MCPS to end areawide Blair Magnet and countywide Richard Montgomery's IB program

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:May have been on another page in this thread - but no real mention of the gem of MCPS - Poolesville HS. What's the plan there??

I'm glad DD got to enjoy the full Global experience before they mess with it. No way that program can be replicated in 6 regions w/o any teacher training. It's one of the most unique programs in the country and it's been a blessing and honor to be a part of it.

It's in Region 6 with Clarksburg, Damascus, Poolesville, and Quince Orchard.

And Northwest.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I think the top 10% (MAP) are capable in handling rigorous programs. The program will not be watered down if they ensure a hard cutoff. The question is execution (leadership, teachers) of the regional model.

What is the basis for your statement? Did you pick 10% randomly? Do you have any familiarity with the difference between kids who are in the 95th% locally versus kids in the 90th%? Any hard cutoff will leave some angry parents, so there had better be some justification for the hard cutoff, and principals can’t have any discretion in admission or the whole thing falls apart.

Yea, IDK.. I have two kids -- one who consistently scored 99%ile in math MAP (perfect 800 on math), and another who scores 87 to 96, and 750 on math, and I don't think the second DC can handle more advanced math. They took Calc with App Func junior year, and did well enough (A/B); they may have done decently with calc AB but didn't want the teacher that taught it. But, beyond that, I think they would struggle.

First kid is a math major.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:You need a critical mass of highly able students in the same classroom, a good program, and good teachers for this to be successful. Montgomery county benefited from the national awards won by Blair, Poolesville, and RM students, by increased tax revenue for instance. It is simply not possible to achieve the same level of success with regional programs. There won't be enough interested and capable students to justify the same level of classes at the same number of classes. There won't be enough teachers capable of teaching these classes at the same level they are taught today. For all practical purposes, this is the end of a very successful program. Sad.

Totally agree. It’s just impossible to duplicate those highly successful programs across all six regions. Eventually, the so-called magnet programs in each region will become just regular programs with a few advanced classes.

But I guess no one cares.

People don't care because the few magnets slots are placed in the far eastern part of the county or upper Northwest part of the county. For the vast majority of us, our kids either didn't qualify because we haven't been prepping them since the age of 5 AND/OR we live far away and travel time isn't worth it. What is the plan for middle school magnets? IMO, that is the level where we most need reform.

Middle school magnets are on the chopping block next year. I haven't heard about the gifted and talented programs at the elementary school levels, but it makes sense those will be cancelled after the middle school programs are unwound.

If that means that GT kids will have access to accelerated and enriched programming that is meaningful at local schools that is great. My children have never had lottery luck and have been stuck with sun-par programming at local schools.

You’re delusion if you think this means any improvement for your kids.

Well worth my kids not being served at all
By CES/magnets right now, it won’t be any worse for them.

You need to think about beyond

DP. The status quo is not serving the vast majority of CO-identified students with needs for acceleration, especially in secondary.

The reforms won’t help them. And if the students cannot benefit from the AP programs they already have - what makes you think a regional magnet will be better

Why won't the reforms help them? My kid isn't in H$ yet but my understanding is that there is currently little to no acceleration or enrichment in 9th or 10th except math, whereas the programs will cover all of high school.

Ask yourself why they cannot just offer acceleration in 9th and 10th instead of canceling the highly selective magnets? Hint - because they are not actually interested in tracking kids. They want to stop tracking. the regional magnets will be lottery based and will not offer the acceleration you envision.

There is acceleration in math as you can pick algebra in 6-7th or at least currently. The problem is there is no math outside statistics at some schools outside calc bc and no science apps or other things. They push in at some schools but few kids actually graduate with ib degrees so they need to look at that and dump it. If you want MV, you have to go to MC or go without. And, if you go without you may not have enough math classes to graduate as they don’t allow independent study or other virtual outside MV.

they don't offer MVC in some schools because there is low demand for it. At RM, there are two full MVC classes, I believe, and not all are IB students.

If you dilute the top performers across six regions, you also dilute the demand, which means some of the regionals won't offer those courses.

Again, MCPS cannot create equal opportunities across all of the regions.

