Magnets, Regions, and the Future of MCPS Gifted Kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fyi I find it telling that when I asked what specific things DCC families have advocated for that take things away from other kids, there was no answer. There was name-calling and vague attacks.

Taking it away? You lose access to the magnet. No big deal. You have the classes at your home schools. DCC schools lose the DCC, access to advanced classes via lottery and magnets. You win, we lose. Your kids get opportunities, ours get the absolute minimum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fyi I find it telling that when I asked what specific things DCC families have advocated for that take things away from other kids, there was no answer. There was name-calling and vague attacks.

Taking it away? You lose access to the magnet. No big deal. You have the classes at your home schools. DCC schools lose the DCC, access to advanced classes via lottery and magnets. You win, we lose. Your kids get opportunities, ours get the absolute minimum.

You shouldn't need a lottery to get advanced classes. All schools should have advanced classes. That is the problem with consortia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fyi I find it telling that when I asked what specific things DCC families have advocated for that take things away from other kids, there was no answer. There was name-calling and vague attacks.

Taking it away? You lose access to the magnet. No big deal. You have the classes at your home schools. DCC schools lose the DCC, access to advanced classes via lottery and magnets. You win, we lose. Your kids get opportunities, ours get the absolute minimum.

You shouldn't need a lottery to get advanced classes. All schools should have advanced classes. That is the problem with consortia.

I feel we are just arguing in circles or it’s a chicken egg problem. High farm schools tend to have less needs for advanced classes, and truly advanced kids will get hurt for being the only few that need those MVC classes. That’s why magnet programs should be prioritized in high-FARM schools. But meanwhile, because MCPS doesn’t have additional budget for hiring new teachers, they have to rely on existing resources that rich schools have, which will only exacerbate the problems in poor schools when those high-achievers fly away. So the most rationale way should be expanding another one or two programs in poor schools with relatively better staffing and logistic support.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fyi I find it telling that when I asked what specific things DCC families have advocated for that take things away from other kids, there was no answer. There was name-calling and vague attacks.

Taking it away? You lose access to the magnet. No big deal. You have the classes at your home schools. DCC schools lose the DCC, access to advanced classes via lottery and magnets. You win, we lose. Your kids get opportunities, ours get the absolute minimum.

You shouldn't need a lottery to get advanced classes. All schools should have advanced classes. That is the problem with consortia.

I feel we are just arguing in circles or it’s a chicken egg problem. High farm schools tend to have less needs for advanced classes, and truly advanced kids will get hurt for being the only few that need those MVC classes. That’s why magnet programs should be prioritized in high-FARM schools. But meanwhile, because MCPS doesn’t have additional budget for hiring new teachers, they have to rely on existing resources that rich schools have, which will only exacerbate the problems in poor schools when those high-achievers fly away. So the most rationale way should be expanding another one or two programs in poor schools with relatively better staffing and logistic support.

+1

Their rationale is high income schools have more resources so they should get advanced academic programs. That is like saying White people have more wealth so they should get better loans. It makes some sense if we are talking about private markets. Not so much for public education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is so hilariously myopic. There are more schools in MCPS than just Whitman and DCC.

I could easily whine, "why does your DCC kid get to have school choice when mine has to stay at our high FARMS school if they don't get into RMIB/Blair?"

But I don't. Because I'm not a selfish toddler.

People are posting about how the regional program model will affect their own kids. I don't pretend to speak for other families, that's why I don't post about how families in other parts of the county will be impacted.

I'm not going to shut up because you hate the DCC and call us names in an effort to shut down advocacy.

But that's not what you're doing. Your "advocacy" comes at the expense of opportunities for other kids while deriding "equity." You are asking for exactly what you are mocking.

+100 People are advocating for equity they are complaining about Whitman and the DCC as though those are the only schools and kids that MCPS Central Office must consider.

