Return to school: What about the MCPS magnets?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Magnets are about getting the right kids to go to the right schools. The specialized instruction is the carrot that gets the high SES kid's parents to send their kids to schools they otherwise wouldn't

In 1981, yes. But it's not 1981 anymore.

[Anonymous]

One of the purpose of the survey is to evaluate how many families want hybrid or distance learning options, so that they can start splitting cohorts and assigning teachers for both general education and special programs. You'll notice the first one asked whether your kids had IEPs/504s or were in magnet programs.

Further surveys at the school level will be sent out for finer assessments of families' needs.

I am hopeful that every students will have an education as similar as possible to what they would have received in person.

I have a high schooler in a special high school program, doing "enriched AP classes", and an elementary schooler in a CES. My fear was to see these specialties evaporate into nothing. I think MCPS is taking the time to think through how it can preserve them.

Fingers crossed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
One of the purpose of the survey is to evaluate how many families want hybrid or distance learning options, so that they can start splitting cohorts and assigning teachers for both general education and special programs. You'll notice the first one asked whether your kids had IEPs/504s or were in magnet programs.

Further surveys at the school level will be sent out for finer assessments of families' needs.

I am hopeful that every students will have an education as similar as possible to what they would have received in person.

I have a high schooler in a special high school program, doing "enriched AP classes", and an elementary schooler in a CES. My fear was to see these specialties evaporate into nothing. I think MCPS is taking the time to think through how it can preserve them.

Fingers crossed.

Which survey was this? The survey I saw asked if your kids received "special education services", a 504, ESOL, or FARMS. I didn't see anything about magnet programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
One of the purpose of the survey is to evaluate how many families want hybrid or distance learning options, so that they can start splitting cohorts and assigning teachers for both general education and special programs. You'll notice the first one asked whether your kids had IEPs/504s or were in magnet programs.

Further surveys at the school level will be sent out for finer assessments of families' needs.

I am hopeful that every students will have an education as similar as possible to what they would have received in person.

I have a high schooler in a special high school program, doing "enriched AP classes", and an elementary schooler in a CES. My fear was to see these specialties evaporate into nothing. I think MCPS is taking the time to think through how it can preserve them.

Fingers crossed.

Which survey was this? The survey I saw asked if your kids received "special education services", a 504, ESOL, or FARMS. I didn't see anything about magnet programs.

I didn't see it either, and I think the reason I didn't see it is that it's not there.

3. Did your child(ren) receive special education services during the 2019-2020 school year?
4. Did your child(ren) have a 504 plan during the 2019-2020 school year?
5. Did your child(ren) participate in the Free and Reduced-priced meals (FARMS) program during the 2019-2020 school year?
6. Did your child(ren) receive English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) services during the 2019-2020 school year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
One of the purpose of the survey is to evaluate how many families want hybrid or distance learning options, so that they can start splitting cohorts and assigning teachers for both general education and special programs. You'll notice the first one asked whether your kids had IEPs/504s or were in magnet programs.

Further surveys at the school level will be sent out for finer assessments of families' needs.

I am hopeful that every students will have an education as similar as possible to what they would have received in person.

I have a high schooler in a special high school program, doing "enriched AP classes", and an elementary schooler in a CES. My fear was to see these specialties evaporate into nothing. I think MCPS is taking the time to think through how it can preserve them.

Fingers crossed.

Which survey was this? The survey I saw asked if your kids received "special education services", a 504, ESOL, or FARMS. I didn't see anything about magnet programs.

+1

The survey asked about IEP, 504, and ESOL only.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
One of the purpose of the survey is to evaluate how many families want hybrid or distance learning options, so that they can start splitting cohorts and assigning teachers for both general education and special programs. You'll notice the first one asked whether your kids had IEPs/504s or were in magnet programs.

Further surveys at the school level will be sent out for finer assessments of families' needs.

I am hopeful that every students will have an education as similar as possible to what they would have received in person.

I have a high schooler in a special high school program, doing "enriched AP classes", and an elementary schooler in a CES. My fear was to see these specialties evaporate into nothing. I think MCPS is taking the time to think through how it can preserve them.