[Anonymous]

I went through 30 pages of comments and I think the problem is not really the replacement of some successful programs but rather a matter of trust. People have minimal (if any) trust in MCPS and this feeling is based on a history of terrible decisions.
Hard to convince parents that your plan is actually good when you lack to provide significant info like how do you find the teachers, how is the admission going to happen, how do you measure the success of the new approach and what's your backup plan if it is not working.
A safer approach would have been to sunset the current programs gradually if the new approach delivers results.

Trust is everything and as someone mentioned before, these decision makers have no accountability. This might be another failure as many others with no consequences whatsoever.

[Anonymous]

Across the 3 schools, there are roughly 1,000-1200 kids being served by the magnets. Someone else mentioned there are 55k HS students so it’s serving 2.18% of the population (1200/55k).

MCPS is short on funding. It sucks if your kid is one of the 2%. However the money can be spent serving a broader spectrum of students. MCPS is paying for DE classes at MC. The opportunities for the academically gifted students are there. There’s even bus service from the local HS to the MC campuses.

I agree it’s not a great solution but it does reallocate funding to where the majority of students can access it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went through 30 pages of comments and I think the problem is not really the replacement of some successful programs but rather a matter of trust. People have minimal (if any) trust in MCPS and this feeling is based on a history of terrible decisions.
Hard to convince parents that your plan is actually good when you lack to provide significant info like how do you find the teachers, how is the admission going to happen, how do you measure the success of the new approach and what's your backup plan if it is not working.
A safer approach would have been to sunset the current programs gradually if the new approach delivers results.

Trust is everything and as someone mentioned before, these decision makers have no accountability. This might be another failure as many others with no consequences whatsoever.

+1 completely agree

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Across the 3 schools, there are roughly 1,000-1200 kids being served by the magnets. Someone else mentioned there are 55k HS students so it’s serving 2.18% of the population (1200/55k).

MCPS is short on funding. It sucks if your kid is one of the 2%. However the money can be spent serving a broader spectrum of students. MCPS is paying for DE classes at MC. The opportunities for the academically gifted students are there. There’s even bus service from the local HS to the MC campuses.

I agree it’s not a great solution but it does reallocate funding to where the majority of students can access it.

How much exactly does MCPS spend on the 2.18% population of students? And how much is it expecting to spend on 6X more students? We need to use "cost per student" as the measure, shouldn't we?

Do people realize that a significant portion of magnet costs are covered by magnet foundation (donated from alumni) and nearby universities? Magnet foundation is not willing to pay bills if expanding to regional models because the majority of the successful alumni do not originally come from Region #1 or #6, and asking UMD to spend 6X for MCPS? You can daydream about that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Across the 3 schools, there are roughly 1,000-1200 kids being served by the magnets. Someone else mentioned there are 55k HS students so it’s serving 2.18% of the population (1200/55k).

MCPS is short on funding. It sucks if your kid is one of the 2%. However the money can be spent serving a broader spectrum of students. MCPS is paying for DE classes at MC. The opportunities for the academically gifted students are there. There’s even bus service from the local HS to the MC campuses.

I agree it’s not a great solution but it does reallocate funding to where the majority of students can access it.

What are you even talking about? Where did you get the idea they are short on funding and why do you think this plan will be more economical? It looks much more expensive to me, but literally no one has run any numbers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went through 30 pages of comments and I think the problem is not really the replacement of some successful programs but rather a matter of trust. People have minimal (if any) trust in MCPS and this feeling is based on a history of terrible decisions.
Hard to convince parents that your plan is actually good when you lack to provide significant info like how do you find the teachers, how is the admission going to happen, how do you measure the success of the new approach and what's your backup plan if it is not working.
A safer approach would have been to sunset the current programs gradually if the new approach delivers results.

Trust is everything and as someone mentioned before, these decision makers have no accountability. This might be another failure as many others with no consequences whatsoever.

Yeah, while I don't have much patience for posters claiming that the special programs their kids are enrolled in will be totally ruined if any detail is changed, such as expanding access to merely "very bright" rather than "truly exceptional" kids... this scheme seems a bit half-baked. I wish they would scale down their ambitions a bit, especially if they're going to claim they won't have to hire any additional teachers (?).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went through 30 pages of comments and I think the problem is not really the replacement of some successful programs but rather a matter of trust. People have minimal (if any) trust in MCPS and this feeling is based on a history of terrible decisions.
Hard to convince parents that your plan is actually good when you lack to provide significant info like how do you find the teachers, how is the admission going to happen, how do you measure the success of the new approach and what's your backup plan if it is not working.
A safer approach would have been to sunset the current programs gradually if the new approach delivers results.

