For 8th graders -- how are you approaching the criteria-based programs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I also have an 8th grader at a private and we’re switching to MCPS for HS
My understanding is we are the last year it stays as it is currently. Our kids can stay at the school and in the program they choose for 9th.
Kinda bummed she’s not a year younger but it is what it is.

Why do you prefer that? Isn't it better for her to be in an existing program?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually, MCPS confirmed at the last BOE meeting that any current eighth grader would not be asked to change schools in 10th grade. They said for the class of 2030 wherever they start high school they may continue and graduate from there. They will be given a choice to switch to a new boundary school, if there is one, but they will not be forced. This is for everyone in the class of 2030, not just those in programs.

Untrue, they were very clear that their statement only applied to centrally managed programs and the centrally managed consortium process.

+1
Those in their home schools will be moving if boundaries change.

As a mom to an 8th grader, I am also nervous about centrally managed programs. They may stay in place but lose teachers. I feel like this class is bearing the brunt of the negative consequences.

What you say does not make sense. Where will the teachers from the magnet programs go next year? It is the class of 2031 that is going to suffer - new programs in regional schools that year, existing programs losing teachers if they are forced to go to a different school to set up the program or if they go o their own for better commute.

Teachers who are in magnet programs that are being retired will have an incentive to leave. They need stable employment.

[Anonymous]

No matter what MCPS says about existing programs and continuity (and the things I've heard and read keep changing in that regard), it won't address the challenge of staff shuffling.

So first there's the matter of academic programs moving around when the new regions are created. Let's say that my DC (we're in the DCC) ranks first in their choice process a HS that is historically strong in a certain subject area and that has an open-admission academy for it. They get in, they attend. But this isn't a criteria-based program. So after a year MCPS says, "oops, this academy is no more - we're not maintaining it because it is not criteria-based, and the subject area you came here for is going to be specifically prioritized at a different school now." DC could be left either trying to change schools to follow the subject area (which seems unlikely unless the subject area happened to be moved to DC's home school), or wanting to stay at their current school but having to give up the subject area they went there for in the first place.

That dilemma seems almost inevitable at this point. But what hasn't been fully discussed, to my mind, is that teachers and staff are going to end up being moved or moving themselves to accommodate the new region structures. So that open-admission academy at the imaginary HS that I just imaginary-sent DC to could end up being gutted by default, as the teachers relocate elsewhere in the region.

Now, what about the criteria-based programs? Unless those programs essentially stay exactly where they are, at least some teachers will need to switch schools to support the new region model. And those teachers can't be in two places at once, supporting students who have been promised a teach-out at the same time as they are starting up a fresh program at a different school in the same region.

Maybe the criteria-based programs won't move or change at all. But for the rest of the students, it feels like we are staring down a great deal of uncertainty and even a compromised educational experience. Short-term pain for long-term gain doesn't feel worthwhile if you have an 8th grader right now.

[Anonymous]

I have an 8th grader. Yes, it's too bad that this will be a flux year with a lot of uncertainty, but changes occur and, and that's life. I don't think the current configuration serves kids in my HS cluster well, so I am somewhat hopeful the regional model will increase the opportunities available for my younger one.

My kid will apply to the current programs, and we will see. It's a long commute, and it's not a slam dunk that they would accept even if accepted.