Takoma Park MS Magnet - 25 inbound seats?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it true that 25 seats are reserved for inbound students? Can anyone provide an official cite for this info?

It's true and IMO MCPS should restrict the entire program to in-boundary students since it would reduce busing costs.

Where are you going to get the super-achievers from then? The majority of in-bound students are low performing. The high performing in-bound students are already in the program. The program by itself does not make the super-achievers. Families and SES plays a role. Bethesda and Potomac still remains the best bet to provide that support to their students as well as providing the usual high achieving racial groups.

Do you expect high performing students and their highly educated and successful parents to leave their Bethesda homes and move to TPMS? They would rather go to their home W school. The whole magnet program and the attempt to close the achievement gap will fail if these students start going to their home schools. Eventually, the losers will be those high achieveing students from all racial groups who are not rich enough to be in Bethesda.

But I keep reading that TPMS is an impossible distance from Bethesda and Potomac, and so nobody from Bethesda and Potomac goes there? Or is that Blair? I can never keep this stuff straight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

But I keep reading that TPMS is an impossible distance from Bethesda and Potomac, and so nobody from Bethesda and Potomac goes there? Or is that Blair? I can never keep this stuff straight.

You are ill-informed at best!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it true that 25 seats are reserved for inbound students? Can anyone provide an official cite for this info?

It's true and IMO MCPS should restrict the entire program to in-boundary students since it would reduce busing costs.

Where are you going to get the super-achievers from then? The majority of in-bound students are low performing. The high performing in-bound students are already in the program. The program by itself does not make the super-achievers. Families and SES plays a role. Bethesda and Potomac still remains the best bet to provide that support to their students as well as providing the usual high achieving racial groups.

Do you expect high performing students and their highly educated and successful parents to leave their Bethesda homes and move to TPMS? They would rather go to their home W school. The whole magnet program and the attempt to close the achievement gap will fail if these students start going to their home schools. Eventually, the losers will be those high achieveing students from all racial groups who are not rich enough to be in Bethesda.

Are you out of your mind? Sorry your Bethesda/Potomac child did not get in. There are high achieving kids everywhere. The set aside of the 25 seats is a historical compromise, but it doesn't really matter anymore. TP is a very intellectual area (lots of college professors live there and other science-y types) and their kids are very bright. The TP kids perform very well and likely would've gotten in anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it true that 25 seats are reserved for inbound students? Can anyone provide an official cite for this info?

It's true and IMO MCPS should restrict the entire program to in-boundary students since it would reduce busing costs.

Where are you going to get the super-achievers from then? The majority of in-bound students are low performing. The high performing in-bound students are already in the program. The program by itself does not make the super-achievers. Families and SES plays a role. Bethesda and Potomac still remains the best bet to provide that support to their students as well as providing the usual high achieving racial groups.

Do you expect high performing students and their highly educated and successful parents to leave their Bethesda homes and move to TPMS? They would rather go to their home W school. The whole magnet program and the attempt to close the achievement gap will fail if these students start going to their home schools. Eventually, the losers will be those high achieveing students from all racial groups who are not rich enough to be in Bethesda.

About half the students in this program are in the boundary or from nearby SS. No need to import students besides most have a strong cohort at their home school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it true that 25 seats are reserved for inbound students? Can anyone provide an official cite for this info?

It's true and IMO MCPS should restrict the entire program to in-boundary students since it would reduce busing costs.

Where are you going to get the super-achievers from then? The majority of in-bound students are low performing. The high performing in-bound students are already in the program. The program by itself does not make the super-achievers. Families and SES plays a role. Bethesda and Potomac still remains the best bet to provide that support to their students as well as providing the usual high achieving racial groups.

Do you expect high performing students and their highly educated and successful parents to leave their Bethesda homes and move to TPMS? They would rather go to their home W school. The whole magnet program and the attempt to close the achievement gap will fail if these students start going to their home schools. Eventually, the losers will be those high achieveing students from all racial groups who are not rich enough to be in Bethesda.

