Middle school magnet results?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

What you are looking at is BOE watering down the magnet programs. They will continue to do so to the level that eventually they will be able to kill it showing no progress and value in keeping these programs. This is not by accident. This is their plan if you read between the lines in BOE meetings.

The thing is they aren't watering down anything. It turns out the 85% do just fine.

I don't agree with the watering down comment but I don't think we know yet.

Makes sense mathematically. 2>1, 95>85.

NBA rosters show an average height of 6-foot-6

But the very tallest of them last year (7-foot-6) was the lowest paid of them all.

Use your math to explain that

You just proved the point. All NBAers are in the 99 percentile height category.

Nope. Not even close. The AVERAGE NBA player is in the 99th.... but there have been MANY superstar players much, much shorter than that.


Nate Robinson won three NBA Dunk Contests -- and jumped over Dwight Howard -- at 5-foot-9. Spud Webb is remembered as one of the game’s shortest players and most electrifying dunkers. He took home the 1986 Slam Dunk Contest title at 5-foot-6

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

What you are looking at is BOE watering down the magnet programs. They will continue to do so to the level that eventually they will be able to kill it showing no progress and value in keeping these programs. This is not by accident. This is their plan if you read between the lines in BOE meetings.

The thing is they aren't watering down anything. It turns out the 85% do just fine.

I don't agree with the watering down comment but I don't think we know yet.

Makes sense mathematically. 2>1, 95>85.

NBA rosters show an average height of 6-foot-6

But the very tallest of them last year (7-foot-6) was the lowest paid of them all.

Use your math to explain that

You just proved the point. All NBAers are in the 99 percentile height category.

No. Just some. Muggsy Bogues certainly wasn't!

Proving that successful organizations don't make recruiting decisions based on singular aspects of each applicants profile.

Really tall? Great!
High stamina? Awesome!
No hands? Oh....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is simply incapable of addressing the problem with limited seats in "magnet" programs when there are so many capable kids. The very fact that there are so few parents that turn down an invitation to TPMS or Eastern is all that one needs to see for evidence. MCPS lies through their teeth about enrichment at local MS when we can all see that they dont even offer computer science education at any local MS other than the magnets. If "magnets" cannot accommodate the highly capable kids, MCPS should just offer parents the option to drive their kids to the "W" feeder middle schools (where the affluence helps raise the bar) or time to start charters.

It sure seems like 15% of the pop can handle the program fine but there are only seats for 2%-3% so a lot of kids who would benefit are left out and it's completely random.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

What you are looking at is BOE watering down the magnet programs. They will continue to do so to the level that eventually they will be able to kill it showing no progress and value in keeping these programs. This is not by accident. This is their plan if you read between the lines in BOE meetings.

The thing is they aren't watering down anything. It turns out the 85% do just fine.

I don't agree with the watering down comment but I don't think we know yet.

Makes sense mathematically. 2>1, 95>85.

NBA rosters show an average height of 6-foot-6

But the very tallest of them last year (7-foot-6) was the lowest paid of them all.

Use your math to explain that

You just proved the point. All NBAers are in the 99 percentile height category.

Yes but sadly this is mostly slightly above average kids not the NBA so the analogy doesn't hold up well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

What you are looking at is BOE watering down the magnet programs. They will continue to do so to the level that eventually they will be able to kill it showing no progress and value in keeping these programs. This is not by accident. This is their plan if you read between the lines in BOE meetings.

The thing is they aren't watering down anything. It turns out the 85% do just fine.

I don't agree with the watering down comment but I don't think we know yet.

Makes sense mathematically. 2>1, 95>85.

NBA rosters show an average height of 6-foot-6

But the very tallest of them last year (7-foot-6) was the lowest paid of them all.

Use your math to explain that

You just proved the point. All NBAers are in the 99 percentile height category.

Yes but sadly this is mostly slightly above average kids not the NBA so the analogy doesn't hold up well.

Works better than the Gates/Bezos/et al analogy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

What you are looking at is BOE watering down the magnet programs. They will continue to do so to the level that eventually they will be able to kill it showing no progress and value in keeping these programs. This is not by accident. This is their plan if you read between the lines in BOE meetings.

The thing is they aren't watering down anything. It turns out the 85% do just fine.

I don't agree with the watering down comment but I don't think we know yet.

