MCPS to end areawide Blair Magnet and countywide Richard Montgomery's IB program

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:as a current student @ blair, here's a few things i've noticed

- the rigor of the program is supplied by two things - the student cohort, and the teachers.

- the biggest thing is the teachers. classes themselves do not automatically become rigorous. it's all dependent on your teacher - some go hard on you and make you struggle for every grade, others take it easy. many of my friends and myself choose classes solely based off of who teaches them - and know that the best aspect of our education is because of the insane amount of skill + efforts our teachers put in. there is no way that quality of teacher (which we're already struggling to fill at blair, major example with mr.kaluta leaving 3-4 years ago and still no proper replacement found) can be replicated across however many regional programs exist. in general, though the teachers are so unique and amazing that even the "hated" teachers in the magnet would be stellar elsewhere. the standard of teaching and respect we get is very high and I just haven't been able to feel that with most of my other teachers.

- other than the rigorous classes in mostly just math & cs, the major amount of motivation and rigor comes from the cohort. i only skimmed this thread and saw so much discussion about top 1% or 5% or blah blah, but in truth the peer group at blair is unlike one at any other high school. the concentration of people in my grade are so smart that it literally is one of my main motivating factors to try and build myself up as well - and even though a regional program would supply a very good peer group, it would for sure not give the same motivation/drive/push to literally try and make myself the best version I can be.

- from a feasibility perspective, there just isn't any way that a regional program could be of the same rigor of blair/rm/poolesville. the magnet is literally such a wonderful environment and while i'd love to expand access to it, splitting up the central programs is just not the way to go about it.

Blair student, I hope you and your classmates will speak up and share your insights with the board and Taylor.

[Anonymous]

I appreciate the perspective of the current student, but listen to those of us with experience outside specialized schools. You would still have your string peer group because you would be taking the same classes for your specialized program. Possibly some of your electives might be integrated with “regular” kids, but it’s an important life skill for you to learn. You will not live your adult life surrounded by peers with your same level of intelligence, motivation, and access.

My own experience at a HS in a different state with 3,000 students, 555 in my graduating class. Our grade had a cohort of kids on advanced tracks and we were need up with almost all of our classes together for 4 years because we were the only students eligible for those advanced courses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Poolesville HS’s new building was just completed in 2024. It was built with a core capacity of 1,800 students. This past school year, 1,309 students were enrolled at PHS, including 701 magnet students who are not zoned for PHS. Fewer than 10 students who were zoned for PHS enrolled at RMIB, the only other magnet program for which Poolesville students are eligible. That means PHS’s new building has a core capacity of nearly 3 times the roughly 610 students who are currently zoned for it.

MCPS wants to get rid of Poolesville’s existing magnet programs to move to a regional magnet system. This past year, out of the 16,380 students enrolled at 8 other upcounty high schools, PHS enrolled 700 of them in its magnet programs. Under the proposed regional magnet system, the catchment area from which PHS could enroll students only includes 4 other schools with a combined enrollment of 9,130. Unless multiple programs from the proposed 5 new magnet programs for Region 6 are housed at PHS, enrollment at PHS will plummet. Clearly, this was not the plan when funding was appropriated for PHS’s new building. Why are we abandoning plans we’ve already funded?

Not only is Poolesville’s shiny, large new building exactly the kind of building meant to attract students from all over the county, but it was literally designed with the magnet programs in mind. The building has four “hubs,” one for each program (including ISP), which are even painted its program’s designated color. No other school looks like PHS — even another school built in 2024 wouldn’t — because the literal construction of the school was intended to serve the four programs. To alter Poolesville’s magnets after all of this won’t just waste MCPS a shit ton of money, but it’ll render the design of its brand new building pointless and irrelevant.

Poolesville is a whole school program. That could continue which accounts for the four hubs. Additionally, a local share could be allocated for the hubs which would increase the amount of student on those hubs. Another idea, would be to move the IB program to Poolesville which because of the hub setup would actually make it a stellar program.

Seneca Valley could continue to have the IBCP program.

There are options that can make great use of the Poolesville building and offerings.

Also, Poolesville will be utilized in the boundary study to account for the growth in UpCounty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:as a current student @ blair, here's a few things i've noticed

- the rigor of the program is supplied by two things - the student cohort, and the teachers.

