What are your thoughts on Blair NON-Magnet?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a stupid post OP. Parents/families of non-magnet Blair kids will always say "it's GREAT!!). Others who go by reputation of the school will always say "it SUCKS!"

I suggest you stop reading DCUM. Almost every thread is like that..especially relating to MoCo schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not good. I may offend some folks but it's a ghetto school.

And you base this on what, exactly?

Yes.
Please give examples. My brother and I graduated from Blair in 1994. Excellent school.

I graduated from the old Blair in 94 too and it was pretty ghetto back then although they have tried to clean it up since. They didn't even want the magnet kids to interact with the regular kids back then. They had different buses, hours, bells and lunch times. You almost never saw them outside of events. The drugs and problems were rampant but man I loved Erters sandwiches when I had the money.

[Anonymous]

Don't forget that Blair has two magnets not one so there are between 700-800 magnet kids floating about for SMAC and CAP. This means that there are enough smart OOB students to ensure there are AP and honors level classes with some capable students in the subjects their magnets do not focus on. This can be a big benefit to a non-magnet kid who was close but didn't make it into one of the magnets.

The problem comes up if your kid has any learning disabilities that would place them in a non honors or non AP class. Smart kids with learning disabilities are often pushed to take the higher level classes even though they struggle and would do better in the grade level course. The grade level classes are filled with the rest of Blair which is pretty bottom of the barrel academically and on the juvenile offender acceleration path.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a stupid post OP. Parents/families of non-magnet Blair kids will always say "it's GREAT!!). Others who go by reputation of the school will always say "it SUCKS!"

I suggest you stop reading DCUM. Almost every thread is like that..especially relating to MoCo schools.

PP you are responding to. That's exactly my point. I don't know why people ask. Impossible to get objective info.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not good. I may offend some folks but it's a ghetto school.

What exactly does that mean? Please explain. Also tell us what your connection to Blair is, a student, former student, your kids when there and when?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not good. I may offend some folks but it's a ghetto school.

What exactly does that mean? Please explain. Also tell us what your connection to Blair is, a student, former student, your kids when there and when?

read 14:20 above

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not good. I may offend some folks but it's a ghetto school.

What exactly does that mean? Please explain. Also tell us what your connection to Blair is, a student, former student, your kids when there and when?

read 14:20 above

Um, 1994 was 25 years ago. How is that relevant to Blair today?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not good. I may offend some folks but it's a ghetto school.

What exactly does that mean? Please explain. Also tell us what your connection to Blair is, a student, former student, your kids when there and when?

read 14:20 above

Um, 1994 was 25 years ago. How is that relevant to Blair today?

Hasn’t changed that much.

[Anonymous]

Its gotten worse since 1994. The only thing they have improved is PR and working harder to promote the magnet kids' successes.

The school has 3083 students and is too crowded. . Is 33.9 % hispanic, 22.8% black, 22.5% white and 15% asian. 53.% have ever been on FARMS. Only 31.5% of students meet the UMD college entrance requirements.

Suspensions are under 5% because students no longer face any consequences regardless of their actions. Teachers are pressured never to report incidents and avoid making the school look bad.

[Anonymous]

We went to the open house last night. I think Blair the best choice in the DCC.

[Anonymous]

The other disturbing thing about Blair is that almost 100% of both magnet programs are white or asian. If 800 out of 3000 kids are in the magnet that is 27%. The white and asian kids combined are 37.6. If you subtract the 27% that are in the magnet that means that only 10% of the remaining white and asians are not in the magnet.

If you assume that all the magnet kids would meet UMD basic entrance requirements and subtract the 27% from 31.5% then only 4.5% of the non-magnet kids graduate meeting basic UMD entrance requirements.

Its a segregated school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The other disturbing thing about Blair is that almost 100% of both magnet programs are white or asian. If 800 out of 3000 kids are in the magnet that is 27%. The white and asian kids combined are 37.6. If you subtract the 27% that are in the magnet that means that only 10% of the remaining white and asians are not in the magnet.

If you assume that all the magnet kids would meet UMD basic entrance requirements and subtract the 27% from 31.5% then only 4.5% of the non-magnet kids graduate meeting basic UMD entrance requirements.

Its a segregated school.

Except both magnets only give kids 4 classes a day. The rest of their classes are regular Blair classes. Where is the segregation?

[Anonymous]

4 classes out of the day is a lot.

OP -could your child apply to one of the other magnet programs at Einstein or Wheaton?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:4 classes out of the day is a lot.

OP -could your child apply to one of the other magnet programs at Einstein or Wheaton?

But it does not create a school within a school when 1/2 your day is outside the magnet. For a SMAC student, they will have English, SS, Languages and an elective with everyone else. For Cap kids it is the sciences and maths that are not part of the magnet.

[Anonymous]

Those students will still be together in very large chunks due to scheduling since they all have the same block for the magnet classes and they are all advanced. There will be a few AA and hispanic students in the AP classes or on the accelerated math track BUT not many. For the white and asian kids, it "feels" diverse because look there is more than black kid in their class. For the majority of AA and hispanic kids they do not have white or asian kids in their math, English, science and other classes. Just electives that include no tracking and happen to work with their schedule to align with the magnet kids and PE. As previous posters have mentioned the magnet kids stick together at lunch and don't eat with everyone else.