Reaction to "Study of Choice and Special Academic Programs: Report of Findings and Recommendations"

[Anonymous]

I wonder what the true percentage of prepping is. None for my kid (accepted at all magnets applied for) or her close group of friends. That is not to say it is not different elsewhere. Not a W school-Rockville. The current magnets are helping with diversity. My child would be in a much less diverse school in Rockville but instead goes to Blair. She would not do this if it did not offer her more advanced work (as in "more slots for all children")

[Anonymous]

My 3 kids didn't take prep but got in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: So leave the competitive programs as is and add non-competitive versions. RM has the competitive magnet and Rockville high, BCC and ?? are not competitive. There could be SMACS programs in other schools which are not test based.

+1 This is a good idea. They have something like it already at TP ES. Just create more programs like this in the DCC area. There are also Choice programs for MS that are lottery based. It's only the ES that don't have more options, other than immersion.

DCC has enough programs. It's time for programs to reach the northern part of the county.

DCC doesn't have enough choice magnet programs for ES. I don't live in DCC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: So leave the competitive programs as is and add non-competitive versions. RM has the competitive magnet and Rockville high, BCC and ?? are not competitive. There could be SMACS programs in other schools which are not test based.

+1 This is a good idea. They have something like it already at TP ES. Just create more programs like this in the DCC area. There are also Choice programs for MS that are lottery based. It's only the ES that don't have more options, other than immersion.

DCC has enough programs. It's time for programs to reach the northern part of the county.

DCC doesn't have enough choice magnet programs for ES. I don't live in DCC.

But they have more than everyone else! Its odd that someone would just flippantly say, "just create more programs.... in the DCC". When, huge parts of the county that are not a part of the DCC have zero choice programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous[b wrote:]The application process is flawed. Kids in the more affluent areas take test prep to get into the programs. [/b] In areas that are economically challenged, students don't have these types of resources.

Why not raise the bar in teaching across the county so there is more access to these types of programs? There needs to be more slots for all children. There also needs to be more diversity in the school populations throughout the county. The current magnet programs are not meeting any of these needs because it creates segregated programs within the schools.

Bad generalization. Some kids take prep all over the county. Many don't. The app process is as good as it gets when you select people based on review of papers/tests - not perfect but certainly not flawed.

New PP. Playing devils advocate here... some students whole life experience up until the magnet test amounts to prep in comparison to the limited exposure some have to enrichment opportunities. Just because you have specifically taken a prep course or opened up a Cognat workbook doesn't mean you haven't had experiences that give you an advantage on the tests.

[Anonymous]

er "just because you haven't specifically..." prepped I mean

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous[b wrote:]The application process is flawed. Kids in the more affluent areas take test prep to get into the programs. [/b] In areas that are economically challenged, students don't have these types of resources.

Why not raise the bar in teaching across the county so there is more access to these types of programs? There needs to be more slots for all children. There also needs to be more diversity in the school populations throughout the county. The current magnet programs are not meeting any of these needs because it creates segregated programs within the schools.

Bad generalization. Some kids take prep all over the county. Many don't. The app process is as good as it gets when you select people based on review of papers/tests - not perfect but certainly not flawed.

New PP. Playing devils advocate here... some students whole life experience up until the magnet test amounts to prep in comparison to the limited exposure some have to enrichment opportunities. Just because you have specifically taken a prep course or opened up a Cognat workbook doesn't mean you haven't had experiences that give you an advantage on the tests.

So how do we exclude these unfairly advantaged kids from the application process. No more than 1 museum visit a year or you are disqualified. 5 books outside of school also disqualified. Good nutrition..nope! Parents with college education..another unfair advantage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

So how do we exclude these unfairly advantaged kids from the application process. No more than 1 museum visit a year or you are disqualified. 5 books outside of school also disqualified. Good nutrition..nope! Parents with college education..another unfair advantage.

Nobody is advocating excluding kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous[b wrote:]The application process is flawed. Kids in the more affluent areas take test prep to get into the programs. [/b] In areas that are economically challenged, students don't have these types of resources.

Why not raise the bar in teaching across the county so there is more access to these types of programs? There needs to be more slots for all children. There also needs to be more diversity in the school populations throughout the county. The current magnet programs are not meeting any of these needs because it creates segregated programs within the schools.

Bad generalization. Some kids take prep all over the county. Many don't. The app process is as good as it gets when you select people based on review of papers/tests - not perfect but certainly not flawed.

