When is the plan for new HS programs coming out?

[Anonymous]

slide links please?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As far as I can tell no one is talking about scrapping the Blair magnet. Presumably the only change *might* be that it is now a regional not a countywide program, correct?

I am curious, although I don't pretend to have any idea what the answer is, what percentage of current magnet students at Blair come outside the proposed region. I understand the entire county is eligible, but I'm also sure there must be parts of the county where few students would consider making the commute.

Folks have gone through in the past and done an "analysis" of the magnet directory. Consistently, most kids come from within the DCC. At one point I think the other "most sending schools" were WJ and Wootton. But if we assume 100 kids per grade, I have no doubt that you can find 100 capable kids in each grade across Blair, Einstein, Northwood, B-CC, and Whitman.

Or across WJ, Churchill, Woodward, and Wheaton.

I don't even think there would be a drop in rigor/level of preparation.

There are about 900 students who apply, lets throw in a 100 more who may not have due to location/curriculum. So, lets say out of those maybe 200 are not qualified. They easily could do one school with just a magnet program with 500 students per year.

Having a 500-kids-per-year program seems like the worst of all possible worlds. Transportation would still be difficult/impossible for many families, there'd be lots of faraway kids who do attend but struggle to participate in extracurriculars and feel part of the school community, but then things would be way easier for families who happen to live nearby which would be unfair. But then you'd still deal with the "watering down" where parents are freaking out about the impact of having kids attend who are a little lower than the top 1% of the county (I don't get the issues but clearly some parents think it's problematic.) If you're going to increase the number of kids (which I think you should!), you should at least spread them out among schools to make the programs more accessible to more families.

You’re describing TJ in Fairfax county which is very successful and a top high school in US

Well if that's true, either Fairfax kids are way smarter than MoCo kids, or the parents here who think that there aren't possibly 500 kids per year to support rigorous regional magnets in MCPS are full of crap...

Six small regional programs can’t match the impact of one unified school. With 500 students per grade in one place, you get more clubs, advanced classes, and shared resources. Splitting into groups of 80 waters everything down. Collective strength beats fragmentation.

You are assuming there are only 500 kids per grade in the entire district capable of doing the work. That's absurd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As far as I can tell no one is talking about scrapping the Blair magnet. Presumably the only change *might* be that it is now a regional not a countywide program, correct?

I am curious, although I don't pretend to have any idea what the answer is, what percentage of current magnet students at Blair come outside the proposed region. I understand the entire county is eligible, but I'm also sure there must be parts of the county where few students would consider making the commute.

Folks have gone through in the past and done an "analysis" of the magnet directory. Consistently, most kids come from within the DCC. At one point I think the other "most sending schools" were WJ and Wootton. But if we assume 100 kids per grade, I have no doubt that you can find 100 capable kids in each grade across Blair, Einstein, Northwood, B-CC, and Whitman.

Or across WJ, Churchill, Woodward, and Wheaton.

I don't even think there would be a drop in rigor/level of preparation.

There are about 900 students who apply, lets throw in a 100 more who may not have due to location/curriculum. So, lets say out of those maybe 200 are not qualified. They easily could do one school with just a magnet program with 500 students per year.

Having a 500-kids-per-year program seems like the worst of all possible worlds. Transportation would still be difficult/impossible for many families, there'd be lots of faraway kids who do attend but struggle to participate in extracurriculars and feel part of the school community, but then things would be way easier for families who happen to live nearby which would be unfair. But then you'd still deal with the "watering down" where parents are freaking out about the impact of having kids attend who are a little lower than the top 1% of the county (I don't get the issues but clearly some parents think it's problematic.) If you're going to increase the number of kids (which I think you should!), you should at least spread them out among schools to make the programs more accessible to more families.

You’re describing TJ in Fairfax county which is very successful and a top high school in US

Well if that's true, either Fairfax kids are way smarter than MoCo kids, or the parents here who think that there aren't possibly 500 kids per year to support rigorous regional magnets in MCPS are full of crap...

Six small regional programs can’t match the impact of one unified school. With 500 students per grade in one place, you get more clubs, advanced classes, and shared resources. Splitting into groups of 80 waters everything down. Collective strength beats fragmentation.

You are assuming there are only 500 kids per grade in the entire district capable of doing the work. That's absurd.

