Any updates on the DOE Investigation on discrimination case for magnet middle schools MCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So being smart in a school with mediocre kids could get you access to a magnet program and the enriched material associated with it. But being exceptional in a school with other exceptional kids means you stay behind in your home cohort and do not get access to enriched material, because you can self enrich? Nice.

I do not know why people are against kids studying / preparing for tests. It is not like the kids who prepare come in to the test knowing that the answer for question 1 is C, for question 2 is D etc....

Yep. Pretty much. Nice indeed

By definition, one is not exceptional if there are others like him. To be an outlier, one needs to separate himself from the pack.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So being smart in a school with mediocre kids could get you access to a magnet program and the enriched material associated with it. But being exceptional in a school with other exceptional kids means you stay behind in your home cohort and do not get access to enriched material, because you can self enrich? Nice.

I do not know why people are against kids studying / preparing for tests. It is not like the kids who prepare come in to the test knowing that the answer for question 1 is C, for question 2 is D etc....

Yep. Pretty much. Nice indeed

By definition, one is not exceptional if there are others like him. To be an outlier, one needs to separate himself from the pack.

According to this logic there in s nothing special about a National Merit semi finalist at Blair because there are over 40 of them (out of a 100 students).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So being smart in a school with mediocre kids could get you access to a magnet program and the enriched material associated with it. But being exceptional in a school with other exceptional kids means you stay behind in your home cohort and do not get access to enriched material, because you can self enrich? Nice.

I do not know why people are against kids studying / preparing for tests. It is not like the kids who prepare come in to the test knowing that the answer for question 1 is C, for question 2 is D etc....

Yep. Pretty much. Nice indeed

By definition, one is not exceptional if there are others like him. To be an outlier, one needs to separate himself from the pack.

According to this logic there in s nothing special about a National Merit semi finalist at Blair because there are over 40 of them (out of a 100 students).

Yes, they are much less exceptional than the NM semi finalists in Cumberland, MD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So being smart in a school with mediocre kids could get you access to a magnet program and the enriched material associated with it. But being exceptional in a school with other exceptional kids means you stay behind in your home cohort and do not get access to enriched material, because you can self enrich? Nice.

I do not know why people are against kids studying / preparing for tests. It is not like the kids who prepare come in to the test knowing that the answer for question 1 is C, for question 2 is D etc....

Yep. Pretty much. Nice indeed

By definition, one is not exceptional if there are others like him. To be an outlier, one needs to separate himself from the pack.

According to this logic there in s nothing special about a National Merit semi finalist at Blair because there are over 40 of them (out of a 100 students).

Yes, they are much less exceptional than the NM semi finalists in Cumberland, MD.

And that is the false equivalence in this case. I agree that an NM semi finalist in Cumberland, MD would be more exceptional if he/she gets the same score as the Blair student . However if the student in Cumberland gets the NMS for scoring 20% LESS than the Blair kid, then he/she is not exceptional.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
This.
Also it looks like MCPS lowered the bar on the test scores they now consider to be qualifying for the MS magnets in order to imply that a kid at the 86th percentile from a low performing cluster is as deserving of a spot as a 99th percentile kid from a high performing cluster

Maybe it would help if you stopped thinking of admission to the middle-school magnet program as a prize that you deserve or don't deserve, depending on your test scores.

Not a prize but an experience that many highly gifted children need

I have seen the middle school magnet summer math package. There is no way that the content here is targeting the kid who scores at the 75th percentile in a class of 50th percentile kids. It is very advanced and IMO is appropriate for the 99th percentile kids. So I wish we stop this BS of "Magnet is not a prize for the exceptional, but an opportunity for the outliers". The odds are high that the 75th percentile kid will struggle with the content for the next 3 years.

I teach in a middle school magnet. We see students struggle no matter their test scores. Some do struggle until they gain the requisite skills. Others struggle because they have never been challenged before and don’t like the feeling of getting a B or not being the first to finish a test.

Please get back to us next year and let us know what you see with this new MS class.

My SIL is a regional CES teacher and has definitely noticed that the 4th graders in her CES class have struggled more than in past years classes. She strongly feels that they have let in less qualified kids. At least with the CES.

Our CES teacher said the exact opposite. Kids are now much stronger than ever at ours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
This.
Also it looks like MCPS lowered the bar on the test scores they now consider to be qualifying for the MS magnets in order to imply that a kid at the 86th percentile from a low performing cluster is as deserving of a spot as a 99th percentile kid from a high performing cluster

Maybe it would help if you stopped thinking of admission to the middle-school magnet program as a prize that you deserve or don't deserve, depending on your test scores.

Not a prize but an experience that many highly gifted children need

I have seen the middle school magnet summer math package. There is no way that the content here is targeting the kid who scores at the 75th percentile in a class of 50th percentile kids. It is very advanced and IMO is appropriate for the 99th percentile kids. So I wish we stop this BS of "Magnet is not a prize for the exceptional, but an opportunity for the outliers". The odds are high that the 75th percentile kid will struggle with the content for the next 3 years.

