Middle school magnets - criteria-based

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just got an email from TPMS that my kid is in!! Notification letters are also on ParentVue, which is great because our mail had not arrived.

Kid was in the pool for both lotteries, accepted at TPMS which is his home school.

I think a certain percentage of spots at TPMS are reserved for home school students. I am not sure if it's the same for Eastern.

25 are set aside for those in the TPMS catchment, so there is something of a separate lottery for them (same criteria, different pool). I think the ratio of seats to total MS population ends up being about 3 times greater.

That sounds really wrong. The odds of getting in have to be significantly higher.
TPMS has roughly 380 kids in each grade each year. If the top 15 percent are in the pool that's 57 kids. If there are 25 inbound set-aside seats that's a 44 percent chance of getting in!

Your math is wrong. That 380 per grade (I thought it was 400) includes the magnet kids, 100 of whom are from outside the TPMS area.

The math isn't wrong but just forgot to back out the magnet kids which makes it even more likely that in bounds kids from TPMS will get in.

Er forgetting to remove 100 kid means your math is wrong!!

You sound very literal. It's not helpful to be a jerk. People are trying to be helpful by doing back of the envelope calculations and the crowdsourcing is helpful.

I was just correcting an error and then you/PP denied you’d made an error!

NP. I think it's funny there are so many of you rigid parents on this board. You're always nitpicking and catching other people's "errors" when they are trying to be helpful or it's just part of a discussion. It's funny but also gross.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TPMS actually got more than 25. They participated in the first 100 lottery, then the 25 reserved.

Says who? Where do you get that info? TBH, I doubt there are many more than 25 in the pool looking at the numbers. Anyone here in bound for TPMS and in the pool but didn’t win the lottery? I don’t know of any. My own kid was in the pool and got a spot.

I know several kids who were inbounds and in the pool and didn't get in, including one kid who was a wild outlier by any standards. It was just back luck, but it absolutely happens.

Which year is this?

The first year of the lottery at least I know there were several exceptional in-boundary kids that were passed over. It's the nature of lotteries. They don't guarantee that the most qualified are picked.

My DC is friends with that kid. They were one of only 2 or 3 kids in their grade at TPMS to make the varsity math team.

And that is why the lottery is one of the dumbest ideas that came out of MCPS.

The following year AEI placed that kid in the magnet. Maybe it was the wait list, I don't know... but I guess the system works.

Their parents must have appealed and rightfully so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TPMS actually got more than 25. They participated in the first 100 lottery, then the 25 reserved.

Says who? Where do you get that info? TBH, I doubt there are many more than 25 in the pool looking at the numbers. Anyone here in bound for TPMS and in the pool but didn’t win the lottery? I don’t know of any. My own kid was in the pool and got a spot.

I know several kids who were inbounds and in the pool and didn't get in, including one kid who was a wild outlier by any standards. It was just back luck, but it absolutely happens.

Which year is this?

The first year of the lottery at least I know there were several exceptional in-boundary kids that were passed over. It's the nature of lotteries. They don't guarantee that the most qualified are picked.

My DC is friends with that kid. They were one of only 2 or 3 kids in their grade at TPMS to make the varsity math team.

And that is why the lottery is one of the dumbest ideas that came out of MCPS.

The following year AEI placed that kid in the magnet. Maybe it was the wait list, I don't know... but I guess the system works.

Their parents must have appealed and rightfully so.

Actually NO, it was a lottery. The kid was in the pool just not selected. There was nothing to appeal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TPMS actually got more than 25. They participated in the first 100 lottery, then the 25 reserved.

Says who? Where do you get that info? TBH, I doubt there are many more than 25 in the pool looking at the numbers. Anyone here in bound for TPMS and in the pool but didn’t win the lottery? I don’t know of any. My own kid was in the pool and got a spot.

I know several kids who were inbounds and in the pool and didn't get in, including one kid who was a wild outlier by any standards. It was just back luck, but it absolutely happens.

Which year is this?

The first year of the lottery at least I know there were several exceptional in-boundary kids that were passed over. It's the nature of lotteries. They don't guarantee that the most qualified are picked.