- the biggest thing is the teachers. classes themselves do not automatically become rigorous. it's all dependent on your teacher - some go hard on you and make you struggle for every grade, others take it easy. many of my friends and myself choose classes solely based off of who teaches them - and know that the best aspect of our education is because of the insane amount of skill + efforts our teachers put in. there is no way that quality of teacher (which we're already struggling to fill at blair, major example with mr.kaluta leaving 3-4 years ago and still no proper replacement found) can be replicated across however many regional programs exist. in general, though the teachers are so unique and amazing that even the "hated" teachers in the magnet would be stellar elsewhere. the standard of teaching and respect we get is very high and I just haven't been able to feel that with most of my other teachers.

- other than the rigorous classes in mostly just math & cs, the major amount of motivation and rigor comes from the cohort. i only skimmed this thread and saw so much discussion about top 1% or 5% or blah blah, but in truth the peer group at blair is unlike one at any other high school. the concentration of people in my grade are so smart that it literally is one of my main motivating factors to try and build myself up as well - and even though a regional program would supply a very good peer group, it would for sure not give the same motivation/drive/push to literally try and make myself the best version I can be.

- from a feasibility perspective, there just isn't any way that a regional program could be of the same rigor of blair/rm/poolesville. the magnet is literally such a wonderful environment and while i'd love to expand access to it, splitting up the central programs is just not the way to go about it.

Blair student, I hope you and your classmates will speak up and share your insights with the board and Taylor.

Maybe we should invest in teaching these students about grammar instead of all math. Then they might not make these egregious errors with dangling modifiers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is bonkers. The regional program seems responsive to the concerns parents raise here all the time that high performing kids are shut out of the very few high performing programs. Now, a larger group of high performing kids will be able to learn with their high performing peers, with the speciality focus area piece available to try to equal out the number of high performing kids at each school. Seems like a good approach to me. As for the rarefied Blair offerings, kids can get those in college.

Exactly. HS is about exposure not specialization.

So why kill the existing program that gives kids the most exposure?

What exactly is the problem with keeping our outstanding cross-county programs AND reorganizing the school district into regions?

I would have thought this was a good solution too, but apparently it has already been tried and failed with IB programs.

How?

I don't know the details but apparently people think RMIB is way better than the regional IBs?

one only needs to look at the IBDP rate and the IB classes offered at the regional IBs compared to RMIB.

I believe the regional programs’ failure is because of mcps’s insistence to put them in schools with students have a reputation for unruliness. Better to stick with the home school than to be surrounded by disruptive students.

Regional programs aren’t failures. Diploma rate is not a measure of success of IB. Where kids go for college who take any IB class is the measure of success. For example, many kids at BCC take a mix of IB and AP classes, just out of personal interest. Overall GPA and number of advance class takers would be a better measure of success.

People think RMIB is the best IB Program because it is test in only, therefore it has a very select group of the highest (humanities-interested) students in the county. The level of discussion, participation, background knowledge and drive is much higher than an opt-in program. Blair, for a similar reason, has a much higher level of student ability & preparation than any other math program. It’s a function of the selection pool. The bigger the pool, the more selective the admit group.

Well, if college is the goal, then the UMC high achiever should probably go to the school with a high % of low income families so they will stand out. Less competition.

If you look at the list of colleges for the top HS schools, RM is always on the list, with many IB students going to top schools. The HS with the regional IBs like Kennedy are never on the list.

But, I thought the regional IBs were currently test in, as well. BCC IB is not considered a regional program. We're only talking about regional IBs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:as a current student @ blair, here's a few things i've noticed

- the rigor of the program is supplied by two things - the student cohort, and the teachers.

- the biggest thing is the teachers. classes themselves do not automatically become rigorous. it's all dependent on your teacher - some go hard on you and make you struggle for every grade, others take it easy. many of my friends and myself choose classes solely based off of who teaches them - and know that the best aspect of our education is because of the insane amount of skill + efforts our teachers put in. there is no way that quality of teacher (which we're already struggling to fill at blair, major example with mr.kaluta leaving 3-4 years ago and still no proper replacement found) can be replicated across however many regional programs exist. in general, though the teachers are so unique and amazing that even the "hated" teachers in the magnet would be stellar elsewhere. the standard of teaching and respect we get is very high and I just haven't been able to feel that with most of my other teachers.