Are you out of your mind? Sorry your Bethesda/Potomac child did not get in. There are high achieving kids everywhere. The set aside of the 25 seats is a historical compromise, but it doesn't really matter anymore. TP is a very intellectual area (lots of college professors live there and other science-y types) and their kids are very bright. The TP kids perform very well and likely would've gotten in anyway.

In which case why not remove the historical precedent and allow them to compete with the general population.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it true that 25 seats are reserved for inbound students? Can anyone provide an official cite for this info?

It's true and IMO MCPS should restrict the entire program to in-boundary students since it would reduce busing costs.

Where are you going to get the super-achievers from then? The majority of in-bound students are low performing. The high performing in-bound students are already in the program. The program by itself does not make the super-achievers. Families and SES plays a role. Bethesda and Potomac still remains the best bet to provide that support to their students as well as providing the usual high achieving racial groups.

Do you expect high performing students and their highly educated and successful parents to leave their Bethesda homes and move to TPMS? They would rather go to their home W school. The whole magnet program and the attempt to close the achievement gap will fail if these students start going to their home schools. Eventually, the losers will be those high achieveing students from all racial groups who are not rich enough to be in Bethesda.

Are you out of your mind? Sorry your Bethesda/Potomac child did not get in. There are high achieving kids everywhere. The set aside of the 25 seats is a historical compromise, but it doesn't really matter anymore. TP is a very intellectual area (lots of college professors live there and other science-y types) and their kids are very bright. The TP kids perform very well and likely would've gotten in anyway.[/quote]

I doubt many people really believe that.

Also one can look at how many local kids get in the Blair Magnet program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Are you out of your mind? Sorry your Bethesda/Potomac child did not get in. There are high achieving kids everywhere. The set aside of the 25 seats is a historical compromise, but it doesn't really matter anymore. TP is a very intellectual area (lots of college professors live there and other science-y types) and their kids are very bright. The TP kids perform very well and likely would've gotten in anyway.

I doubt many people really believe that.

Also one can look at how many local kids get in the Blair Magnet program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it true that 25 seats are reserved for inbound students? Can anyone provide an official cite for this info?

It's true and IMO MCPS should restrict the entire program to in-boundary students since it would reduce busing costs.

Where are you going to get the super-achievers from then? The majority of in-bound students are low performing. The high performing in-bound students are already in the program. The program by itself does not make the super-achievers. Families and SES plays a role. Bethesda and Potomac still remains the best bet to provide that support to their students as well as providing the usual high achieving racial groups.

Do you expect high performing students and their highly educated and successful parents to leave their Bethesda homes and move to TPMS? They would rather go to their home W school. The whole magnet program and the attempt to close the achievement gap will fail if these students start going to their home schools. Eventually, the losers will be those high achieveing students from all racial groups who are not rich enough to be in Bethesda.

Are you out of your mind? Sorry your Bethesda/Potomac child did not get in. There are high achieving kids everywhere. The set aside of the 25 seats is a historical compromise, but it doesn't really matter anymore. TP is a very intellectual area (lots of college professors live there and other science-y types) and their kids are very bright. The TP kids perform very well and likely would've gotten in anyway.

In which case why not remove the historical precedent and allow them to compete with the general population.

Let's explain this one more time. The magnet is 100 seats, all the other seats in the school are for inbound students. The magnet cannot be expanded to, say 125 seats, unless someone finds a new home for 25 inbound students. Simple enough. However, when inbound students are accepted to the magnet, that actually frees up a seat in the regular population. So if the magnet is expanded by one classroom set aside for inbound students, it actually means there's slightly less competition for the 100 seats and it means the impact of the magnet on overall enrollment is predictable. Yes, there may be a slight advantage to the inbound students (but you'd need to know exactly how many would have been in the top 100 anyway to determine that), but it isn't at a cost to anyone outside the magnet. Also, the magnet teachers would have to teach some non-magnet class to be full time, it makes sense to just teach one more section of the magnet class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Are you out of your mind? Sorry your Bethesda/Potomac child did not get in. There are high achieving kids everywhere. The set aside of the 25 seats is a historical compromise, but it doesn't really matter anymore. TP is a very intellectual area (lots of college professors live there and other science-y types) and their kids are very bright. The TP kids perform very well and likely would've gotten in anyway.

