Can someone tell me about the Eastern Magnet?

[Anonymous]

I had one kid at each of the EMS and TPMS magnets. Eastern magnet is the only school in the county (besides Clemente magnet) which teaches the kind of writing necessary to do well in college. My EMS kid finds HS and college writing easy now and impresses professors. AP Lang repeated much of Ms. Ray’s “reading” class.

Your kid has to like reading and writing to be happy at Eastern.

As for another PP’s comments up thread - yes, Eastern is a more diverse student population - both racially and socioeconomically - and that is something we valued.

What we did not like was the lack of attention to sexual harassment issues. Current Principal was VP when EMS had a serious sexual assault/harassment problem. But TBH, sexual assault and harassment is endemic across MCPS with almost no consequences. #MeTooMCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here,

Can I ask just on a basic level, how many magnet classes does a kid take? Are they additions to the schedule, making a longer school day, or are they replacing other classes? If so which classes?

What electives are available?

Can someone post their kid's schedule?

What extracurriculars are there at Eastern? Are there sports teams?

There should be an open house presentation for admitted students that will answer this, but I'll answer some (as parent of a current Eastern 7th grader).

Students take 3 magnet classes each year: English, World Studies, and Media. Many/most also take a Literature elective in 6th grade that used to be a required magnet class but is now optional and open to non-magnet students (it's a great class). The magnet classes are coordinated and often have overlapping themes/projects.

Students take non-magnet PE, Science, and Math (at the math level that is recommended from their elementary school).

Students take 7 classes total, which is a typical load. There are the 5 core classes that all middle schoolers across MCPS take (math, science, social studies, english, PE) and two electives, but one of the electives is automatically filled by media each year. If kids take the lit class in 6th grade, there's not room for other electives. This year, my 7th grader is taking art and computer science (a semester each) as an elective, and will start a language in 8th grade.

My kid takes after-school band, which counts as a real class and meets three days a week after school (well, two days a week now on Zoom). So band kids are able to continue in band without eating up an elective slot. Because of this, though, I'm not as familiar with other extracurriculars, which typically meet at the same times.

There is a lot of information on the Eastern webpage (https://www2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/easternms ), particularly in the parent handbook (https://sites.google.com/view/parent-handbook/home).

Hope that helps!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had one kid at each of the EMS and TPMS magnets. Eastern magnet is the only school in the county (besides Clemente magnet) which teaches the kind of writing necessary to do well in college. My EMS kid finds HS and college writing easy now and impresses professors. AP Lang repeated much of Ms. Ray’s “reading” class.

Your kid has to like reading and writing to be happy at Eastern.

As for another PP’s comments up thread - yes, Eastern is a more diverse student population - both racially and socioeconomically - and that is something we valued.

What we did not like was the lack of attention to sexual harassment issues. Current Principal was VP when EMS had a serious sexual assault/harassment problem. But TBH, sexual assault and harassment is endemic across MCPS with almost no consequences. #MeTooMCPS

Not Clemente--the other Humanities and Communication magnet is at Martin Luther King, Jr. MS. Clemente has the upcounty counterpart to TPMS' magnet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had one kid at each of the EMS and TPMS magnets. Eastern magnet is the only school in the county (besides Clemente magnet) which teaches the kind of writing necessary to do well in college. My EMS kid finds HS and college writing easy now and impresses professors. AP Lang repeated much of Ms. Ray’s “reading” class.

Your kid has to like reading and writing to be happy at Eastern.

As for another PP’s comments up thread - yes, Eastern is a more diverse student population - both racially and socioeconomically - and that is something we valued.

What we did not like was the lack of attention to sexual harassment issues. Current Principal was VP when EMS had a serious sexual assault/harassment problem. But TBH, sexual assault and harassment is endemic across MCPS with almost no consequences. #MeTooMCPS

Not Clemente--the other Humanities and Communication magnet is at Martin Luther King, Jr. MS. Clemente has the upcounty counterpart to TPMS' magnet.

It used to be at Clemente also, up until about 2 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here,

Can I ask just on a basic level, how many magnet classes does a kid take? Are they additions to the schedule, making a longer school day, or are they replacing other classes? If so which classes?

What electives are available?

Can someone post their kid's schedule?

What extracurriculars are there at Eastern? Are there sports teams?

There should be an open house presentation for admitted students that will answer this, but I'll answer some (as parent of a current Eastern 7th grader).

Students take 3 magnet classes each year: English, World Studies, and Media. Many/most also take a Literature elective in 6th grade that used to be a required magnet class but is now optional and open to non-magnet students (it's a great class). The magnet classes are coordinated and often have overlapping themes/projects.