How does this advocacy hurt other kids and who does it hurt?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fyi I find it telling that when I asked what specific things DCC families have advocated for that take things away from other kids, there was no answer. There was name-calling and vague attacks.

Taking it away? You lose access to the magnet. No big deal. You have the classes at your home schools. DCC schools lose the DCC, access to advanced classes via lottery and magnets. You win, we lose. Your kids get opportunities, ours get the absolute minimum.

You shouldn't need a lottery to get advanced classes. All schools should have advanced classes. That is the problem with consortia.

Ok, but that's not going to happen so the best option was the consortia. So, now DCC students except at Blair and Wheaton, don't get any advanced classes and those may get scaled back with the reduction of teachers.

So, how do you propose all schools get the same strong course offerings?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They need a program if only to say that they aren’t excluding kids from other schools. If they don’t have one it looks exclusionary.

This statement implies an equality mindset, not an equity mindset. If they were taking an equity approach, their goal would not be to create a system that looks uniform, because they would be acknowledging that different school communities need different things. Having low income kids travel the Bethesda for criteria based programs is not equity, it's inequity.

While I agree with you, you absolutely know that would be a complaint leveled against MCPS if they didn’t put a program at all schools.

It is incorrect and offensive to imply that Whitman would not have any programs given the wealth of coursework they office, including a local engineering program and many more AP courses than most other schools.

Why is that potential complaint being considered more important than the complaint about the inequity of forcing low income students to travel to access programs that rich students have access to at their home schools?

Let me try again, since my point is apparently being lost: if whitman did not have a program that enabled students at other schools in the region to go to Whitman, there would be a complaint that Whitman is being exclusionary (bc it is a rich white school that doesn’t want unwashed outsiders, or something). So MCPS needs to avoid that likely complaint and put something there. I agree that they could put an unwanted, underdeveloped program there such that no one would ACTUALLY go there (and the academic program could go to a higher-FARMS school).

It’s just optics.

Whitman already has a countywide program (LASJ) that they will keep except will become regional. They already have lots of language classes that kids who desperately want uncommon languages can go there to take and it can be called the languages program. Why should they need anything else?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fyi I find it telling that when I asked what specific things DCC families have advocated for that take things away from other kids, there was no answer. There was name-calling and vague attacks.

Taking it away? You lose access to the magnet. No big deal. You have the classes at your home schools. DCC schools lose the DCC, access to advanced classes via lottery and magnets. You win, we lose. Your kids get opportunities, ours get the absolute minimum.

You shouldn't need a lottery to get advanced classes. All schools should have advanced classes. That is the problem with consortia.

I feel we are just arguing in circles or it’s a chicken egg problem. High farm schools tend to have less needs for advanced classes, and truly advanced kids will get hurt for being the only few that need those MVC classes. That’s why magnet programs should be prioritized in high-FARM schools. But meanwhile, because MCPS doesn’t have additional budget for hiring new teachers, they have to rely on existing resources that rich schools have, which will only exacerbate the problems in poor schools when those high-achievers fly away. So the most rationale way should be expanding another one or two programs in poor schools with relatively better staffing and logistic support.

High farms schools have a mix of kids as the communities are very diverse in the schools they serve. So they need classes for struggling kids up to students who need MVC and Linear Algebra as well as AP science and other stem. How hard is that for you to understand? Now the kids who could take advantage of Wheaton and Blair, get nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is so hilariously myopic. There are more schools in MCPS than just Whitman and DCC.

I could easily whine, "why does your DCC kid get to have school choice when mine has to stay at our high FARMS school if they don't get into RMIB/Blair?"

But I don't. Because I'm not a selfish toddler.

People are posting about how the regional program model will affect their own kids. I don't pretend to speak for other families, that's why I don't post about how families in other parts of the county will be impacted.

I'm not going to shut up because you hate the DCC and call us names in an effort to shut down advocacy.

But that's not what you're doing. Your "advocacy" comes at the expense of opportunities for other kids while deriding "equity." You are asking for exactly what you are mocking.

