Why w school students not preferred in Blair magnet

[Anonymous]

Didn't they just change the standards for the HGC's this year? How would that affect Blair?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Didn't they just change the standards for the HGC's this year? How would that affect Blair?

Good question. IMHO, the standards will decline further. This is after all an urban school system and the standards must match the majority population.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Didn't they just change the standards for the HGC's this year? How would that affect Blair?

They won't. They are separate programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC will be in 9th grade in a W high school. Did not make it to Blair SMAC magnet. Talking to others I get a feeling that very few (2 or 3) students from MS made it to Blair though MS is one of the very good schools, with so many bright kids. Why is it that the screening committee would prefer to select a student from non w school area over the one from w school with former having equal or lesser scores? Why is this assumption made that a student from silver spring would benefit more from Blair magnet than the one who would go to Churchill or Walter Johnson or Wooten.

By "bright" you mean "white," and by "white" you mean "superior," OP. The assumption that the county's more affluent neighborhoods produce fundamentally smarter and more capable students is a reflection of classism and barely-concealed racism in those neighborhoods. (And no, the presence of some people of color in those schools and neighborhoods does not counter this reality.) I grew up in Bethesda and attending a W school, where the seemingly benign "nothing but the best for my kid" mentality reflects an assumption that the offspring of the Bethesda/Potomac bourgeois have a birthright to better resources, better access to better programs, etc. than other taxpayers in the county.

Nicely summarized.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Didn't they just change the standards for the HGC's this year? How would that affect Blair?

Why would it affect Blair? Like, what's the causal mechanism you see here?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn't they just change the standards for the HGC's this year? How would that affect Blair?

Why would it affect Blair? Like, what's the causal mechanism you see here?

No dog in this fight but the new approach will "eventually" affect MCPS magnets. They will start toying with magnet admission process to bring in more minority kids in. BOE is not interested in spending millions every year to support program that's majority UMC white/Asian families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn't they just change the standards for the HGC's this year? How would that affect Blair?

Good question. IMHO, the standards will decline further. This is after all an urban school system and the standards must match the majority population.

The average math SAT for the Blair magnet was 750 last year. It used to be higher? What evidence is there of a decline?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn't they just change the standards for the HGC's this year? How would that affect Blair?

Why would it affect Blair? Like, what's the causal mechanism you see here?

No dog in this fight but the new approach will "eventually" affect MCPS magnets. They will start toying with magnet admission process to bring in more minority kids in. BOE is not interested in spending millions every year to support program that's majority UMC white/Asian families.

I feel very sad for the victimized affluent white and Asian-American families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn't they just change the standards for the HGC's this year? How would that affect Blair?

Why would it affect Blair? Like, what's the causal mechanism you see here?

No dog in this fight but the new approach will "eventually" affect MCPS magnets. They will start toying with magnet admission process to bring in more minority kids in. BOE is not interested in spending millions every year to support program that's majority UMC white/Asian families.

I feel very sad for the victimized affluent white and Asian-American families.

Yes, me too... but I am sure their kids will turn out fine in life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn't they just change the standards for the HGC's this year? How would that affect Blair?

Good question. IMHO, the standards will decline further. This is after all an urban school system and the standards must match the majority population.

The average math SAT for the Blair magnet was 750 last year. It used to be higher? What evidence is there of a decline?

For example,
http://beta.mbhs.edu/departments/magnet/ParentResources/Magnet%202011%20Profile.pdf
and now
https://mbhs.edu/departments/magnet/ParentResources/MagnetProfile.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn't they just change the standards for the HGC's this year? How would that affect Blair?

Good question. IMHO, the standards will decline further. This is after all an urban school system and the standards must match the majority population.

The average math SAT for the Blair magnet was 750 last year. It used to be higher? What evidence is there of a decline?

For example,
http://beta.mbhs.edu/departments/magnet/ParentResources/Magnet%202011%20Profile.pdf
and now
https://mbhs.edu/departments/magnet/ParentResources/MagnetProfile.pdf

In case folks don't click through, the links show gains in the vast majority of metrics (SAT scores, AP exams, etc). I didn't look at every metric, but the trend is toward higher scores and more kids testing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn't they just change the standards for the HGC's this year? How would that affect Blair?

Good question. IMHO, the standards will decline further. This is after all an urban school system and the standards must match the majority population.

The average math SAT for the Blair magnet was 750 last year. It used to be higher? What evidence is there of a decline?

For example,
http://beta.mbhs.edu/departments/magnet/ParentResources/Magnet%202011%20Profile.pdf
and now
https://mbhs.edu/departments/magnet/ParentResources/MagnetProfile.pdf

OK 2011 Math SAT 771 2017 Math SAT 779. Moe National Merit Scholars in 2017 too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn't they just change the standards for the HGC's this year? How would that affect Blair?

Good question. IMHO, the standards will decline further. This is after all an urban school system and the standards must match the majority population.

The average math SAT for the Blair magnet was 750 last year. It used to be higher? What evidence is there of a decline?

For example,
http://beta.mbhs.edu/departments/magnet/ParentResources/Magnet%202011%20Profile.pdf
and now
https://mbhs.edu/departments/magnet/ParentResources/MagnetProfile.pdf

OK 2011 Math SAT 771 2017 Math SAT 779. Moe National Merit Scholars in 2017 too.

Those are measures of tutored skills. Look at SAT II scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Didn't they just change the standards for the HGC's this year? How would that affect Blair?

I think it could affect Blair in a couple of ways.
The first is that the same pressures that are causing a change to admission criteria/standards for the HGCs will over time impact the middle school and high school magnets. The HGCs and Middle school magnets are feeders for Blair SMAC. Most kids have attended at least one of the gifted programs before arriving at Blair. Many attended Takoma MS of course but there are also lots of kids who went to their home middle school or Eastern magnet but previously attended a HGC. If the HGCs and middle school magnets change their standards and (then inevitably) their curriculum they will be less reliable feeders.
The second is that if the admissions standards in HGCs and middle school magnets change in a big way, this will affect the rigor and curriculum of the programs. If this happens, kids will be entering Blair without adequate prep in math etc. Right now, most kids are in an accelerated PreCalc course in 9th grade and they have maybe 15-20 kids taking a more advanced "Functions" class and another 15 taking a lower level Math class (Magnet Geometry with Trig). I imagine over time there would be more kids in Magnet Geometry and fewer kids in Magnet PreCalc and Functions. This will impact the number of kids who can take the more advanced Math and Physics electives in 11th and 12th grade and over time there might be fewer of these offered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Those are measures of tutored skills. Look at SAT II scores.

If scores go up, it's because the students are getting tutored.

If scores go down, it's because the program is declining.

Congratulations, PP, you've constructed an unfalsifiable hypothesis.