Trust is everything and as someone mentioned before, these decision makers have no accountability. This might be another failure as many others with no consequences whatsoever.

I agree with you that the problem is a lack of trust, but that lack of trust is not only based on historical decisions, but active and present ones that have lacked competence, collaboration and transparency.

Taylor can blame shift on historical wrongs, but he absolutely should own the present and current ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Across the 3 schools, there are roughly 1,000-1200 kids being served by the magnets. Someone else mentioned there are 55k HS students so it’s serving 2.18% of the population (1200/55k).

MCPS is short on funding. It sucks if your kid is one of the 2%. However the money can be spent serving a broader spectrum of students. MCPS is paying for DE classes at MC. The opportunities for the academically gifted students are there. There’s even bus service from the local HS to the MC campuses.

I agree it’s not a great solution but it does reallocate funding to where the majority of students can access it.

This is a sad statement. The best and brightest top 2% is not worth saving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Across the 3 schools, there are roughly 1,000-1200 kids being served by the magnets. Someone else mentioned there are 55k HS students so it’s serving 2.18% of the population (1200/55k).

MCPS is short on funding. It sucks if your kid is one of the 2%. However the money can be spent serving a broader spectrum of students. MCPS is paying for DE classes at MC. The opportunities for the academically gifted students are there. There’s even bus service from the local HS to the MC campuses.

I agree it’s not a great solution but it does reallocate funding to where the majority of students can access it.

This is a sad statement. The best and brightest top 2% is not worth saving.

I don’t really know what pp is talking about. This past year there were 51,000 students enrolled in MCPS high schools and 3,100 enrolled in 12 special programs located in 8 different schools. 6% of high school students were served by these programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Across the 3 schools, there are roughly 1,000-1200 kids being served by the magnets. Someone else mentioned there are 55k HS students so it’s serving 2.18% of the population (1200/55k).

MCPS is short on funding. It sucks if your kid is one of the 2%. However the money can be spent serving a broader spectrum of students. MCPS is paying for DE classes at MC. The opportunities for the academically gifted students are there. There’s even bus service from the local HS to the MC campuses.

I agree it’s not a great solution but it does reallocate funding to where the majority of students can access it.

This is a sad statement. The best and brightest top 2% is not worth saving.

I don’t really know what pp is talking about. This past year there were 51,000 students enrolled in MCPS high schools and 3,100 enrolled in 12 special programs located in 8 different schools. 6% of high school students were served by these programs.

I think that PP was only counting in two SMACS in Blair and Poolsville plus RMIB?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went through 30 pages of comments and I think the problem is not really the replacement of some successful programs but rather a matter of trust. People have minimal (if any) trust in MCPS and this feeling is based on a history of terrible decisions.
Hard to convince parents that your plan is actually good when you lack to provide significant info like how do you find the teachers, how is the admission going to happen, how do you measure the success of the new approach and what's your backup plan if it is not working.
A safer approach would have been to sunset the current programs gradually if the new approach delivers results.

Trust is everything and as someone mentioned before, these decision makers have no accountability. This might be another failure as many others with no consequences whatsoever.

Yes, but they have already tried that with the four regional IBs. What is the "success" of those programs? As you stated, how is MCPS gauging whether those regional are successful?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Across the 3 schools, there are roughly 1,000-1200 kids being served by the magnets. Someone else mentioned there are 55k HS students so it’s serving 2.18% of the population (1200/55k).

MCPS is short on funding. It sucks if your kid is one of the 2%. However the money can be spent serving a broader spectrum of students. MCPS is paying for DE classes at MC. The opportunities for the academically gifted students are there. There’s even bus service from the local HS to the MC campuses.

I agree it’s not a great solution but it does reallocate funding to where the majority of students can access it.

This is a sad statement. The best and brightest top 2% is not worth saving.

I don’t really know what pp is talking about. This past year there were 51,000 students enrolled in MCPS high schools and 3,100 enrolled in 12 special programs located in 8 different schools. 6% of high school students were served by these programs.

I think that PP was only counting in two SMACS in Blair and Poolsville plus RMIB?

And maybe the regional IBs?

But, yea, we're talking about the test in programs, not the lottery programs.