Second community meeting on Choice Study?

[Anonymous]

There is no way we can change each other's opinions on this issue. I suggest that we try and work together on those things that we all do agree on.

1) More innovative ways to inform all parents about these special programs.

2) Testing all eligible students.

3) Opening more centers to accommodate more eligible children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here. One child in magnet, one in local "W" feeder school. If the magnet were watered down, as it inevitably will have to be if decision-makers put demographics ahead of ability, then we would decide that the magnet is no longer worth the commute. Our child would return to our home school. I have no doubt that many if not most people from high-performing clusters will make similar decisions. Then you are left with more segregation than you had before. Remember that magnets were originally designed to voluntarily integrate schools. At TPMS, for example, magnet kids are integrated into the school for all classes except the three magnets. Take away a true magnet, and you take away the voluntary desegregation and are right back where MCPS started.

+1.
There are a couple of reasons why my child has benefitted from the magnet programs in MS and HS. The first is the curriculum and the second is the peer group. Although it is a tough commute from our "W" feeder neighborhood to Blair SMAC I know my kid is gaining a lot from being with the top math and science students from 16 high school clusters. If admission to these programs was not based purely on merit, I don't think these programs would be as attractive to our family. I do wish the SMAC program was more diverse but on the whole I believe that the program is stronger by virtue of having the kids who are most able and most motivated to succeed.
The whole situation is messed up. First MCPS puts both middle school magnets in Silver spring as a way of integrating these schools and now they are unhappy that so many of the kids in the programs are white and Asian. So first you make kids ride on buses for hours each day to get to these programs and then you tell them you wish they were a different color/race.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Why have Special Ed programs? Why have ESOL programs? Why have sports in school?

All of this costs money and if we remove ESOL and Sp Ed programs then we will have more money for general education.

Of course they do and money is always tight and people have to fight for special programs in every budget cycle. But ESOL and Special Ed have mandates and federal money behind them. Anyone who wants to maintain or expand magnets needs to have a better argument than money is spent other places why not here. Anyway, the costs and justifications are spelled out in the Choice Study.

I think having special programs is great. It really makes a school district attractive to parents that want more than just a standard education for their kids. It's one of the reasons we moved here. I like that we have different options, whether we use them or not. I hope they don't gut it. Our previous school district has very little in the way of magnet, gifted, special programs, yet it's a pretty wealthy area.

So far, nothing about the Choice Study has been about eliminating the programs. Still similar programs have been slashed across the country and the privates and the expensive summer camps are expanding into gifted education.

And this hurts low/middle income kids more than the wealthy kids, which would probably increase the achievement gap. Even more reason to expand programs in public schools.

In theory yes, but in reality the magnets are mostly populated by kids who already have outside enrichment and who's parents would only do more if the school programs were to disappear. If the Choice Study were worth anything it would have examined these issues instead of just re-hashing demographics. I've had kids in magnets and I believe in them, but there's no question that the kids in those programs are mostly from a different cross section of the county than the ones you're worried about. They were attending writing workshops and youth orchestras and themed summer camps to say nothing of tutoring. These are all good things, but the question remains at this point how possible is it for a bright student with nothing but a plain jane MCPS education to get an offer from SMAC or RM?

Through hard working and family prioritizing limited resources? I can only speak from my personal experience.

[Anonymous]

My plane jane got an offer to both SMAC and RM. She has never had a tutor or prepped...no writing workshops..or academic camps. Main xc is basketball..but just rec level. We don't even live in a W neighborhood.