What does that mean? Right now it’s only 160 kids allowed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So does BOE actually care about public sentiment? Bc it seems from DCUM that they vociferously oppose public and want to do the exact opposit

I’m sure it’s tricky. I remember seeing a slide about responses to the boundary study, and I noted that a much larger share of responses had come from W clusters. The DCC was much less represented. While I am sure the BOE is interested in feedback, I’m sure they note that not all perspectives are equally represented.

As a DCC family, I know they don’t care about us so why bother. They will make their decisions and we will make our decisions accordingly. Worst case for us is we do a private virtual school or go private which we may anyway as we have no choice as one of my kids is struggling to get all the graduation requirements in due to lack of offerings.

All high schools offer classes for graduation. This doesn’t make sense

No, they don't. If your child starts Algebra in 6th they don't have enough math and are missing a year (assuming one year is AP stats).

Look our friend has a math genius kid who is doing grade 11 and 12 math at MC virtual. His parents aren’t saying WJ doesn’t care about him or kids graduating. There are so many summer and evening classes at MC. You need to stop whining that no one cares and do more problem solving.

Evening classes only work if your kids are in no sports or extracurricular activities. So, that's not an option.

The entitlement is breathtaking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you with super special bright children, good for you. But this is public school and it cannot cater to the needs of a tiny minority.

I don’t understand why this kind of narrative continues to prevail. Whether it’s countywide or regional magnet programs, they only serve a small minority of students. Take TJ in Fairfax, for example — it’s the same case. So why can’t MCPS offer the same level of opportunity that Fairfax County does? Are we just inferior to our neighbors?

A small minority and one select minority are very different things. For example, a small minority of kids are in compacted math because they need acceleration and can be grouped together and provided services along a continuum all across the county. Some of these same student need even more acceleration and challenge that the district can't setup in every school because of resources, so magnets are provided. That is different than 1 Kid that would be taking Pre-Cal in 8th grade that might not even be in the same school as kids already taking Alg2. That 1 Kid needs parental support to take Pre-Cal at the HS first thing in the morning and then come back to MS for other classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you with super special bright children, good for you. But this is public school and it cannot cater to the needs of a tiny minority.

I don’t understand why this kind of narrative continues to prevail. Whether it’s countywide or regional magnet programs, they only serve a small minority of students. Take TJ in Fairfax, for example — it’s the same case. So why can’t MCPS offer the same level of opportunity that Fairfax County does? Are we just inferior to our neighbors?

It’s about resources. There are limited resources.

Yeah in MoCo we pay higher taxes but have fewer resources. Maybe they should look at all the wasteful spending MCPS does. So if Blair/poolsville/RM no longer exist as countywide programs, more people will be fleeing away from this crappy place. It’s asinine and shortsighted to kill these long time established flagship programs at Moco while Fairfax keeps to be proud of its well-known TJ.

If parents are really going to flee because they can't bear to have their top 1% kid in class with a lowly top 5% kid, or because they might have to take one math class virtually their senior year, then good riddance, honestly. They can go to the private schools they crave and their families can afford, and meanwhile 6 times more kids who would benefit from strong programming will get it (including top 1% kids who used to not be able to go to countywide programs due to logistics.)

The vast majority of magnet kids are not wealthy enough to send their kids to specialized private school. But even if they could, most private schools cannot offer what MCPS magnet schools offer, which is why some private school students end up going to these magnets if they get in.

Those county wide magnets are one of the few shining stars in MCPS. It's one of the reasons why we were drawn to this school district from out west. It offers various programs for very high achieving kids that many school districts do not. Even if my kid didn't make it to one of the magnets, the fact that there are such programs here means it draws high achieving kids to the school district.

If you take that away, MCPS becomes a middling school district. It's ironic that MCPS likes to tout the SAT/AP scores etc of high achieving students, and then at the same time tell them that they should not expect to have their needs met in school.

Dumbing down the entire school district is not a worthy goal. A county wide magnet attracts the very top, which means they have a sizeable cohort of like high achieving students.

I think regional programs have its place, but so does a county wide magnet.

Why dod we need a county wide magnet if we have regional magnets. If the regional model offered what kids needed who would be choosing to go further away from home just to attend a county wide magnet. Yes you moved here because of what you heard about one magnet. That doesn't mean it's going to stay like that forever into eternity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you with super special bright children, good for you. But this is public school and it cannot cater to the needs of a tiny minority.

