RMIB and Blair criteria for HS program acceptance

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair median MAP score has been around 280 for the past few years so kids below that certainly get in. All As in STEM subjects are necessary too. A good rule of thumb is above 99th percentile. I wouldn’t bother below that.

I’m shocked that middle schools are helping with applications. Or at least at one middle school. That doesn’t happen elsewhere.

JW feeds into RM and there are 25 seats in the RMIB program specifically set aside for JW cluster students so it makes sense for that middle school.

These local set-asides in excess of the ratio of seats-to-overall-student-population for the rest of the county -- one-school CESs, Potomac ES Mandarin Immersion, Takoma Park MS magnet, etc. -- need to go away. Inequitable on their face.

You can have a set-aside to ensure students from that school get in, but not any more seats than would give the local students a similar overall chance of selection as the non-locals.

They should have these ste-aside seats for hosting the programs and taking on additional responsibilities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do I know if my rising 8th grader is a contender for the Blair and RMIB magnet programs? Is there a certain MAP-M (for Blair) or MAP-R (for RMIB) minimum threshold? Do accepted students have to have all As for all 4 marking period?

Is there anything published about the stats of accepted students or is it all conjecture about kids one knows who are accepted?

Thanks in advance.

How will they know all four marking periods' grades when decision is made? Aren't results out in second or third quarter?

If the applicant attended grades 6 and 7 in McpS they would have those MP grades.

[Anonymous]

So no COGAT, no MCAP-it’s all just MAP M or MAP R? And report cards?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair median MAP score has been around 280 for the past few years so kids below that certainly get in. All As in STEM subjects are necessary too. A good rule of thumb is above 99th percentile. I wouldn’t bother below that.

I’m shocked that middle schools are helping with applications. Or at least at one middle school. That doesn’t happen elsewhere.

JW feeds into RM and there are 25 seats in the RMIB program specifically set aside for JW cluster students so it makes sense for that middle school.

These local set-asides in excess of the ratio of seats-to-overall-student-population for the rest of the county -- one-school CESs, Potomac ES Mandarin Immersion, Takoma Park MS magnet, etc. -- need to go away. Inequitable on their face.

You can have a set-aside to ensure students from that school get in, but not any more seats than would give the local students a similar overall chance of selection as the non-locals.

The local set-aside seats still have to meet the program criteria. The set aside ensures that students already inbound don’t take away seats from out of area. In other words, they are extra program seats for students already attending the school and don’t impact staffing by bringing in students from outside the school boundaries.

This is the unjust "justification" for inequity to which those schools with such set-asides have been clinging. The program is set up to accommodate a certain number of students. Both local-school-in-bounds and wider-catchment students are in that same program.

At TPMS, for instance, it is about 125 per year. Some 100 of those are given to about 3/5 of the county by population (the other 2/5 are served by Clemente MS), maybe drawing from 7000 students (pre-criteria). By contrast, 25 are given to those in-bounds to TPMS, maybe drawing from 300 students, resulting in it being about 6 times as likely to be granted access to the program. The numbers, here, are rough, but any error is marginal to the point -- to get to parity, a significant majority (some 19-20 with that shown here) of the in-bounds set-aside seats would have to be shifted to that rest-of-the-three-fifths lottery pool. This doesn't even count the tendency of school administrators to select currently attending locals to backfill any seats that open from students deciding to leave the program early, returning to their home schools.

There is capacity at TPMS, and funding for teachers for all classes follows the enrolled population. There is no reason to consider the excess set-aside seats within a magnet as "extra" to the program, as though, for some reason other than fealty to an old BOE-and-Council, back-room-brokered decision, they couldn't make all 125 part of one pool with no particular set-aside. Meeting the same criteria and having the same chance are two different animals, and the one should not be conflated with the other when two lottery pools are operated, one (the local set-aside) with a much larger seat-to-population ratio.

If you believe otherwise, show your math and allow for it to be picked apart. Or you could realize that there are programs without differentially probablistic local set-asides, concede the point and save everyone the back-and-forth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair median MAP score has been around 280 for the past few years so kids below that certainly get in. All As in STEM subjects are necessary too. A good rule of thumb is above 99th percentile. I wouldn’t bother below that.

I’m shocked that middle schools are helping with applications. Or at least at one middle school. That doesn’t happen elsewhere.

JW feeds into RM and there are 25 seats in the RMIB program specifically set aside for JW cluster students so it makes sense for that middle school.

These local set-asides in excess of the ratio of seats-to-overall-student-population for the rest of the county -- one-school CESs, Potomac ES Mandarin Immersion, Takoma Park MS magnet, etc. -- need to go away. Inequitable on their face.

