Blair SMCS Program October 23 info session

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The magnet will have enough applicants regardless of whether they make the info session virtual. It’s not like there’s incentive to reach more people. It’s a program only for the most advanced and motivated.

Having a parent able to drive you to Blair on a school night has little to do with being the most advanced and motivated. It's far easier to do if you live closer to Blair or are from a family that is well-off enough that there's a car available and a parent home from work to do this.

Parent engagement is pivotal to success in the program, particularly if the kid lives further away. Kids eventually miss a bus, stay after, etc.

So you're saying that kids need to have helicopter parents and live close by to be successful at Blair SMCS. That seems to be a good argument to dismantle it and have regional programs.

+1 It's hard to call these programs county-wide when parts of the country have far more access to them, while others require a lot of parental effort as a pre-requisite to access them.

.

Which is why we should slow down or stop the regional programs.

No, this is an argument for having regional programs. If the PP says you need to be close-by to succeed at Blair SMCS, or have very involved parents to help them succeed, that's a good argument to have programs closer to home that are accessible to more kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The magnet will have enough applicants regardless of whether they make the info session virtual. It’s not like there’s incentive to reach more people. It’s a program only for the most advanced and motivated.

Having a parent able to drive you to Blair on a school night has little to do with being the most advanced and motivated. It's far easier to do if you live closer to Blair or are from a family that is well-off enough that there's a car available and a parent home from work to do this.

Parent engagement is pivotal to success in the program, particularly if the kid lives further away. Kids eventually miss a bus, stay after, etc.

So you're saying that kids need to have helicopter parents and live close by to be successful at Blair SMCS. That seems to be a good argument to dismantle it and have regional programs.

+1 It's hard to call these programs county-wide when parts of the country have far more access to them, while others require a lot of parental effort as a pre-requisite to access them.

.

Which is why we should slow down or stop the regional programs.

No, this is an argument for having regional programs. If the PP says you need to be close-by to succeed at Blair SMCS, or have very involved parents to help them succeed, that's a good argument to have programs closer to home that are accessible to more kids.

Going to a regional magnet means watering down the Blair program, which hurts Blair the most. The DCC needs to keep Blair as it is in order to not be hurt as badly as the regional model and end of the consortia would make it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The magnet will have enough applicants regardless of whether they make the info session virtual. It’s not like there’s incentive to reach more people. It’s a program only for the most advanced and motivated.

Having a parent able to drive you to Blair on a school night has little to do with being the most advanced and motivated. It's far easier to do if you live closer to Blair or are from a family that is well-off enough that there's a car available and a parent home from work to do this.

Parent engagement is pivotal to success in the program, particularly if the kid lives further away. Kids eventually miss a bus, stay after, etc.

So you're saying that kids need to have helicopter parents and live close by to be successful at Blair SMCS. That seems to be a good argument to dismantle it and have regional programs.

The regional programs will all be garbage.

That's your opinion, not a fact. But they definitely won't be dominated by only 4 HS out of the 30+ that are in MCPS.

No one really knows. We know the math will be pretty mcps standard. We know there will be electives. We know there will be no 9th period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The magnet will have enough applicants regardless of whether they make the info session virtual. It’s not like there’s incentive to reach more people. It’s a program only for the most advanced and motivated.

Having a parent able to drive you to Blair on a school night has little to do with being the most advanced and motivated. It's far easier to do if you live closer to Blair or are from a family that is well-off enough that there's a car available and a parent home from work to do this.

Parent engagement is pivotal to success in the program, particularly if the kid lives further away. Kids eventually miss a bus, stay after, etc.

So you're saying that kids need to have helicopter parents and live close by to be successful at Blair SMCS. That seems to be a good argument to dismantle it and have regional programs.

The regional programs will all be garbage.

That's your opinion, not a fact. But they definitely won't be dominated by only 4 HS out of the 30+ that are in MCPS.

There are 4 high schools that dominant Blair SMCS, but it is out of 17 high schools that are eligible, not 30+. Also, these four high schools are definitely not the closest to Blair by any stretch, aside from students where Blair is the home school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The magnet will have enough applicants regardless of whether they make the info session virtual. It’s not like there’s incentive to reach more people. It’s a program only for the most advanced and motivated.

Having a parent able to drive you to Blair on a school night has little to do with being the most advanced and motivated. It's far easier to do if you live closer to Blair or are from a family that is well-off enough that there's a car available and a parent home from work to do this.

