Getting into Takoma Park Middle School's magnet as a boy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Students from the entire county compete for the first 100 slots.

Students from the TPMS district only compete for the other 25 slots.

Moreover, if only e.g. 17 of those 25 kids selected meet the same criteria as the first 100, the admission committee still has to take 8 more to fill the 25 in-district slots.

By definition, it is less competitive to get into the latter group than the former.

If you believe this then move to Siver Springs. Your child still may not test in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Students from the entire county compete for the first 100 slots.

Students from the TPMS district only compete for the other 25 slots.

Moreover, if only e.g. 17 of those 25 kids selected meet the same criteria as the first 100, the admission committee still has to take 8 more to fill the 25 in-district slots.

By definition, it is less competitive to get into the latter group than the former.

If you believe this then move to Siver Springs. Your child still may not test in.

Do you mean Silver Spring?

I do live in Silver Spring. My child is in the TPMS magnet, and tested in without the benefit of any slot reserved for her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Students from the entire county compete for the first 100 slots.

Students from the TPMS district only compete for the other 25 slots.

Moreover, if only e.g. 17 of those 25 kids selected meet the same criteria as the first 100, the admission committee still has to take 8 more to fill the 25 in-district slots.

By definition, it is less competitive to get into the latter group than the former.

I don't think anybody is denying that it's (somewhat) easier for kids who live inbounds to get into TPMS magnet, or into the HGCs in some other areas that reserve spots.

What we're arguing with is that there's a significant difference in ability between the out-of-boundary kids and the in-boundary kids. Case in point - your example assuming that 8 in-boundary kids (1/3 of in-boundary kids) at the TPMS magnet are somehow subpar seems exaggerated. Plus, what does subpar mean in this case? The school wouldn't do anybody any favors if it accepted kids who couldn't do the program and flunked out, so I truly doubt it is accepting kids who are significantly below the accepted average test scores, or below the lower bound of scores for out-of-boundary kids.

And, as I said, the kids themselves don't notice the difference in performance. According to my magnet kid.

But probably the most important thing is that the TPMS magnet itself appears to have done a cost-benefit. They think the benefits to the community outweigh the costs of any (theorized) lower performance. Specifically, in a lot of these immersion and other programs, there is a lot of hostility gbetween magnet/program and local kids, and TPMS has avoided this by including in-boundary.

How does the inclusion of in-boundary kids this way "benefit the community"?

[Anonymous]

Do you mean Silver Spring?

I do live in Silver Spring. My child is in the TPMS magnet, and tested in without the benefit of any slot reserved for her.

How do you know? There is no name attached to a slot. Slots are spaces.

[Anonymous]

It makes the "neighborhood parents" less resentful of the magnet kids sucking up the resources. Magnet kids get the best of everything- best teachers, best computer labs- even the busses park closer to the school for the magnet kids. This is the perspective of a magnet mom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Makes a lot of sense. There are always slots reseerved for the home school and/or region for all magnets in MCPS even the HGC. The school that host in-house HGCs have fixed number of slots on competitive basis for their own home students. For example, CSES typically reserves 5 slots for students from CS in the HGC.

Not true. I actually spoke with the HGC office about this, and it is not the case.

What is your source for this info?

This is true. I sat in on an "equity" meeting at Barnsley with the community superintendant, other Barnsley parents, and PTA officers. Each school that hosts the program receives a few (maybe 4?) extra spaces for the hosts schools kids. This is above and beyond those that get in by testing in. It's not advertised because then the other gifted kids parents will all assume that the hosts schools kids don't deserve to be there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

...

But probably the most important thing is that the TPMS magnet itself appears to have done a cost-benefit. They think the benefits to the community outweigh the costs of any (theorized) lower performance. Specifically, in a lot of these immersion and other programs, there is a lot of hostility gbetween magnet/program and local kids, and TPMS has avoided this by including in-boundary.

How does the inclusion of in-boundary kids this way "benefit the community"?

You need to re-read the quote you're responding to.

In lots of MoCo schools where there is a special program inserted into a larger school, there is a lot of tension between the immersion/magnet kids and the rest of the school. There is a perception that the magnet/immersion kids are getting more resources per kid than the rest of the school. Or that the magnet/immersion kids think they are special.

A case in point is Sligo Creek ES, where the Academy kids (rest of the school) often really resent the immersion kids. I know because my kid went to the immersion program and got beat up by academy kids, and I know other immersion kids who also got beat up.