Makes sense mathematically. 2>1, 95>85.

NBA rosters show an average height of 6-foot-6

But the very tallest of them last year (7-foot-6) was the lowest paid of them all.

Use your math to explain that

You just proved the point. All NBAers are in the 99 percentile height category.

Yes but sadly this is mostly slightly above average kids not the NBA so the analogy doesn't hold up well.

It is all relative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

What you are looking at is BOE watering down the magnet programs. They will continue to do so to the level that eventually they will be able to kill it showing no progress and value in keeping these programs. This is not by accident. This is their plan if you read between the lines in BOE meetings.

The thing is they aren't watering down anything. It turns out the 85% do just fine.

I don't agree with the watering down comment but I don't think we know yet.

Makes sense mathematically. 2>1, 95>85.

NBA rosters show an average height of 6-foot-6

But the very tallest of them last year (7-foot-6) was the lowest paid of them all.

Use your math to explain that

You just proved the point. All NBAers are in the 99 percentile height category.

No. Just some. Muggsy Bogues certainly wasn't!

Exception proves the rule. Anothe math concept.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is simply incapable of addressing the problem with limited seats in "magnet" programs when there are so many capable kids. The very fact that there are so few parents that turn down an invitation to TPMS or Eastern is all that one needs to see for evidence. MCPS lies through their teeth about enrichment at local MS when we can all see that they dont even offer computer science education at any local MS other than the magnets. If "magnets" cannot accommodate the highly capable kids, MCPS should just offer parents the option to drive their kids to the "W" feeder middle schools (where the affluence helps raise the bar) or time to start charters.

It sure seems like 15% of the pop can handle the program fine but there are only seats for 2%-3% so a lot of kids who would benefit are left out and it's completely random.

Need not be random. MCPS and us can do better than random. For the good of the community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

What you are looking at is BOE watering down the magnet programs. They will continue to do so to the level that eventually they will be able to kill it showing no progress and value in keeping these programs. This is not by accident. This is their plan if you read between the lines in BOE meetings.

The thing is they aren't watering down anything. It turns out the 85% do just fine.

I don't agree with the watering down comment but I don't think we know yet.

Makes sense mathematically. 2>1, 95>85.

NBA rosters show an average height of 6-foot-6

But the very tallest of them last year (7-foot-6) was the lowest paid of them all.

Use your math to explain that

You just proved the point. All NBAers are in the 99 percentile height category.

Nope. Not even close. The AVERAGE NBA player is in the 99th.... but there have been MANY superstar players much, much shorter than that.


Nate Robinson won three NBA Dunk Contests -- and jumped over Dwight Howard -- at 5-foot-9. Spud Webb is remembered as one of the game’s shortest players and most electrifying dunkers. He took home the 1986 Slam Dunk Contest title at 5-foot-6

99% of NBA players are in the 99 percentile height category. Fixed it for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is simply incapable of addressing the problem with limited seats in "magnet" programs when there are so many capable kids. The very fact that there are so few parents that turn down an invitation to TPMS or Eastern is all that one needs to see for evidence. MCPS lies through their teeth about enrichment at local MS when we can all see that they dont even offer computer science education at any local MS other than the magnets. If "magnets" cannot accommodate the highly capable kids, MCPS should just offer parents the option to drive their kids to the "W" feeder middle schools (where the affluence helps raise the bar) or time to start charters.

That isn't true. There are middle school computer science classes available as electives.

Wasn't there at my child's middle school. Can someone list the computer science electives available at their kids' non magnet middle school. I am curious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is simply incapable of addressing the problem with limited seats in "magnet" programs when there are so many capable kids. The very fact that there are so few parents that turn down an invitation to TPMS or Eastern is all that one needs to see for evidence. MCPS lies through their teeth about enrichment at local MS when we can all see that they dont even offer computer science education at any local MS other than the magnets. If "magnets" cannot accommodate the highly capable kids, MCPS should just offer parents the option to drive their kids to the "W" feeder middle schools (where the affluence helps raise the bar) or time to start charters.

That isn't true. There are middle school computer science classes available as electives.

Wasn't there at my child's middle school. Can someone list the computer science electives available at their kids' non magnet middle school. I am curious.