My DC is friends with that kid. They were one of only 2 or 3 kids in their grade at TPMS to make the varsity math team.

And that is why the lottery is one of the dumbest ideas that came out of MCPS.

The following year AEI placed that kid in the magnet. Maybe it was the wait list, I don't know... but I guess the system works.

Their parents must have appealed and rightfully so.

Actually NO, it was a lottery. The kid was in the pool just not selected. There was nothing to appeal.

Yeah, you can't appeal the lottery. You can only appeal the decision to exclude your kid from the lottery.

[Anonymous]

So do we think the kid was just randomly selected from the wait pool the second year when they usually don't admit kids? It seems more likely the kid was already at TPMS, doing exceptional work, and they moved them over bypassing the lottery system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So do we think the kid was just randomly selected from the wait pool the second year when they usually don't admit kids? It seems more likely the kid was already at TPMS, doing exceptional work, and they moved them over bypassing the lottery system.

The thread stated the kid was an in-boundary student and was one of the only kids in their grade to make the TPMS varsity math team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So do we think the kid was just randomly selected from the wait pool the second year when they usually don't admit kids? It seems more likely the kid was already at TPMS, doing exceptional work, and they moved them over bypassing the lottery system.

plenty of in-boundary kids got in through the waitlist I know of a couple personally

[Anonymous]

To my understanding, the in-bounds and out-of-bounds pools are not merged after initial selection, except, perhaps, in following years (i.e., starting in 7th). Of course, there is almost no reason for an in-bounds family to reject the offer, so getting off their wait list ends up being harder.

Even with that, though, and with, say a 40% offer rejection rate for out-of-bounds, as some prefer to stay local due to commute, friends, quality of local programming, etc., the additional opportunity to be offered an out-of-bounds spot after 3 rounds would be about an additional 6% probability (identified for the pool) or about another percent (all students), for total opportunity of about 16% (identified) or a bit under 2.5% (all students) for out-of-catchment folks when comparing to about 68% (identified) or 9% (all students) from the TPMS catchment, assuming a similar 13% proportion of students placed in the pool.

Numbers not exact, of course -- back of the envelope.

They did away with the brief period where they considered local cohort (if there were enough students who would be at your local school to manage a separate enriched class) when they went to the lottery. The first lottery pool had many more in it than last year's/this year's because they threw a very wide net, not having confidence in the highly-pandemic impacted data that year. They also did away with ability measures like CogAT, but that is another subject.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To my understanding, the in-bounds and out-of-bounds pools are not merged after initial selection, except, perhaps, in following years (i.e., starting in 7th). Of course, there is almost no reason for an in-bounds family to reject the offer, so getting off their wait list ends up being harder.

Even with that, though, and with, say a 40% offer rejection rate for out-of-bounds, as some prefer to stay local due to commute, friends, quality of local programming, etc., the additional opportunity to be offered an out-of-bounds spot after 3 rounds would be about an additional 6% probability (identified for the pool) or about another percent (all students), for total opportunity of about 16% (identified) or a bit under 2.5% (all students) for out-of-catchment folks when comparing to about 68% (identified) or 9% (all students) from the TPMS catchment, assuming a similar 13% proportion of students placed in the pool.

Numbers not exact, of course -- back of the envelope.

They did away with the brief period where they considered local cohort (if there were enough students who would be at your local school to manage a separate enriched class) when they went to the lottery. The first lottery pool had many more in it than last year's/this year's because they threw a very wide net, not having confidence in the highly-pandemic impacted data that year. They also did away with ability measures like CogAT, but that is another subject.

I have kids in the program, and it seems like they improved their selection process in the second year. This is completely anecdotal and maybe even wishful since I don't have data just observations my kids relayed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just got an email from TPMS that my kid is in!! Notification letters are also on ParentVue, which is great because our mail had not arrived.

Kid was in the pool for both lotteries, accepted at TPMS which is his home school.

I think a certain percentage of spots at TPMS are reserved for home school students. I am not sure if it's the same for Eastern.

25 are set aside for those in the TPMS catchment, so there is something of a separate lottery for them (same criteria, different pool). I think the ratio of seats to total MS population ends up being about 3 times greater.