Another case in point: at TPMS, there has been a lot of tension because the magnet kids got to go to Disneyland/Boston/wherever in 8th grade, and the rest of the school did not. In fact the rest of the school held protests about the trips the 8th grade magnet kids were taking. The Disneyland/Boston/whatever trip for the magnet kids was done away with last year. But the point is, there can be tension between magnet and non-magnet kids, unless a school does something pro-active like TPMS is doing with the in-boundary kids.

If you reserve some slots in the immersion program/magnet for local kids, then there is less tension because the rest of the school sees their friends/kids from their own neighborhood in the magnet/immersion program.

But clearly you don't want to be persuaded. Maybe somebody else will find this useful (or actually read it).

[Anonymous]

I don't know what you mean by "impeccable" but if you call the office responsible for the Center program, they will tell you in no uncertain terms that no such reserved slots exist. If they do, it is an informal practice and contrary to established rules.

Impeccable denotes reliable, trustworthy and drectly from the source--no intermediaries (he said, she said, she said on the phone)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Do you mean Silver Spring?

I do live in Silver Spring. My child is in the TPMS magnet, and tested in without the benefit of any slot reserved for her.

How do you know? There is no name attached to a slot. Slots are spaces.

The whole subject of this thread is whether girls get an admissions tip over boys, so maybe your daughter was a beneficiary?. (Sorry, I couldn't resist taking aim at your boast.)

[Anonymous]

If you do a search on the MD Public Schools forum here on DCUM you will find at least one thread about Sligo Creek ES, where the academy parents are basically calling the immersion parents snots. And the immersion parents are basically saying, what are you talking about because we weren't really thinking about you. That thread was pretty ugly. And it's a reason that schools with magnet programs do things to create good will with the home community, like reserving spots for home kids.

I don't get the person who doesn't want schools to reserve slots for in-boundary kids. Does she really think that the in-boundary kids are less qualified and will contaminate her kid, or hold the whole class back? Is she looking for Sidwell-on-the cheap, and is distressed that the exclusivity factor is diminished by reserving slots for those tacky in-boundary kids?

[Anonymous]

I get this poster. She is just bragging about her daughter. She forgets that at the middle school level there are more boys than girls interested in math, science and computer science. She forgets that more boys apply to the TPMS magnet program in math, science and computer science. She also forgets the leadership of the program and the County aim to attain a balanced gender ratio of 1:1 which means there a slots going preferentially to girls over boys to strike this equilibrium. She prefers to quibble about a few slots going to the host school. The last poster made the point with tact. I don't think she even comprehends this unequivical fact; her daugher got a reserved slot at TPMS magnet program science, math and computer science.

Sorry, for straight shooting. Let's call a spade a spade.

[Anonymous]

The benefit her child got is doubled: in boundary student from Silver Spring and female gender!

I don't know why she is making a huge fuss while blindly shooting herself in the foot.

[Anonymous]

Depending on where she lives in Silver Spring, she may not get the in-boundary preference.

BUT, her kid definitely got a gender preference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depending on where she lives in Silver Spring, she may not get the in-boundary preference.

BUT, her kid definitely got a gender preference.

Not PP, but as 10:05 explained, MCPS cannot balance for gender in the competitive-admission programs.

Thanks for explaining how the extra 25 slots benefit the community.

[Anonymous]

01/14/2011 09:32 Subject: Getting into Takoma Park Middle School's magnet as a boy

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Anonymous wrote:
Depending on where she lives in Silver Spring, she may not get the in-boundary preference.

BUT, her kid definitely got a gender preference.


Not PP, but as 10:05 explained, MCPS cannot balance for gender in the competitive-admission programs.

Sometimes it's difficult to get the 1:1 gender balance. Not enough girls apply hence in effect all get in. The ratio of male to female at our HGC is 1:1. The ratio of male to female that got in to HGC from home school is 1:1. This is not a coincidence. If the ratio of male to female at TPMS magnet is not close to 1:1 it's not for a lack of trying. Not enough qualified girls applied. And since there are more girls than boys in general, in colleges, in medical school for example, the ratio of male to female does not favor girls since science, math and computer science may not be the preferred concentration for many girls in our society (Montgomery County).

An in-boundary girl from Silver Spring has the highest statistical odds of getting into to TPMS magnet program. The poster's daughter took a "preferentially reserved slot" to use her language.