I don’t understand why this kind of narrative continues to prevail. Whether it’s countywide or regional magnet programs, they only serve a small minority of students. Take TJ in Fairfax, for example — it’s the same case. So why can’t MCPS offer the same level of opportunity that Fairfax County does? Are we just inferior to our neighbors?

A small minority and one select minority are very different things. For example, a small minority of kids are in compacted math because they need acceleration and can be grouped together and provided services along a continuum all across the county. Some of these same student need even more acceleration and challenge that the district can't setup in every school because of resources, so magnets are provided. That is different than 1 Kid that would be taking Pre-Cal in 8th grade that might not even be in the same school as kids already taking Alg2. That 1 Kid needs parental support to take Pre-Cal at the HS first thing in the morning and then come back to MS for other classes.

You understand it’s not just 1 kid in this county who can do this? Right now many kids in Blair and Poolesville are that advanced and get their needs fulfilled

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So does BOE actually care about public sentiment? Bc it seems from DCUM that they vociferously oppose public and want to do the exact opposit

I’m sure it’s tricky. I remember seeing a slide about responses to the boundary study, and I noted that a much larger share of responses had come from W clusters. The DCC was much less represented. While I am sure the BOE is interested in feedback, I’m sure they note that not all perspectives are equally represented.

As a DCC family, I know they don’t care about us so why bother. They will make their decisions and we will make our decisions accordingly. Worst case for us is we do a private virtual school or go private which we may anyway as we have no choice as one of my kids is struggling to get all the graduation requirements in due to lack of offerings.

All high schools offer classes for graduation. This doesn’t make sense

No, they don't. If your child starts Algebra in 6th they don't have enough math and are missing a year (assuming one year is AP stats).

Look our friend has a math genius kid who is doing grade 11 and 12 math at MC virtual. His parents aren’t saying WJ doesn’t care about him or kids graduating. There are so many summer and evening classes at MC. You need to stop whining that no one cares and do more problem solving.

Evening classes only work if your kids are in no sports or extracurricular activities. So, that's not an option.

Look, it seems you want the county to solve all the logistical problems and that's just not going to happen. Does there need to be more transportation times/options to MC, yes. But believe that the school district is going to offer very very advance classes when the population just isn't there for that, isn't going to happen. Just because parents are choosing to accelerate their kids outside of school, it is not now on the district to figure out a way to keep these parents and students happy and engaged beyond a normal on-grade level or accelerated curriculum. As has already been noted, most school districts don't offer the level of magnets or special programs that MCPS does. Now you're asking them to go beyond that, when there is a larger group of families that are asking them to provide more resource so that all the current programs can thrive and so that kids don't have to be bussed for hours each way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you with super special bright children, good for you. But this is public school and it cannot cater to the needs of a tiny minority.

I don’t understand why this kind of narrative continues to prevail. Whether it’s countywide or regional magnet programs, they only serve a small minority of students. Take TJ in Fairfax, for example — it’s the same case. So why can’t MCPS offer the same level of opportunity that Fairfax County does? Are we just inferior to our neighbors?

A small minority and one select minority are very different things. For example, a small minority of kids are in compacted math because they need acceleration and can be grouped together and provided services along a continuum all across the county. Some of these same student need even more acceleration and challenge that the district can't setup in every school because of resources, so magnets are provided. That is different than 1 Kid that would be taking Pre-Cal in 8th grade that might not even be in the same school as kids already taking Alg2. That 1 Kid needs parental support to take Pre-Cal at the HS first thing in the morning and then come back to MS for other classes.

You understand it’s not just 1 kid in this county who can do this? Right now many kids in Blair and Poolesville are that advanced and get their needs fulfilled

You understand that the regional model would likely create similar program across the 6 regions thus creating more opportunity for more capable students. So yes, I understand that it's not just 1 kid. I also understand that's why getting rid of the countywide magnets in favor of 6 regions makes sense.

[Anonymous]

Why dod we need a county wide magnet if we have regional magnets. If the regional model offered what kids needed who would be choosing to go further away from home just to attend a county wide magnet. Yes you moved here because of what you heard about one magnet. That doesn't mean it's going to stay like that forever into eternity.

