America's Most Challenging High Schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are 26,407 high schools in the U.S. That would put Blair in the top 0.02% of high schools in the entire country. I don't have a horse in this race, but I do have some perspective.

https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ovae/pi/hs/hsfacts.html - Forgot to link

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are 26,407 high schools in the U.S. That would put Blair in the top 0.02% of high schools in the entire country. I don't have a horse in this race, but I do have some perspective.

LOL. That's say more about the quality of US HS than Blair, don't you think?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Blair is a ghetto school.

I know right! Not enough whites for your liking, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can't believe this thread is still going. Can we just agree that non-magnet Blair sucks and magnet Blair is full of really really really obnoxious parents and kids?

Is that the bottom line??

Please stop insulting kids I don't know where your kids go to school but I hope they don't go to blair where my magnet daddy is very happy and thriving in his magnet and non magnet classes and where he has lovely friends in both the magnet and non magnet population

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can't believe this thread is still going. Can we just agree that non-magnet Blair sucks and magnet Blair is full of really really really obnoxious parents and kids?

Is that the bottom line??

Please stop insulting kids I don't know where your kids go to school but I hope they don't go to blair where my magnet daddy is very happy and thriving in his magnet and non magnet classes and where he has lovely friends in both the magnet and non magnet population

Aargh hate autocorrect. I meant magnet ds not magnet daddy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can't believe this thread is still going. Can we just agree that non-magnet Blair sucks and magnet Blair is full of really really really obnoxious parents and kids?

Is that the bottom line??

Please stop insulting kids I don't know where your kids go to school but I hope they don't go to blair where my magnet daddy is very happy and thriving in his magnet and non magnet classes and where he has lovely friends in both the magnet and non magnet population

Aargh hate autocorrect. I meant magnet ds not magnet daddy!

LOL I like magnet daddy better...

[Anonymous]

There is no evidence that Blair without the magnet is any different from a DCC school. MCPS prides itself in the same quality of education delivered in the same prescriptive way. To conclude that Blair is better than schools with similar populations defeats common sense.

Here's a challenge to you. Ask Blair to post its AP, SAT, ACT, PARCC scores for the school without including the magnet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is no evidence that Blair without the magnet is any different from a DCC school. MCPS prides itself in the same quality of education delivered in the same prescriptive way. To conclude that Blair is better than schools with similar populations defeats common sense.

Here's a challenge to you. Ask Blair to post its AP, SAT, ACT, PARCC scores for the school without including the magnet.

The middle schools that feed into Blair include Takoma Park and Silver Spring International. There are plenty of kids from UMC families who are zoned for Blair. These kids do very well. Yes there is a large population of kids who come from low income families or who do not speak English at home, challenges which make academic achievement more difficult to attain but there are also plenty of kids who have the support structure at home that makes it easier for them to take advantage of the good teachers and good curriculum in the non magnet classes.
Here are the Social Studies electives Montgomery Blair students can take after in addition to honors US history, honors world history, honors NSL etc. I think there are at least a dozen more courses than the ones offered by Wheaton High School for instance:

Social Studies Electives (Full Year)
Psychology 1/2
Sociology 1/2
Global Issues in the 21stCentury
International Human Rights
Cultural Anthropology A/B
Intro to Justice, Law and Society
Law and the Administration of Justice A/B
Contemporary Issues in Justice, Law & Society
Law and the Administration of Justice
AP US History A/B
AP NSL
AP Comparative Government and Politics A/B
AP Macroeconomics
AP Microeconomics
AP Economics & Business Law A/B
AP Human Geography A/B
AP Psychology A/B
AP European History A/B
AP World History A/B
Student Leadership A/B #
Philosophy
African American History
Africa South of the Sahara History
Latin American History
Middle East History
Eastern Asia History
Comparative Religions
Seminar in Peace Studies
Intro to Media Literacy
Media in Society
Model UN A/B

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no evidence that Blair without the magnet is any different from a DCC school. MCPS prides itself in the same quality of education delivered in the same prescriptive way. To conclude that Blair is better than schools with similar populations defeats common sense.