New PP. Playing devils advocate here... some students whole life experience up until the magnet test amounts to prep in comparison to the limited exposure some have to enrichment opportunities. Just because you have specifically taken a prep course or opened up a Cognat workbook doesn't mean you haven't had experiences that give you an advantage on the tests.

So how do we exclude these unfairly advantaged kids from the application process. No more than 1 museum visit a year or you are disqualified. 5 books outside of school also disqualified. Good nutrition..nope! Parents with college education..another unfair advantage.

I'm pp, like other poster said I'm not advocating that you exclude anyone. I'm just really questioning the whole "I don't prep" logic. I don't think any educated person would deny the impact "nurture" has on outcomes. A kid may not have prepped by studying words for the SAT but they know more words because their parents use them or they read them in a book. Its all "preparation".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: So leave the competitive programs as is and add non-competitive versions. RM has the competitive magnet and Rockville high, BCC and ?? are not competitive. There could be SMACS programs in other schools which are not test based.

+1 This is a good idea. They have something like it already at TP ES. Just create more programs like this in the DCC area. There are also Choice programs for MS that are lottery based. It's only the ES that don't have more options, other than immersion.

DCC has enough programs. It's time for programs to reach the northern part of the county.

DCC doesn't have enough choice magnet programs for ES. I don't live in DCC.

But they have more than everyone else! Its odd that someone would just flippantly say, "just create more programs.... in the DCC". When, huge parts of the county that are not a part of the DCC have zero choice programs.

The "create more magnets in DCC" comment is in response to the study that basically states that there are not enough URM in the magnet programs. Leave the test-in magnets alone, and create more choice magnets to increase participation by URM. Where do most of the URM live? In DCC.

[Anonymous]

But the idea is to increase the URMs in the test in programs too! It will be interesting to see what MCPS does with this. I assume no more test in programs just choice programs. I wonder if my child's magnet will exist by the time she graduates...and what her experience will be like if she returns to her home school if the magnet is discontinued. Blair sort of leaves kids in a weird place math and science wise if they don't complete the magnet

[Anonymous]

I recommend also reading the section of the report on the MSMC. Enlightening and leads me to the same conclusion as PP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone - the District has opened an online comment portal:
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/info/choice/report.aspx

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/info/choice/ChoiceStudyReport-Version2-20160307.pdf
p 52 of 206 MCPS is majority Hispanic in kindergarten 2013-14.
p 64 of 206 MCPS provides additional funding for focus schools and that mitigates any loss of title 1 dollars. How much money was forfeited and how much did MCPS paay extra because of lack of the title 1?

Programs were set up to get parents to send their kids out of boundary. Some programs were set up for academic purposes. Others just as a draw to get people to go to a school. Now there is a ratmaze of bureaocracy. If people are indifferent classes at school except for specials and lunch there will be isolation between the students. hat is compounded when extra curriculars are not in the school community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: So leave the competitive programs as is and add non-competitive versions. RM has the competitive magnet and Rockville high, BCC and ?? are not competitive. There could be SMACS programs in other schools which are not test based.

+1 This is a good idea. They have something like it already at TP ES. Just create more programs like this in the DCC area. There are also Choice programs for MS that are lottery based. It's only the ES that don't have more options, other than immersion.

DCC has enough programs. It's time for programs to reach the northern part of the county.

DCC doesn't have enough choice magnet programs for ES. I don't live in DCC.

But they have more than everyone else! Its odd that someone would just flippantly say, "just create more programs.... in the DCC". When, huge parts of the county that are not a part of the DCC have zero choice programs.

The "create more magnets in DCC" comment is in response to the study that basically states that there are not enough URM in the magnet programs. Leave the test-in magnets alone, and create more choice magnets to increase participation by URM. Where do most of the URM live? In DCC.

False, ever heard of Gaithersburg?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But the idea is to increase the URMs in the test in programs too! It will be interesting to see what MCPS does with this. I assume no more test in programs just choice programs. I wonder if my child's magnet will exist by the time she graduates...and what her experience will be like if she returns to her home school if the magnet is discontinued. Blair sort of leaves kids in a weird place math and science wise if they don't complete the magnet

This is fear mongering... Every major district in the country has test in magnets. MCPS is not going to go out on a limb and make that hugely unpopular act when there is no need to.. The choice study itself doesn't give the slightest suggestion to do such a thing.