That sounds really wrong. The odds of getting in have to be significantly higher.
TPMS has roughly 380 kids in each grade each year. If the top 15 percent are in the pool that's 57 kids. If there are 25 inbound set-aside seats that's a 44 percent chance of getting in!

You'd need to back out the 100 non-catchment magnet seats, so 25 of 280, or about 9 percent of the overall catchment population gets in. That compares to 100 seats there for over 7000 6th grade students from the rest of the lower portion of the county, closer to 1.5 percent of the population. So it's about 6 times more likely to end up in the magnet if you are within the TPMS bounds. That's without considering the relative proportions of those who might qualify based on grades, reading level and locally-normed MAP percentiles (the result is less than the top 15% of MAP scorers). Your estimate of an over 44% chance for pool qualifiers may be on the low side.

As a PP said, it was done that way to make TP a more attractive place to buy back when the program was set up. Problem is, a good portion of the SFH area in TP already was desirable, and was the most likely place for folks magnet-hunting to land. I think it's also outlived its purpose. Politics. What's really a shame, though, is that they didn't expand the program to meet the need, or even to keep pace with population growth.

The set aside for Eastern was smaller (12), but King and Clemente had 25 in-catchment reserved seats to compare with only 50 for out-of-catchment. A real head-scratcher was the set-aside for Potomac for the Chinese Immersion program. Did they need their area made more attractive?
Was it to assuage the already-well-to-do about the influx of hoi palloi from out-of-bounds? Those with outsized influence get everything...

Interesting discussion. You are right about taking out the magnet kids so you have more like 280 TPMS kids in-bounds. 15 percent of that is 42 kids. 25 spots for 42 kids in the lottery means that 60 percent get in. Could this be correct? 60 percent of kids in the TPMS catchment area with lottery qualifying scores get into the magnet?

No that's not right. Look at the at a glance #s. It's more than 280.

As an inboundary parent, I can tell you it's not that clear there are precisely 25 in boundary spots. In years past I had heard there were typically around 15 kids from PBES about half of which came from the CES, but in the first year of the lottery, for example, we only knew of 5 or 6 kids in total that were selected from PBES. Maybe the lottery selected the other 20 from the other TPMS in boundary school, you got me. Lotteries are funny that way.

The wait pool may pull more acceptances from inbounds kids. That's how it is for all the magnets in that area. The original admits may be more geographically diverse but by the time the kids show up in the fall it more skewed towards families that live closer to the schools.

At the time of selection, we had no idea who was selected. The numbers I used from PBES were based on what we observed the following fall after the wait list selections. We only knew of maybe a half dozen kids from PBES that year.

Why would you think you’d know all the PBES kids selected? Half a dozen sounds like a lot to me to know personally. There are about 220 kids per grade. Basically you mean that about half a dozen kids off the same socio economic status as you and the same social circles got in. That says nothing of the other 19 kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just got an email from TPMS that my kid is in!! Notification letters are also on ParentVue, which is great because our mail had not arrived.

Kid was in the pool for both lotteries, accepted at TPMS which is his home school.

I think a certain percentage of spots at TPMS are reserved for home school students. I am not sure if it's the same for Eastern.

25 are set aside for those in the TPMS catchment, so there is something of a separate lottery for them (same criteria, different pool). I think the ratio of seats to total MS population ends up being about 3 times greater.

That sounds really wrong. The odds of getting in have to be significantly higher.
TPMS has roughly 380 kids in each grade each year. If the top 15 percent are in the pool that's 57 kids. If there are 25 inbound set-aside seats that's a 44 percent chance of getting in!

You'd need to back out the 100 non-catchment magnet seats, so 25 of 280, or about 9 percent of the overall catchment population gets in. That compares to 100 seats there for over 7000 6th grade students from the rest of the lower portion of the county, closer to 1.5 percent of the population. So it's about 6 times more likely to end up in the magnet if you are within the TPMS bounds. That's without considering the relative proportions of those who might qualify based on grades, reading level and locally-normed MAP percentiles (the result is less than the top 15% of MAP scorers). Your estimate of an over 44% chance for pool qualifiers may be on the low side.

