Humanities high school magnets?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From the outside CAP looks like neither fish nor fowl: not a theatre program or a journalism program, and certainly not really an academic humanities program. My DC is very into drama but CAP doesn't look like it will really feed that - my impression is that theatre in CAP is really there to cultivate public-presentation skills. Which is fine, but not as much of an asset for a kid who might major in theatre/drama in college.

CAP veterans, can you help me understand the program better?

Parent of a theater-focused CAP graduate here. I think that in the absence of a true performing arts magnet in MCPS, a lot of those kids do congregate in CAP but it is as you say not a performing arts program. It is an integrated humanities program. The history/English/media teachers work together to guide big projects and deepen understanding of the curriculum by exploring it from different perspectives. Because so much of the learning is project based, kids can leverage their particular interests/talents. So a theater kid can write and perform a monologue for, say, National History Day whereas a more fine arts focused or documentary film making kid might tackle the same subject through a different medium. As the PHS parent said, the interdisciplinary approach is the draw.

Second semester of 10th grade is very focused on making a short film, and the theater and crew kids tend to really shine in that project with elaborate sets, scripts, and props. Junior year is more focused on a long form research paper, which means that all of the research and writing skills from the journalism classes get channeled into a more traditionally academic direction.

Just a side note that the theater program at Blair is also very strong, for kids who want to do HS theater. They are a little under the radar compared to some of the other schools, partially because they double cast and therefore don't compete in the various review/competitions around town, but the performances quite good and (more importantly) the culture of the program is positive and produces plenty of young people who apply to performing arts/theater programs.

This is extremely helpful and I really appreciate it - thank you! We are DCC but not zoned for either Einstein (where DC wants to go) or Blair, so a CAP application might be one of the only ways for DC to get to one of those two schools. (Defaulting into our home school isn't the best choice for DC"s interests.)

Looking at the two explanations, the PHS Humanities and Blair CAP programs look more similar than different. PHS does Government, then US History. Blair does CAP US History, then AP Government. PHS does the Criticism class, and CAP embeds the criticism into the theater/film components. PHS has a strong focus on fine arts, and CAP mandates a journalism class.

But the "core" of the programs is very similar - kids are cohorted, work together on large projects including a long research paper, and teachers collaborate to provide an interdisciplinary wraparound approach. If a PHS kid is interested in journalism, I assume they can take that as an elective. If a CAP kid is interested in fine arts, they can take that as well.

It looks like the PHS program is all APs (8 plus getting the Capstone) and honors-bearing/program-specific courses more rigorous than that offered outside the program (three in the six classes in the program in the first two years). Does CAP provide similar rigor/access to advanced placement (e.g., are CAP students ready to take the APUSH exam after their 9th-grade US History class)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From the outside CAP looks like neither fish nor fowl: not a theatre program or a journalism program, and certainly not really an academic humanities program. My DC is very into drama but CAP doesn't look like it will really feed that - my impression is that theatre in CAP is really there to cultivate public-presentation skills. Which is fine, but not as much of an asset for a kid who might major in theatre/drama in college.

CAP veterans, can you help me understand the program better?

Parent of a theater-focused CAP graduate here. I think that in the absence of a true performing arts magnet in MCPS, a lot of those kids do congregate in CAP but it is as you say not a performing arts program. It is an integrated humanities program. The history/English/media teachers work together to guide big projects and deepen understanding of the curriculum by exploring it from different perspectives. Because so much of the learning is project based, kids can leverage their particular interests/talents. So a theater kid can write and perform a monologue for, say, National History Day whereas a more fine arts focused or documentary film making kid might tackle the same subject through a different medium. As the PHS parent said, the interdisciplinary approach is the draw.

Second semester of 10th grade is very focused on making a short film, and the theater and crew kids tend to really shine in that project with elaborate sets, scripts, and props. Junior year is more focused on a long form research paper, which means that all of the research and writing skills from the journalism classes get channeled into a more traditionally academic direction.

Just a side note that the theater program at Blair is also very strong, for kids who want to do HS theater. They are a little under the radar compared to some of the other schools, partially because they double cast and therefore don't compete in the various review/competitions around town, but the performances quite good and (more importantly) the culture of the program is positive and produces plenty of young people who apply to performing arts/theater programs.

This is extremely helpful and I really appreciate it - thank you! We are DCC but not zoned for either Einstein (where DC wants to go) or Blair, so a CAP application might be one of the only ways for DC to get to one of those two schools. (Defaulting into our home school isn't the best choice for DC"s interests.)