+100 People are advocating for equity they are complaining about Whitman and the DCC as though those are the only schools and kids that MCPS Central Office must consider.

How does this advocacy hurt other kids and who does it hurt?

They have already been asked this question multiple times and cannot answer because they are completely full of it and just want to shut us up

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fyi I find it telling that when I asked what specific things DCC families have advocated for that take things away from other kids, there was no answer. There was name-calling and vague attacks.

Taking it away? You lose access to the magnet. No big deal. You have the classes at your home schools. DCC schools lose the DCC, access to advanced classes via lottery and magnets. You win, we lose. Your kids get opportunities, ours get the absolute minimum.

You shouldn't need a lottery to get advanced classes. All schools should have advanced classes. That is the problem with consortia.

Ok, but that's not going to happen so the best option was the consortia. So, now DCC students except at Blair and Wheaton, don't get any advanced classes and those may get scaled back with the reduction of teachers.

So, how do you propose all schools get the same strong course offerings?

Require that all schools offer the same core set of advanced classes and that they run at least one section of each even if only a couple of kids want the classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is so hilariously myopic. There are more schools in MCPS than just Whitman and DCC.

I could easily whine, "why does your DCC kid get to have school choice when mine has to stay at our high FARMS school if they don't get into RMIB/Blair?"

But I don't. Because I'm not a selfish toddler.

People are posting about how the regional program model will affect their own kids. I don't pretend to speak for other families, that's why I don't post about how families in other parts of the county will be impacted.

I'm not going to shut up because you hate the DCC and call us names in an effort to shut down advocacy.

But that's not what you're doing. Your "advocacy" comes at the expense of opportunities for other kids while deriding "equity." You are asking for exactly what you are mocking.

+100 People are advocating for equity they are complaining about Whitman and the DCC as though those are the only schools and kids that MCPS Central Office must consider.

How does this advocacy hurt other kids and who does it hurt?

They have already been asked this question multiple times and cannot answer because they are completely full of it and just want to shut us up

How does keeping the DCC help poor students in other parts of the county? Forget Whitman for a second.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They need a program if only to say that they aren’t excluding kids from other schools. If they don’t have one it looks exclusionary.

This statement implies an equality mindset, not an equity mindset. If they were taking an equity approach, their goal would not be to create a system that looks uniform, because they would be acknowledging that different school communities need different things. Having low income kids travel the Bethesda for criteria based programs is not equity, it's inequity.

While I agree with you, you absolutely know that would be a complaint leveled against MCPS if they didn’t put a program at all schools.

It is incorrect and offensive to imply that Whitman would not have any programs given the wealth of coursework they office, including a local engineering program and many more AP courses than most other schools.

Why is that potential complaint being considered more important than the complaint about the inequity of forcing low income students to travel to access programs that rich students have access to at their home schools?

Let me try again, since my point is apparently being lost: if whitman did not have a program that enabled students at other schools in the region to go to Whitman, there would be a complaint that Whitman is being exclusionary (bc it is a rich white school that doesn’t want unwashed outsiders, or something). So MCPS needs to avoid that likely complaint and put something there. I agree that they could put an unwanted, underdeveloped program there such that no one would ACTUALLY go there (and the academic program could go to a higher-FARMS school).

It’s just optics.

Whitman already has a countywide program (LASJ) that they will keep except will become regional. They already have lots of language classes that kids who desperately want uncommon languages can go there to take and it can be called the languages program. Why should they need anything else?

+1 can someone tell me which genius at CO thinks it looks BETTER for them to put an academic magnet program in the wealthiest MCPS school? It is disgraceful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fyi I find it telling that when I asked what specific things DCC families have advocated for that take things away from other kids, there was no answer. There was name-calling and vague attacks.

Taking it away? You lose access to the magnet. No big deal. You have the classes at your home schools. DCC schools lose the DCC, access to advanced classes via lottery and magnets. You win, we lose. Your kids get opportunities, ours get the absolute minimum.