As a PP said, it was done that way to make TP a more attractive place to buy back when the program was set up. Problem is, a good portion of the SFH area in TP already was desirable, and was the most likely place for folks magnet-hunting to land. I think it's also outlived its purpose. Politics. What's really a shame, though, is that they didn't expand the program to meet the need, or even to keep pace with population growth.

The set aside for Eastern was smaller (12), but King and Clemente had 25 in-catchment reserved seats to compare with only 50 for out-of-catchment. A real head-scratcher was the set-aside for Potomac for the Chinese Immersion program. Did they need their area made more attractive?
Was it to assuage the already-well-to-do about the influx of hoi palloi from out-of-bounds? Those with outsized influence get everything...

Interesting discussion. You are right about taking out the magnet kids so you have more like 280 TPMS kids in-bounds. 15 percent of that is 42 kids. 25 spots for 42 kids in the lottery means that 60 percent get in. Could this be correct? 60 percent of kids in the TPMS catchment area with lottery qualifying scores get into the magnet?

No that's not right. Look at the at a glance #s. It's more than 280.

As an inboundary parent, I can tell you it's not that clear there are precisely 25 in boundary spots. In years past I had heard there were typically around 15 kids from PBES about half of which came from the CES, but in the first year of the lottery, for example, we only knew of 5 or 6 kids in total that were selected from PBES. Maybe the lottery selected the other 20 from the other TPMS in boundary school, you got me. Lotteries are funny that way.

The wait pool may pull more acceptances from inbounds kids. That's how it is for all the magnets in that area. The original admits may be more geographically diverse but by the time the kids show up in the fall it more skewed towards families that live closer to the schools.

At the time of selection, we had no idea who was selected. The numbers I used from PBES were based on what we observed the following fall after the wait list selections. We only knew of maybe a half dozen kids from PBES that year.

Why would you think you’d know all the PBES kids selected? Half a dozen sounds like a lot to me to know personally. There are about 220 kids per grade. Basically you mean that about half a dozen kids off the same socio economic status as you and the same social circles got in. That says nothing of the other 19 kids.

There are only 3 classes of compacted math at PBES each year, and by grade 5 most kids know all the kids in their math classes and well kids talk...

[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:Just got an email from TPMS that my kid is in!! Notification letters are also on ParentVue, which is great because our mail had not arrived.

Kid was in the pool for both lotteries, accepted at TPMS which is his home school.

I think a certain percentage of spots at TPMS are reserved for home school students. I am not sure if it's the same for Eastern.

25 are set aside for those in the TPMS catchment, so there is something of a separate lottery for them (same criteria, different pool). I think the ratio of seats to total MS population ends up being about 3 times greater.

That sounds really wrong. The odds of getting in have to be significantly higher.
TPMS has roughly 380 kids in each grade each year. If the top 15 percent are in the pool that's 57 kids. If there are 25 inbound set-aside seats that's a 44 percent chance of getting in!

You'd need to back out the 100 non-catchment magnet seats, so 25 of 280, or about 9 percent of the overall catchment population gets in. That compares to 100 seats there for over 7000 6th grade students from the rest of the lower portion of the county, closer to 1.5 percent of the population. So it's about 6 times more likely to end up in the magnet if you are within the TPMS bounds. That's without considering the relative proportions of those who might qualify based on grades, reading level and locally-normed MAP percentiles (the result is less than the top 15% of MAP scorers). Your estimate of an over 44% chance for pool qualifiers may be on the low side.

As a PP said, it was done that way to make TP a more attractive place to buy back when the program was set up. Problem is, a good portion of the SFH area in TP already was desirable, and was the most likely place for folks magnet-hunting to land. I think it's also outlived its purpose. Politics. What's really a shame, though, is that they didn't expand the program to meet the need, or even to keep pace with population growth.

The set aside for Eastern was smaller (12), but King and Clemente had 25 in-catchment reserved seats to compare with only 50 for out-of-catchment. A real head-scratcher was the set-aside for Potomac for the Chinese Immersion program. Did they need their area made more attractive?
Was it to assuage the already-well-to-do about the influx of hoi palloi from out-of-bounds? Those with outsized influence get everything...