Check out the course bulletin to see what is offered at other schools:
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/curriculum/middleschool/0446.22_2022-23_MS_CourseBulletin_FINAL.pdf
pages 17-19 include information about electives in Computer Science ~ Engineering ~ Technology Education

Here's a sample from 6th grade:
Coding and Game Development (ITC 2069)
Students will learn the elements of good game design and the different game genres as well as basic video game coding concepts including racing, platform, launching, and more. Students will apply computational thinking to their game designs. Students will be introduced to various programming languages.
Introduction to Technology & Engineering (ENR 1022)
Students will be introduced to technological systems and learn and apply the Engineering Design Process to a variety of challenges. Students are introduced to Computer Aided Design using TinkerCAD.
Engineering Design & Modeling (ENR 1023)
Students utilize the Engineering Design Process and technical skills of isometric sketching, multiview drawing, and Computer Aided Design using TinkerCAD to design solutions to engineering challenges.
Robotic Design 6 (ITC 2068)
Students will apply coding and programming skills and problem- solving to make physical models respond to commands. Students will collaborate, communicate, think computationally, program, debug and create models while learning to solve open-ended, real-life problems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is simply incapable of addressing the problem with limited seats in "magnet" programs when there are so many capable kids. The very fact that there are so few parents that turn down an invitation to TPMS or Eastern is all that one needs to see for evidence. MCPS lies through their teeth about enrichment at local MS when we can all see that they dont even offer computer science education at any local MS other than the magnets. If "magnets" cannot accommodate the highly capable kids, MCPS should just offer parents the option to drive their kids to the "W" feeder middle schools (where the affluence helps raise the bar) or time to start charters.

That isn't true. There are middle school computer science classes available as electives.

Wasn't there at my child's middle school. Can someone list the computer science electives available at their kids' non magnet middle school. I am curious.

Check out the course bulletin to see what is offered at other schools:
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/curriculum/middleschool/0446.22_2022-23_MS_CourseBulletin_FINAL.pdf
pages 17-19 include information about electives in Computer Science ~ Engineering ~ Technology Education

Here's a sample from 6th grade:
Coding and Game Development (ITC 2069)
Students will learn the elements of good game design and the different game genres as well as basic video game coding concepts including racing, platform, launching, and more. Students will apply computational thinking to their game designs. Students will be introduced to various programming languages.
Introduction to Technology & Engineering (ENR 1022)
Students will be introduced to technological systems and learn and apply the Engineering Design Process to a variety of challenges. Students are introduced to Computer Aided Design using TinkerCAD.
Engineering Design & Modeling (ENR 1023)
Students utilize the Engineering Design Process and technical skills of isometric sketching, multiview drawing, and Computer Aided Design using TinkerCAD to design solutions to engineering challenges.
Robotic Design 6 (ITC 2068)
Students will apply coding and programming skills and problem- solving to make physical models respond to commands. Students will collaborate, communicate, think computationally, program, debug and create models while learning to solve open-ended, real-life problems.

DP. The question, which you failed to answer, is which schools offered CS electives. Not every school does and clearly you don’t know which do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is simply incapable of addressing the problem with limited seats in "magnet" programs when there are so many capable kids. The very fact that there are so few parents that turn down an invitation to TPMS or Eastern is all that one needs to see for evidence. MCPS lies through their teeth about enrichment at local MS when we can all see that they dont even offer computer science education at any local MS other than the magnets. If "magnets" cannot accommodate the highly capable kids, MCPS should just offer parents the option to drive their kids to the "W" feeder middle schools (where the affluence helps raise the bar) or time to start charters.

That isn't true. There are middle school computer science classes available as electives.

Wasn't there at my child's middle school. Can someone list the computer science electives available at their kids' non magnet middle school. I am curious.

Check out the course bulletin to see what is offered at other schools:
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/curriculum/middleschool/0446.22_2022-23_MS_CourseBulletin_FINAL.pdf
pages 17-19 include information about electives in Computer Science ~ Engineering ~ Technology Education

Here's a sample from 6th grade:
Coding and Game Development (ITC 2069)
Students will learn the elements of good game design and the different game genres as well as basic video game coding concepts including racing, platform, launching, and more. Students will apply computational thinking to their game designs. Students will be introduced to various programming languages.
Introduction to Technology & Engineering (ENR 1022)
Students will be introduced to technological systems and learn and apply the Engineering Design Process to a variety of challenges. Students are introduced to Computer Aided Design using TinkerCAD.
Engineering Design & Modeling (ENR 1023)
Students utilize the Engineering Design Process and technical skills of isometric sketching, multiview drawing, and Computer Aided Design using TinkerCAD to design solutions to engineering challenges.
Robotic Design 6 (ITC 2068)
Students will apply coding and programming skills and problem- solving to make physical models respond to commands. Students will collaborate, communicate, think computationally, program, debug and create models while learning to solve open-ended, real-life problems.

