ISO recent experience with Eastern MS communications magnet

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a current 10th grader who went to Eastern. In many ways, it was an excellent choice. She made good friends, was challenged academically, did some amazing in-depth projects, and grew in independence and confidence. Negatives included a challenging commute (long bus ride plus needed a parent to drive to/from the bus stop every day), long days (bus ride plus she did after-school band), a few teachers with what felt like inappropriately high expectations (especially the 6th grade teacher mentioned already), and that her friend group split up to multiple high schools and my kid ended up without close friends at the high school she chose. My younger kid is at our home middle school and the difference in academics is laughably huge; I wish they were getting the same kind of challenge and enrichment, but am grateful for the easier commute and the continuity in friends.

So your child would have done about half virtually? My child was a year ahead and I’m not commenting about several issues cause I don’t consider it all that relevant to OP, but I am shocked to hear anyone would consider it a good experience during COVID. Eastern was a shitshow. My kid had virtual classes that the teacher just didn’t show up to.

Yeah, my kid did 7th grade virtually. Not great, but not terrible — still did the big IDRP paper and the NHD project/competition as highlights for that year. Didn’t have a problem with teachers not showing up. Obviously there were problems with virtual school, but I doubt she would have had a better experience at her home middle school. I know some kids had a much harder time with it, so maybe we were just lucky with how our kid handled virtual learning. COVID restrictions affected the big 8th grade trip, too, but I thought the teachers and administration did a good job of finding alternatives that still let the students have a good experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a current 10th grader who went to Eastern. In many ways, it was an excellent choice. She made good friends, was challenged academically, did some amazing in-depth projects, and grew in independence and confidence. Negatives included a challenging commute (long bus ride plus needed a parent to drive to/from the bus stop every day), long days (bus ride plus she did after-school band), a few teachers with what felt like inappropriately high expectations (especially the 6th grade teacher mentioned already), and that her friend group split up to multiple high schools and my kid ended up without close friends at the high school she chose. My younger kid is at our home middle school and the difference in academics is laughably huge; I wish they were getting the same kind of challenge and enrichment, but am grateful for the easier commute and the continuity in friends.

So your child would have done about half virtually? My child was a year ahead and I’m not commenting about several issues cause I don’t consider it all that relevant to OP, but I am shocked to hear anyone would consider it a good experience during COVID. Eastern was a shitshow. My kid had virtual classes that the teacher just didn’t show up to.

Yeah, my kid did 7th grade virtually. Not great, but not terrible — still did the big IDRP paper and the NHD project/competition as highlights for that year. Didn’t have a problem with teachers not showing up. Obviously there were problems with virtual school, but I doubt she would have had a better experience at her home middle school. I know some kids had a much harder time with it, so maybe we were just lucky with how our kid handled virtual learning. COVID restrictions affected the big 8th grade trip, too, but I thought the teachers and administration did a good job of finding alternatives that still let the students have a good experience.

My child did 6th virtually and it went really well, all things considered.

If anything, I initially thought some of the teachers had too high of expectations at the beginning of the year given that kids were making the transition to middle school and to a rigorous magnet program while dealing with a big scary pandemic. But the kids adapted, and vaccines came out, and the situation stabilized.

Every child is different, but for my individual child and their friends, EMS was an incredible opportunity. Some elements were great (the NYC trip was of course a massive highlight) but even the more challenging parts were probably good long-term opportunities to build resilience and experience "failure" before the stakes were too high.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a current 10th grader who went to Eastern. In many ways, it was an excellent choice. She made good friends, was challenged academically, did some amazing in-depth projects, and grew in independence and confidence. Negatives included a challenging commute (long bus ride plus needed a parent to drive to/from the bus stop every day), long days (bus ride plus she did after-school band), a few teachers with what felt like inappropriately high expectations (especially the 6th grade teacher mentioned already), and that her friend group split up to multiple high schools and my kid ended up without close friends at the high school she chose. My younger kid is at our home middle school and the difference in academics is laughably huge; I wish they were getting the same kind of challenge and enrichment, but am grateful for the easier commute and the continuity in friends.

