Anyone know the history of why the magnets are all in the Takoma Park/Silver Spring area?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would disagree re two points made by PPs: 1) that "Blair is THE magnet", and 2) that upcounty kids go to RM and downcounty kids go to Blair. In our Chevy Chase neighborhood there are probably as many kids who go to RM as to Blair. RM is favored by kids more interested in social sciences and humanities; Blair by kids more interested in science and math. Both schools offer a great program for motivated, serious students and both do very well in college admissions. (No dog in this fight, BTW; our kids went to private, but they have many friends who went to Blair and RM.)

I did not say upcounty kids go to RM and downcounty kids go to Blair. I said an uppercounty kid is more likely to go to RM or Poolesville. So if I have 5 kids in my school in magnet 4 go to RM or Poolesville - 1 might go to Blair. Mostly becaues it is a pain to get to Blair from upper county and there are so many other options. I know a principal and he said many parents who won't apply to Blair because of the commute. The ICC will help a little though.

To 8:33 I know multiple people in QO, Northwest and Clarksburg district that go to Poolesville magnet.

833 here, of course you do because if you are applying for science, math, computer magnet and you live in "northern" MC you have to go to Poolesville, those who live south have to go to Blair. Its cut and dry.... If you are applying to any of the other magnet programs for the most part you have to go down county..... i.e. Edison, Einstein...

If you do not live in DCC there are a whole array of magnets that you can't even apply for...

Its not fair for those who live in upper MC

Sorry - the lack of comma confused me. So...No, upper county go to Poolesville not no uppercounty go to Poolesville.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would disagree re two points made by PPs: 1) that "Blair is THE magnet", and 2) that upcounty kids go to RM and downcounty kids go to Blair. In our Chevy Chase neighborhood there are probably as many kids who go to RM as to Blair. RM is favored by kids more interested in social sciences and humanities; Blair by kids more interested in science and math. Both schools offer a great program for motivated, serious students and both do very well in college admissions. (No dog in this fight, BTW; our kids went to private, but they have many friends who went to Blair and RM.)

I did not say upcounty kids go to RM and downcounty kids go to Blair. I said an uppercounty kid is more likely to go to RM or Poolesville. So if I have 5 kids in my school in magnet 4 go to RM or Poolesville - 1 might go to Blair. Mostly becaues it is a pain to get to Blair from upper county and there are so many other options. I know a principal and he said many parents who won't apply to Blair because of the commute. The ICC will help a little though.

To 8:33 I know multiple people in QO, Northwest and Clarksburg district that go to Poolesville magnet.

833 here, of course you do because if you are applying for science, math, computer magnet and you live in "northern" MC you have to go to Poolesville, those who live south have to go to Blair. Its cut and dry.... If you are applying to any of the other magnet programs for the most part you have to go down county..... i.e. Edison, Einstein...

If you do not live in DCC there are a whole array of magnets that you can't even apply for...

Its not fair for those who live in upper MC

Just to clarify, the DCC options of Loiederman, Einstein et cetera are not technically "magnets" in the sense that admission is not by application (testing, teacher recs, GPA), instead admission is by lottery. But it's true that these programs aren't available to kids outside the DCC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would disagree re two points made by PPs: 1) that "Blair is THE magnet", and 2) that upcounty kids go to RM and downcounty kids go to Blair. In our Chevy Chase neighborhood there are probably as many kids who go to RM as to Blair. RM is favored by kids more interested in social sciences and humanities; Blair by kids more interested in science and math. Both schools offer a great program for motivated, serious students and both do very well in college admissions. (No dog in this fight, BTW; our kids went to private, but they have many friends who went to Blair and RM.)

I did not say upcounty kids go to RM and downcounty kids go to Blair. I said an uppercounty kid is more likely to go to RM or Poolesville. So if I have 5 kids in my school in magnet 4 go to RM or Poolesville - 1 might go to Blair. Mostly becaues it is a pain to get to Blair from upper county and there are so many other options. I know a principal and he said many parents who won't apply to Blair because of the commute. The ICC will help a little though.

To 8:33 I know multiple people in QO, Northwest and Clarksburg district that go to Poolesville magnet.

833 here, of course you do because if you are applying for science, math, computer magnet and you live in "northern" MC you have to go to Poolesville, those who live south have to go to Blair. Its cut and dry.... If you are applying to any of the other magnet programs for the most part you have to go down county..... i.e. Edison, Einstein...

If you do not live in DCC there are a whole array of magnets that you can't even apply for...

Its not fair for those who live in upper MC

Just to clarify, the DCC options of Loiederman, Einstein et cetera are not technically "magnets" in the sense that admission is not by application (testing, teacher recs, GPA), instead admission is by lottery. But it's true that these programs aren't available to kids outside the DCC.

