feedback on Argyle Middle School Magnet Program for digital design and development

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I toured it as my DC is highly interested in tech and I suspect that will be his future. From my hour+ there, I agree with the PP. The focused classes are great, but there are so many hours in the rest of the day that are driven by the rest of the population -- the lunchroom seemed tough, and there are so many classes that are "mixed" that it's not really a 'magnet' school in any true sense. I'd tour it yourself, but probably recommend avoiding

All the classes are mixed. It’s a whole school program. There no magnet kids and non magnet kids. They are all in the program.

Which means that it is not a magnet program, just called one!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I toured it as my DC is highly interested in tech and I suspect that will be his future. From my hour+ there, I agree with the PP. The focused classes are great, but there are so many hours in the rest of the day that are driven by the rest of the population -- the lunchroom seemed tough, and there are so many classes that are "mixed" that it's not really a 'magnet' school in any true sense. I'd tour it yourself, but probably recommend avoiding

All the classes are mixed. It’s a whole school program. There no magnet kids and non magnet kids. They are all in the program.

Which means that it is not a magnet program, just called one!

It is a whole school magnet. The digital design classes are magnet level classes. How does this affect you? Does a school only count as magnet if it brings in kids from outside the neighborhood and segregates them from the normies?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I toured it as my DC is highly interested in tech and I suspect that will be his future. From my hour+ there, I agree with the PP. The focused classes are great, but there are so many hours in the rest of the day that are driven by the rest of the population -- the lunchroom seemed tough, and there are so many classes that are "mixed" that it's not really a 'magnet' school in any true sense. I'd tour it yourself, but probably recommend avoiding

All the classes are mixed. It’s a whole school program. There no magnet kids and non magnet kids. They are all in the program.

Which means that it is not a magnet program, just called one!

It is a whole school magnet. The digital design classes are magnet level classes. How does this affect you? Does a school only count as magnet if it brings in kids from outside the neighborhood and segregates them from the normies?

Do all the kids have to take the digital design magnet level classes or only those that want to? I think the question with magnets is the availability of special electives and being in class with motivated, engaged students with limited disruptiveness. That is presumably more of a problem in “mixed” classes and/or classes where not everyone shares a strong interest in the “magnet” subject.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I toured it as my DC is highly interested in tech and I suspect that will be his future. From my hour+ there, I agree with the PP. The focused classes are great, but there are so many hours in the rest of the day that are driven by the rest of the population -- the lunchroom seemed tough, and there are so many classes that are "mixed" that it's not really a 'magnet' school in any true sense. I'd tour it yourself, but probably recommend avoiding

All the classes are mixed. It’s a whole school program. There no magnet kids and non magnet kids. They are all in the program.

Which means that it is not a magnet program, just called one!

It is a whole school magnet. The digital design classes are magnet level classes. How does this affect you? Does a school only count as magnet if it brings in kids from outside the neighborhood and segregates them from the normies?

Do all the kids have to take the digital design magnet level classes or only those that want to? I think the question with magnets is the availability of special electives and being in class with motivated, engaged students with limited disruptiveness. That is presumably more of a problem in “mixed” classes and/or classes where not everyone shares a strong interest in the “magnet” subject.

There is no gatekeeping for the magnet electives in any of the MSMC schools. If a student wants to take the magnet level class, it is open to him or her. The class is filled with students who requested to be in the class. As PP noted earlier, Loiederman and Parkland seem to have a larger group of students with stronger interest in their magnet foci, but that doesn't mean the magnet classes at Argyle are worthless and magnet in name only.

[Anonymous]

I am bumping this thread. My son just got an invitation to Argyle. Any more recent comments about the school? Still troublesome?

[Anonymous]

The worries about behavior are overblown a bit. The reality is that many of the kids in the area don’t have a lot opportunities for enrichment. If anything they love school more than being in a boring house or apartment. When I taught at Parkland I heard this all the time from students. That said, many students are way into drama but they basically just feed off eachother. They leave the smart (boring to them) kids alone and basically completely ignore the out of consortium students. They biggest complaint from students is when they have to work in a group on a project or presentation. But you will hear that complaint from students at any middle school in the county for a variety of reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am bumping this thread. My son just got an invitation to Argyle. Any more recent comments about the school? Still troublesome?