I doubt many people really believe that.

Also one can look at how many local kids get in the Blair Magnet program.

The largest single cohort @Blair magnet are from Takoma & Silver Spring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Are you out of your mind? Sorry your Bethesda/Potomac child did not get in. There are high achieving kids everywhere. The set aside of the 25 seats is a historical compromise, but it doesn't really matter anymore. TP is a very intellectual area (lots of college professors live there and other science-y types) and their kids are very bright. The TP kids perform very well and likely would've gotten in anyway.

I doubt many people really believe that.

Also one can look at how many local kids get in the Blair Magnet program.

The largest single cohort @Blair magnet are from Takoma & Silver Spring.

Because of the lower standards, they don’t have to compete

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it true that 25 seats are reserved for inbound students? Can anyone provide an official cite for this info?

Yes, and it's one of several reasons why many parents who value education buy into the Blair/TPMS pyramid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Are you out of your mind? Sorry your Bethesda/Potomac child did not get in. There are high achieving kids everywhere. The set aside of the 25 seats is a historical compromise, but it doesn't really matter anymore. TP is a very intellectual area (lots of college professors live there and other science-y types) and their kids are very bright. The TP kids perform very well and likely would've gotten in anyway.

I doubt many people really believe that.

Also one can look at how many local kids get in the Blair Magnet program.

The largest single cohort @Blair magnet are from Takoma & Silver Spring.

Makes sense. I read these days that Blair's average SAT scores now are 50+ points higher than any W.

[Anonymous]

Woooton is the largest cohort at Blair. Before the magnet admission changes, Wootton sent the most kids to TPMS close to and even sometimes exceeding the 25 spots set aside for TP non-compete. Frost, Cabin John and then Pyle were the largest feeders into TPMS beyond special seats. Some of the OOB kids that go to TPMS do go onto Blair. The only way you can possibly get to a claim that Blair has a large cohort from TP is to count the OOB students who attended TPMS and decided to attend Blair too.

Oh and most of Wootton isn't even in Bethesda or Potomac. Its in Rockville so this whole I am so insecure about Bethesda and Potomac and desperate to be perceived as good as that area from the crazy Takoma Park person is really unwarranted.

[Anonymous]

But I keep reading that TPMS is an impossible distance from Bethesda and Potomac, and so nobody from Bethesda and Potomac goes there? Or is that Blair? I can never keep this stuff straight.

Many white families in Bethesda and Potomac have not historically applied to either TPMS or Blair. It has been the Asian-American families choosing the long bus ride.

Wootton is the biggest feeder into Blair and was the biggest feeder into TPMS. I have no idea how kids from Wootton can stand that bus ride. The area that feeds Wootton is somewhere between Darnestown, Gaithersburg, Rockville and Western Potomac. Its very far out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

But I keep reading that TPMS is an impossible distance from Bethesda and Potomac, and so nobody from Bethesda and Potomac goes there? Or is that Blair? I can never keep this stuff straight.

Many white families in Bethesda and Potomac have not historically applied to either TPMS or Blair. It has been the Asian-American families choosing the long bus ride.

Wootton is the biggest feeder into Blair and was the biggest feeder into TPMS. I have no idea how kids from Wootton can stand that bus ride. The area that feeds Wootton is somewhere between Darnestown, Gaithersburg, Rockville and Western Potomac. Its very far out there.

According to the magnet student directory, Blair is the biggest feeder into Blair.