I teach in a middle school magnet. We see students struggle no matter their test scores. Some do struggle until they gain the requisite skills. Others struggle because they have never been challenged before and don’t like the feeling of getting a B or not being the first to finish a test.

Please get back to us next year and let us know what you see with this new MS class.

My SIL is a regional CES teacher and has definitely noticed that the 4th graders in her CES class have struggled more than in past years classes. She strongly feels that they have let in less qualified kids. At least with the CES.

Our CES teacher said the exact opposite. Kids are now much stronger than ever at ours.

Yes the caliber of student is much higher since they stopped relying on parent recommendations and instituted universal screening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bottom line a few tigers are angry that its harder to get into the magnets now that the application pool is so much larger than in the "good old days", but it also means the real cream of the crop is now in the magnets as opposed to when it was just kids with pushy parents.

Yes. That's all

+100 imagine going through life obsessing where your kid goes to middle school. Bunch of shallow pathetic freaks

I think you're on to something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
This.
Also it looks like MCPS lowered the bar on the test scores they now consider to be qualifying for the MS magnets in order to imply that a kid at the 86th percentile from a low performing cluster is as deserving of a spot as a 99th percentile kid from a high performing cluster

Maybe it would help if you stopped thinking of admission to the middle-school magnet program as a prize that you deserve or don't deserve, depending on your test scores.

Not a prize but an experience that many highly gifted children need

I have seen the middle school magnet summer math package. There is no way that the content here is targeting the kid who scores at the 75th percentile in a class of 50th percentile kids. It is very advanced and IMO is appropriate for the 99th percentile kids. So I wish we stop this BS of "Magnet is not a prize for the exceptional, but an opportunity for the outliers". The odds are high that the 75th percentile kid will struggle with the content for the next 3 years.

I teach in a middle school magnet. We see students struggle no matter their test scores. Some do struggle until they gain the requisite skills. Others struggle because they have never been challenged before and don’t like the feeling of getting a B or not being the first to finish a test.

Please get back to us next year and let us know what you see with this new MS class.

My SIL is a regional CES teacher and has definitely noticed that the 4th graders in her CES class have struggled more than in past years classes. She strongly feels that they have let in less qualified kids. At least with the CES.

Our CES teacher said the exact opposite. Kids are now much stronger than ever at ours.

And I'm a billionaire LOL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So being smart in a school with mediocre kids could get you access to a magnet program and the enriched material associated with it. But being exceptional in a school with other exceptional kids means you stay behind in your home cohort and do not get access to enriched material, because you can self enrich? Nice.

I do not know why people are against kids studying / preparing for tests. It is not like the kids who prepare come in to the test knowing that the answer for question 1 is C, for question 2 is D etc....

Yep. Pretty much. Nice indeed

By definition, one is not exceptional if there are others like him. To be an outlier, one needs to separate himself from the pack.

According to this logic there in s nothing special about a National Merit semi finalist at Blair because there are over 40 of them (out of a 100 students).

Yes, they are much less exceptional than the NM semi finalists in Cumberland, MD.

And that is the false equivalence in this case. I agree that an NM semi finalist in Cumberland, MD would be more exceptional if he/she gets the same score as the Blair student . However if the student in Cumberland gets the NMS for scoring 20% LESS than the Blair kid, then he/she is not exceptional.

But even with the National Merit kids, they’re not all being compared to each other. The National Merit competition doesn’t compare kids from Mississippi to kids from Massachusetts. The kids from Mississippi can be semi finalists with lower scores than the kids from Massachusetts. MCPS is doing the same thing. The kids who attended elementary schools where 99th percentile scores were common didn’t get admitted to the magnet program with 86th percentile scores. The theoretical 86th percentile students who were admitted to middle school magnets were never being compared to the 99th percentile students who weren’t admitted. Instead of taking mostly students who have benefited from many academic advantages, they’re taking students who are outliers among their own peers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So being smart in a school with mediocre kids could get you access to a magnet program and the enriched material associated with it. But being exceptional in a school with other exceptional kids means you stay behind in your home cohort and do not get access to enriched material, because you can self enrich? Nice.

I do not know why people are against kids studying / preparing for tests. It is not like the kids who prepare come in to the test knowing that the answer for question 1 is C, for question 2 is D etc....

Yep. Pretty much. Nice indeed

By definition, one is not exceptional if there are others like him. To be an outlier, one needs to separate himself from the pack.

According to this logic there in s nothing special about a National Merit semi finalist at Blair because there are over 40 of them (out of a 100 students).

Yes, they are much less exceptional than the NM semi finalists in Cumberland, MD.

And that is the false equivalence in this case. I agree that an NM semi finalist in Cumberland, MD would be more exceptional if he/she gets the same score as the Blair student . However if the student in Cumberland gets the NMS for scoring 20% LESS than the Blair kid, then he/she is not exceptional.