So your child would have done about half virtually? My child was a year ahead and I’m not commenting about several issues cause I don’t consider it all that relevant to OP, but I am shocked to hear anyone would consider it a good experience during COVID. Eastern was a shitshow. My kid had virtual classes that the teacher just didn’t show up to.

History teacher just checked out and Science teacher read children's books such as "If You Give a Pig a Pancake."

Yeah our virtual experience with Eastern was also pretty miserable although we didn’t have the children’s books. It would absolutely have been better at the home school, as I was in contact with parents of old friends.

[Anonymous]

Virtual experiences, although recent, are really not at all relevant to the experience of in person EMS magnet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Non-quirky kids sometimes have a harder time with friendships because so many kids are quirky. Many kids bond through drama productions, D&D, and if your child is not in to that it will be more difficult socially. DC continued to mostly socialize with friends from their old school.

This description of kids was not at all our experience. My DC did not do any theater at Eastern nor did DC every play or know anyone who played D & D.

DC reads a lot, watches a ton of movies, likes history, played soccer and was welcoming of diverse races, incomes and gender/sexuality preferences. This described DC’s peers as well - male and female. Not a “quirky” kid in DC’s peer group, unless you count reading at an adult level “quirky”.

You are kidding yourself if you think your child's friend group is not quirky.

PP, TBH, you seem a little insecure. I’m not sure why you insist on calling smart kids “quirky”. Were you one of those bullies in ES who believed smart kids couldn’t be cool?

I absolutely love my kid’s friends at Eastern. They were kind, smart and supportive of each other and 10 years later they are all still BFFs even though they are scattered around the world.

But, OK, they’re “quirky”. Hope. that makes you feel better about yourself.

I wouldn’t consider this a “recent experience” at Eastern. So much changed in MCPS since COVID and particularly magnet selections.

+1. Basically OP needs advice of people who have kids in the school right now. Any pre-Covid experience may not be that relevant. Definitely not 10 years ago.

I’m confused - what exactly has changed so much about the kinds of kids who are selected for the magnet? As I understand it, the process is now more open to all students because all are tested and submit to the candidate pool instead of having to opt in. But selection to the candidate pool still depends on having very high test scores, as it did before. What specific elements of the admission process have created what kind of specific changes in the candidate pool?

How on earth could the change in the selection process result in more “quirky” kids now than before? How could the selection process change created a pool of students that are less able to make friends than the pre-pandemic pool?

No one is saying that the change in selection process has resulted in kids who are less "quirky" than before - but the opposite. Previously, the magnets were an "opt-in." Since the change to universal review, any student with the requisite grades and test scores (which are locally normed, so might not be "very high" depending on how you define it) is placed into a pool and selection is made at random. This has undoubtedly resulted in kids being offered admission who might not have specifically sought it out and may not meet the "quirky" stereotype that at least one PP seems to be pushing.

In terms of feedback about the student body in particular, it would seem that the only relevant information for the OP would really be from parents of kids who attended in-person post-COVID following the universal review/lottery selection process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Non-quirky kids sometimes have a harder time with friendships because so many kids are quirky. Many kids bond through drama productions, D&D, and if your child is not in to that it will be more difficult socially. DC continued to mostly socialize with friends from their old school.

This description of kids was not at all our experience. My DC did not do any theater at Eastern nor did DC every play or know anyone who played D & D.

DC reads a lot, watches a ton of movies, likes history, played soccer and was welcoming of diverse races, incomes and gender/sexuality preferences. This described DC’s peers as well - male and female. Not a “quirky” kid in DC’s peer group, unless you count reading at an adult level “quirky”.

You are kidding yourself if you think your child's friend group is not quirky.

PP, TBH, you seem a little insecure. I’m not sure why you insist on calling smart kids “quirky”. Were you one of those bullies in ES who believed smart kids couldn’t be cool?