DP. The question, which you failed to answer, is which schools offered CS electives. Not every school does and clearly you don’t know which do.

If this person can go to the MCPS website and copy/paste for you - then you can look for yourself as well

Seriously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is simply incapable of addressing the problem with limited seats in "magnet" programs when there are so many capable kids. The very fact that there are so few parents that turn down an invitation to TPMS or Eastern is all that one needs to see for evidence. MCPS lies through their teeth about enrichment at local MS when we can all see that they dont even offer computer science education at any local MS other than the magnets. If "magnets" cannot accommodate the highly capable kids, MCPS should just offer parents the option to drive their kids to the "W" feeder middle schools (where the affluence helps raise the bar) or time to start charters.

That isn't true. There are middle school computer science classes available as electives.

Wasn't there at my child's middle school. Can someone list the computer science electives available at their kids' non magnet middle school. I am curious.

Check out the course bulletin to see what is offered at other schools:
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/curriculum/middleschool/0446.22_2022-23_MS_CourseBulletin_FINAL.pdf
pages 17-19 include information about electives in Computer Science ~ Engineering ~ Technology Education

Here's a sample from 6th grade:
Coding and Game Development (ITC 2069)
Students will learn the elements of good game design and the different game genres as well as basic video game coding concepts including racing, platform, launching, and more. Students will apply computational thinking to their game designs. Students will be introduced to various programming languages.
Introduction to Technology & Engineering (ENR 1022)
Students will be introduced to technological systems and learn and apply the Engineering Design Process to a variety of challenges. Students are introduced to Computer Aided Design using TinkerCAD.
Engineering Design & Modeling (ENR 1023)
Students utilize the Engineering Design Process and technical skills of isometric sketching, multiview drawing, and Computer Aided Design using TinkerCAD to design solutions to engineering challenges.
Robotic Design 6 (ITC 2068)
Students will apply coding and programming skills and problem- solving to make physical models respond to commands. Students will collaborate, communicate, think computationally, program, debug and create models while learning to solve open-ended, real-life problems.

DP. The question, which you failed to answer, is which schools offered CS electives. Not every school does and clearly you don’t know which do.

I don't know an easy way to tell you which schools offer what, but my kid at Silver Creek took CS. I thought the specials offerings at SCMS were very mediocre, so I'm surprised to hear they offered something not offered at other schools.

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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.

What you are looking at is BOE watering down the magnet programs. They will continue to do so to the level that eventually they will be able to kill it showing no progress and value in keeping these programs. This is not by accident. This is their plan if you read between the lines in BOE meetings.

The thing is they aren't watering down anything. It turns out the 85% do just fine.

I don't agree with the watering down comment but I don't think we know yet.

Makes sense mathematically. 2>1, 95>85.

NBA rosters show an average height of 6-foot-6

But the very tallest of them last year (7-foot-6) was the lowest paid of them all.

Use your math to explain that

You just proved the point. All NBAers are in the 99 percentile height category.

Nope. Not even close. The AVERAGE NBA player is in the 99th.... but there have been MANY superstar players much, much shorter than that.


Nate Robinson won three NBA Dunk Contests -- and jumped over Dwight Howard -- at 5-foot-9. Spud Webb is remembered as one of the game’s shortest players and most electrifying dunkers. He took home the 1986 Slam Dunk Contest title at 5-foot-6

99% of NBA players are in the 99 percentile height category. Fixed it for you.

There are roughly 2.4 million men in the United States 6 foot 4 or taller.
There are roughly 500 professional basketball players in the NBA

Using height as shorthand for ability to perform at the elite level would be foolishness... as would using a CoGAT score as shorthand for who would be best suited for a magnet program.

There is a LOT more to recruiting than just one or two descriptive statistics

Fixed it for you