Parent engagement is pivotal to success in the program, particularly if the kid lives further away. Kids eventually miss a bus, stay after, etc.

So you're saying that kids need to have helicopter parents and live close by to be successful at Blair SMCS. That seems to be a good argument to dismantle it and have regional programs.

The regional programs will all be garbage.

That's your opinion, not a fact. But they definitely won't be dominated by only 4 HS out of the 30+ that are in MCPS.

There are 4 high schools that dominant Blair SMCS, but it is out of 17 high schools that are eligible, not 30+. Also, these four high schools are definitely not the closest to Blair by any stretch, aside from students where Blair is the home school.

And two of those schools are some of the richest in the county. Access to Blair should be confined to just Blair catchment, if MCPS is serious about equity. Maybe just the other DCC schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The magnet will have enough applicants regardless of whether they make the info session virtual. It’s not like there’s incentive to reach more people. It’s a program only for the most advanced and motivated.

Having a parent able to drive you to Blair on a school night has little to do with being the most advanced and motivated. It's far easier to do if you live closer to Blair or are from a family that is well-off enough that there's a car available and a parent home from work to do this.

Parent engagement is pivotal to success in the program, particularly if the kid lives further away. Kids eventually miss a bus, stay after, etc.

So you're saying that kids need to have helicopter parents and live close by to be successful at Blair SMCS. That seems to be a good argument to dismantle it and have regional programs.

+1 It's hard to call these programs county-wide when parts of the country have far more access to them, while others require a lot of parental effort as a pre-requisite to access them.

.

Which is why we should slow down or stop the regional programs.

No, this is an argument for having regional programs. If the PP says you need to be close-by to succeed at Blair SMCS, or have very involved parents to help them succeed, that's a good argument to have programs closer to home that are accessible to more kids.

Going to a regional magnet means watering down the Blair program, which hurts Blair the most. The DCC needs to keep Blair as it is in order to not be hurt as badly as the regional model and end of the consortia would make it.

You're conflating several unrelated points. We are not talking about hurting the quality of Blair. We're talking about the accessibility of Blair.

If PPs, who presumably are familiar with the Blair program, say that the ability to get to Blair without any public transportation at 7 pm on a school night, is indicative of the ability of that student to succeed at Blair, then that indicates that geographic proximity is important for success at programs like Blair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The magnet will have enough applicants regardless of whether they make the info session virtual. It’s not like there’s incentive to reach more people. It’s a program only for the most advanced and motivated.

Having a parent able to drive you to Blair on a school night has little to do with being the most advanced and motivated. It's far easier to do if you live closer to Blair or are from a family that is well-off enough that there's a car available and a parent home from work to do this.

Parent engagement is pivotal to success in the program, particularly if the kid lives further away. Kids eventually miss a bus, stay after, etc.

So you're saying that kids need to have helicopter parents and live close by to be successful at Blair SMCS. That seems to be a good argument to dismantle it and have regional programs.

+1 It's hard to call these programs county-wide when parts of the country have far more access to them, while others require a lot of parental effort as a pre-requisite to access them.

.

Which is why we should slow down or stop the regional programs.

No, this is an argument for having regional programs. If the PP says you need to be close-by to succeed at Blair SMCS, or have very involved parents to help them succeed, that's a good argument to have programs closer to home that are accessible to more kids.

Going to a regional magnet means watering down the Blair program, which hurts Blair the most. The DCC needs to keep Blair as it is in order to not be hurt as badly as the regional model and end of the consortia would make it.

You're conflating several unrelated points. We are not talking about hurting the quality of Blair. We're talking about the accessibility of Blair.

If PPs, who presumably are familiar with the Blair program, say that the ability to get to Blair without any public transportation at 7 pm on a school night, is indicative of the ability of that student to succeed at Blair, then that indicates that geographic proximity is important for success at programs like Blair.

DP, but I’d imagine geographic proximity (or at least time in travel) has a significant bearing on a demanding program like Blair’s. Studies show that more time in travel means less sleep and less homework time. As such it would seem like if a kid has to spend 3 hours a day on a public commute then it’s going to hurt their ability to succeed.

[Anonymous]

^^3 hours is purely made up but seems correct particularly if a child goes home after school and then back again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The magnet will have enough applicants regardless of whether they make the info session virtual. It’s not like there’s incentive to reach more people. It’s a program only for the most advanced and motivated.

Having a parent able to drive you to Blair on a school night has little to do with being the most advanced and motivated. It's far easier to do if you live closer to Blair or are from a family that is well-off enough that there's a car available and a parent home from work to do this.