Looking at the two explanations, the PHS Humanities and Blair CAP programs look more similar than different. PHS does Government, then US History. Blair does CAP US History, then AP Government. PHS does the Criticism class, and CAP embeds the criticism into the theater/film components. PHS has a strong focus on fine arts, and CAP mandates a journalism class.

But the "core" of the programs is very similar - kids are cohorted, work together on large projects including a long research paper, and teachers collaborate to provide an interdisciplinary wraparound approach. If a PHS kid is interested in journalism, I assume they can take that as an elective. If a CAP kid is interested in fine arts, they can take that as well.

It looks like the PHS program is all APs (8 plus getting the Capstone) and honors-bearing/program-specific courses more rigorous than that offered outside the program (three in the six classes in the program in the first two years). Does CAP provide similar rigor/access to advanced placement (e.g., are CAP students ready to take the APUSH exam after their 9th-grade US History class)?

The CAP US History curriculum does not exactly follow the AP version, but the teacher offers a lunchtime study session for kids who want to take the exam and every year some number of kids take him up on it. Anecdotally, they seem to do quite well, although of course the school does not break out scores in a way that would allow one to test that theory.

But to your larger question, yes of course the program is designed to offer more rigor, just like any of the criteria-based magnets. That is achieved by offering a higher level/deeper curriculum in 9th and 10th grades, and then by keeping the kids together for AP English and History classes, and for the research intensive, in 11th and 12th grades.

[Anonymous]

Admission to is currently based on MAP scores. Anecdotally I think most kids admitted are 99% scorers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From the outside CAP looks like neither fish nor fowl: not a theatre program or a journalism program, and certainly not really an academic humanities program. My DC is very into drama but CAP doesn't look like it will really feed that - my impression is that theatre in CAP is really there to cultivate public-presentation skills. Which is fine, but not as much of an asset for a kid who might major in theatre/drama in college.

CAP veterans, can you help me understand the program better?

Parent of a theater-focused CAP graduate here. I think that in the absence of a true performing arts magnet in MCPS, a lot of those kids do congregate in CAP but it is as you say not a performing arts program. It is an integrated humanities program. The history/English/media teachers work together to guide big projects and deepen understanding of the curriculum by exploring it from different perspectives. Because so much of the learning is project based, kids can leverage their particular interests/talents. So a theater kid can write and perform a monologue for, say, National History Day whereas a more fine arts focused or documentary film making kid might tackle the same subject through a different medium. As the PHS parent said, the interdisciplinary approach is the draw.

Second semester of 10th grade is very focused on making a short film, and the theater and crew kids tend to really shine in that project with elaborate sets, scripts, and props. Junior year is more focused on a long form research paper, which means that all of the research and writing skills from the journalism classes get channeled into a more traditionally academic direction.

Just a side note that the theater program at Blair is also very strong, for kids who want to do HS theater. They are a little under the radar compared to some of the other schools, partially because they double cast and therefore don't compete in the various review/competitions around town, but the performances quite good and (more importantly) the culture of the program is positive and produces plenty of young people who apply to performing arts/theater programs.

This is extremely helpful and I really appreciate it - thank you! We are DCC but not zoned for either Einstein (where DC wants to go) or Blair, so a CAP application might be one of the only ways for DC to get to one of those two schools. (Defaulting into our home school isn't the best choice for DC"s interests.)

Looking at the two explanations, the PHS Humanities and Blair CAP programs look more similar than different. PHS does Government, then US History. Blair does CAP US History, then AP Government. PHS does the Criticism class, and CAP embeds the criticism into the theater/film components. PHS has a strong focus on fine arts, and CAP mandates a journalism class.

But the "core" of the programs is very similar - kids are cohorted, work together on large projects including a long research paper, and teachers collaborate to provide an interdisciplinary wraparound approach. If a PHS kid is interested in journalism, I assume they can take that as an elective. If a CAP kid is interested in fine arts, they can take that as well.

It looks like the PHS program is all APs (8 plus getting the Capstone) and honors-bearing/program-specific courses more rigorous than that offered outside the program (three in the six classes in the program in the first two years). Does CAP provide similar rigor/access to advanced placement (e.g., are CAP students ready to take the APUSH exam after their 9th-grade US History class)?

