I don't get it- very few CES kids get into magnet school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Give me a break. Get off your elitist high horse. Maybe their child actually NEEDS a magnet. Maybe their child is checked out at school otherwise or has an IQ of 160 and is otherwise depressed and unhappy. Maybe their family is dirt poor and they see the magnets as their way to a better life.

I do not prep my child but I see nothing wrong with prepping and I think if it helps their child they deserve to get in. You act like it's easy for these kids to go to these programs and study. They work hard. Their parents sacrifice other opportunities to send them to these classes. If they do well they deserve to get in.

I'm from NY where most of the kids who go to Bronx Science and Brooklyn Tech and Sty are poor and their parents managed to squeeze money out of their budget to take prep classes. FWIW, many of the poorest families are Asian.

Children that NEED a magnet should test into it just fine if it's a level playing field, correct?

Mucking up the waters with prepped kids would be counterintuitive to that, correct?

Who do you really want the program to be for? The kids that need it to get in, or the kids that are driven and prepped by their parents money to get in?

Totally agree, and feel a need to point out, anyone who preps for the magnet and fails to get in can keep on prepping. After all they prep because they enjoy it and their families are eager to support their interests. Someone loves to bring up the sports analogy, well, no one quits their travel soccer team because they fail to make the HS team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there still a large cut out at the Takoma Park magnet for kids from TP? Is TP considered a cluster that has the advantage of the no cohort designation for purposes of Eastern?

There is still a carve out for kids zoned for TPMS, which means most but not all of Takoma Park and a slice of Silver Spring.

Yes, and it doesn't change anything for the majority of kids. The 25 set aside kids are already zoned for the area. They don't change the building capacity because they would have attended the school anyway. It's not like taking away the set aside will increase the number of magnet seats (100) for non-zoned kids.

Yep. It frees up more seats for the rest of the county and those kids would be in the school no matter what. Because Piney Branch has a large local CES, it will also increase the number of "CES kids" who are admitted to TPMS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Give me a break. Get off your elitist high horse. Maybe their child actually NEEDS a magnet. Maybe their child is checked out at school otherwise or has an IQ of 160 and is otherwise depressed and unhappy. Maybe their family is dirt poor and they see the magnets as their way to a better life.

I do not prep my child but I see nothing wrong with prepping and I think if it helps their child they deserve to get in. You act like it's easy for these kids to go to these programs and study. They work hard. Their parents sacrifice other opportunities to send them to these classes. If they do well they deserve to get in.

I'm from NY where most of the kids who go to Bronx Science and Brooklyn Tech and Sty are poor and their parents managed to squeeze money out of their budget to take prep classes. FWIW, many of the poorest families are Asian.

Children that NEED a magnet should test into it just fine if it's a level playing field, correct?

Mucking up the waters with prepped kids would be counterintuitive to that, correct?

Who do you really want the program to be for? The kids that need it to get in, or the kids that are driven and prepped by their parents money to get in?

Totally agree, and feel a need to point out, anyone who preps for the magnet and fails to get in can keep on prepping. After all they prep because they enjoy it and their families are eager to support their interests. Someone loves to bring up the sports analogy, well, no one quits their travel soccer team because they fail to make the HS team.

+100

[Anonymous]

So who actually needs a magnet program in your opinion? Not the poor Asian child who has a high IQ, works really hard and is prepped because her parents want to make sure she has the best chance of getting in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So who actually needs a magnet program in your opinion? Not the poor Asian child who has a high IQ, works really hard and is prepped because her parents want to make sure she has the best chance of getting in?

Poor Asian children, if they are truly poor, aren't being prepped (do you know how much these prep programs cost?).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So who actually needs a magnet program in your opinion? Not the poor Asian child who has a high IQ, works really hard and is prepped because her parents want to make sure she has the best chance of getting in?

Poor Asian children, if they are truly poor, aren't being prepped (do you know how much these prep programs cost?).

Right. A "poor" Asian child (or poor White, Hispanic, or Black child) probably doesn't live in a highly segregated enclave in Potomac. That hypothetical child has a great chance of accessing the magnet because she by definition lives in an integrated part of the county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So who actually needs a magnet program in your opinion? Not the poor Asian child who has a high IQ, works really hard and is prepped because her parents want to make sure she has the best chance of getting in?

Poor Asian children, if they are truly poor, aren't being prepped (do you know how much these prep programs cost?).

Right. A "poor" Asian child (or poor White, Hispanic, or Black child) probably doesn't live in a highly segregated enclave in Potomac. That hypothetical child has a great chance of accessing the magnet because she by definition lives in an integrated part of the county.

And, if she does live in Potomac, she’s already benefiting from the strong cohort, which is why her parents pinched every penny to live there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So who actually needs a magnet program in your opinion? Not the poor Asian child who has a high IQ, works really hard and is prepped because her parents want to make sure she has the best chance of getting in?

Poor Asian children, if they are truly poor, aren't being prepped (do you know how much these prep programs cost?).

Right. A "poor" Asian child (or poor White, Hispanic, or Black child) probably doesn't live in a highly segregated enclave in Potomac. That hypothetical child has a great chance of accessing the magnet because she by definition lives in an integrated part of the county.

