US News rankings are out with individual magnet program rankings as well

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The RM and Blair magnets can be inflating the schools' overall test scores, so it's possible the Blair magnet offsets their CAP program

the list specifically looks at magnet, too, but I'm thinking CAP is included in Blair.

In any case, your statement of the magnet inflating test scores is like saying the rich kids in Whitman are inflating their test scores.

Not really. The students you mention at Whitman are not part of a magnet program and so are not inflating test scores at their school.

The students who are at Blair and RM because of their magnet programs will have higher test scores, which raises the test scores for the school overall. Someone looking at the rankings might wrongly assume that the students in the schools' non-magnet programs are high as well.

It would be nice if US News provided separate numbers for the schools' non-magnet programs.

newsflash: non magnet students at RM and Blair take AP classes and exams, too, and for RM, they can also take IB classes.

Also, in cluster RM students can join the IB diploma program in 11th grade, but not be in the magnet program, which starts in 9th grade.

Not sure how that's a "newsflash." Students at most high schools take AP classes and exams.

Students at criteria-based magnet programs will have higher scores. So we do not know how the school ranks without the magnet. Those students who are just taking IB classes but who are not part of the magnet would be considered non-magnet, not sure where the confusion there would be.

The confusion is that you think the high test scores at RM are *only* because of the magent students.

The point is that there are many non magnet sutdents there (and other schools) who have high test scores as well. The point is that some of those kids join the IB program in 11th grade and aren't part of the "magnet" group, but do score pretty well on exams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The RM and Blair magnets can be inflating the schools' overall test scores, so it's possible the Blair magnet offsets their CAP program

the list specifically looks at magnet, too, but I'm thinking CAP is included in Blair.

In any case, your statement of the magnet inflating test scores is like saying the rich kids in Whitman are inflating their test scores.

The impact of the magnets on the overall school is fairly minimal. For example, there was a post that showed that 32 magnet kids in one demographic averaged 1520 on their SAT whereas the average for all students in the same demographic was 1326. It was easy to determine that this added just hsy of 30 points to the average.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair 2nd to none…. Except the almost 200 higher ranked magnet programs. Not even top three in the county

that just proved that the ranking is not very meaningful.

Yep, those rankings changes more than I change my underwear.
Those rankings are meaningless.

Yes, they are pretty meaningless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would CAP program be dragging the Blair numbers down?

maybe kids in CAP don't score as high ?

That seems like a pretty big and totally unsubstantiated assumption, though. The CAP kids I know are well-rounded and bright, just like the SMCS kids. I suppose it is possible that the SMCS kids do better on the math section of the SAT and the CAP kids do better on the English section, but that's just conjecture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would CAP program be dragging the Blair numbers down?

maybe kids in CAP don't score as high ?

That seems like a pretty big and totally unsubstantiated assumption, though. The CAP kids I know are well-rounded and bright, just like the SMCS kids. I suppose it is possible that the SMCS kids do better on the math section of the SAT and the CAP kids do better on the English section, but that's just conjecture.

PP here. I figured it out. The "best magnet high schools" ranking is a misnomer. Blair goes in that bucket because it has a magnet program, but the outcomes are not reported just for magnet kids. So, if you take the entire universe of high schools, Blair ranks 1467. But then they winnowed the universe to just "magnet" high schools but used the exact same data, so for the whole school.

The vast majority of the schools above Blair, and every school in the top 50, is a whole school magnet like TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The RM and Blair magnets can be inflating the schools' overall test scores, so it's possible the Blair magnet offsets their CAP program

the list specifically looks at magnet, too, but I'm thinking CAP is included in Blair.

In any case, your statement of the magnet inflating test scores is like saying the rich kids in Whitman are inflating their test scores.

Not really. The students you mention at Whitman are not part of a magnet program and so are not inflating test scores at their school.

The students who are at Blair and RM because of their magnet programs will have higher test scores, which raises the test scores for the school overall. Someone looking at the rankings might wrongly assume that the students in the schools' non-magnet programs are high as well.

It would be nice if US News provided separate numbers for the schools' non-magnet programs.

OMG - is this the Wootton poster again? The test scores at RM are plenty high for lots of kids, especially given the high diversity of SES... See the AP scores for non magnet kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would CAP program be dragging the Blair numbers down?

maybe kids in CAP don't score as high ?

That seems like a pretty big and totally unsubstantiated assumption, though. The CAP kids I know are well-rounded and bright, just like the SMCS kids. I suppose it is possible that the SMCS kids do better on the math section of the SAT and the CAP kids do better on the English section, but that's just conjecture.

PP here. I figured it out. The "best magnet high schools" ranking is a misnomer. Blair goes in that bucket because it has a magnet program, but the outcomes are not reported just for magnet kids. So, if you take the entire universe of high schools, Blair ranks 1467. But then they winnowed the universe to just "magnet" high schools but used the exact same data, so for the whole school.