Students take non-magnet PE, Science, and Math (at the math level that is recommended from their elementary school).

Students take 7 classes total, which is a typical load. There are the 5 core classes that all middle schoolers across MCPS take (math, science, social studies, english, PE) and two electives, but one of the electives is automatically filled by media each year. If kids take the lit class in 6th grade, there's not room for other electives. This year, my 7th grader is taking art and computer science (a semester each) as an elective, and will start a language in 8th grade.

My kid takes after-school band, which counts as a real class and meets three days a week after school (well, two days a week now on Zoom). So band kids are able to continue in band without eating up an elective slot. Because of this, though, I'm not as familiar with other extracurriculars, which typically meet at the same times.

There is a lot of information on the Eastern webpage (https://www2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/easternms ), particularly in the parent handbook (https://sites.google.com/view/parent-handbook/home).

Hope that helps!

Generally, most magnet kids do take Ms Ray's Literature and Culture class in 6th. It does a great job of setting them up for the kind of analysis they'll be doing in the rest of the program and kind of gives them a grounding in that sort of thinking, plus it's really fun and not that intense.

And then most take a language elective the next two years, but there are stuff like technology, music, or art classes available if they'd prefer. But if there's any chance they might want to apply for International Baccalaureate programs in MS, they'll need those language credits to be eligible.

So each year, you've got:

1. Magnet English
2. Magnet World Studies (these first two are sometimes treated as a block period for the day, when they have projects that involve elements of both courses)
3. Magnet Media elective
4. Another elective, usually (but not always) the quasi-magnet Literature and Culture in 6th, then a language in 7th and 8th
5. Science (there are "honors" sections, so most magnet kids tend to be grouped together here, too, along with some kids from the rest of the student body, but I can't see that they're particularly advanced in any way. I think they just don't spend as much time on reading the material, maybe?)
6. Math
7. PE/Health

They also have a very short Advisory period each day, but it's only 15 minutes or so before lunch. They can knock off a bit of homework, check their grades or assignments online, or get permission to go to the library or meet with another teacher. Occasionally they have stuff like Common Sense Media lessons in Advisory, but it's mostly just a short chunk of relatively free time.

No additional periods or extended day for magnet kids, but as the PP said, some do choose to take Afterschool Band. Even though that's a for-credit class, it runs on the same schedule as the other after-school activities.

There's an activity bus for kids who participate in after-school sports, clubs, or band, but my kid found it awkward to use because the magnet activity routes change buses at Blair. We ended up picking them up on after-school band days because we had one parent who could adjust their timing and it wasn't too far out of the way.

There are sports teams, but I think sports are kind of an afterthought in general at a lot of MCPS middle schools. I know they do cross-country, basketball, and probably soccer? My kid isn't sporty at all, so I haven't paid much attention there, but the website might have some info left over from last year.

Extracurriculars vary each year by interest and availability of faculty sponsors, but I've seen STEM-type stuff, creative writing, math team, art clubs, LGBTQ+/allies, Book Wars, drama (they usually do two plays a year, and many kids get involved behind the scenes with set design or tech), and sometimes intramural/club sports. There's usually a pretty sizable number of options, which I think speaks well for faculty involvement.

[Anonymous]

I've had two kids go through both Sligo and Eastern. Eastern is hands down a more rigorous middle school experience, and our child that went to Eastern was definitely very humanities-oriented. I would not recommend Eastern unless your child enjoys writing or is willing to work on writing. There is a LOT of work. As a PP said, the media component is something that you can't really get anywhere else. We were there before the pandemic, so our child went through the full Eastern experience with idrip and the NYC trip, and they loved it.

Math at Eastern was really pretty good and a lot of the humanities magnet kids also took the advanced math levels, some even going to Blair to take Algebra II.

Sligo currently has the AIM (advanced investigations in math) and HIGH (Humanities in Global History(?)) classes, which try to incorporate some of the projects that are in Eastern's magnet program, but it's not the same as being with the Eastern cohort. Our other child did great at Sligo and is now in a HS magnet program. So even if you decide to stay in your home school, you're not necessarily ruining your chances of getting into an application-only program in HS.

[Anonymous]

It is a very diverse school, which has its benefits and drawbacks. When spring distance learning started, there were at least double the amount of messages about food as there was about distance learning. My daughters PE class in the blended population couldn’t speak English enough to organize games and play anything. Some of these things were no big deal. Some made me feel like her experience would have been better at our home school.

It was difficult to socialize out of school being so far apart.