And, if she does live in Potomac, she’s already benefiting from the strong cohort, which is why her parents pinched every penny to live there.

exactly

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So who actually needs a magnet program in your opinion? Not the poor Asian child who has a high IQ, works really hard and is prepped because her parents want to make sure she has the best chance of getting in?

Poor Asian children, if they are truly poor, aren't being prepped (do you know how much these prep programs cost?).

Right. A "poor" Asian child (or poor White, Hispanic, or Black child) probably doesn't live in a highly segregated enclave in Potomac. That hypothetical child has a great chance of accessing the magnet because she by definition lives in an integrated part of the county.

And, if she does live in Potomac, she’s already benefiting from the strong cohort, which is why her parents pinched every penny to live there.

Not
A poor Asian kid in Potomac is a rich kid in Solver Spring? What is the cheapest house zoned for Churchill, $650K? That gets you in just about every neighborhood in silver spring except maybe woodside but even then maybe a home that needs work.

Also why when we talk about the east county they are great schools but then out the other side of their mouth it is we need enrichment programs to attract stronger kids so our smart kids don’t languish in classes with too many locals. Which is it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So who actually needs a magnet program in your opinion? Not the poor Asian child who has a high IQ, works really hard and is prepped because her parents want to make sure she has the best chance of getting in?

The child's nationality doesn't matter. Any child, of any nationality, who is bright enough to really need the magnet program is a child who doesn't need a prep program. A bright child from a poorer family needs it more than a child from a better off family. And a bright child with parents who don't highly value education is the one who needs it most of all.

The kids from families with money or who value education will do fine because their families can provide support and enrichment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So who actually needs a magnet program in your opinion? Not the poor Asian child who has a high IQ, works really hard and is prepped because her parents want to make sure she has the best chance of getting in?

Poor Asian children, if they are truly poor, aren't being prepped (do you know how much these prep programs cost?).

Right. A "poor" Asian child (or poor White, Hispanic, or Black child) probably doesn't live in a highly segregated enclave in Potomac. That hypothetical child has a great chance of accessing the magnet because she by definition lives in an integrated part of the county.

And, if she does live in Potomac, she’s already benefiting from the strong cohort, which is why her parents pinched every penny to live there.

Not
A poor Asian kid in Potomac is a rich kid in Solver Spring? What is the cheapest house zoned for Churchill, $650K? That gets you in just about every neighborhood in silver spring except maybe woodside but even then maybe a home that needs work.

Also why when we talk about the east county they are great schools but then out the other side of their mouth it is we need enrichment programs to attract stronger kids so our smart kids don’t languish in classes with too many locals. Which is it?

I'm an "east county" magnet parent and I would be PERFECTLY happy to see the western part of the county get its own stand-alone programs. I don't think the kids who are "attracted" from other parts of the county are necessarily stronger. Anecdotally, the strongest kids in my child's magnet cohort aren't the rich white/Asian kids who come in from Potomac. They are the working/middle class children of immigrants, most of whose families definitely can't afford even the cheapest house zoned for Churchill.

When we "east county" parents talk about enrichment, it is for the exact same reason that you presumably do. Particularly by middle school, it is clear that kids have strengths and weaknesses, and we are lucky to be in a district large enough to provide programming for kids whose strengths lie in STEM, or humanities, or theater, or engineering.

It is certainly not because we think we need to "attract" a certain group of kids. We need to meet the needs of the kids who are already zoned for the school - that's why we talk about enrichment, as well as scaffolding and support for the kids who need that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So who actually needs a magnet program in your opinion? Not the poor Asian child who has a high IQ, works really hard and is prepped because her parents want to make sure she has the best chance of getting in?

The child's nationality doesn't matter. Any child, of any nationality, who is bright enough to really need the magnet program is a child who doesn't need a prep program. A bright child from a poorer family needs it more than a child from a better off family. And a bright child with parents who don't highly value education is the one who needs it most of all.

The kids from families with money or who value education will do fine because their families can provide support and enrichment.

+1 I saw someone in one of the other threads claiming the prepped kids were the best bet because prepping "proves" that families value education and I just....I can't believe people are willing to claim with a straight face that the only children who should be eligible for advanced curricula are those kids who won the parental lottery. It blows my mind.

[Anonymous]

prepping = practice

It's like saying Tiger Woods isn't a great golfer because he practiced!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So who actually needs a magnet program in your opinion? Not the poor Asian child who has a high IQ, works really hard and is prepped because her parents want to make sure she has the best chance of getting in?

The child's nationality doesn't matter. Any child, of any nationality, who is bright enough to really need the magnet program is a child who doesn't need a prep program. A bright child from a poorer family needs it more than a child from a better off family. And a bright child with parents who don't highly value education is the one who needs it most of all.

The kids from families with money or who value education will do fine because their families can provide support and enrichment.

+1 I saw someone in one of the other threads claiming the prepped kids were the best bet because prepping "proves" that families value education and I just....I can't believe people are willing to claim with a straight face that the only children who should be eligible for advanced curricula are those kids who won the parental lottery. It blows my mind.

It blows my mind that advanced curricula should be only available for families that don't value education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So who actually needs a magnet program in your opinion? Not the poor Asian child who has a high IQ, works really hard and is prepped because her parents want to make sure she has the best chance of getting in?

None. It is a gigantic waste of staff, money, resources, administration, and is not environmentally friendly. If they enriched kids correctly, it would be a non issue. Instead they waste the money this way.