Interesting discussion. You are right about taking out the magnet kids so you have more like 280 TPMS kids in-bounds. 15 percent of that is 42 kids. 25 spots for 42 kids in the lottery means that 60 percent get in. Could this be correct? 60 percent of kids in the TPMS catchment area with lottery qualifying scores get into the magnet?

No that's not right. Look at the at a glance #s. It's more than 280.

As an inboundary parent, I can tell you it's not that clear there are precisely 25 in boundary spots. In years past I had heard there were typically around 15 kids from PBES about half of which came from the CES, but in the first year of the lottery, for example, we only knew of 5 or 6 kids in total that were selected from PBES. Maybe the lottery selected the other 20 from the other TPMS in boundary school, you got me. Lotteries are funny that way.

The wait pool may pull more acceptances from inbounds kids. That's how it is for all the magnets in that area. The original admits may be more geographically diverse but by the time the kids show up in the fall it more skewed towards families that live closer to the schools.

At the time of selection, we had no idea who was selected. The numbers I used from PBES were based on what we observed the following fall after the wait list selections. We only knew of maybe a half dozen kids from PBES that year.

Why would you think you’d know all the PBES kids selected? Half a dozen sounds like a lot to me to know personally. There are about 220 kids per grade. Basically you mean that about half a dozen kids off the same socio economic status as you and the same social circles got in. That says nothing of the other 19 kids.

There are only 3 classes of compacted math at PBES each year, and by grade 5 most kids know all the kids in their math classes and well kids talk...

Not to mention, after having spent K-5 with those same 220 kids, you get to know most of them...

[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:Just got an email from TPMS that my kid is in!! Notification letters are also on ParentVue, which is great because our mail had not arrived.

Kid was in the pool for both lotteries, accepted at TPMS which is his home school.

I think a certain percentage of spots at TPMS are reserved for home school students. I am not sure if it's the same for Eastern.

25 are set aside for those in the TPMS catchment, so there is something of a separate lottery for them (same criteria, different pool). I think the ratio of seats to total MS population ends up being about 3 times greater.

That sounds really wrong. The odds of getting in have to be significantly higher.
TPMS has roughly 380 kids in each grade each year. If the top 15 percent are in the pool that's 57 kids. If there are 25 inbound set-aside seats that's a 44 percent chance of getting in!

You'd need to back out the 100 non-catchment magnet seats, so 25 of 280, or about 9 percent of the overall catchment population gets in. That compares to 100 seats there for over 7000 6th grade students from the rest of the lower portion of the county, closer to 1.5 percent of the population. So it's about 6 times more likely to end up in the magnet if you are within the TPMS bounds. That's without considering the relative proportions of those who might qualify based on grades, reading level and locally-normed MAP percentiles (the result is less than the top 15% of MAP scorers). Your estimate of an over 44% chance for pool qualifiers may be on the low side.

As a PP said, it was done that way to make TP a more attractive place to buy back when the program was set up. Problem is, a good portion of the SFH area in TP already was desirable, and was the most likely place for folks magnet-hunting to land. I think it's also outlived its purpose. Politics. What's really a shame, though, is that they didn't expand the program to meet the need, or even to keep pace with population growth.

The set aside for Eastern was smaller (12), but King and Clemente had 25 in-catchment reserved seats to compare with only 50 for out-of-catchment. A real head-scratcher was the set-aside for Potomac for the Chinese Immersion program. Did they need their area made more attractive?
Was it to assuage the already-well-to-do about the influx of hoi palloi from out-of-bounds? Those with outsized influence get everything...

Interesting discussion. You are right about taking out the magnet kids so you have more like 280 TPMS kids in-bounds. 15 percent of that is 42 kids. 25 spots for 42 kids in the lottery means that 60 percent get in. Could this be correct? 60 percent of kids in the TPMS catchment area with lottery qualifying scores get into the magnet?

No that's not right. Look at the at a glance #s. It's more than 280.

As an inboundary parent, I can tell you it's not that clear there are precisely 25 in boundary spots. In years past I had heard there were typically around 15 kids from PBES about half of which came from the CES, but in the first year of the lottery, for example, we only knew of 5 or 6 kids in total that were selected from PBES. Maybe the lottery selected the other 20 from the other TPMS in boundary school, you got me. Lotteries are funny that way.