Fingers crossed.

Which survey was this? The survey I saw asked if your kids received "special education services", a 504, ESOL, or FARMS. I didn't see anything about magnet programs.

+1

The survey asked about IEP, 504, and ESOL only.

sorry also farms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
One of the purpose of the survey is to evaluate how many families want hybrid or distance learning options, so that they can start splitting cohorts and assigning teachers for both general education and special programs. You'll notice the first one asked whether your kids had IEPs/504s or were in magnet programs.

Further surveys at the school level will be sent out for finer assessments of families' needs.

I am hopeful that every students will have an education as similar as possible to what they would have received in person.

I have a high schooler in a special high school program, doing "enriched AP classes", and an elementary schooler in a CES. My fear was to see these specialties evaporate into nothing. I think MCPS is taking the time to think through how it can preserve them.

Fingers crossed.

Which survey was this? The survey I saw asked if your kids received "special education services", a 504, ESOL, or FARMS. I didn't see anything about magnet programs.

+1

The survey asked about IEP, 504, and ESOL only.

sorry also farms.

PP you all responded to.

My apologies, I was confusing this survey with something else! I'm very sorry about the mix-up.

I do hope that the goal is to provide all these special programs with their usual curriculum and teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:N.B: I’m using magnet very loosely here to mean all the especially programs that admit small groups of students whether by test or by application. That could be CAP at Blair or an ES language immersion. Please don’t derail the discussion over whether X program is really a magnet. For the purpose of this discussion, let’s assume it’s programs with 100 or fewer seats each entry year. For example, Magnet A admitted 100 students out of 900 applications and has a waiting list.

How will this fall impact magnets?

The point of magnets is rigorous learning in a peer cohort. Take away the cohort with 1/2 the 10th grade in Magnet A electing to learn at home and the experience is not the same.

Magnet classes are usually taught by teachers with experience teaching highly gifted students. If classes are split in two to permit social distancing, what does the teaching look like? Will there be eight rather than four grade 7 magnet sections at Magnet B. Will the school hire twice as many teachers with some sections taught by teachers shifted from non-magnet courses? Or will students do a two days on/three days off schedule so everyone has the same experienced teacher?

Not really. The point of magnets is providing students with opportunities to receive specialized instruction in schools outside of their local attendance boundaries.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/info/choice/ChoiceStudyReport-Version2-20160307.pdf

That’s a definition of a magnet, not a reason students choose magnet. Families would just as happily receive specialized instruction at their home schools if available. 2018-19 and 2019-20 saw many admitted MS magnet families do exactly that by selecting enriched courses rather than hour long commutes. If the high schools offered mini-magnets, the same would happen. People do the commute for courses AND cohort, not for courses and commute.

Really because it seemed to me there were tons of furious middle school families posting here about not being accepted to magnets despite high scores..and then further furry when the "specialized instruction" was offered to all students at several middle schools.

Magnets are about getting the right kids to go to the right schools. The specialized instruction is the carrot that gets the high SES kid's parents to send their kids to schools they otherwise wouldn't

In theory that's true but most of these programs were setup 25-30 years ago back when areas like 14th street were bombed out or DuPont was transitional. The point is a lot has changed in that time and these generalizations aren't really true in 2020.

[Anonymous]

I had one kid in CES last year and another going into a HS magnet this year.

I found that the CES DL worked a bit better than the stuff at home school. At least some of the magnet teachers just used their own curriculum and adapted it to DL. It already involved a lot of independent research and projects so it worked. Kids were assigned small groups to work on the projects over zoom or hangouts -- the fact that the peer group was generally pretty motivated and sophisticated about technology helped, and they seemed to be doing actual work in their groups.

I am hopeful that we'll see some of the same benefits with the HS magnet.

[Anonymous]

Is anyone considering pulling out of the magnet and remaining in the neighborhood school given what fall is looking like?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:N.B: I’m using magnet very loosely here to mean all the especially programs that admit small groups of students whether by test or by application. That could be CAP at Blair or an ES language immersion. Please don’t derail the discussion over whether X program is really a magnet. For the purpose of this discussion, let’s assume it’s programs with 100 or fewer seats each entry year. For example, Magnet A admitted 100 students out of 900 applications and has a waiting list.

