Walt Whitman Leadership Academy program

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the future of it under the new magnet plan? Is there any rideon bus available?

In future it will only be for region 1 students. (Currently it is countywide.)

[Anonymous]

My student is not in the program, but we know someone who is. The program was originally just for Whitman students, but it was opened up a few years ago. My kid’s friend likes the course content, the peer cohort, and the school as a whole. But she is also interested in activism and social justice, so it was a good fit. You should try to do a shadow day where your student goes to a few of the classes to observe.

[Anonymous]

hmmm wonder why they put an activism curriculum in that school? But only for the kids resourced enough to go with the grades to support. That's good central office engineering

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:hmmm wonder why they put an activism curriculum in that school? But only for the kids resourced enough to go with the grades to support. That's good central office engineering

What do you mean grades to support? It’s a lottery.

[Anonymous]

Just bumping this to say I took my kid to the social justice event at Whitman yesterday, and it was really impressive. It seems like a fantastic program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:hmmm wonder why they put an activism curriculum in that school? But only for the kids resourced enough to go with the grades to support. That's good central office engineering

I assure you there are many people in central office who think it is extremely generous and evolved to allow out of boundary students to get their own transportation to Whitman. They never realized it's 2026, not 1986

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:hmmm wonder why they put an activism curriculum in that school? But only for the kids resourced enough to go with the grades to support. That's good central office engineering

I assure you there are many people in central office who think it is extremely generous and evolved to allow out of boundary students to get their own transportation to Whitman. They never realized it's 2026, not 1986

+1 They don't publish what % of non-Whitman students are part of the social justice program. I assume it's a very few kids who are zoned for BCC and live closer to Whitman whose families can drop them daily. So basically this is just an expensive program that is only for the benefit of Whitman kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:hmmm wonder why they put an activism curriculum in that school? But only for the kids resourced enough to go with the grades to support. That's good central office engineering

I assure you there are many people in central office who think it is extremely generous and evolved to allow out of boundary students to get their own transportation to Whitman. They never realized it's 2026, not 1986

+1 They don't publish what % of non-Whitman students are part of the social justice program. I assume it's a very few kids who are zoned for BCC and live closer to Whitman whose families can drop them daily. So basically this is just an expensive program that is only for the benefit of Whitman kids.

I was at the event this weekend and talked to students in the program. I only met one Whitman student. I didn’t meet anyone from BCC. Students came from across the county, including one that I met from far upcounty. They said there is a lot of carpooling to make it work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:hmmm wonder why they put an activism curriculum in that school? But only for the kids resourced enough to go with the grades to support. That's good central office engineering

I assure you there are many people in central office who think it is extremely generous and evolved to allow out of boundary students to get their own transportation to Whitman. They never realized it's 2026, not 1986

Is it not? Getting access to the best HS in the county is clearly an opportunity many will jump at.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:hmmm wonder why they put an activism curriculum in that school? But only for the kids resourced enough to go with the grades to support. That's good central office engineering

I assure you there are many people in central office who think it is extremely generous and evolved to allow out of boundary students to get their own transportation to Whitman. They never realized it's 2026, not 1986

Is it not? Getting access to the best HS in the county is clearly an opportunity many will jump at.

Yes the privileged who can afford to drive their kid to/from school every day will jump at that opportunity. everyone else is just stuck with what they're zoned for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:hmmm wonder why they put an activism curriculum in that school? But only for the kids resourced enough to go with the grades to support. That's good central office engineering

I assure you there are many people in central office who think it is extremely generous and evolved to allow out of boundary students to get their own transportation to Whitman. They never realized it's 2026, not 1986

Is it not? Getting access to the best HS in the county is clearly an opportunity many will jump at.

Yes the privileged who can afford to drive their kid to/from school every day will jump at that opportunity. everyone else is just stuck with what they're zoned for.

Thats the brilliant Central Officing, You get a token program that looks "restorative" at a place that can use some brand messaging but you structure that incoming don't mess with the brand. The classes are the same, its the kids and their level of support that make it the best school, if you can't support them enough to get them there you are kind of missing the point of going unless you want others to support your kid and if people like that had access it wouldn't be the same.

[Anonymous]

I guess those complaining about the lack of bussing will be happy that there will be a program in each region as of 2027-2028 with bussing from the local high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:hmmm wonder why they put an activism curriculum in that school? But only for the kids resourced enough to go with the grades to support. That's good central office engineering

Whitman parent here. LASJ was created at Whitman, by Whitman students, teachers, the current principal and his predecessor. It was developed with One Whitman, a program for school-wide discussions on community, history, culture and belonging. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I think Whitman offered the program to MCPS.

To answer some other questions, I know three of the six LASJ teachers listed on the staff directory. Two are very good and one is excellent. I like all the Whitman LASJ kids I know. I don't know about integration but I know there are after school activities. They just had a yard sale. Whitman has a range of STEM classes but I don't know how much schedule space the LASJ students have. It's typical for Whitman students to take summer online Health to free up space for academic electives. Whitman is on Ride On bus 29 from Bethesda station.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:hmmm wonder why they put an activism curriculum in that school? But only for the kids resourced enough to go with the grades to support. That's good central office engineering

I assure you there are many people in central office who think it is extremely generous and evolved to allow out of boundary students to get their own transportation to Whitman. They never realized it's 2026, not 1986

Is it not? Getting access to the best HS in the county is clearly an opportunity many will jump at.

Yes the privileged who can afford to drive their kid to/from school every day will jump at that opportunity. everyone else is just stuck with what they're zoned for.

Thats the brilliant Central Officing, You get a token program that looks "restorative" at a place that can use some brand messaging but you structure that incoming don't mess with the brand. The classes are the same, its the kids and their level of support that make it the best school, if you can't support them enough to get them there you are kind of missing the point of going unless you want others to support your kid and if people like that had access it wouldn't be the same.

The classes are not the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:hmmm wonder why they put an activism curriculum in that school? But only for the kids resourced enough to go with the grades to support. That's good central office engineering

I assure you there are many people in central office who think it is extremely generous and evolved to allow out of boundary students to get their own transportation to Whitman. They never realized it's 2026, not 1986

Is it not? Getting access to the best HS in the county is clearly an opportunity many will jump at.

Yes the privileged who can afford to drive their kid to/from school every day will jump at that opportunity. everyone else is just stuck with what they're zoned for.

Thats the brilliant Central Officing, You get a token program that looks "restorative" at a place that can use some brand messaging but you structure that incoming don't mess with the brand. The classes are the same, its the kids and their level of support that make it the best school, if you can't support them enough to get them there you are kind of missing the point of going unless you want others to support your kid and if people like that had access it wouldn't be the same.

The classes are not the same.

There is slight shifting to the common denominator. If you have a bunch of kids trending towards bigger and better things you have to teach them bigger and better thing. If you have a school filled up with hopefully they graduate, many rooms are taken up for basic classes. Again it’s about the kids. Not the one offs, what did you think the differences between nice areas and poor areas was going to be?