The CAP US History curriculum does not exactly follow the AP version, but the teacher offers a lunchtime study session for kids who want to take the exam and every year some number of kids take him up on it. Anecdotally, they seem to do quite well, although of course the school does not break out scores in a way that would allow one to test that theory.

But to your larger question, yes of course the program is designed to offer more rigor, just like any of the criteria-based magnets. That is achieved by offering a higher level/deeper curriculum in 9th and 10th grades, and then by keeping the kids together for AP English and History classes, and for the research intensive, in 11th and 12th grades.

Thanks for the insight re: taking the APUSH exam.

The larger question was not whether CAP offered greater rigor than the standard curriculum, but whether that rigor was similar to that at Poolesville Humanities.

MCPS seems to be steering toward a regionalized magnet model where each set of associated schools provides, among them, a set of magnets, presumably similar in subject and rigor to the magnets at any of the other sets of associated schools. If there is a humanities magnet to model for such replication, should it be the one at Poolesville or CAP? Would one, then, need to shift towards the other, or would MCPS again wind up with situations where the likelihood is that a student with needs for magnet programming getting that need met better in one region than in another because, e.g., the "good"/more rigorous magnet model isn't employed with fidelity across the system?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From the outside CAP looks like neither fish nor fowl: not a theatre program or a journalism program, and certainly not really an academic humanities program. My DC is very into drama but CAP doesn't look like it will really feed that - my impression is that theatre in CAP is really there to cultivate public-presentation skills. Which is fine, but not as much of an asset for a kid who might major in theatre/drama in college.

CAP veterans, can you help me understand the program better?

Parent of a theater-focused CAP graduate here. I think that in the absence of a true performing arts magnet in MCPS, a lot of those kids do congregate in CAP but it is as you say not a performing arts program. It is an integrated humanities program. The history/English/media teachers work together to guide big projects and deepen understanding of the curriculum by exploring it from different perspectives. Because so much of the learning is project based, kids can leverage their particular interests/talents. So a theater kid can write and perform a monologue for, say, National History Day whereas a more fine arts focused or documentary film making kid might tackle the same subject through a different medium. As the PHS parent said, the interdisciplinary approach is the draw.

Second semester of 10th grade is very focused on making a short film, and the theater and crew kids tend to really shine in that project with elaborate sets, scripts, and props. Junior year is more focused on a long form research paper, which means that all of the research and writing skills from the journalism classes get channeled into a more traditionally academic direction.

Just a side note that the theater program at Blair is also very strong, for kids who want to do HS theater. They are a little under the radar compared to some of the other schools, partially because they double cast and therefore don't compete in the various review/competitions around town, but the performances quite good and (more importantly) the culture of the program is positive and produces plenty of young people who apply to performing arts/theater programs.

This is extremely helpful and I really appreciate it - thank you! We are DCC but not zoned for either Einstein (where DC wants to go) or Blair, so a CAP application might be one of the only ways for DC to get to one of those two schools. (Defaulting into our home school isn't the best choice for DC"s interests.)

Looking at the two explanations, the PHS Humanities and Blair CAP programs look more similar than different. PHS does Government, then US History. Blair does CAP US History, then AP Government. PHS does the Criticism class, and CAP embeds the criticism into the theater/film components. PHS has a strong focus on fine arts, and CAP mandates a journalism class.

But the "core" of the programs is very similar - kids are cohorted, work together on large projects including a long research paper, and teachers collaborate to provide an interdisciplinary wraparound approach. If a PHS kid is interested in journalism, I assume they can take that as an elective. If a CAP kid is interested in fine arts, they can take that as well.

It looks like the PHS program is all APs (8 plus getting the Capstone) and honors-bearing/program-specific courses more rigorous than that offered outside the program (three in the six classes in the program in the first two years). Does CAP provide similar rigor/access to advanced placement (e.g., are CAP students ready to take the APUSH exam after their 9th-grade US History class)?

The CAP US History curriculum does not exactly follow the AP version, but the teacher offers a lunchtime study session for kids who want to take the exam and every year some number of kids take him up on it. Anecdotally, they seem to do quite well, although of course the school does not break out scores in a way that would allow one to test that theory.

But to your larger question, yes of course the program is designed to offer more rigor, just like any of the criteria-based magnets. That is achieved by offering a higher level/deeper curriculum in 9th and 10th grades, and then by keeping the kids together for AP English and History classes, and for the research intensive, in 11th and 12th grades.