Here's a challenge to you. Ask Blair to post its AP, SAT, ACT, PARCC scores for the school without including the magnet.

The middle schools that feed into Blair include Takoma Park and Silver Spring International. There are plenty of kids from UMC families who are zoned for Blair. These kids do very well. Yes there is a large population of kids who come from low income families or who do not speak English at home, challenges which make academic achievement more difficult to attain but there are also plenty of kids who have the support structure at home that makes it easier for them to take advantage of the good teachers and good curriculum in the non magnet classes.
Here are the Social Studies electives Montgomery Blair students can take after in addition to honors US history, honors world history, honors NSL etc. I think there are at least a dozen more courses than the ones offered by Wheaton High School for instance:

Social Studies Electives (Full Year)
Psychology 1/2
Sociology 1/2
Global Issues in the 21stCentury
International Human Rights
Cultural Anthropology A/B
Intro to Justice, Law and Society
Law and the Administration of Justice A/B
Contemporary Issues in Justice, Law & Society
Law and the Administration of Justice
AP US History A/B
AP NSL
AP Comparative Government and Politics A/B
AP Macroeconomics
AP Microeconomics
AP Economics & Business Law A/B
AP Human Geography A/B
AP Psychology A/B
AP European History A/B
AP World History A/B
Student Leadership A/B #
Philosophy
African American History
Africa South of the Sahara History
Latin American History
Middle East History
Eastern Asia History
Comparative Religions
Seminar in Peace Studies
Intro to Media Literacy
Media in Society
Model UN A/B

Still no evidence that Blair academic performance without the magnet would be any better than any other DCC school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no evidence that Blair without the magnet is any different from a DCC school. MCPS prides itself in the same quality of education delivered in the same prescriptive way. To conclude that Blair is better than schools with similar populations defeats common sense.

Here's a challenge to you. Ask Blair to post its AP, SAT, ACT, PARCC scores for the school without including the magnet.

The middle schools that feed into Blair include Takoma Park and Silver Spring International. There are plenty of kids from UMC families who are zoned for Blair. These kids do very well. Yes there is a large population of kids who come from low income families or who do not speak English at home, challenges which make academic achievement more difficult to attain but there are also plenty of kids who have the support structure at home that makes it easier for them to take advantage of the good teachers and good curriculum in the non magnet classes.
Here are the Social Studies electives Montgomery Blair students can take after in addition to honors US history, honors world history, honors NSL etc. I think there are at least a dozen more courses than the ones offered by Wheaton High School for instance:

Social Studies Electives (Full Year)
Psychology 1/2
Sociology 1/2
Global Issues in the 21stCentury
International Human Rights
Cultural Anthropology A/B
Intro to Justice, Law and Society
Law and the Administration of Justice A/B
Contemporary Issues in Justice, Law & Society
Law and the Administration of Justice
AP US History A/B
AP NSL
AP Comparative Government and Politics A/B
AP Macroeconomics
AP Microeconomics
AP Economics & Business Law A/B
AP Human Geography A/B
AP Psychology A/B
AP European History A/B
AP World History A/B
Student Leadership A/B #
Philosophy
African American History
Africa South of the Sahara History
Latin American History
Middle East History
Eastern Asia History
Comparative Religions
Seminar in Peace Studies
Intro to Media Literacy
Media in Society
Model UN A/B

Still no evidence that Blair academic performance without the magnet would be any better than any other DCC school.

I can't give you numbers that don't exist. I think the robust non magnet course offerings suggests there are plenty of good students outside the magnet program. I think TPMS and SSI are very good middle school and those students feed into blair. In addition blair is the most popular choice in the DCC. They get more applications than any other dcc school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Still no evidence that Blair academic performance without the magnet would be any better than any other DCC school.

I can't give you numbers that don't exist. I think the robust non magnet course offerings suggests there are plenty of good students outside the magnet program. I think TPMS and SSI are very good middle school and those students feed into blair. In addition blair is the most popular choice in the DCC. They get more applications than any other dcc school

I stated above... check out test scores for URM at Blair compared to other DCC schools. That should give you a pretty good comparison of non-magnet Blair compared to other DCC HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Still no evidence that Blair academic performance without the magnet would be any better than any other DCC school.