I absolutely love my kid’s friends at Eastern. They were kind, smart and supportive of each other and 10 years later they are all still BFFs even though they are scattered around the world.

But, OK, they’re “quirky”. Hope. that makes you feel better about yourself.

I wouldn’t consider this a “recent experience” at Eastern. So much changed in MCPS since COVID and particularly magnet selections.

+1. Basically OP needs advice of people who have kids in the school right now. Any pre-Covid experience may not be that relevant. Definitely not 10 years ago.

I’m confused - what exactly has changed so much about the kinds of kids who are selected for the magnet? As I understand it, the process is now more open to all students because all are tested and submit to the candidate pool instead of having to opt in. But selection to the candidate pool still depends on having very high test scores, as it did before. What specific elements of the admission process have created what kind of specific changes in the candidate pool?

How on earth could the change in the selection process result in more “quirky” kids now than before? How could the selection process change created a pool of students that are less able to make friends than the pre-pandemic pool?

I don’t know about quirky vs. not quirky. But they got rid of the Cogat and you also don’t need “very” high test scores (MAP) to get into the pool. I don’t think 85th percentile is particularly high, and with the use of local norming, there are kids whose raw scores are even lower than that. Maybe it’s working out fine for the kids who got offered spots. It’s not really appropriately serving kids with giftedness/outlier scores/ability who are placed in home school gen Ed ELA classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Non-quirky kids sometimes have a harder time with friendships because so many kids are quirky. Many kids bond through drama productions, D&D, and if your child is not in to that it will be more difficult socially. DC continued to mostly socialize with friends from their old school.

This description of kids was not at all our experience. My DC did not do any theater at Eastern nor did DC every play or know anyone who played D & D.

DC reads a lot, watches a ton of movies, likes history, played soccer and was welcoming of diverse races, incomes and gender/sexuality preferences. This described DC’s peers as well - male and female. Not a “quirky” kid in DC’s peer group, unless you count reading at an adult level “quirky”.

You are kidding yourself if you think your child's friend group is not quirky.

PP, TBH, you seem a little insecure. I’m not sure why you insist on calling smart kids “quirky”. Were you one of those bullies in ES who believed smart kids couldn’t be cool?

I absolutely love my kid’s friends at Eastern. They were kind, smart and supportive of each other and 10 years later they are all still BFFs even though they are scattered around the world.

But, OK, they’re “quirky”. Hope. that makes you feel better about yourself.

I wouldn’t consider this a “recent experience” at Eastern. So much changed in MCPS since COVID and particularly magnet selections.

+1. Basically OP needs advice of people who have kids in the school right now. Any pre-Covid experience may not be that relevant. Definitely not 10 years ago.

I’m confused - what exactly has changed so much about the kinds of kids who are selected for the magnet? As I understand it, the process is now more open to all students because all are tested and submit to the candidate pool instead of having to opt in. But selection to the candidate pool still depends on having very high test scores, as it did before. What specific elements of the admission process have created what kind of specific changes in the candidate pool?

How on earth could the change in the selection process result in more “quirky” kids now than before? How could the selection process change created a pool of students that are less able to make friends than the pre-pandemic pool?

No one is saying that the change in selection process has resulted in kids who are less "quirky" than before - but the opposite. Previously, the magnets were an "opt-in." Since the change to universal review, any student with the requisite grades and test scores (which are locally normed, so might not be "very high" depending on how you define it) is placed into a pool and selection is made at random. This has undoubtedly resulted in kids being offered admission who might not have specifically sought it out and may not meet the "quirky" stereotype that at least one PP seems to be pushing.

In terms of feedback about the student body in particular, it would seem that the only relevant information for the OP would really be from parents of kids who attended in-person post-COVID following the universal review/lottery selection process.

