How to get into Takoma Park Elementary School Magnet Program

[Anonymous]

What are the requirements for getting admitted to Kindergarten at Takoma Park Magnet? How does it compare to top private school or other top elementary schools in Maryland/DC?

[Anonymous]

Magnet starts in 1st grade, not K. Take the test, get a certain score, apply, win the lottery. Seriously.

[Anonymous]

I thought I heard it has been down graded in recent years..check out the number of differentiated hours per week..

[Anonymous]

The TPES administration itself no longer calls it a magnet program, since the small amount of extra funding they get from the county goes to things that benefit the whole school/every child. Instead they now refer to TPES as "a magnet school."

There is no opportunity for instruction or enrichment available exclusively to the kids identified as "magnet." The homogenous groups (to the extent permitted by Curriculum 2.0) are created based on assessments of all students at the beginning of each year, without regard to whether a child has been identified as magnet. So a magnet kid is not guaranteed placement in the highest level group, nor is a non-magnet kid shut out of being in the highest level group.

HTH.

[Anonymous]

you have to be lucky in the lottery
my child had a perfect score and still didn't get in
they take those that score 70% and higher

[Anonymous]

Seriously check it out before you even apply. If you don't know the answer to this question, then I suggest you go to one of the open houses. It's not quite the magnet program you might think it is. Magnet kids are taught along side other TP kids. The kids are still taught curriculum 2.0, same as at any MCP ES. My take away from the meeting I attended was: if your child does not have an intellectual peer group at his/her current school, then this might be the school for you. The peer group might only be 2-3 kids in his/her class, but that is enough. When I looked at our home school, I knew that DD had enough of a peer group that there was no need to take her 40 minutes away from her home to a school where she would be a "commuter".

Also, note that TPES lost its Title 1 designation and now has higher class sizes. I think it's still a Farms school so 1st grade could have up to 21 kids, vs the non-FARMS school with up to 28/class.