You can have a set-aside to ensure students from that school get in, but not any more seats than would give the local students a similar overall chance of selection as the non-locals.

They should have these ste-aside seats for hosting the programs and taking on additional responsibilities.

They should get bonuses for hosting a desired program? For being local to it/not having to travel longer distances? What burden to the in-bounds community is possibly being implied, here, that makes it such that they require the set-aside-seat compensation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair median MAP score has been around 280 for the past few years so kids below that certainly get in. All As in STEM subjects are necessary too. A good rule of thumb is above 99th percentile. I wouldn’t bother below that.

I’m shocked that middle schools are helping with applications. Or at least at one middle school. That doesn’t happen elsewhere.

How can you be above 99 pct in MAP? That’s literally impossible.

Easily. You look at the cutoff for 99th percentile and you see if you are at that or above. Either is fine. Below is more of a long shot. If I’m remembering correctly it’s about 272 in 8th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair median MAP score has been around 280 for the past few years so kids below that certainly get in. All As in STEM subjects are necessary too. A good rule of thumb is above 99th percentile. I wouldn’t bother below that.

I’m shocked that middle schools are helping with applications. Or at least at one middle school. That doesn’t happen elsewhere.

JW feeds into RM and there are 25 seats in the RMIB program specifically set aside for JW cluster students so it makes sense for that middle school.

These local set-asides in excess of the ratio of seats-to-overall-student-population for the rest of the county -- one-school CESs, Potomac ES Mandarin Immersion, Takoma Park MS magnet, etc. -- need to go away. Inequitable on their face.

You can have a set-aside to ensure students from that school get in, but not any more seats than would give the local students a similar overall chance of selection as the non-locals.

They should have these ste-aside seats for hosting the programs and taking on additional responsibilities.

They should get bonuses for hosting a desired program? For being local to it/not having to travel longer distances? What burden to the in-bounds community is possibly being implied, here, that makes it such that they require the set-aside-seat compensation?

I think magnet parents like to see their kids as an unmitigated and uncomplicated blessing upon the host school, but it's just not that simple.

Having a magnet program is a mixed blessing. Some of the drawbacks are small (harder to get a spot on a school activity like orchestra, math team, or drama production). Some of them are larger (loss of funding due to demographic shifts, dangerous parking lot situations due to additional busses and drivers). Not to mention the colonization of all parent discussions by the needs of the magnet kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do I know if my rising 8th grader is a contender for the Blair and RMIB magnet programs? Is there a certain MAP-M (for Blair) or MAP-R (for RMIB) minimum threshold? Do accepted students have to have all As for all 4 marking period?

Is there anything published about the stats of accepted students or is it all conjecture about kids one knows who are accepted?

Thanks in advance.

How will they know all four marking periods' grades when decision is made? Aren't results out in second or third quarter?

If the applicant attended grades 6 and 7 in McpS they would have those MP grades.

They look only at 7th grade and first marking period of 8th. 6th grade is not considered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So no COGAT, no MCAP-it’s all just MAP M or MAP R? And report cards?

Yes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:98% is not going to cut it for MAP scores. I am pretty sure most/all of kids are solid 99% kids. So something in these ranges:

SMCS MAP-M 280+
RM-IB MAP-R 250+

RMIB looks at both MAP-M and MAP-R. My child was admitted to RMIB with a lower MAP-M score and has thrived there but will not be pursuing HL math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair median MAP score has been around 280 for the past few years so kids below that certainly get in. All As in STEM subjects are necessary too. A good rule of thumb is above 99th percentile. I wouldn’t bother below that.

I’m shocked that middle schools are helping with applications. Or at least at one middle school. That doesn’t happen elsewhere.

JW feeds into RM and there are 25 seats in the RMIB program specifically set aside for JW cluster students so it makes sense for that middle school.

These local set-asides in excess of the ratio of seats-to-overall-student-population for the rest of the county -- one-school CESs, Potomac ES Mandarin Immersion, Takoma Park MS magnet, etc. -- need to go away. Inequitable on their face.

You can have a set-aside to ensure students from that school get in, but not any more seats than would give the local students a similar overall chance of selection as the non-locals.

The local set-aside seats still have to meet the program criteria. The set aside ensures that students already inbound don’t take away seats from out of area. In other words, they are extra program seats for students already attending the school and don’t impact staffing by bringing in students from outside the school boundaries.

This is the unjust "justification" for inequity to which those schools with such set-asides have been clinging. The program is set up to accommodate a certain number of students. Both local-school-in-bounds and wider-catchment students are in that same program.