Let's say you have a great glass of orange juice from the oranges you grow. It's so good that you sell it at your local farmer's market. But only some people near the farmer's market can get your orange juice. It's not a question of who deserves the juice the most: it's who has the opportunity. Later, you implement a system trying to make sure that only the superfans of the juice get it, so the deserving get it. However, people (who don't superfan the juice as much) complain. If you try to bring everyone who wants the juice, no matter how close they live or how much they deserve it, you have to either plant more orange trees, at great expense to yourself, or dilute the juice with water and hope that the people who care are quickly silenced because you're too powerful. Which do you think you will do?

Now: the juice is the magnet programs, "deserving/wanting" the juice more means showing more need by not having enough challenge at your home school, and you are MCPS.
It's not that countywide programs are bad; rather, MCPS' implementation is bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As far as I can tell no one is talking about scrapping the Blair magnet. Presumably the only change *might* be that it is now a regional not a countywide program, correct?

I am curious, although I don't pretend to have any idea what the answer is, what percentage of current magnet students at Blair come outside the proposed region. I understand the entire county is eligible, but I'm also sure there must be parts of the county where few students would consider making the commute.

Folks have gone through in the past and done an "analysis" of the magnet directory. Consistently, most kids come from within the DCC. At one point I think the other "most sending schools" were WJ and Wootton. But if we assume 100 kids per grade, I have no doubt that you can find 100 capable kids in each grade across Blair, Einstein, Northwood, B-CC, and Whitman.

Or across WJ, Churchill, Woodward, and Wheaton.

I don't even think there would be a drop in rigor/level of preparation.

There are about 900 students who apply, lets throw in a 100 more who may not have due to location/curriculum. So, lets say out of those maybe 200 are not qualified. They easily could do one school with just a magnet program with 500 students per year.

Having a 500-kids-per-year program seems like the worst of all possible worlds. Transportation would still be difficult/impossible for many families, there'd be lots of faraway kids who do attend but struggle to participate in extracurriculars and feel part of the school community, but then things would be way easier for families who happen to live nearby which would be unfair. But then you'd still deal with the "watering down" where parents are freaking out about the impact of having kids attend who are a little lower than the top 1% of the county (I don't get the issues but clearly some parents think it's problematic.) If you're going to increase the number of kids (which I think you should!), you should at least spread them out among schools to make the programs more accessible to more families.

You’re describing TJ in Fairfax county which is very successful and a top high school in US

And this is not Fairfax and nowhere did anyone say that we were trying to duplicate Fairfax County or TJ. If you're in love with TJ, feel free to move to Fairfax and going through the TJ application process. What is going on here is a program analysis for MoCo and trying to provide the programming and servicing that works best for MoCo. And what people in MoCo are asking for and have been complaining to the BOE/CO about is the need to spread out the programming/resources and increase seats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you with super special bright children, good for you. But this is public school and it cannot cater to the needs of a tiny minority.

I don’t understand why this kind of narrative continues to prevail. Whether it’s countywide or regional magnet programs, they only serve a small minority of students. Take TJ in Fairfax, for example — it’s the same case. So why can’t MCPS offer the same level of opportunity that Fairfax County does? Are we just inferior to our neighbors?

It’s about resources. There are limited resources.

Yeah in MoCo we pay higher taxes but have fewer resources. Maybe they should look at all the wasteful spending MCPS does. So if Blair/poolsville/RM no longer exist as countywide programs, more people will be fleeing away from this crappy place. It’s asinine and shortsighted to kill these long time established flagship programs at Moco while Fairfax keeps to be proud of its well-known TJ.

If parents are really going to flee because they can't bear to have their top 1% kid in class with a lowly top 5% kid, or because they might have to take one math class virtually their senior year, then good riddance, honestly. They can go to the private schools they crave and their families can afford, and meanwhile 6 times more kids who would benefit from strong programming will get it (including top 1% kids who used to not be able to go to countywide programs due to logistics.)

The vast majority of magnet kids are not wealthy enough to send their kids to specialized private school. But even if they could, most private schools cannot offer what MCPS magnet schools offer, which is why some private school students end up going to these magnets if they get in.

Those county wide magnets are one of the few shining stars in MCPS. It's one of the reasons why we were drawn to this school district from out west. It offers various programs for very high achieving kids that many school districts do not. Even if my kid didn't make it to one of the magnets, the fact that there are such programs here means it draws high achieving kids to the school district.

If you take that away, MCPS becomes a middling school district. It's ironic that MCPS likes to tout the SAT/AP scores etc of high achieving students, and then at the same time tell them that they should not expect to have their needs met in school.