The building should be condemned. Gosh it’s just depressing.

[Anonymous]

I found it to be a fabulous program and agree with prior posters about the rigor. You won’t learn writing and reading analysis the way eastern teaches it without going there.

My kids had great advanced math classes there, too. In fact, my kid came from eastern magnet and went into AP physics freshman year of HS and was well prepared in terms of math.

[Anonymous]

Program is amazing. New-ish principal Johnson is a gem- fantastic communicator and the teachers love him. Bldg is a dump but I would 100 recommend it. Such a great experience. My DD really learned to write there. Congratulations!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is a very diverse school, which has its benefits and drawbacks. When spring distance learning started, there were at least double the amount of messages about food as there was about distance learning. My daughters PE class in the blended population couldn’t speak English enough to organize games and play anything. Some of these things were no big deal. Some made me feel like her experience would have been better at our home school.

It was difficult to socialize out of school being so far apart.

The building should be condemned. Gosh it’s just depressing.

Agree that having friends spread across half the county makes it hard. It’s actually turned out to be a plus in the pandemic, oddly enough, because they had already established good methods of socializing remotely.

That’s going to be the case with any magnet program, though. But after going to both ES and MS magnets, my kid felt pretty confident they’d be likely to know someone in whatever HS they ended up at. “Where their friends were going” didn’t even factor into their decisions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've had two kids go through both Sligo and Eastern. Eastern is hands down a more rigorous middle school experience, and our child that went to Eastern was definitely very humanities-oriented. I would not recommend Eastern unless your child enjoys writing or is willing to work on writing. There is a LOT of work. As a PP said, the media component is something that you can't really get anywhere else. We were there before the pandemic, so our child went through the full Eastern experience with idrip and the NYC trip, and they loved it.

Math at Eastern was really pretty good and a lot of the humanities magnet kids also took the advanced math levels, some even going to Blair to take Algebra II.

Sligo currently has the AIM (advanced investigations in math) and HIGH (Humanities in Global History(?)) classes, which try to incorporate some of the projects that are in Eastern's magnet program, but it's not the same as being with the Eastern cohort. Our other child did great at Sligo and is now in a HS magnet program. So even if you decide to stay in your home school, you're not necessarily ruining your chances of getting into an application-only program in HS.

Thanks everyone, and particularly this poster. The direct comparison is helpful. I hadn't really realized that the magnet would take up the electives. My kid really isn't humanities oriented. He's a bright kid, and he'll work hard on whatever assigned, but it sounds like time on reading and writing would replace classes he's more interested in like art or computer science or Spanish, and that the increased homework might prevent him from continuing things he does by choice.

People mention diversity as having pros and cons, but I think the communities served by Sligo and Eastern are pretty similar. Have you found that to be true? Transportation is less of an issue for us than it is for more distant families.

[Anonymous]

OP, search this forum because there are lots of threads and posts on Eastern and the magnet program. A number of your questions will be answered there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've had two kids go through both Sligo and Eastern. Eastern is hands down a more rigorous middle school experience, and our child that went to Eastern was definitely very humanities-oriented. I would not recommend Eastern unless your child enjoys writing or is willing to work on writing. There is a LOT of work. As a PP said, the media component is something that you can't really get anywhere else. We were there before the pandemic, so our child went through the full Eastern experience with idrip and the NYC trip, and they loved it.

Math at Eastern was really pretty good and a lot of the humanities magnet kids also took the advanced math levels, some even going to Blair to take Algebra II.

Sligo currently has the AIM (advanced investigations in math) and HIGH (Humanities in Global History(?)) classes, which try to incorporate some of the projects that are in Eastern's magnet program, but it's not the same as being with the Eastern cohort. Our other child did great at Sligo and is now in a HS magnet program. So even if you decide to stay in your home school, you're not necessarily ruining your chances of getting into an application-only program in HS.

Thanks everyone, and particularly this poster. The direct comparison is helpful. I hadn't really realized that the magnet would take up the electives. My kid really isn't humanities oriented. He's a bright kid, and he'll work hard on whatever assigned, but it sounds like time on reading and writing would replace classes he's more interested in like art or computer science or Spanish, and that the increased homework might prevent him from continuing things he does by choice.

People mention diversity as having pros and cons, but I think the communities served by Sligo and Eastern are pretty similar. Have you found that to be true? Transportation is less of an issue for us than it is for more distant families.