You still opt-in to go. It's still a very self selected group. I'm not the quirky poster but of the kids we know who attended a high percentage are quirky and I use that word in a really positive sense. They are putting on plays for fun and they are writing novels in their spare time. IMO quirky equals kids who are cool enough to have a passion for those kinds of interests and pursue them. There are some kids who are quirky in the way some others use the word. They might choose to leave their neighborhood school because they don't quite fit in and feel like they might fit in better in the Eastern program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Non-quirky kids sometimes have a harder time with friendships because so many kids are quirky. Many kids bond through drama productions, D&D, and if your child is not in to that it will be more difficult socially. DC continued to mostly socialize with friends from their old school.

This description of kids was not at all our experience. My DC did not do any theater at Eastern nor did DC every play or know anyone who played D & D.

DC reads a lot, watches a ton of movies, likes history, played soccer and was welcoming of diverse races, incomes and gender/sexuality preferences. This described DC’s peers as well - male and female. Not a “quirky” kid in DC’s peer group, unless you count reading at an adult level “quirky”.

You are kidding yourself if you think your child's friend group is not quirky.

PP, TBH, you seem a little insecure. I’m not sure why you insist on calling smart kids “quirky”. Were you one of those bullies in ES who believed smart kids couldn’t be cool?

I absolutely love my kid’s friends at Eastern. They were kind, smart and supportive of each other and 10 years later they are all still BFFs even though they are scattered around the world.

But, OK, they’re “quirky”. Hope. that makes you feel better about yourself.

I wouldn’t consider this a “recent experience” at Eastern. So much changed in MCPS since COVID and particularly magnet selections.

+1. Basically OP needs advice of people who have kids in the school right now. Any pre-Covid experience may not be that relevant. Definitely not 10 years ago.

I’m confused - what exactly has changed so much about the kinds of kids who are selected for the magnet? As I understand it, the process is now more open to all students because all are tested and submit to the candidate pool instead of having to opt in. But selection to the candidate pool still depends on having very high test scores, as it did before. What specific elements of the admission process have created what kind of specific changes in the candidate pool?

How on earth could the change in the selection process result in more “quirky” kids now than before? How could the selection process change created a pool of students that are less able to make friends than the pre-pandemic pool?

No one is saying that the change in selection process has resulted in kids who are less "quirky" than before - but the opposite. Previously, the magnets were an "opt-in." Since the change to universal review, any student with the requisite grades and test scores (which are locally normed, so might not be "very high" depending on how you define it) is placed into a pool and selection is made at random. This has undoubtedly resulted in kids being offered admission who might not have specifically sought it out and may not meet the "quirky" stereotype that at least one PP seems to be pushing.

In terms of feedback about the student body in particular, it would seem that the only relevant information for the OP would really be from parents of kids who attended in-person post-COVID following the universal review/lottery selection process.

You still opt-in to go. It's still a very self selected group. I'm not the quirky poster but of the kids we know who attended a high percentage are quirky and I use that word in a really positive sense. They are putting on plays for fun and they are writing novels in their spare time. IMO quirky equals kids who are cool enough to have a passion for those kinds of interests and pursue them. There are some kids who are quirky in the way some others use the word. They might choose to leave their neighborhood school because they don't quite fit in and feel like they might fit in better in the Eastern program.

I'm glad you are using "quirky" in a positive way (at least one PP was not), but as the parent of an incoming 6th grader I can tell that of the dozen or so kids we know going in, only a couple fit that stereotype. Most of them are just are all-around bright kids who were also in the lottery pool for TPMS, got offered a spot at Eastern, and accepted the spot figuring that a magnet was better than no magnet. As others have pointed out, there is at least some differentiation in math in the non-magnet MS curriculum, but the Humanities magnet is the only alternative to "Advanced English for all."

[Anonymous]

I've had two kids go through the program.

It is MUCH more demanding in the humanities (so the world studies/media/English classes) than the ELA curriculum in home schools. 8th grade is probably the easiest year. 6th and 7th grades are very academically demanding. There is ALOT more reading, writing, and projects than your home school would have. Sometimes, it seems more stressful and demanding than is really developmentally appropriate. You know, they are all smart kids, but they are still 11 and 12 emotionally.