Dumbing down the entire school district is not a worthy goal. A county wide magnet attracts the very top, which means they have a sizeable cohort of like high achieving students.

I think regional programs have its place, but so does a county wide magnet.

Why dod we need a county wide magnet if we have regional magnets. If the regional model offered what kids needed who would be choosing to go further away from home just to attend a county wide magnet. Yes you moved here because of what you heard about one magnet. That doesn't mean it's going to stay like that forever into eternity.

A county wide magnet draws the top performers in the entire county, whereas the regional only draws from a few HS. The peer group will be different.

Look at the IB classes offered at RMIB vs a school like Kennedy, a regional IB magnet. RMIB offers more IB classes than Kennedy because there is demand for it. RM has IB AN/APP HL, and it also has two MVC classes. Kennedy doesn't offer IB HL math.

If you make RM regional, the demand for these classes will be lower, and it will not be cost effective to keep those additional IB classes.

This effectively dumbs down the IB program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Why dod we need a county wide magnet if we have regional magnets. If the regional model offered what kids needed who would be choosing to go further away from home just to attend a county wide magnet. Yes you moved here because of what you heard about one magnet. That doesn't mean it's going to stay like that forever into eternity.

Let's say you have a great glass of orange juice from the oranges you grow. It's so good that you sell it at your local farmer's market. But only some people near the farmer's market can get your orange juice. It's not a question of who deserves the juice the most: it's who has the opportunity. Later, you implement a system trying to make sure that only the superfans of the juice get it, so the deserving get it. However, people (who don't superfan the juice as much) complain. If you try to bring everyone who wants the juice, no matter how close they live or how much they deserve it, you have to either plant more orange trees, at great expense to yourself, or dilute the juice with water and hope that the people who care are quickly silenced because you're too powerful. Which do you think you will do?

Now: the juice is the magnet programs, "deserving/wanting" the juice more means showing more need by not having enough challenge at your home school, and you are MCPS.
It's not that countywide programs are bad; rather, MCPS' implementation is bad.

This is a crazy analogy, because Superfan does not = more deserving, it equals those who had the opportunity to try it and thus became a Superfan. As for which do you think you will do? Well since I understand business, I would put together a plan to scale the business, which Yes does require investment so that by base is larger and thus I'm able to sell more product and reach more people.

As for countywide programs, no one has said they are bad. What they said is that they don't service enough capable kids, and that some capable kids choose not to apply or attend because they are too far away. People including CO have also noted that some programs in the county may no longer have the same level of interest as other programs and there may be interest in newer programming that doesn't yet exist, because you know time change. As a district the are responsible for using resources wisely to address the greatest amount of needs. So we're not saying that extra high acheiving students should be ignored, we're saying they may not continue to be serviced in the same way moving forward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you with super special bright children, good for you. But this is public school and it cannot cater to the needs of a tiny minority.

I don’t understand why this kind of narrative continues to prevail. Whether it’s countywide or regional magnet programs, they only serve a small minority of students. Take TJ in Fairfax, for example — it’s the same case. So why can’t MCPS offer the same level of opportunity that Fairfax County does? Are we just inferior to our neighbors?

It’s about resources. There are limited resources.

Yeah in MoCo we pay higher taxes but have fewer resources. Maybe they should look at all the wasteful spending MCPS does. So if Blair/poolsville/RM no longer exist as countywide programs, more people will be fleeing away from this crappy place. It’s asinine and shortsighted to kill these long time established flagship programs at Moco while Fairfax keeps to be proud of its well-known TJ.

If parents are really going to flee because they can't bear to have their top 1% kid in class with a lowly top 5% kid, or because they might have to take one math class virtually their senior year, then good riddance, honestly. They can go to the private schools they crave and their families can afford, and meanwhile 6 times more kids who would benefit from strong programming will get it (including top 1% kids who used to not be able to go to countywide programs due to logistics.)

The vast majority of magnet kids are not wealthy enough to send their kids to specialized private school. But even if they could, most private schools cannot offer what MCPS magnet schools offer, which is why some private school students end up going to these magnets if they get in.

Those county wide magnets are one of the few shining stars in MCPS. It's one of the reasons why we were drawn to this school district from out west. It offers various programs for very high achieving kids that many school districts do not. Even if my kid didn't make it to one of the magnets, the fact that there are such programs here means it draws high achieving kids to the school district.