I can't give you numbers that don't exist. I think the robust non magnet course offerings suggests there are plenty of good students outside the magnet program. I think TPMS and SSI are very good middle school and those students feed into blair. In addition blair is the most popular choice in the DCC. They get more applications than any other dcc school

I stated above... check out test scores for URM at Blair compared to other DCC schools. That should give you a pretty good comparison of non-magnet Blair compared to other DCC HS.

Listing courses gives no measure of their rigor or content. Blair gets more applications than any DCC school because Blair promotes the achievement of magnet students as if it is representative of the rest of the school. It is not. The bulk of Merit Scholars, for example, are from the magnet. If there was any honesty to the administration at Blair, they would let their school be compared to other DCC schools in a reasonable manner by releasing data excluding the magnet.

[Anonymous]

Non magnet Blair sucks

Magnet parents and kids suck

So, yeah, Blair sucks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Still no evidence that Blair academic performance without the magnet would be any better than any other DCC school.

I can't give you numbers that don't exist. I think the robust non magnet course offerings suggests there are plenty of good students outside the magnet program. I think TPMS and SSI are very good middle school and those students feed into blair. In addition blair is the most popular choice in the DCC. They get more applications than any other dcc school

I stated above... check out test scores for URM at Blair compared to other DCC schools. That should give you a pretty good comparison of non-magnet Blair compared to other DCC HS.

Listing courses gives no measure of their rigor or content. Blair gets more applications than any DCC school because Blair promotes the achievement of magnet students as if it is representative of the rest of the school. It is not. The bulk of Merit Scholars, for example, are from the magnet. If there was any honesty to the administration at Blair, they would let their school be compared to other DCC schools in a reasonable manner by releasing data excluding the magnet.

Which you can kind of see by comparing test scores for URM given that a huge number of magnet kids are Asian/white.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Still no evidence that Blair academic performance without the magnet would be any better than any other DCC school.

I can't give you numbers that don't exist. I think the robust non magnet course offerings suggests there are plenty of good students outside the magnet program. I think TPMS and SSI are very good middle school and those students feed into blair. In addition blair is the most popular choice in the DCC. They get more applications than any other dcc school

I stated above... check out test scores for URM at Blair compared to other DCC schools. That should give you a pretty good comparison of non-magnet Blair compared to other DCC HS.

Listing courses gives no measure of their rigor or content. Blair gets more applications than any DCC school because Blair promotes the achievement of magnet students as if it is representative of the rest of the school. It is not. The bulk of Merit Scholars, for example, are from the magnet. If there was any honesty to the administration at Blair, they would let their school be compared to other DCC schools in a reasonable manner by releasing data excluding the magnet.

Ok so here are some numbers:
Blair has 2966 students. 23% White, 15.5% Asian, 25% AA and 32% Hispanic and some MU etc.
Also 36.5% FARMS and 15.5% ESOL which I would agree makes high academic achievement challenging even with good teachers and a healthy offering of rigorous coursework outside of the magnet program.
The magnet has 415 students which is 14% of the school population so first of, the majority of the 38.5% White and Asian students at Blair are non magnet.
Regarding the SAT scores by ethnic group and how this compares to the other DCC schools here are some numbers. It is comparable to Einstein for BL students but Hispanic students seem to do better at Blair. There are also more clubs and after school activities at Blair. Lots of reasons why so many DCC families put Blair down as their first choice even if their kids are not magnet bound:
Blair
All: 1743, AS: 1984, BL: 1460, HI: 1487, WH: 1971
Einstein
All: 1563, AS: 1437, BL: 1461, HI: 1416, WH: 1821
Kennedy
All: 1318, AS: 1391, BL: 1279, HI: 1275, WH: 1692
Northwood
All: 1403, AS: 1506, BL: 1313, HI: 1361, WH: 1585
Wheaton
All: 1366, AS: 1445, BL: 1336, HI: 1298, WH: 1713