Middle school magnet results?

[Anonymous]

My kid was placed in the lottery for Eastern and didn’t get in.

The wording of the letter about not being in the lottery for Takoma park confused me—it says that my child’s math needs can be met by mcps curriculum. Does that mean they’re not being placed in AIM?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid was placed in the lottery for Eastern and didn’t get in.

The wording of the letter about not being in the lottery for Takoma park confused me—it says that my child’s math needs can be met by mcps curriculum. Does that mean they’re not being placed in AIM?

It means it depends on the local school. My kid also was not placed in the lottery, but she is doing well in compacted math and has a decent MAP, so my understanding is that the school will put her in AIM. School has discretion if they think it’s not a good placement for your kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
DP here. If you look at the chart (including ** footnote at the bottom), every MS has at least 10-20 highly able students identified.

Do you work for MCPS? Which chart are you talking about? Please provide link.

If you just looked upthread, you would've seen it:

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/schools/msmagnet/about/MS%20Magnet%20Field%20Test%20Data%20by%20Sending%20MS.pdf


Thank you so much! It will be helpful to see such a chart for upcounty Middle Schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
DP here. If you look at the chart (including ** footnote at the bottom), every MS has at least 10-20 highly able students identified.

Do you work for MCPS? Which chart are you talking about? Please provide link.

If you just looked upthread, you would've seen it:

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/schools/msmagnet/about/MS%20Magnet%20Field%20Test%20Data%20by%20Sending%20MS.pdf

Thank you so much! It will be helpful to see such a chart for upcounty Middle Schools

It's too bad they don't include TPMS on that chart. I've heard half the kids on the Math team who got National Honor Roll were in boundary. My guess is the number is even higher than SSIS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
DP here. If you look at the chart (including ** footnote at the bottom), every MS has at least 10-20 highly able students identified.

Do you work for MCPS? Which chart are you talking about? Please provide link.

If you just looked upthread, you would've seen it:

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/schools/msmagnet/about/MS%20Magnet%20Field%20Test%20Data%20by%20Sending%20MS.pdf

Thank you so much! It will be helpful to see such a chart for upcounty Middle Schools

This chart was a follow-up to the 2017-18 field test, which was conducted among the listed downcounty schools only. They have not published similar reports since then.

[Anonymous]

Single best thing to do is to organize and petition to get the CogAT back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Single best thing to do is to organize and petition to get the CogAT back.

In my opinion, that is a long shot and will help only future students. This initiative if at all will be delayed creating divisions and pitching people against each other because some in positions have equity agenda not excellence and CogAT is not convenient. Parents are more concerned about their childern's immediate educational need more than long term school reform to bring back merit based selection process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Single best thing to do is to organize and petition to get the CogAT back.

In my opinion, that is a long shot and will help only future students. This initiative if at all will be delayed creating divisions and pitching people against each other because some in positions have equity agenda not excellence and CogAT is not convenient. Parents are more concerned about their childern's immediate educational need more than long term school reform to bring back merit based selection process.

What do you suggest?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Single best thing to do is to organize and petition to get the CogAT back.

In my opinion, that is a long shot and will help only future students. This initiative if at all will be delayed creating divisions and pitching people against each other because some in positions have equity agenda not excellence and CogAT is not convenient. Parents are more concerned about their childern's immediate educational need more than long term school reform to bring back merit based selection process.

What do you suggest?

Unfortunately, nothing can be done because no one is going to listen. Legal option is not going to go anywhere because people are the ones paying through taxes for their legal expenses and PR. People can just vent on DCUM and suffer the consequences of their election choices for now or move to other alternatives if they can afford.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't agree more.
It would be so easy to roll out advanced English to kids who would have qualified for HIGH, and the only thing stopping them is intransigence (and some holdouts at the principal level).

Then why wouldn't they right? Is that because their agenda is different?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't agree more.
It would be so easy to roll out advanced English to kids who would have qualified for HIGH, and the only thing stopping them is intransigence (and some holdouts at the principal level).

Then why wouldn't they right? Is that because their agenda is different?

NP. I was wondering this as well. I attended the Eastern magnet eons ago and remember the intensity of both Humanities and English. My middle schooler, now, at a non-magnet middle school is in HIGH and I actually feel like the content is quite comparable. She's also sufficiently challenged with AIM. But the 'Advanced English' is a different story altogether. I remember reading "A Midsummer Night's Dream' and "A Good Earth' along with a whole host of other challenging novels. That's not happening now in the regular middle school. At least not at ours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are right it does show strong cohorts. It ALSO SHOWS that magnet quality has gone down and the Curriculum is in actuality being “watered down.”