At TPMS, for instance, it is about 125 per year. Some 100 of those are given to about 3/5 of the county by population (the other 2/5 are served by Clemente MS), maybe drawing from 7000 students (pre-criteria). By contrast, 25 are given to those in-bounds to TPMS, maybe drawing from 300 students, resulting in it being about 6 times as likely to be granted access to the program. The numbers, here, are rough, but any error is marginal to the point -- to get to parity, a significant majority (some 19-20 with that shown here) of the in-bounds set-aside seats would have to be shifted to that rest-of-the-three-fifths lottery pool. This doesn't even count the tendency of school administrators to select currently attending locals to backfill any seats that open from students deciding to leave the program early, returning to their home schools.

There is capacity at TPMS, and funding for teachers for all classes follows the enrolled population. There is no reason to consider the excess set-aside seats within a magnet as "extra" to the program, as though, for some reason other than fealty to an old BOE-and-Council, back-room-brokered decision, they couldn't make all 125 part of one pool with no particular set-aside. Meeting the same criteria and having the same chance are two different animals, and the one should not be conflated with the other when two lottery pools are operated, one (the local set-aside) with a much larger seat-to-population ratio.

If you believe otherwise, show your math and allow for it to be picked apart. Or you could realize that there are programs without differentially probablistic local set-asides, concede the point and save everyone the back-and-forth.

The math is very easy. If the set aside were ended the program would lose 25 spots or the school would be 25 places bigger. The latter is not an option. I’ve two kids go through the program from that set aside. The first took Cogat and would almost certainly have been selected regardless of location (no lottery). The second was equally as high scoring but didn’t have opportunity to avoid a lottery (though i think would also have been selected in a competitive process).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair median MAP score has been around 280 for the past few years so kids below that certainly get in. All As in STEM subjects are necessary too. A good rule of thumb is above 99th percentile. I wouldn’t bother below that.

I’m shocked that middle schools are helping with applications. Or at least at one middle school. That doesn’t happen elsewhere.

JW feeds into RM and there are 25 seats in the RMIB program specifically set aside for JW cluster students so it makes sense for that middle school.

These local set-asides in excess of the ratio of seats-to-overall-student-population for the rest of the county -- one-school CESs, Potomac ES Mandarin Immersion, Takoma Park MS magnet, etc. -- need to go away. Inequitable on their face.

You can have a set-aside to ensure students from that school get in, but not any more seats than would give the local students a similar overall chance of selection as the non-locals.

They should have these ste-aside seats for hosting the programs and taking on additional responsibilities.

They should get bonuses for hosting a desired program? For being local to it/not having to travel longer distances? What burden to the in-bounds community is possibly being implied, here, that makes it such that they require the set-aside-seat compensation?

Yes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:98% is not going to cut it for MAP scores. I am pretty sure most/all of kids are solid 99% kids. So something in these ranges:

SMCS MAP-M 280+
RM-IB MAP-R 250+

RMIB looks at both MAP-M and MAP-R. My child was admitted to RMIB with a lower MAP-M score and has thrived there but will not be pursuing HL math.

RM looks at MAP R. MAP M is irrelevant

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair median MAP score has been around 280 for the past few years so kids below that certainly get in. All As in STEM subjects are necessary too. A good rule of thumb is above 99th percentile. I wouldn’t bother below that.

I’m shocked that middle schools are helping with applications. Or at least at one middle school. That doesn’t happen elsewhere.

JW feeds into RM and there are 25 seats in the RMIB program specifically set aside for JW cluster students so it makes sense for that middle school.

These local set-asides in excess of the ratio of seats-to-overall-student-population for the rest of the county -- one-school CESs, Potomac ES Mandarin Immersion, Takoma Park MS magnet, etc. -- need to go away. Inequitable on their face.

You can have a set-aside to ensure students from that school get in, but not any more seats than would give the local students a similar overall chance of selection as the non-locals.

The local set-aside seats still have to meet the program criteria. The set aside ensures that students already inbound don’t take away seats from out of area. In other words, they are extra program seats for students already attending the school and don’t impact staffing by bringing in students from outside the school boundaries.

+1 Also, even if they don't join in 9th grade, they can apply to join in 11th. They can also take IB classes without joining the program in 11th grade.

this is the benefit of living in the cluster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:98% is not going to cut it for MAP scores. I am pretty sure most/all of kids are solid 99% kids. So something in these ranges:

SMCS MAP-M 280+
RM-IB MAP-R 250+

What’s your source for this information?

LOL. Def Blair SMCS mom.