If he’s not really into the humanities then the humanities magnet will not be a good fit for him. My kid got into both programs but chose Eastern over TPMS because of a definite preference. And at Eastern the math coordinator was great and let my 6th grader into Algebra.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had one kid at each of the EMS and TPMS magnets. Eastern magnet is the only school in the county (besides Clemente magnet) which teaches the kind of writing necessary to do well in college. My EMS kid finds HS and college writing easy now and impresses professors. AP Lang repeated much of Ms. Ray’s “reading” class.

Your kid has to like reading and writing to be happy at Eastern.

As for another PP’s comments up thread - yes, Eastern is a more diverse student population - both racially and socioeconomically - and that is something we valued.

What we did not like was the lack of attention to sexual harassment issues. Current Principal was VP when EMS had a serious sexual assault/harassment problem. But TBH, sexual assault and harassment is endemic across MCPS with almost no consequences. #MeTooMCPS

The other humanities magnet is at MLK now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here,

Can I ask just on a basic level, how many magnet classes does a kid take? Are they additions to the schedule, making a longer school day, or are they replacing other classes? If so which classes?

What electives are available?

Can someone post their kid's schedule?

What extracurriculars are there at Eastern? Are there sports teams?

There should be an open house presentation for admitted students that will answer this, but I'll answer some (as parent of a current Eastern 7th grader).

Students take 3 magnet classes each year: English, World Studies, and Media. Many/most also take a Literature elective in 6th grade that used to be a required magnet class but is now optional and open to non-magnet students (it's a great class). The magnet classes are coordinated and often have overlapping themes/projects.

Students take non-magnet PE, Science, and Math (at the math level that is recommended from their elementary school).

Students take 7 classes total, which is a typical load. There are the 5 core classes that all middle schoolers across MCPS take (math, science, social studies, english, PE) and two electives, but one of the electives is automatically filled by media each year. If kids take the lit class in 6th grade, there's not room for other electives. This year, my 7th grader is taking art and computer science (a semester each) as an elective, and will start a language in 8th grade.

My kid takes after-school band, which counts as a real class and meets three days a week after school (well, two days a week now on Zoom). So band kids are able to continue in band without eating up an elective slot. Because of this, though, I'm not as familiar with other extracurriculars, which typically meet at the same times.

There is a lot of information on the Eastern webpage (https://www2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/easternms ), particularly in the parent handbook (https://sites.google.com/view/parent-handbook/home).

Hope that helps!

Generally, most magnet kids do take Ms Ray's Literature and Culture class in 6th. It does a great job of setting them up for the kind of analysis they'll be doing in the rest of the program and kind of gives them a grounding in that sort of thinking, plus it's really fun and not that intense.

And then most take a language elective the next two years, but there are stuff like technology, music, or art classes available if they'd prefer. But if there's any chance they might want to apply for International Baccalaureate programs in MS, they'll need those language credits to be eligible.

So each year, you've got:

1. Magnet English
2. Magnet World Studies (these first two are sometimes treated as a block period for the day, when they have projects that involve elements of both courses)
3. Magnet Media elective
4. Another elective, usually (but not always) the quasi-magnet Literature and Culture in 6th, then a language in 7th and 8th
5. Science (there are "honors" sections, so most magnet kids tend to be grouped together here, too, along with some kids from the rest of the student body, but I can't see that they're particularly advanced in any way. I think they just don't spend as much time on reading the material, maybe?)
6. Math
7. PE/Health

They also have a very short Advisory period each day, but it's only 15 minutes or so before lunch. They can knock off a bit of homework, check their grades or assignments online, or get permission to go to the library or meet with another teacher. Occasionally they have stuff like Common Sense Media lessons in Advisory, but it's mostly just a short chunk of relatively free time.

No additional periods or extended day for magnet kids, but as the PP said, some do choose to take Afterschool Band. Even though that's a for-credit class, it runs on the same schedule as the other after-school activities.

There's an activity bus for kids who participate in after-school sports, clubs, or band, but my kid found it awkward to use because the magnet activity routes change buses at Blair. We ended up picking them up on after-school band days because we had one parent who could adjust their timing and it wasn't too far out of the way.

There are sports teams, but I think sports are kind of an afterthought in general at a lot of MCPS middle schools. I know they do cross-country, basketball, and probably soccer? My kid isn't sporty at all, so I haven't paid much attention there, but the website might have some info left over from last year.

Extracurriculars vary each year by interest and availability of faculty sponsors, but I've seen STEM-type stuff, creative writing, math team, art clubs, LGBTQ+/allies, Book Wars, drama (they usually do two plays a year, and many kids get involved behind the scenes with set design or tech), and sometimes intramural/club sports. There's usually a pretty sizable number of options, which I think speaks well for faculty involvement.

Media is a core magnet course.