How will this fall impact magnets?

The point of magnets is rigorous learning in a peer cohort. Take away the cohort with 1/2 the 10th grade in Magnet A electing to learn at home and the experience is not the same.

Magnet classes are usually taught by teachers with experience teaching highly gifted students. If classes are split in two to permit social distancing, what does the teaching look like? Will there be eight rather than four grade 7 magnet sections at Magnet B. Will the school hire twice as many teachers with some sections taught by teachers shifted from non-magnet courses? Or will students do a two days on/three days off schedule so everyone has the same experienced teacher?

Not really. The point of magnets is providing students with opportunities to receive specialized instruction in schools outside of their local attendance boundaries.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/info/choice/ChoiceStudyReport-Version2-20160307.pdf

That’s a definition of a magnet, not a reason students choose magnet. Families would just as happily receive specialized instruction at their home schools if available. 2018-19 and 2019-20 saw many admitted MS magnet families do exactly that by selecting enriched courses rather than hour long commutes. If the high schools offered mini-magnets, the same would happen. People do the commute for courses AND cohort, not for courses and commute.

Really because it seemed to me there were tons of furious middle school families posting here about not being accepted to magnets despite high scores..and then further furry when the "specialized instruction" was offered to all students at several middle schools.

Magnets are about getting the right kids to go to the right schools. The specialized instruction is the carrot that gets the high SES kid's parents to send their kids to schools they otherwise wouldn't

In theory that's true but most of these programs were setup 25-30 years ago back when areas like 14th street were bombed out or DuPont was transitional. The point is a lot has changed in that time and these generalizations aren't really true in 2020.

I teach in the magnet at Eastern. A surprising number of White students in the magnet live walking distance from our school. Many families moved into the neighborhood because they had multiple children in a nearby highly gifted ES program and strongly suspected their kids would go on to TPMS or Eastern magnets and then Blair. In contrast, none of our magnet students of color come from within walking distance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is anyone considering pulling out of the magnet and remaining in the neighborhood school given what fall is looking like?

My 6th grader is headed to TPMS for the magnet this fall. They said they'd give it a go this year, but that if it looked like school wasn't going to be full-time face-to-face for 7th grade that they wanted to switch back to the home MS.

[Anonymous]

I teach in the magnet at Eastern. A surprising number of White students in the magnet live walking distance from our school. Many families moved into the neighborhood because they had multiple children in a nearby highly gifted ES program and strongly suspected their kids would go on to TPMS or Eastern magnets and then Blair. In contrast, none of our magnet students of color come from within walking distance.

This doesn't surprise me. I have a rising 6th grader at Eastern and we know at least 10 kids who are, if not walking distance, then bike riding distance to the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is anyone considering pulling out of the magnet and remaining in the neighborhood school given what fall is looking like?

If it’s all DL no matter where you are, why wouldn’t you choose the benefits of the enriched curriculum without the extended commute kids would otherwise have? It seems like it takes away one huge drawback to the regional magnet programs for most families.

And magnet teachers have had all summer to convert their lessons for DL (as opposed to doing it on the fly in the spring), and they won’t have to rely on whatever standardized stuff MCPS will likely require the rest of the teachers to use. The big thing kids would be missing out on is the social aspects, and they’d be missing out on those in the home school, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is anyone considering pulling out of the magnet and remaining in the neighborhood school given what fall is looking like?

If it’s all DL no matter where you are, why wouldn’t you choose the benefits of the enriched curriculum without the extended commute kids would otherwise have? It seems like it takes away one huge drawback to the regional magnet programs for most families.

And magnet teachers have had all summer to convert their lessons for DL (as opposed to doing it on the fly in the spring), and they won’t have to rely on whatever standardized stuff MCPS will likely require the rest of the teachers to use. The big thing kids would be missing out on is the social aspects, and they’d be missing out on those in the home school, too.

14:45 here. My kid is worried about DL in a school where they don’t know anyone and won’t be able to form relationships.