- other than the rigorous classes in mostly just math & cs, the major amount of motivation and rigor comes from the cohort. i only skimmed this thread and saw so much discussion about top 1% or 5% or blah blah, but in truth the peer group at blair is unlike one at any other high school. the concentration of people in my grade are so smart that it literally is one of my main motivating factors to try and build myself up as well - and even though a regional program would supply a very good peer group, it would for sure not give the same motivation/drive/push to literally try and make myself the best version I can be.

- from a feasibility perspective, there just isn't any way that a regional program could be of the same rigor of blair/rm/poolesville. the magnet is literally such a wonderful environment and while i'd love to expand access to it, splitting up the central programs is just not the way to go about it.

Blair student, I hope you and your classmates will speak up and share your insights with the board and Taylor.

Maybe we should invest in teaching these students about grammar instead of all math. Then they might not make these egregious errors with dangling modifiers.

maybe you should not treat dcum like it's the Harvard law review.

IMO, the Blair student knows more about what the program is like, and why it works, rather than an anonymous grammar Nazi poster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:as a current student @ blair, here's a few things i've noticed

- the rigor of the program is supplied by two things - the student cohort, and the teachers.

- the biggest thing is the teachers. classes themselves do not automatically become rigorous. it's all dependent on your teacher - some go hard on you and make you struggle for every grade, others take it easy. many of my friends and myself choose classes solely based off of who teaches them - and know that the best aspect of our education is because of the insane amount of skill + efforts our teachers put in. there is no way that quality of teacher (which we're already struggling to fill at blair, major example with mr.kaluta leaving 3-4 years ago and still no proper replacement found) can be replicated across however many regional programs exist. in general, though the teachers are so unique and amazing that even the "hated" teachers in the magnet would be stellar elsewhere. the standard of teaching and respect we get is very high and I just haven't been able to feel that with most of my other teachers.

- other than the rigorous classes in mostly just math & cs, the major amount of motivation and rigor comes from the cohort. i only skimmed this thread and saw so much discussion about top 1% or 5% or blah blah, but in truth the peer group at blair is unlike one at any other high school. the concentration of people in my grade are so smart that it literally is one of my main motivating factors to try and build myself up as well - and even though a regional program would supply a very good peer group, it would for sure not give the same motivation/drive/push to literally try and make myself the best version I can be.

- from a feasibility perspective, there just isn't any way that a regional program could be of the same rigor of blair/rm/poolesville. the magnet is literally such a wonderful environment and while i'd love to expand access to it, splitting up the central programs is just not the way to go about it.

Blair student, I hope you and your classmates will speak up and share your insights with the board and Taylor.

Maybe we should invest in teaching these students about grammar instead of all math. Then they might not make these egregious errors with dangling modifiers.

Oh F off. That message was articulate and persuasive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I appreciate the perspective of the current student, but listen to those of us with experience outside specialized schools. You would still have your string peer group because you would be taking the same classes for your specialized program. Possibly some of your electives might be integrated with “regular” kids, but it’s an important life skill for you to learn. You will not live your adult life surrounded by peers with your same level of intelligence, motivation, and access.

My own experience at a HS in a different state with 3,000 students, 555 in my graduating class. Our grade had a cohort of kids on advanced tracks and we were need up with almost all of our classes together for 4 years because we were the only students eligible for those advanced courses.

MCPS doesn't have a TJ or Stuy.
The countywide programs already have electives and even core courses shared with the host school.

Regardless, people who have never seen a specialized countywide program for don't understand the value it provides for the students who would be bored in the "advanced" courses.

When we were young, students who didn't have access to such programs would graduate high school early or Dual Enroll at a university, and have to find a gap year program or deal with the social challenge of being a year or more younger than their classmates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I appreciate the perspective of the current student, but listen to those of us with experience outside specialized schools. You would still have your string peer group because you would be taking the same classes for your specialized program. Possibly some of your electives might be integrated with “regular” kids, but it’s an important life skill for you to learn. You will not live your adult life surrounded by peers with your same level of intelligence, motivation, and access.