I have read some version of this in various threads and feel the need to respond. You have no idea what is going on in these magnet programs. If you could see the breadth and depth of the curriculum, the creativity of the assignments, the rigor and challenge that stretch both understanding and knowledge, it would take your breath away. It's night and day compared to what's offered at a local MS. It makes a CTY class feel both inadequate and trivial. DC's critical thinking and writing has improved by leaps and bounds at Eastern. I assume a similar story is unfolding at TPMS.

This is the kind of education ALL of our kids deserve. We should be pushing MCPS to replicate this program in all middle schools.

This is kind of fiction. I have two children in back to back grades with one going to a magnet and one who turned down the same magnet to stay at the local school. Their experiences are not that different other than the magnet child having more homework, but it may depend on the middle school. The regular MS is very high performing, and many teachers are excellent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are right it does show strong cohorts. It ALSO SHOWS that magnet quality has gone down and the Curriculum is in actuality being “watered down.”

I have read some version of this in various threads and feel the need to respond. You have no idea what is going on in these magnet programs. If you could see the breadth and depth of the curriculum, the creativity of the assignments, the rigor and challenge that stretch both understanding and knowledge, it would take your breath away. It's night and day compared to what's offered at a local MS. It makes a CTY class feel both inadequate and trivial. DC's critical thinking and writing has improved by leaps and bounds at Eastern. I assume a similar story is unfolding at TPMS.

This is the kind of education ALL of our kids deserve. We should be pushing MCPS to replicate this program in all middle schools.

This is kind of fiction. I have two children in back to back grades with one going to a magnet and one who turned down the same magnet to stay at the local school. Their experiences are not that different other than the magnet child having more homework, but it may depend on the middle school. The regular MS is very high performing, and many teachers are excellent.

That is why you don’t understand. Please try to imagine it isn’t fiction if it doesn’t specifically apply to you and your child. There are many middle schools in the county that do not provide meaningful enrichment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are right it does show strong cohorts. It ALSO SHOWS that magnet quality has gone down and the Curriculum is in actuality being “watered down.”

I have read some version of this in various threads and feel the need to respond. You have no idea what is going on in these magnet programs. If you could see the breadth and depth of the curriculum, the creativity of the assignments, the rigor and challenge that stretch both understanding and knowledge, it would take your breath away. It's night and day compared to what's offered at a local MS. It makes a CTY class feel both inadequate and trivial. DC's critical thinking and writing has improved by leaps and bounds at Eastern. I assume a similar story is unfolding at TPMS.

This is the kind of education ALL of our kids deserve. We should be pushing MCPS to replicate this program in all middle schools.

Let me preface this by saying, yes all kids deserve this kind of education, but in the meantime this is what mcps will be doing to the magnet program in the coming years.
It will and has been watered down. When more and more people who aren’t adequately prepared or willing to do the intense work in the magnets because they are either not motivated or simply can’t do the work, the teacher and curriculum follow suit and in turn give easier and lesss challenging work to the students so that the lowest student can keep up. This is essentially watering down the prgm. Mkay do you understand what I am saying. Stay in your lane.

Can any 6th grade parents comment on this?
My child is in a non-lottery, universal screening grade. There are some families with siblings who attended the program a few years ago before the changes and they do say the classes look a bit different. In the past the magnets were a self-selected group. The students and their parents had to be pretty motivated to even apply and now it's more diverse. I don't mean just by race or SES but also but interests, background and strengths. You'll still find many drama kids and kids that are working on their novels in their spare time but it's not everyone. I'm sure some people think this is a bad thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are right it does show strong cohorts. It ALSO SHOWS that magnet quality has gone down and the Curriculum is in actuality being “watered down.”

I have read some version of this in various threads and feel the need to respond. You have no idea what is going on in these magnet programs. If you could see the breadth and depth of the curriculum, the creativity of the assignments, the rigor and challenge that stretch both understanding and knowledge, it would take your breath away. It's night and day compared to what's offered at a local MS. It makes a CTY class feel both inadequate and trivial. DC's critical thinking and writing has improved by leaps and bounds at Eastern. I assume a similar story is unfolding at TPMS.

This is the kind of education ALL of our kids deserve. We should be pushing MCPS to replicate this program in all middle schools.

This is kind of fiction. I have two children in back to back grades with one going to a magnet and one who turned down the same magnet to stay at the local school. Their experiences are not that different other than the magnet child having more homework, but it may depend on the middle school. The regular MS is very high performing, and many teachers are excellent.

That is why you don’t understand. Please try to imagine it isn’t fiction if it doesn’t specifically apply to you and your child. There are many middle schools in the county that do not provide meaningful enrichment.

Your post was over the top exaggerated: "If you could see the breadth and depth of the curriculum, the creativity of the assignments, the rigor and challenge that stretch both understanding and knowledge, it would take your breath away. It's night and day compared to what's offered at a local MS. It makes a CTY class feel both inadequate and trivial."

If your child is in a low performing middle school I'm sure the magnets will look terrific, but so would Frost, Hoover, SSI, Pyle,