Thanks for the insight re: taking the APUSH exam.

The larger question was not whether CAP offered greater rigor than the standard curriculum, but whether that rigor was similar to that at Poolesville Humanities.

MCPS seems to be steering toward a regionalized magnet model where each set of associated schools provides, among them, a set of magnets, presumably similar in subject and rigor to the magnets at any of the other sets of associated schools. If there is a humanities magnet to model for such replication, should it be the one at Poolesville or CAP? Would one, then, need to shift towards the other, or would MCPS again wind up with situations where the likelihood is that a student with needs for magnet programming getting that need met better in one region than in another because, e.g., the "good"/more rigorous magnet model isn't employed with fidelity across the system?

I think this focus on putting the two programs in competition with one another is ill-placed. Virtually no students are eligible to attend both, which means that it's as useless as comparing TJ and the Blair magnet.

In the case of Poolesville and Blair CAP, both are rigorous, as evidenced by the number of AP/cohorted Honors classes, the competitive selection process, and student outcomes in objective measures. Both have project-based interdisciplinary approaches, motivated and engaged students, and strong teachers who have been with the programs for a long time.

As for which would be replicated, I'm not sure MCPS needs to pick one. As long as the "core" of a humanities magnet is rigorous English, Social Studies, and Arts instruction the promotes critical thinking, strong research and writing skills, and cross-disciplinary approaches, then I'm not sure it matters whether one program is stronger in Fine Arts and another is stronger in Filmmaking. That feels like a level of detail that can be hashed out program-by-program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From the outside CAP looks like neither fish nor fowl: not a theatre program or a journalism program, and certainly not really an academic humanities program. My DC is very into drama but CAP doesn't look like it will really feed that - my impression is that theatre in CAP is really there to cultivate public-presentation skills. Which is fine, but not as much of an asset for a kid who might major in theatre/drama in college.

CAP veterans, can you help me understand the program better?

Parent of a theater-focused CAP graduate here. I think that in the absence of a true performing arts magnet in MCPS, a lot of those kids do congregate in CAP but it is as you say not a performing arts program. It is an integrated humanities program. The history/English/media teachers work together to guide big projects and deepen understanding of the curriculum by exploring it from different perspectives. Because so much of the learning is project based, kids can leverage their particular interests/talents. So a theater kid can write and perform a monologue for, say, National History Day whereas a more fine arts focused or documentary film making kid might tackle the same subject through a different medium. As the PHS parent said, the interdisciplinary approach is the draw.

Second semester of 10th grade is very focused on making a short film, and the theater and crew kids tend to really shine in that project with elaborate sets, scripts, and props. Junior year is more focused on a long form research paper, which means that all of the research and writing skills from the journalism classes get channeled into a more traditionally academic direction.

Just a side note that the theater program at Blair is also very strong, for kids who want to do HS theater. They are a little under the radar compared to some of the other schools, partially because they double cast and therefore don't compete in the various review/competitions around town, but the performances quite good and (more importantly) the culture of the program is positive and produces plenty of young people who apply to performing arts/theater programs.

This is extremely helpful and I really appreciate it - thank you! We are DCC but not zoned for either Einstein (where DC wants to go) or Blair, so a CAP application might be one of the only ways for DC to get to one of those two schools. (Defaulting into our home school isn't the best choice for DC"s interests.)

Looking at the two explanations, the PHS Humanities and Blair CAP programs look more similar than different. PHS does Government, then US History. Blair does CAP US History, then AP Government. PHS does the Criticism class, and CAP embeds the criticism into the theater/film components. PHS has a strong focus on fine arts, and CAP mandates a journalism class.

But the "core" of the programs is very similar - kids are cohorted, work together on large projects including a long research paper, and teachers collaborate to provide an interdisciplinary wraparound approach. If a PHS kid is interested in journalism, I assume they can take that as an elective. If a CAP kid is interested in fine arts, they can take that as well.

It looks like the PHS program is all APs (8 plus getting the Capstone) and honors-bearing/program-specific courses more rigorous than that offered outside the program (three in the six classes in the program in the first two years). Does CAP provide similar rigor/access to advanced placement (e.g., are CAP students ready to take the APUSH exam after their 9th-grade US History class)?

The CAP US History curriculum does not exactly follow the AP version, but the teacher offers a lunchtime study session for kids who want to take the exam and every year some number of kids take him up on it. Anecdotally, they seem to do quite well, although of course the school does not break out scores in a way that would allow one to test that theory.