My own experience at a HS in a different state with 3,000 students, 555 in my graduating class. Our grade had a cohort of kids on advanced tracks and we were need up with almost all of our classes together for 4 years because we were the only students eligible for those advanced courses.

MCPS doesn't have a TJ or Stuy.
The countywide programs already have electives and even core courses shared with the host school.

Regardless, people who have never seen a specialized countywide program for don't understand the value it provides for the students who would be bored in the "advanced" courses.

When we were young, students who didn't have access to such programs would graduate high school early or Dual Enroll at a university, and have to find a gap year program or deal with the social challenge of being a year or more younger than their classmates.

And that’s what will happen again. For the regular advanced kids there are already many options - there is a wealth of AP classes, more IB spots than demand, the CAP program, Project Lead the Way, early college, dual enrollment. SO MANY options, not all well used. Any motivated advanced student can build a path through high school that meets their needs. But for the very highly motivated and extremely high achieving, Blair is the offering with the track record of meeting their needs. For a very small number of kids who need it. It is extremely short sighted to take this away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is bonkers. The regional program seems responsive to the concerns parents raise here all the time that high performing kids are shut out of the very few high performing programs. Now, a larger group of high performing kids will be able to learn with their high performing peers, with the speciality focus area piece available to try to equal out the number of high performing kids at each school. Seems like a good approach to me. As for the rarefied Blair offerings, kids can get those in college.

Exactly. HS is about exposure not specialization.

So why kill the existing program that gives kids the most exposure?

What exactly is the problem with keeping our outstanding cross-county programs AND reorganizing the school district into regions?

I would have thought this was a good solution too, but apparently it has already been tried and failed with IB programs.

How?

I don't know the details but apparently people think RMIB is way better than the regional IBs?

one only needs to look at the IBDP rate and the IB classes offered at the regional IBs compared to RMIB.

I believe the regional programs’ failure is because of mcps’s insistence to put them in schools with students have a reputation for unruliness. Better to stick with the home school than to be surrounded by disruptive students.

Regional programs aren’t failures. Diploma rate is not a measure of success of IB. Where kids go for college who take any IB class is the measure of success. For example, many kids at BCC take a mix of IB and AP classes, just out of personal interest. Overall GPA and number of advance class takers would be a better measure of success.

People think RMIB is the best IB Program because it is test in only, therefore it has a very select group of the highest (humanities-interested) students in the county. The level of discussion, participation, background knowledge and drive is much higher than an opt-in program. Blair, for a similar reason, has a much higher level of student ability & preparation than any other math program. It’s a function of the selection pool. The bigger the pool, the more selective the admit group.

Well, if college is the goal, then the UMC high achiever should probably go to the school with a high % of low income families so they will stand out. Less competition.

If you look at the list of colleges for the top HS schools, RM is always on the list, with many IB students going to top schools. The HS with the regional IBs like Kennedy are never on the list.

But, I thought the regional IBs were currently test in, as well. BCC IB is not considered a regional program. We're only talking about regional IBs.

Regional IBs are test-in, but the admission standards and high school performance is lower than countywide RMIB. (But still may be worthwhile for the students vs the default local school.) Very few students choose it, though. Watkins Mill IB 70% local, 10% Gaithersburg, and 20% for the entire rest of the region.

The demand just doesn't exist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is bonkers. The regional program seems responsive to the concerns parents raise here all the time that high performing kids are shut out of the very few high performing programs. Now, a larger group of high performing kids will be able to learn with their high performing peers, with the speciality focus area piece available to try to equal out the number of high performing kids at each school. Seems like a good approach to me. As for the rarefied Blair offerings, kids can get those in college.

Exactly. HS is about exposure not specialization.

So why kill the existing program that gives kids the most exposure?

What exactly is the problem with keeping our outstanding cross-county programs AND reorganizing the school district into regions?

I would have thought this was a good solution too, but apparently it has already been tried and failed with IB programs.

How?

I don't know the details but apparently people think RMIB is way better than the regional IBs?

Even if RMIB is better than the regionals (that's to be expected), doesn't prove that the regionals have failed.

I guess the theory is that the regionals would do better if the top students weren’t all flocking to RMIB.