You are correct, there's also application programs like Biomedical magnet and Engineering magnets both of which are essentially DCC

[Anonymous]

to really understand these decisions, you have to work through history of school openings, school closures, redlining in housing, desegregation in housing. There is no one easy pat answer.

Magnets provide incentives to move kids from overutilized areas to underutilzed - put a bright lovely program in the underutilized school. it makes sense. If
magnets stop working - the school system will move on to other solutions. I have heard that new haven and/or nyc has a complex matching application process even for lower grades. NYC high school matching process was designed by nobel prize winners.

Moco is moving in an urban direction and urban solutions could be adopted. Not saying they are good or bad - but if magnet programs stop working other solutions might be less pleasant for the wealthy folks in western moco. I don't think bethesda wants a new haven model - but lobby against the locaiton of magnets and you might get it.

[Anonymous]

The middle school GT magnets are the most lopsided geographically

[Anonymous]

It might not be "fair", but it is incredibly tough to get into these programs. There are usually 6 or 7 x the number of applicants as spaces. So, we are DCC, but we were unable to get in to any of the magnet programs for MS - none of the lottery, and neither of the application programs. So we are left with our cruddy home school, or go to private. Most in our neighborhood go to private. At least those in other parts of the county have real options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:to really understand these decisions, you have to work through history of school openings, school closures, redlining in housing, desegregation in housing. There is no one easy pat answer.

Magnets provide incentives to move kids from overutilized areas to underutilzed - put a bright lovely program in the underutilized school. it makes sense. If
magnets stop working - the school system will move on to other solutions. I have heard that new haven and/or nyc has a complex matching application process even for lower grades. NYC high school matching process was designed by nobel prize winners.

Moco is moving in an urban direction and urban solutions could be adopted. Not saying they are good or bad - but if magnet programs stop working other solutions might be less pleasant for the wealthy folks in western moco. I don't think bethesda wants a new haven model - but lobby against the locaiton of magnets and you might get it.

I can't see the magnet programs ever stopping working - unless MoCo completely defunds them so that they can no longer dedicate great teachers and other resources to these programs. Of course I wouldn't put it past MoCo to reduce magnet funding. Still, as long as (a) some kids want the extra challenge in certain topics, and (b) bad schools continue to exist that force parents to look for alternatives, the magnets will continue to be in high demand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It might not be "fair", but it is incredibly tough to get into these programs. There are usually 6 or 7 x the number of applicants as spaces. So, we are DCC, but we were unable to get in to any of the magnet programs for MS - none of the lottery, and neither of the application programs. So we are left with our cruddy home school, or go to private. Most in our neighborhood go to private. At least those in other parts of the county have real options.

+1. Both of my kids are in magnets, but I recognize that had things gone differently on testing day, they could very easily not have been admitted - and our home school, especially for middle school, is not acceptable.

Sorry, but I think it is completely fair given the school situation here in eastern MoCo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Plus, aren't there magnets at Richard Montgomery and Poolesville?

RM has IB (the only test in program). So yes, it's in the magnet category.

I believe Poolesville's a test in, too. But it may only accept students from certain clusters - whereas RM accepts a very few from all over the county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would disagree re two points made by PPs: 1) that "Blair is THE magnet", and 2) that upcounty kids go to RM and downcounty kids go to Blair. In our Chevy Chase neighborhood there are probably as many kids who go to RM as to Blair. RM is favored by kids more interested in social sciences and humanities; Blair by kids more interested in science and math. Both schools offer a great program for motivated, serious students and both do very well in college admissions. (No dog in this fight, BTW; our kids went to private, but they have many friends who went to Blair and RM.)

Hi Chevy Chase neighbor -- what's your perception of why Chevy Chase kids choose RM IB program over the BCC IB program? Is it really that much better? Do you know a lot of neighbors making this choice or just a couple? I know RM is an application program and BCC is not, thus the pool of kids in the RM program probably has stronger academic skills but do lots of people think the distance trade off is a good one for essentially a similar program?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It might not be "fair", but it is incredibly tough to get into these programs. There are usually 6 or 7 x the number of applicants as spaces. So, we are DCC, but we were unable to get in to any of the magnet programs for MS - none of the lottery, and neither of the application programs. So we are left with our cruddy home school, or go to private. Most in our neighborhood go to private. At least those in other parts of the county have real options.

The irony.... DCC has the most options of all areas

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It might not be "fair", but it is incredibly tough to get into these programs. There are usually 6 or 7 x the number of applicants as spaces. So, we are DCC, but we were unable to get in to any of the magnet programs for MS - none of the lottery, and neither of the application programs. So we are left with our cruddy home school, or go to private. Most in our neighborhood go to private. At least those in other parts of the county have real options.

The irony.... DCC has the most options of all areas

Not really. Options are only options if your child is admitted. Most children are not.

[Anonymous]

Magnets were originally located in low-performing schools so that the individual school's scores would improve.