The wait pool may pull more acceptances from inbounds kids. That's how it is for all the magnets in that area. The original admits may be more geographically diverse but by the time the kids show up in the fall it more skewed towards families that live closer to the schools.

At the time of selection, we had no idea who was selected. The numbers I used from PBES were based on what we observed the following fall after the wait list selections. We only knew of maybe a half dozen kids from PBES that year.

Why would you think you’d know all the PBES kids selected? Half a dozen sounds like a lot to me to know personally. There are about 220 kids per grade. Basically you mean that about half a dozen kids off the same socio economic status as you and the same social circles got in. That says nothing of the other 19 kids.

There are only 3 classes of compacted math at PBES each year, and by grade 5 most kids know all the kids in their math classes and well kids talk...

I’ve had two fifth grade kids at PBES get into the magnet program and I can tell you that no they don’t all know who is in until school starts (or later) and neither do you. They also don’t all know each other in fifth grade. The school is huge.

[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:

Anonymous wrote:Just got an email from TPMS that my kid is in!! Notification letters are also on ParentVue, which is great because our mail had not arrived.

Kid was in the pool for both lotteries, accepted at TPMS which is his home school.

I think a certain percentage of spots at TPMS are reserved for home school students. I am not sure if it's the same for Eastern.

25 are set aside for those in the TPMS catchment, so there is something of a separate lottery for them (same criteria, different pool). I think the ratio of seats to total MS population ends up being about 3 times greater.

That sounds really wrong. The odds of getting in have to be significantly higher.
TPMS has roughly 380 kids in each grade each year. If the top 15 percent are in the pool that's 57 kids. If there are 25 inbound set-aside seats that's a 44 percent chance of getting in!

You'd need to back out the 100 non-catchment magnet seats, so 25 of 280, or about 9 percent of the overall catchment population gets in. That compares to 100 seats there for over 7000 6th grade students from the rest of the lower portion of the county, closer to 1.5 percent of the population. So it's about 6 times more likely to end up in the magnet if you are within the TPMS bounds. That's without considering the relative proportions of those who might qualify based on grades, reading level and locally-normed MAP percentiles (the result is less than the top 15% of MAP scorers). Your estimate of an over 44% chance for pool qualifiers may be on the low side.

As a PP said, it was done that way to make TP a more attractive place to buy back when the program was set up. Problem is, a good portion of the SFH area in TP already was desirable, and was the most likely place for folks magnet-hunting to land. I think it's also outlived its purpose. Politics. What's really a shame, though, is that they didn't expand the program to meet the need, or even to keep pace with population growth.

The set aside for Eastern was smaller (12), but King and Clemente had 25 in-catchment reserved seats to compare with only 50 for out-of-catchment. A real head-scratcher was the set-aside for Potomac for the Chinese Immersion program. Did they need their area made more attractive?
Was it to assuage the already-well-to-do about the influx of hoi palloi from out-of-bounds? Those with outsized influence get everything...

Interesting discussion. You are right about taking out the magnet kids so you have more like 280 TPMS kids in-bounds. 15 percent of that is 42 kids. 25 spots for 42 kids in the lottery means that 60 percent get in. Could this be correct? 60 percent of kids in the TPMS catchment area with lottery qualifying scores get into the magnet?

No that's not right. Look at the at a glance #s. It's more than 280.

As an inboundary parent, I can tell you it's not that clear there are precisely 25 in boundary spots. In years past I had heard there were typically around 15 kids from PBES about half of which came from the CES, but in the first year of the lottery, for example, we only knew of 5 or 6 kids in total that were selected from PBES. Maybe the lottery selected the other 20 from the other TPMS in boundary school, you got me. Lotteries are funny that way.

The wait pool may pull more acceptances from inbounds kids. That's how it is for all the magnets in that area. The original admits may be more geographically diverse but by the time the kids show up in the fall it more skewed towards families that live closer to the schools.

At the time of selection, we had no idea who was selected. The numbers I used from PBES were based on what we observed the following fall after the wait list selections. We only knew of maybe a half dozen kids from PBES that year.