The kids I know that went to the regionals weren’t significantly worse than the RM kids. But the regional programs just were not good. It turns out you can’t just decide to run an IB program and have it magically appear fully formed without putting a lot of expertise and resources into developing it.

Hard disagree here. Springbrook IB has grown to the 3rd largest Diploma Programme in the county, behind RMHS and B-CC. There has been tremendous interest in the regional magnet from inside and out of the consortium. The previous poster should come out to the interest night at Springbrook. It is always a packed room of 8th graders from the NEC, Rockville, Magruder, and Sherwood clusters. One thing right at that school is the incredible work of the two coordinators in developing what was once a tiny program of 40 DP students overall into 150+ students.

What are the IB test scores for the various IB programs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:as a current student @ blair, here's a few things i've noticed

- the rigor of the program is supplied by two things - the student cohort, and the teachers.

- the biggest thing is the teachers. classes themselves do not automatically become rigorous. it's all dependent on your teacher - some go hard on you and make you struggle for every grade, others take it easy. many of my friends and myself choose classes solely based off of who teaches them - and know that the best aspect of our education is because of the insane amount of skill + efforts our teachers put in. there is no way that quality of teacher (which we're already struggling to fill at blair, major example with mr.kaluta leaving 3-4 years ago and still no proper replacement found) can be replicated across however many regional programs exist. in general, though the teachers are so unique and amazing that even the "hated" teachers in the magnet would be stellar elsewhere. the standard of teaching and respect we get is very high and I just haven't been able to feel that with most of my other teachers.

- other than the rigorous classes in mostly just math & cs, the major amount of motivation and rigor comes from the cohort. i only skimmed this thread and saw so much discussion about top 1% or 5% or blah blah, but in truth the peer group at blair is unlike one at any other high school. the concentration of people in my grade are so smart that it literally is one of my main motivating factors to try and build myself up as well - and even though a regional program would supply a very good peer group, it would for sure not give the same motivation/drive/push to literally try and make myself the best version I can be.

- from a feasibility perspective, there just isn't any way that a regional program could be of the same rigor of blair/rm/poolesville. the magnet is literally such a wonderful environment and while i'd love to expand access to it, splitting up the central programs is just not the way to go about it.

Blair student, I hope you and your classmates will speak up and share your insights with the board and Taylor.

Maybe we should invest in teaching these students about grammar instead of all math. Then they might not make these egregious errors with dangling modifiers.

Oh F off. That message was articulate and persuasive.

DP. It was persuading no one who didn’t already agree. Inevitable perhaps, but it came off as elitist and arrogant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is bonkers. The regional program seems responsive to the concerns parents raise here all the time that high performing kids are shut out of the very few high performing programs. Now, a larger group of high performing kids will be able to learn with their high performing peers, with the speciality focus area piece available to try to equal out the number of high performing kids at each school. Seems like a good approach to me. As for the rarefied Blair offerings, kids can get those in college.

Exactly. HS is about exposure not specialization.

So why kill the existing program that gives kids the most exposure?

What exactly is the problem with keeping our outstanding cross-county programs AND reorganizing the school district into regions?

I would have thought this was a good solution too, but apparently it has already been tried and failed with IB programs.

How?

I don't know the details but apparently people think RMIB is way better than the regional IBs?

one only needs to look at the IBDP rate and the IB classes offered at the regional IBs compared to RMIB.

I believe the regional programs’ failure is because of mcps’s insistence to put them in schools with students have a reputation for unruliness. Better to stick with the home school than to be surrounded by disruptive students.

Regional programs aren’t failures. Diploma rate is not a measure of success of IB. Where kids go for college who take any IB class is the measure of success. For example, many kids at BCC take a mix of IB and AP classes, just out of personal interest. Overall GPA and number of advance class takers would be a better measure of success.

People think RMIB is the best IB Program because it is test in only, therefore it has a very select group of the highest (humanities-interested) students in the county. The level of discussion, participation, background knowledge and drive is much higher than an opt-in program. Blair, for a similar reason, has a much higher level of student ability & preparation than any other math program. It’s a function of the selection pool. The bigger the pool, the more selective the admit group.