But to your larger question, yes of course the program is designed to offer more rigor, just like any of the criteria-based magnets. That is achieved by offering a higher level/deeper curriculum in 9th and 10th grades, and then by keeping the kids together for AP English and History classes, and for the research intensive, in 11th and 12th grades.

Thanks for the insight re: taking the APUSH exam.

The larger question was not whether CAP offered greater rigor than the standard curriculum, but whether that rigor was similar to that at Poolesville Humanities.

MCPS seems to be steering toward a regionalized magnet model where each set of associated schools provides, among them, a set of magnets, presumably similar in subject and rigor to the magnets at any of the other sets of associated schools. If there is a humanities magnet to model for such replication, should it be the one at Poolesville or CAP? Would one, then, need to shift towards the other, or would MCPS again wind up with situations where the likelihood is that a student with needs for magnet programming getting that need met better in one region than in another because, e.g., the "good"/more rigorous magnet model isn't employed with fidelity across the system?

I think this focus on putting the two programs in competition with one another is ill-placed. Virtually no students are eligible to attend both, which means that it's as useless as comparing TJ and the Blair magnet.

In the case of Poolesville and Blair CAP, both are rigorous, as evidenced by the number of AP/cohorted Honors classes, the competitive selection process, and student outcomes in objective measures. Both have project-based interdisciplinary approaches, motivated and engaged students, and strong teachers who have been with the programs for a long time.

As for which would be replicated, I'm not sure MCPS needs to pick one. As long as the "core" of a humanities magnet is rigorous English, Social Studies, and Arts instruction the promotes critical thinking, strong research and writing skills, and cross-disciplinary approaches, then I'm not sure it matters whether one program is stronger in Fine Arts and another is stronger in Filmmaking. That feels like a level of detail that can be hashed out program-by-program.

If the difference is as small as one program emphasizing the study of art history while the other emphasizes communications via film, while each covers both to lesser respective emphasis, then I would agree. If one employs significantly greater enrichment & rigor, affording a more robust learning experience, and/or provides greater access to courses, like APs, which likely would lead to improved post-graduatuon educational opportunity, then I would disagree.

Especially when shifting to an all-regional magnet model, but even if not, it would be important to ensure, across the system, that individuals are provided reasonably equivalent access to reasonably equivalent programming commensurate with individual need for that programming.

[Anonymous]

Blair and Poolesville have very different cultures. Blair has more than twice the number of students enrolled as Poolesville does. Most of the students at Poolesville were admitted through a selective process because the school houses 3 magnet programs; relatively few students are actually zoned for Poolesville. The teachers all talk about what a special school PHS is because the students are all so engaged. Because of the small enrollment, students don’t get shut out of extracurricular activities they’d like to pursue. It’s a tight knit community. It’s in a very small town setting. The school got a brand new building last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Blair and Poolesville have very different cultures. Blair has more than twice the number of students enrolled as Poolesville does. Most of the students at Poolesville were admitted through a selective process because the school houses 3 magnet programs; relatively few students are actually zoned for Poolesville. The teachers all talk about what a special school PHS is because the students are all so engaged. Because of the small enrollment, students don’t get shut out of extracurricular activities they’d like to pursue. It’s a tight knit community. It’s in a very small town setting. The school got a brand new building last year.

Almost none of that can be replicated, though. An under-enrolled school in the far corner of a county, bussing kids in to utilize the building. If PP's point is to figure out which program should be replicated (if MCPS is even going to replicate the programs), that's something that cannot be copied. It either is or it isn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair and Poolesville have very different cultures. Blair has more than twice the number of students enrolled as Poolesville does. Most of the students at Poolesville were admitted through a selective process because the school houses 3 magnet programs; relatively few students are actually zoned for Poolesville. The teachers all talk about what a special school PHS is because the students are all so engaged. Because of the small enrollment, students don’t get shut out of extracurricular activities they’d like to pursue. It’s a tight knit community. It’s in a very small town setting. The school got a brand new building last year.

Almost none of that can be replicated, though. An under-enrolled school in the far corner of a county, bussing kids in to utilize the building. If PP's point is to figure out which program should be replicated (if MCPS is even going to replicate the programs), that's something that cannot be copied. It either is or it isn't.

I didn’t realize OP was looking to replicate existing programs at other schools. I thought maybe OP was trying to decide where to move for purposes of getting into a magnet.