Third round options on Woodward Boundary study
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Anonymous
Einstein only offers a very limited amount of AP classes so your point makes no sense, as if students want those classes, they have to leave to MC or other schools. And, you are proving the point of the inequities with how much Whitman vs. Einstein offers. You are bragging about how many students take AP science but there is no AP Bio or Chemistry at Einstein. They are slowed down in math as there is nothing after BC, except statistics. Einstein has many smart kids but the kids don't have the same opportunities. The magnets are not true magnets as they are offered in schools with the classes so they are magnets in name only. So, it creates a further divide between the schools with the course offerings. If this goes through, we will have to move, and probably choose to leave the county as we cannot manage the commute to another school and there is no guarentee kids will be allowed. So, with families with kids who are academically inclined leaving, that will create an even further divide. |
Anonymous
You either read what summaries others post, figure it out yourself or don't worry about it as you have zero input or control. Its going to be a hot mess for a while. It will not impact your child. |
Anonymous
The same can be said for Churchill. Granted Churchill is in a region which has less disparity than Whitman’s but similar situation there. The best performing schools should not be trying to add some small number of students but rather the other way around, bring students to schools the way RM and Blair did many years ago. |
Anonymous
How about they do a better job educating kids earlier on so that schools with high FARMS rates already have sufficient academically prepared students within the community population? Sure that too but doesn’t negate the above point. I encourage all parents to advocate for academic magnets being placed at the highest FARMS schools. In addition to the benefit cited by PP it will cause wealthier neighborhoods to have some skin in the game as to the overall success of those schools which is also important. The idea of placing academic magnets at schools with the highest FARMS may sound noble but in practice will not work. Parents will simply not send their kids to schools with bad academic reputation. These magnets will become obsolete with only kids from host schools. That will not benefit anyone as students in the host schools will have the same peers and teachers they have now. New magnets will never come even remotely close in success to current magnets so the plan will have an overall negative effect as academically gifted students in the county will lose any access to good magnets. Strategically best approach is to place most important magnets in schools with average FARMS numbers, e.g. Blair, RM, etc. This will give new magnets a chance to succeed, while not benefiting schools with low FARMS and already good academic offerings. As for the schools with high FARMS, the only way to help them is to give them resources and mandate they use those resources to hire teachers and offer advanced classes. Giving them magnets just ruins the magnet concept. I agree with this, mid level FARMs schools like RM, Blair, Woodward, QO etc should have these types of programs. Not Whitman, Churchill, Wootton, WJ or BCC. Not Kennedy or Watkins Mill etc. |
Anonymous
I agree with this, mid level FARMs schools like RM, Blair, Woodward, QO etc should have these types of programs. Not Whitman, Churchill, Wootton, WJ or BCC. Not Kennedy or Watkins Mill etc. |
Anonymous
Blame that one on the stupidity of how they're implementing the new regions plan. They drew arbitrary borders for the regions and told Flo that no one could cross them. Arcola is on one side of the line and Odessa Shannon is on the other so Odessa Shannon is now permanently off the table for Arcola. |
Anonymous
So so stupid. And goes against drawing boundaries based on the criteria of the four factors. |
Anonymous
Sure that too but doesn’t negate the above point. I encourage all parents to advocate for academic magnets being placed at the highest FARMS schools. In addition to the benefit cited by PP it will cause wealthier neighborhoods to have some skin in the game as to the overall success of those schools which is also important. The idea of placing academic magnets at schools with the highest FARMS may sound noble but in practice will not work. Parents will simply not send their kids to schools with bad academic reputation. These magnets will become obsolete with only kids from host schools. That will not benefit anyone as students in the host schools will have the same peers and teachers they have now. New magnets will never come even remotely close in success to current magnets so the plan will have an overall negative effect as academically gifted students in the county will lose any access to good magnets. Strategically best approach is to place most important magnets in schools with average FARMS numbers, e.g. Blair, RM, etc. This will give new magnets a chance to succeed, while not benefiting schools with low FARMS and already good academic offerings. As for the schools with high FARMS, the only way to help them is to give them resources and mandate they use those resources to hire teachers and offer advanced classes. Giving them magnets just ruins the magnet concept. I agree with this, mid level FARMs schools like RM, Blair, Woodward, QO etc should have these types of programs. Not Whitman, Churchill, Wootton, WJ or BCC. Not Kennedy or Watkins Mill etc. Parents who care about bragging rights will send them but the issue is they'd have to add resources/staff to these schools and these magnets are name only, using existing staff so it would be impossible to put them at other schools. If they want to fix things, they need to start with the elementary school academics. |
Anonymous
-1 I appreciate PP's post. They haven't made these options easy to compare or understand. It takes a ton of time for an educated person with a laptop to do their own analysis of the pros and cons. I did it myself as did our PTA and folks sent in feedback that they seem to have responded to (they don't seem to plan to split articulate our ES which would undermine the immersion pathway in middle school - though I realize this will be an issue for other schools). But it's crazy how hard they make this. We have jobs and kids. |
Anonymous
| I hope someone is able to report back on how the Einstein meeting goes later today. |
Anonymous
Maybe run it all through a few ai programs? |
Anonymous
You have to verify everything AI says which takes just as long or longer |
Anonymous
| Option F clearly balances facility utilization, proximity and demographics quite well. And without doing anything completely insane. I love it but I wish there was an Option H to keep SSIMS open but everything else the same. |
Anonymous
Option F definitely does some things that are completely insane. See this thread. |
Anonymous
Bethesda ES is in the walk zone for Whitman so that's fine. Wood Acres kids will get to take the bus instead of being driven to school. It is physically impossible to send all kids to the nearest school and balance facility utilization. |