Well, if college is the goal, then the UMC high achiever should probably go to the school with a high % of low income families so they will stand out. Less competition.

If you look at the list of colleges for the top HS schools, RM is always on the list, with many IB students going to top schools. The HS with the regional IBs like Kennedy are never on the list.

But, I thought the regional IBs were currently test in, as well. BCC IB is not considered a regional program. We're only talking about regional IBs.

Regional IBs are test-in, but the admission standards and high school performance is lower than countywide RMIB. (But still may be worthwhile for the students vs the default local school.) Very few students choose it, though. Watkins Mill IB 70% local, 10% Gaithersburg, and 20% for the entire rest of the region.

The demand just doesn't exist.

It less about demand not existing then 1) Perception of differences between a programs (which may be valid and needs to be resolved)
2) Lack of understanding about the program itself
3) Regionals programs are much younger than the RMIB so it’s not really a fair comparison
4) Address class options

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I appreciate the perspective of the current student, but listen to those of us with experience outside specialized schools. You would still have your string peer group because you would be taking the same classes for your specialized program. Possibly some of your electives might be integrated with “regular” kids, but it’s an important life skill for you to learn. You will not live your adult life surrounded by peers with your same level of intelligence, motivation, and access.

My own experience at a HS in a different state with 3,000 students, 555 in my graduating class. Our grade had a cohort of kids on advanced tracks and we were need up with almost all of our classes together for 4 years because we were the only students eligible for those advanced courses.

MCPS doesn't have a TJ or Stuy.
The countywide programs already have electives and even core courses shared with the host school.

Regardless, people who have never seen a specialized countywide program for don't understand the value it provides for the students who would be bored in the "advanced" courses.

When we were young, students who didn't have access to such programs would graduate high school early or Dual Enroll at a university, and have to find a gap year program or deal with the social challenge of being a year or more younger than their classmates.

And that’s what will happen again. For the regular advanced kids there are already many options - there is a wealth of AP classes, more IB spots than demand, the CAP program, Project Lead the Way, early college, dual enrollment. SO MANY options, not all well used. Any motivated advanced student can build a path through high school that meets their needs. But for the very highly motivated and extremely high achieving, Blair is the offering with the track record of meeting their needs. For a very small number of kids who need it. It is extremely short sighted to take this away.

A) Blair isn’t going away it’s catchment area is changing
B) If it’s for a very small number of kids then it actually makes sense if it does go away and instead funnel those kids to their next stage at university. The county has to be good stewards of resources in providing opportunity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:as a current student @ blair, here's a few things i've noticed

- the rigor of the program is supplied by two things - the student cohort, and the teachers.

- the biggest thing is the teachers. classes themselves do not automatically become rigorous. it's all dependent on your teacher - some go hard on you and make you struggle for every grade, others take it easy. many of my friends and myself choose classes solely based off of who teaches them - and know that the best aspect of our education is because of the insane amount of skill + efforts our teachers put in. there is no way that quality of teacher (which we're already struggling to fill at blair, major example with mr.kaluta leaving 3-4 years ago and still no proper replacement found) can be replicated across however many regional programs exist. in general, though the teachers are so unique and amazing that even the "hated" teachers in the magnet would be stellar elsewhere. the standard of teaching and respect we get is very high and I just haven't been able to feel that with most of my other teachers.

- other than the rigorous classes in mostly just math & cs, the major amount of motivation and rigor comes from the cohort. i only skimmed this thread and saw so much discussion about top 1% or 5% or blah blah, but in truth the peer group at blair is unlike one at any other high school. the concentration of people in my grade are so smart that it literally is one of my main motivating factors to try and build myself up as well - and even though a regional program would supply a very good peer group, it would for sure not give the same motivation/drive/push to literally try and make myself the best version I can be.

- from a feasibility perspective, there just isn't any way that a regional program could be of the same rigor of blair/rm/poolesville. the magnet is literally such a wonderful environment and while i'd love to expand access to it, splitting up the central programs is just not the way to go about it.

Blair student, I hope you and your classmates will speak up and share your insights with the board and Taylor.

Maybe we should invest in teaching these students about grammar instead of all math. Then they might not make these egregious errors with dangling modifiers.

I guess you can’t argue the merits though.