But even with the National Merit kids, they’re not all being compared to each other. The National Merit competition doesn’t compare kids from Mississippi to kids from Massachusetts. The kids from Mississippi can be semi finalists with lower scores than the kids from Massachusetts. MCPS is doing the same thing. The kids who attended elementary schools where 99th percentile scores were common didn’t get admitted to the magnet program with 86th percentile scores. The theoretical 86th percentile students who were admitted to middle school magnets were never being compared to the 99th percentile students who weren’t admitted. Instead of taking mostly students who have benefited from many academic advantages, they’re taking students who are outliers among their own peers.

You do realize that MCPS has a standard curriculum, per student funding and teacher training for ALL its schools? This is very different from the Mississippi to Maryland comparison. A bright kid in any ES in MCPS should be able to perform very well on the admissions test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So being smart in a school with mediocre kids could get you access to a magnet program and the enriched material associated with it. But being exceptional in a school with other exceptional kids means you stay behind in your home cohort and do not get access to enriched material, because you can self enrich? Nice.

I do not know why people are against kids studying / preparing for tests. It is not like the kids who prepare come in to the test knowing that the answer for question 1 is C, for question 2 is D etc....

Yep. Pretty much. Nice indeed

By definition, one is not exceptional if there are others like him. To be an outlier, one needs to separate himself from the pack.

According to this logic there in s nothing special about a National Merit semi finalist at Blair because there are over 40 of them (out of a 100 students).

Yes, they are much less exceptional than the NM semi finalists in Cumberland, MD.

And that is the false equivalence in this case. I agree that an NM semi finalist in Cumberland, MD would be more exceptional if he/she gets the same score as the Blair student . However if the student in Cumberland gets the NMS for scoring 20% LESS than the Blair kid, then he/she is not exceptional.

But even with the National Merit kids, they’re not all being compared to each other. The National Merit competition doesn’t compare kids from Mississippi to kids from Massachusetts. The kids from Mississippi can be semi finalists with lower scores than the kids from Massachusetts. MCPS is doing the same thing. The kids who attended elementary schools where 99th percentile scores were common didn’t get admitted to the magnet program with 86th percentile scores. The theoretical 86th percentile students who were admitted to middle school magnets were never being compared to the 99th percentile students who weren’t admitted. Instead of taking mostly students who have benefited from many academic advantages, they’re taking students who are outliers among their own peers.

You do realize that MCPS has a standard curriculum, per student funding and teacher training for ALL its schools? This is very different from the Mississippi to Maryland comparison. A bright kid in any ES in MCPS should be able to perform very well on the admissions test.

Schools only send home backpacks filled with food with certain students on Fridays. Why don’t they send these backpacks home with every student? Why do some students get to borrow musical instruments from their schools for free for instrumental music instruction? Why do some students get to have the PTA pay for their field trip expenses? Why are some students invited to stay after school for special homework clubs, which include snacks and a bus ride home after hours? Because you can provide the same curriculum, student funding and teacher training at all schools and still not have every student have the same access to opportunity. MCPS has decided that it’s not fair to compare students who don’t have the same level of access to each other. They can’t ask for each student’s household income and life story, but they can choose to make attempts to level the playing field using broader data points.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We received a letter stating the MLK and Clemente will also be a part of this investigation now and be consolidated under the same case for Takoma and Eastern. We had filed a complaint and hence received this letter. Does anyone have any updates news information on this matter. Also on second thoughts my child is still in MCPS and I am now scared that they may use this against us in future. Any advice or experiences for this - please let us know. Thank you

I understand your fear. I am Asian and I know many parents in my community are scared to speak out. We have come from countries where free speech is still very much suppressed and regimes can retaliate if we speak up.

In your case, the fact that you have spoken up will actually protect you because you can sue for discrimination and retaliatory tactics. This means that if they mess up your kids recommendations you can sue the teachers or counselors who wrote the recommendation.

I think that you do not have to worry about the teachers or the counselors. They are none too happy with the administration either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually hope the CO keeps track of the people filing this frivolous nonsense and reduce their eligibility for consideration going forward.

because we should punish the child for the acts of the parent.

Why not? In the past the kids got in because their parents taught them the answers to the test, so we were rewarding them for the acts of the parents.

Wow! If the parents can teach the answers to any test without knowing what the questions are then they must be psychics. They should instead divine the winning numbers of a lottery, get rich and rule the world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually hope the CO keeps track of the people filing this frivolous nonsense and reduce their eligibility for consideration going forward.

because we should punish the child for the acts of the parent.

Why not? In the past the kids got in because their parents taught them the answers to the test, so we were rewarding them for the acts of the parents.

Wow! If the parents can teach the answers to any test without knowing what the questions are then they must be psychics. They should instead divine the winning numbers of a lottery, get rich and rule the world.

Actually, the types of questions on the tests were very well-known to the test prepping companies. Students were expected to share the questions they were asked. If your child wasn’t prepped, you would think they all went in totally blind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is there one or more posters who support MCPS's very murky selection criteria?

Do they somehow believe that their children will benefit from it?

And, not to put too fine a point on it, are they prejudiced against Asians?

Keep it up and I'm going to believe that everyone who pipes up against the investigation is racist.

I do not think that these posters are parents. They are probably BOE and Administrators. I think most parents do not care for their kids to be in magnet. Those who care, apply. Most do not apply.