You shouldn't need a lottery to get advanced classes. All schools should have advanced classes. That is the problem with consortia.

I feel we are just arguing in circles or it’s a chicken egg problem. High farm schools tend to have less needs for advanced classes, and truly advanced kids will get hurt for being the only few that need those MVC classes. That’s why magnet programs should be prioritized in high-FARM schools. But meanwhile, because MCPS doesn’t have additional budget for hiring new teachers, they have to rely on existing resources that rich schools have, which will only exacerbate the problems in poor schools when those high-achievers fly away. So the most rationale way should be expanding another one or two programs in poor schools with relatively better staffing and logistic support.

High farms schools have a mix of kids as the communities are very diverse in the schools they serve. So they need classes for struggling kids up to students who need MVC and Linear Algebra as well as AP science and other stem. How hard is that for you to understand? Now the kids who could take advantage of Wheaton and Blair, get nothing.

Yes, so as suggested before, MCPS should conduct a thorough analysis to understand the population of each group in every HS, so to best understand how to assign an additional program location that can gather enough students for advanced classes, right? I just saw only one parent from Einstein complaining about not having MVC, while Blair SMCS has 80 students each year taking MVC. In that case, the Einstein student should be giving a COSA to Wheaton or Blair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is so hilariously myopic. There are more schools in MCPS than just Whitman and DCC.

I could easily whine, "why does your DCC kid get to have school choice when mine has to stay at our high FARMS school if they don't get into RMIB/Blair?"

But I don't. Because I'm not a selfish toddler.

People are posting about how the regional program model will affect their own kids. I don't pretend to speak for other families, that's why I don't post about how families in other parts of the county will be impacted.

I'm not going to shut up because you hate the DCC and call us names in an effort to shut down advocacy.

But that's not what you're doing. Your "advocacy" comes at the expense of opportunities for other kids while deriding "equity." You are asking for exactly what you are mocking.

+100 People are advocating for equity they are complaining about Whitman and the DCC as though those are the only schools and kids that MCPS Central Office must consider.

How does this advocacy hurt other kids and who does it hurt?

They have already been asked this question multiple times and cannot answer because they are completely full of it and just want to shut us up

Because other non-DCC kids who are currently limited to their home-schools will now have the opportunity to go to a different school within their region in the proposed model. You are tying to take that opportunity away just because you don’t like the commute for your own kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fyi I find it telling that when I asked what specific things DCC families have advocated for that take things away from other kids, there was no answer. There was name-calling and vague attacks.

Taking it away? You lose access to the magnet. No big deal. You have the classes at your home schools. DCC schools lose the DCC, access to advanced classes via lottery and magnets. You win, we lose. Your kids get opportunities, ours get the absolute minimum.

You shouldn't need a lottery to get advanced classes. All schools should have advanced classes. That is the problem with consortia.

I feel we are just arguing in circles or it’s a chicken egg problem. High farm schools tend to have less needs for advanced classes, and truly advanced kids will get hurt for being the only few that need those MVC classes. That’s why magnet programs should be prioritized in high-FARM schools. But meanwhile, because MCPS doesn’t have additional budget for hiring new teachers, they have to rely on existing resources that rich schools have, which will only exacerbate the problems in poor schools when those high-achievers fly away. So the most rationale way should be expanding another one or two programs in poor schools with relatively better staffing and logistic support.

High farms schools have a mix of kids as the communities are very diverse in the schools they serve. So they need classes for struggling kids up to students who need MVC and Linear Algebra as well as AP science and other stem. How hard is that for you to understand? Now the kids who could take advantage of Wheaton and Blair, get nothing.

Kids at my W school who want linear algebra have to go to MC, which is fair given how advanced a class that is. I think MVC is a debatable component of a core math curriculum. All high schools should have BC, Stats, Bio, Chem, Phys 1 and C, and ES.