Why would you think you’d know all the PBES kids selected? Half a dozen sounds like a lot to me to know personally. There are about 220 kids per grade. Basically you mean that about half a dozen kids off the same socio economic status as you and the same social circles got in. That says nothing of the other 19 kids.

There are only 3 classes of compacted math at PBES each year, and by grade 5 most kids know all the kids in their math classes and well kids talk...

Not to mention, after having spent K-5 with those same 220 kids, you get to know most of them...

This is so untrue. PBES is incredibly unwelcoming with very little community.

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just got an email from TPMS that my kid is in!! Notification letters are also on ParentVue, which is great because our mail had not arrived.

Kid was in the pool for both lotteries, accepted at TPMS which is his home school.

I think a certain percentage of spots at TPMS are reserved for home school students. I am not sure if it's the same for Eastern.

25 are set aside for those in the TPMS catchment, so there is something of a separate lottery for them (same criteria, different pool). I think the ratio of seats to total MS population ends up being about 3 times greater.

That sounds really wrong. The odds of getting in have to be significantly higher.
TPMS has roughly 380 kids in each grade each year. If the top 15 percent are in the pool that's 57 kids. If there are 25 inbound set-aside seats that's a 44 percent chance of getting in!

You'd need to back out the 100 non-catchment magnet seats, so 25 of 280, or about 9 percent of the overall catchment population gets in. That compares to 100 seats there for over 7000 6th grade students from the rest of the lower portion of the county, closer to 1.5 percent of the population. So it's about 6 times more likely to end up in the magnet if you are within the TPMS bounds. That's without considering the relative proportions of those who might qualify based on grades, reading level and locally-normed MAP percentiles (the result is less than the top 15% of MAP scorers). Your estimate of an over 44% chance for pool qualifiers may be on the low side.

As a PP said, it was done that way to make TP a more attractive place to buy back when the program was set up. Problem is, a good portion of the SFH area in TP already was desirable, and was the most likely place for folks magnet-hunting to land. I think it's also outlived its purpose. Politics. What's really a shame, though, is that they didn't expand the program to meet the need, or even to keep pace with population growth.

The set aside for Eastern was smaller (12), but King and Clemente had 25 in-catchment reserved seats to compare with only 50 for out-of-catchment. A real head-scratcher was the set-aside for Potomac for the Chinese Immersion program. Did they need their area made more attractive?
Was it to assuage the already-well-to-do about the influx of hoi palloi from out-of-bounds? Those with outsized influence get everything...

Interesting discussion. You are right about taking out the magnet kids so you have more like 280 TPMS kids in-bounds. 15 percent of that is 42 kids. 25 spots for 42 kids in the lottery means that 60 percent get in. Could this be correct? 60 percent of kids in the TPMS catchment area with lottery qualifying scores get into the magnet?

No that's not right. Look at the at a glance #s. It's more than 280.

As an inboundary parent, I can tell you it's not that clear there are precisely 25 in boundary spots. In years past I had heard there were typically around 15 kids from PBES about half of which came from the CES, but in the first year of the lottery, for example, we only knew of 5 or 6 kids in total that were selected from PBES. Maybe the lottery selected the other 20 from the other TPMS in boundary school, you got me. Lotteries are funny that way.

The wait pool may pull more acceptances from inbounds kids. That's how it is for all the magnets in that area. The original admits may be more geographically diverse but by the time the kids show up in the fall it more skewed towards families that live closer to the schools.

At the time of selection, we had no idea who was selected. The numbers I used from PBES were based on what we observed the following fall after the wait list selections. We only knew of maybe a half dozen kids from PBES that year.

Why would you think you’d know all the PBES kids selected? Half a dozen sounds like a lot to me to know personally. There are about 220 kids per grade. Basically you mean that about half a dozen kids off the same socio economic status as you and the same social circles got in. That says nothing of the other 19 kids.

There are only 3 classes of compacted math at PBES each year, and by grade 5 most kids know all the kids in their math classes and well kids talk...

Not to mention, after having spent K-5 with those same 220 kids, you get to know most of them...

This is so untrue. PBES is incredibly unwelcoming with very little community.

My kids started there when we moved to the area and made many friends and found it incredibly welcoming. Most people love it.