If you take that away, MCPS becomes a middling school district. It's ironic that MCPS likes to tout the SAT/AP scores etc of high achieving students, and then at the same time tell them that they should not expect to have their needs met in school.

Dumbing down the entire school district is not a worthy goal. A county wide magnet attracts the very top, which means they have a sizeable cohort of like high achieving students.

I think regional programs have its place, but so does a county wide magnet.

Why dod we need a county wide magnet if we have regional magnets. If the regional model offered what kids needed who would be choosing to go further away from home just to attend a county wide magnet. Yes you moved here because of what you heard about one magnet. That doesn't mean it's going to stay like that forever into eternity.

A county wide magnet draws the top performers in the entire county, whereas the regional only draws from a few HS. The peer group will be different.

Look at the IB classes offered at RMIB vs a school like Kennedy, a regional IB magnet. RMIB offers more IB classes than Kennedy because there is demand for it. RM has IB AN/APP HL, and it also has two MVC classes. Kennedy doesn't offer IB HL math.

If you make RM regional, the demand for these classes will be lower, and it will not be cost effective to keep those additional IB classes.

This effectively dumbs down the IB program.

That's an assumption. The Kennedy IB program and the RMIB program were not setup to operate the same initially.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you with super special bright children, good for you. But this is public school and it cannot cater to the needs of a tiny minority.

I don’t understand why this kind of narrative continues to prevail. Whether it’s countywide or regional magnet programs, they only serve a small minority of students. Take TJ in Fairfax, for example — it’s the same case. So why can’t MCPS offer the same level of opportunity that Fairfax County does? Are we just inferior to our neighbors?

It’s about resources. There are limited resources.

Yeah in MoCo we pay higher taxes but have fewer resources. Maybe they should look at all the wasteful spending MCPS does. So if Blair/poolsville/RM no longer exist as countywide programs, more people will be fleeing away from this crappy place. It’s asinine and shortsighted to kill these long time established flagship programs at Moco while Fairfax keeps to be proud of its well-known TJ.

If parents are really going to flee because they can't bear to have their top 1% kid in class with a lowly top 5% kid, or because they might have to take one math class virtually their senior year, then good riddance, honestly. They can go to the private schools they crave and their families can afford, and meanwhile 6 times more kids who would benefit from strong programming will get it (including top 1% kids who used to not be able to go to countywide programs due to logistics.)

The vast majority of magnet kids are not wealthy enough to send their kids to specialized private school. But even if they could, most private schools cannot offer what MCPS magnet schools offer, which is why some private school students end up going to these magnets if they get in.

Those county wide magnets are one of the few shining stars in MCPS. It's one of the reasons why we were drawn to this school district from out west. It offers various programs for very high achieving kids that many school districts do not. Even if my kid didn't make it to one of the magnets, the fact that there are such programs here means it draws high achieving kids to the school district.

If you take that away, MCPS becomes a middling school district. It's ironic that MCPS likes to tout the SAT/AP scores etc of high achieving students, and then at the same time tell them that they should not expect to have their needs met in school.

Dumbing down the entire school district is not a worthy goal. A county wide magnet attracts the very top, which means they have a sizeable cohort of like high achieving students.

I think regional programs have its place, but so does a county wide magnet.

Why dod we need a county wide magnet if we have regional magnets. If the regional model offered what kids needed who would be choosing to go further away from home just to attend a county wide magnet. Yes you moved here because of what you heard about one magnet. That doesn't mean it's going to stay like that forever into eternity.

A county wide magnet draws the top performers in the entire county, whereas the regional only draws from a few HS. The peer group will be different.

Look at the IB classes offered at RMIB vs a school like Kennedy, a regional IB magnet. RMIB offers more IB classes than Kennedy because there is demand for it. RM has IB AN/APP HL, and it also has two MVC classes. Kennedy doesn't offer IB HL math.

If you make RM regional, the demand for these classes will be lower, and it will not be cost effective to keep those additional IB classes.

This effectively dumbs down the IB program.

That's an assumption. The Kennedy IB program and the RMIB program were not setup to operate the same initially.

The "magnet" portion of the Kennedy IB program is also very new. Class of 2025 was the first graduating class, which means it was also the first real opportunity for HL math. I'm not defending the decision not to offer it, but this is a new program, in a troubled school, with a tiny cohort. I don't think it tells us much about regional programs.