Have your child shadow a student there for a day before deciding. Then he will have first hand knowledge of how the school feels to him. Just call the magnet coordinator to set it up

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have friends who have sent children to Argyle for the magnet. The magnet classes are great. The student population, however, is not great. Getting the wrong teacher for a class can mean that your child is in a group that is completely out of control. Phones out, videos being watched, even chairs being thrown instead of learning. Kids are physically harmed and threatened with worse if they report it in the locker room after gym class (where there is no adult supervision). This is not an exaggeration.

DP here. Anonymous board, maybe we have the same friend, but I heard a strikingly similar story directly from the parent of an affected boy. In the locker room, larger students were grabbing the 6th grader and squeezing him until 6th grader could not breathe. Bigger problem was the nonresponse from the administration; 6th grader did not know attackers' names, so they would not do anything nor send male PE teacher into locker room to supervise. in addition to physical bullying, there were problems in the classroom. Yes, some dramatic like chairs being thrown. Others less so, such as teachers purposely not calling on successful out of boundary students to "give others a chance" when participation was 10% of the grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have friends who have sent children to Argyle for the magnet. The magnet classes are great. The student population, however, is not great. Getting the wrong teacher for a class can mean that your child is in a group that is completely out of control. Phones out, videos being watched, even chairs being thrown instead of learning. Kids are physically harmed and threatened with worse if they report it in the locker room after gym class (where there is no adult supervision). This is not an exaggeration.

I think that’s the problem with these lottery programs. My son was sent to Parkland and he was miserable not because the teachers (The magnet classes were great) but because he wasn’t a STEM student. He wanted to go to Loiderman. He hated science class and unfortunately you have to take 2 at Parkland. There’s a lot of kids in these magnet schools who are put into schools that they’re not interested in and a group of them do disrupt those who want to learn. My son experience at Parkland was very lonely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am bumping this thread. My son just got an invitation to Argyle. Any more recent comments about the school? Still troublesome?

My son also got an offer. I have a coworker whose son who just finished 8th grade in the program last year. His son loved it. Both his father and I are programmers at a game company so he liked the game design stuff. The only real complaint my coworker had was having to do the driving to get there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am bumping this thread. My son just got an invitation to Argyle. Any more recent comments about the school? Still troublesome?

same here. need advice from this group.

[Anonymous]

Impressive - a full one year gap between posts!

It's almost as if the last year didn't happen. (Sigh...)

[Anonymous]

It is time to express our choice for Argyle vs Parkland. Both seem to have good STEM programs, with Argyle focusing on programming skills. How is Argyle? Did your DC like the Argyle Middle school? Do students at Argyle or Parkland participate in math or coding competitions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I toured it as my DC is highly interested in tech and I suspect that will be his future. From my hour+ there, I agree with the PP. The focused classes are great, but there are so many hours in the rest of the day that are driven by the rest of the population -- the lunchroom seemed tough, and there are so many classes that are "mixed" that it's not really a 'magnet' school in any true sense. I'd tour it yourself, but probably recommend avoiding

MCPS doesn’t have any magnet schools. All magnet students take comprehensive classes outside of their program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The worries about behavior are overblown a bit. The reality is that many of the kids in the area don’t have a lot opportunities for enrichment. If anything they love school more than being in a boring house or apartment. When I taught at Parkland I heard this all the time from students. That said, many students are way into drama but they basically just feed off eachother. They leave the smart (boring to them) kids alone and basically completely ignore the out of consortium students. They biggest complaint from students is when they have to work in a group on a project or presentation. But you will hear that complaint from students at any middle school in the county for a variety of reasons.

The out of consortium parents seem to take over the school/PTA's and are self-segregating and some are even to the point of excluding other out of consortium parents. The drama is normal at this age as they are trying to figure it all out. And, how the schools are set up, they have their own separate groups and none seem to be trying to bring everyone together. That's on the administration and teachers.