Parent engagement is pivotal to success in the program, particularly if the kid lives further away. Kids eventually miss a bus, stay after, etc.

So you're saying that kids need to have helicopter parents and live close by to be successful at Blair SMCS. That seems to be a good argument to dismantle it and have regional programs.

+1 It's hard to call these programs county-wide when parts of the country have far more access to them, while others require a lot of parental effort as a pre-requisite to access them.

.

Which is why we should slow down or stop the regional programs.

No, this is an argument for having regional programs. If the PP says you need to be close-by to succeed at Blair SMCS, or have very involved parents to help them succeed, that's a good argument to have programs closer to home that are accessible to more kids.

Going to a regional magnet means watering down the Blair program, which hurts Blair the most. The DCC needs to keep Blair as it is in order to not be hurt as badly as the regional model and end of the consortia would make it.

You're conflating several unrelated points. We are not talking about hurting the quality of Blair. We're talking about the accessibility of Blair.

If PPs, who presumably are familiar with the Blair program, say that the ability to get to Blair without any public transportation at 7 pm on a school night, is indicative of the ability of that student to succeed at Blair, then that indicates that geographic proximity is important for success at programs like Blair.

DP, but I’d imagine geographic proximity (or at least time in travel) has a significant bearing on a demanding program like Blair’s. Studies show that more time in travel means less sleep and less homework time. As such it would seem like if a kid has to spend 3 hours a day on a public commute then it’s going to hurt their ability to succeed.

True which is why most applicants to Blair SMCS come from 4 schools that are relatively closer, because other kids factor in that commute time and stick with their home school if it's decent enough. I recognize that the regional programs aren't particularly well thought through, but I also think they'll be far more accessible than the current selective programs (Blair and RMIB).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would imagine the in person demand is part of getting people to grapple with the time and distance. If you can’t show up for a single info session, is this Bery demanding commute going to be something you can manage for your family every weekday?

The "bery" demanding commute isn't as much of an issue since Blair SMCS offers bus service to kids every day. But if you think that part of MCPS admissions to a magnet should be the ability to drive 40 minutes each way for a single hour on a single school night, well, that's your vision of what equity and merit looks like.

+1 They have so many calls that are streamed out--why couldn't they do that for the RMIB and Blair SMCS ones unless they were trying to make it harder for people to get the information? It was particularly striking because they offered the Poolesville info session via email with a virtual link in the same email where they said the Blair session was only in person at Blair.

+2 Most MCPS info sessions about any issue are streamed-.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why didn't MCPS offer a zoom link? They had one for Poolesville and several of the other programs.

Even for RMIB--there was no virtual link but they had 2 different sessions at different times. But just one for Blair SMCS so if you couldn't make it for some reason, you were SOL.

Think for a moment and wonder why

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would imagine the in person demand is part of getting people to grapple with the time and distance. If you can’t show up for a single info session, is this Bery demanding commute going to be something you can manage for your family every weekday?

Or gatekeeping ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why didn't MCPS offer a zoom link? They had one for Poolesville and several of the other programs.

Even for RMIB--there was no virtual link but they had 2 different sessions at different times. But just one for Blair SMCS so if you couldn't make it for some reason, you were SOL.

Think for a moment and wonder why

I know why and I don't like the answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would imagine the in person demand is part of getting people to grapple with the time and distance. If you can’t show up for a single info session, is this Bery demanding commute going to be something you can manage for your family every weekday?

The "bery" demanding commute isn't as much of an issue since Blair SMCS offers bus service to kids every day. But if you think that part of MCPS admissions to a magnet should be the ability to drive 40 minutes each way for a single hour on a single school night, well, that's your vision of what equity and merit looks like.

+1 They have so many calls that are streamed out--why couldn't they do that for the RMIB and Blair SMCS ones unless they were trying to make it harder for people to get the information? It was particularly striking because they offered the Poolesville info session via email with a virtual link in the same email where they said the Blair session was only in person at Blair.

They wanted to see students in person and parents too to "weed" them out. Playing games

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why didn't MCPS offer a zoom link? They had one for Poolesville and several of the other programs.

Even for RMIB--there was no virtual link but they had 2 different sessions at different times. But just one for Blair SMCS so if you couldn't make it for some reason, you were SOL.

Think for a moment and wonder why

I know why and I don't like the answer.

No one ever said the selection process for Blair SMCS was particularly robust. It's only based on grades and a single MAP-M data point.