The vast majority of the schools above Blair, and every school in the top 50, is a whole school magnet like TJ.

Yep, that has always been the case. Blair is always ranked as a whole school, even in the "best magnet" category. The magnet program is NEVER ranked separately.

[Anonymous]

This is unfortunate because Blair SMCS and CAP are schools within a school and should be ranked independently.

[Anonymous]

US FakeNews

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:US FakeNews

Not sure why anyone toots their horn about Blair anymore. The lottery kids are in ES and MS, but those will be feeding Blair and watering down their program.

U.S. News is just comparing stats. If anyone wants to whine about it, then complain to MCPS and put the best kids in the magnet - not just the ones that hit the lottery.

[Anonymous]

If you look at Blair overall, can you really blame U.S. News? Their numbers (outside of SMAC) stink. The Magnet was supposed to "raise up" Blair for Silver Spring, but instead it's just a bad HS overall with an ineffective Magnet. A lot of parents in "W's" are just keeping their kids at their home school and tutoring on the side, so now AEI has egg all over their face for screwing up again. MCPS can try bussing for equity, but we'll see how that works out at the next board election.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you look at Blair overall, can you really blame U.S. News? Their numbers (outside of SMAC) stink. The Magnet was supposed to "raise up" Blair for Silver Spring, but instead it's just a bad HS overall with an ineffective Magnet. A lot of parents in "W's" are just keeping their kids at their home school and tutoring on the side, so now AEI has egg all over their face for screwing up again. MCPS can try bussing for equity, but we'll see how that works out at the next board election.

That's strange when I look at the SAT average for the largest cohort common to Blair and the W's Blair scores higher.

Blair 1326
Walter Johnson 1275
Wootton 1262
Churchill 1257

https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/reports/2017/1771102HS%20Princ_SAT%20Partic_Perf%20Class%20of%202017.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you look at Blair overall, can you really blame U.S. News? Their numbers (outside of SMAC) stink. The Magnet was supposed to "raise up" Blair for Silver Spring, but instead it's just a bad HS overall with an ineffective Magnet. A lot of parents in "W's" are just keeping their kids at their home school and tutoring on the side, so now AEI has egg all over their face for screwing up again. MCPS can try bussing for equity, but we'll see how that works out at the next board election.

That's strange when I look at the SAT average for the largest cohort common to Blair and the W's Blair scores higher.

Blair 1326
Walter Johnson 1275
Wootton 1262
Churchill 1257

https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/reports/2017/1771102HS%20Princ_SAT%20Partic_Perf%20Class%20of%202017.pdf

Stop using actual facts to contradict the PP grievance narrative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you look at Blair overall, can you really blame U.S. News? Their numbers (outside of SMAC) stink. The Magnet was supposed to "raise up" Blair for Silver Spring, but instead it's just a bad HS overall with an ineffective Magnet. A lot of parents in "W's" are just keeping their kids at their home school and tutoring on the side, so now AEI has egg all over their face for screwing up again. MCPS can try bussing for equity, but we'll see how that works out at the next board election.

The injecting of OOB kids has done exactly what it was always intended to do, raise test scores and public perception to suppress middle class flight. Without the magnets TP and Blair might not have made it out of the doldrums of the 90s to be positioned to be the inside the beltway preference for the families who could only afford Silver Spring in the DCC during DCs revitalization. Even with the influx of upper middle class families and the bused in magnet kids, the fact that it’s test score and rankings are as low as they are shows how close the majority of the school is to being an Einstein or Kennedy equivalent. It’s success can almost solely be attributed to the magnet being put there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you look at Blair overall, can you really blame U.S. News? Their numbers (outside of SMAC) stink. The Magnet was supposed to "raise up" Blair for Silver Spring, but instead it's just a bad HS overall with an ineffective Magnet. A lot of parents in "W's" are just keeping their kids at their home school and tutoring on the side, so now AEI has egg all over their face for screwing up again. MCPS can try bussing for equity, but we'll see how that works out at the next board election.

That's strange when I look at the SAT average for the largest cohort common to Blair and the W's Blair scores higher.

Blair 1326
Walter Johnson 1275
Wootton 1262
Churchill 1257

https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/reports/2017/1771102HS%20Princ_SAT%20Partic_Perf%20Class%20of%202017.pdf

Reply to your self all you want. You peer group avg means nothing when 99% of the school isn’t in that peer group. Sure a couple of very smart kids bused in from nicer parts of town do comparable to the schools full of smart kids from nicer parts of town. No one is disputing that. Problem is Blair isn’t filled with smart kids from the nicer parts of town, we are talking whole school averages sweetie.

Stop using actual facts to contradict the PP grievance narrative.