. |
Anonymous
And Whitman will be mostly excluded from the other magnets other than BCC because of the same commute. Whitman students don't really need/want a humanities magnet. |
Anonymous
| didn't an IB magnet at Kennedy fail? does this actually seem like a good idea, based on experience? |
Anonymous
Yes, you need to look at the updated slides. The humanities magnets are located at Whitman, Sherwood, WJ, Churchill, QO, and Poolesville. |
Anonymous
Sorry updated slides here: https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/DMJHXR4AA9BD/$file/Boundary%20Studies%20Program%20Analysis%20Update%20251016%20PPT%20REV.pdf |
Anonymous
Honestly those schools with so many students performing below grade level deserve to have their strongest teachers helping remediate, not siphoned off to build an new academic magnet program catering to higher performing students from other nearby schools. So no, I am not with you on this plan. |
Anonymous
| I don't know about the other regions, but at least Whitman has space for something that would be a draw. |