Anyway, my kids had an overall good experience. The kids in the magnet program are interesting kids, and yes many are "alternative," or "quirky." Some are certainly pedantic know-it-alls that have learned to enjoy listening to themselves talk...but not all of them by any means! There are a lot of LGBTQ kids in the group (including my kids) but that's a positive (to me). The kids outside of the magnet aren't as welcoming of differences as the kids in the program are (in my experience).

The cons, in my opinion, are: the school building (it's pretty dumpy and needs to be torn down and rebuilt), a lot (NOT ALL!) of the community outside the magnet (especially in the halls/PE/lunch...fighting, harassment, general bad behavior).

The pros: the teachers, the field trips, the other kids in the program, and many special and unique learning experiences.

[Anonymous]

Two thoughts to add. The curriculum is much more rigorous. There really is no comparison for the researching and writing rigor they teach there.

Here is what we didn’t realize. Our daughter is much more STEM focused in her longer term interests. If you do the humanities magnet you lose 3-4 electives so you can’t knock out your foreign language and get the earlier Engineering/tech classes in that are the precursor to the high school classes. Knowing what we know now, she still would have done the magnet but we’d think differently about what she prioritized for electives. Now she’s frantically doing summer school to try to get pre-requisites done for the classes she wants to take in high school.

[Anonymous]

OP did you make your decision ? Did you accept the spot ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Two thoughts to add. The curriculum is much more rigorous. There really is no comparison for the researching and writing rigor they teach there.

Here is what we didn’t realize. Our daughter is much more STEM focused in her longer term interests. If you do the humanities magnet you lose 3-4 electives so you can’t knock out your foreign language and get the earlier Engineering/tech classes in that are the precursor to the high school classes. Knowing what we know now, she still would have done the magnet but we’d think differently about what she prioritized for electives. Now she’s frantically doing summer school to try to get pre-requisites done for the classes she wants to take in high school.

Don't you get more electives in the magnet programs because of block scheduling? At our home school, you get two (foreign language plus an arts or technology elective). At Eastern/Takoma, you get three.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two thoughts to add. The curriculum is much more rigorous. There really is no comparison for the researching and writing rigor they teach there.

Here is what we didn’t realize. Our daughter is much more STEM focused in her longer term interests. If you do the humanities magnet you lose 3-4 electives so you can’t knock out your foreign language and get the earlier Engineering/tech classes in that are the precursor to the high school classes. Knowing what we know now, she still would have done the magnet but we’d think differently about what she prioritized for electives. Now she’s frantically doing summer school to try to get pre-requisites done for the classes she wants to take in high school.

Don't you get more electives in the magnet programs because of block scheduling? At our home school, you get two (foreign language plus an arts or technology elective). At Eastern/Takoma, you get three.

At Takoma you get two electives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two thoughts to add. The curriculum is much more rigorous. There really is no comparison for the researching and writing rigor they teach there.

Here is what we didn’t realize. Our daughter is much more STEM focused in her longer term interests. If you do the humanities magnet you lose 3-4 electives so you can’t knock out your foreign language and get the earlier Engineering/tech classes in that are the precursor to the high school classes. Knowing what we know now, she still would have done the magnet but we’d think differently about what she prioritized for electives. Now she’s frantically doing summer school to try to get pre-requisites done for the classes she wants to take in high school.

Don't you get more electives in the magnet programs because of block scheduling? At our home school, you get two (foreign language plus an arts or technology elective). At Eastern/Takoma, you get three.

At Takoma you get two electives.

At Eastern you only get one. Eastern does not have block scheduling, and one elective is always taken by media. In sixth grade, kids are encouraged to take a Literature and Media class that takes up the other elective, so Eastern magnet kids usually have zero true electives in sixth, and then use their one open elective in seventh and eighth for world languages.

[Anonymous]

Yes, exactly this. Theoretically there is one elective in sixth but 95% of kids take literature. Then just one elective in 7th and 8th. My kid didn’t play an instrument but I think music was after school to accommodate the fact that most magnet kids didn’t have a free elective period if they wanted to start their foreign language in middle school.