Article in Bethesda magazine about magnet programs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Which MCPS high schools don’t offer any science APs?

Einstein. No AP Bio, Chem, or Physics

That’s an IB school. Do they offer comparable HL courses?

Yes

Math IB is not comparable to anything beyond Calc

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Which MCPS high schools don’t offer any science APs?

Einstein. No AP Bio, Chem, or Physics

That’s an IB school. Do they offer comparable HL courses?

Yes

Math IB is not comparable to anything beyond Calc

The question was about Bio, Chem, and Physics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Which MCPS high schools don’t offer any science APs?

Einstein. No AP Bio, Chem, or Physics

That’s an IB school. Do they offer comparable HL courses?

Yes

Math IB is not comparable to anything beyond Calc

The question was about Bio, Chem, and Physics.

There are no AP's for that. There are not comparable classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Which MCPS high schools don’t offer any science APs?

Einstein. No AP Bio, Chem, or Physics

That’s an IB school. Do they offer comparable HL courses?

Yes

Math IB is not comparable to anything beyond Calc

The question was about Bio, Chem, and Physics.

There are no AP's for that. There are not comparable classes.

There are IB HL classes for all three.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I gave up a long time ago on the magnets. We supplement and enrich at home, and my kids are big fish in little ponds at their home schools.

You mean your kid didn’t get a slot

All six of mine did .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I gave up a long time ago on the magnets. We supplement and enrich at home, and my kids are big fish in little ponds at their home schools.

You mean your kid didn’t get a slot

All six of mine did .

Yea you. Let me guess, they are all long graduated and not under the new system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I gave up a long time ago on the magnets. We supplement and enrich at home, and my kids are big fish in little ponds at their home schools.

Yeah, there's definitely a point of diminishing returns with magnet programs. If they're more than 15 minutes away from home, don't do it. Not worth the headache in extra travel time. Most students who are sitting on buses for 45 minutes to an hour just to go to a magnet school would be better off doing what you're suggesting.

PP you replied to. Exactly. They enjoyed the CES, which was near our house, but then commute and college admissions issues made us think twice about middle and high school magnets, which are far away from our house. What my kids missed out on was the cohort and some inspiring teachers - but they've each found a few similar souls at their home schools, and some excellent teachers (also some terrible ones).

I don't want to discourage anyone from applying and attending! My kids are 15 and 20 now, so we have no skin in the magnet game anymore. But let's just say it's not necessarily a no-brainer to get into a magnet...

We opted against applying to RM for these reasons. If I had a stem genius kid, I think Blair would be worth it but I felt sticking with our home W school was otherwise the better choice for our family. While I wish the writing instruction were stronger, there’s no lack of work load challenge with dozens of APs on offer. APs are also sometimes a better choice than IB to obtain college credit, though they shouldn’t be. At times my son, now in 10th, wishes he had pursued RM for the cohort, but on the whole I think we’re all happier with neighborhood friends and bus service. If our home school weren’t as strong, we’d have pursued RM but with two commuting parents, we’ve never pursued any of the special programs like immersion schools. I hope the district doesn’t mess with Blair’s stem magnet.

Agree on all point.

Me too!
My kids went to W as well all got into MIT , CMU, Georgia Tech and many other strong programs from our home school.

For us it was also logistics more than two kids easily to manage neighborhood friends. All of mine qualified ie got slots all chose themselves a different path and it worked for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I gave up a long time ago on the magnets. We supplement and enrich at home, and my kids are big fish in little ponds at their home schools.

Yeah, there's definitely a point of diminishing returns with magnet programs. If they're more than 15 minutes away from home, don't do it. Not worth the headache in extra travel time. Most students who are sitting on buses for 45 minutes to an hour just to go to a magnet school would be better off doing what you're suggesting.

PP you replied to. Exactly. They enjoyed the CES, which was near our house, but then commute and college admissions issues made us think twice about middle and high school magnets, which are far away from our house. What my kids missed out on was the cohort and some inspiring teachers - but they've each found a few similar souls at their home schools, and some excellent teachers (also some terrible ones).

I don't want to discourage anyone from applying and attending! My kids are 15 and 20 now, so we have no skin in the magnet game anymore. But let's just say it's not necessarily a no-brainer to get into a magnet...

We opted against applying to RM for these reasons. If I had a stem genius kid, I think Blair would be worth it but I felt sticking with our home W school was otherwise the better choice for our family. While I wish the writing instruction were stronger, there’s no lack of work load challenge with dozens of APs on offer. APs are also sometimes a better choice than IB to obtain college credit, though they shouldn’t be. At times my son, now in 10th, wishes he had pursued RM for the cohort, but on the whole I think we’re all happier with neighborhood friends and bus service. If our home school weren’t as strong, we’d have pursued RM but with two commuting parents, we’ve never pursued any of the special programs like immersion schools. I hope the district doesn’t mess with Blair’s stem magnet.

Agree on all point.

Me too!
My kids went to W as well all got into MIT , CMU, Georgia Tech and many other strong programs from our home school.

For us it was also logistics more than two kids easily to manage neighborhood friends. All of mine qualified ie got slots all chose themselves a different path and it worked for us.

They have changed the magnets since your kids went to school and non-w kids don’t have the same opportunities as yours did. So, your posting is not relevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Which MCPS high schools don’t offer any science APs?

Einstein. No AP Bio, Chem, or Physics

That’s an IB school. Do they offer comparable HL courses?

Yes

Math IB is not comparable to anything beyond Calc

The question was about Bio, Chem, and Physics.

There are no AP's for that. There are not comparable classes.

There are IB HL classes for all three.

Offered at Einstein? Every year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Which MCPS high schools don’t offer any science APs?

Einstein. No AP Bio, Chem, or Physics

That’s an IB school. Do they offer comparable HL courses?

Yes

Math IB is not comparable to anything beyond Calc

The question was about Bio, Chem, and Physics.

There are no AP's for that. There are not comparable classes.

There are IB HL classes for all three.

Offered at Einstein? Every year?

Yes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Which MCPS high schools don’t offer any science APs?

Einstein. No AP Bio, Chem, or Physics

That’s an IB school. Do they offer comparable HL courses?

Yes

Math IB is not comparable to anything beyond Calc

The question was about Bio, Chem, and Physics.

There are no AP's for that. There are not comparable classes.

There are IB HL classes for all three.

That doesn't work with kids who want or are on the AP track. IB is two years. And, its under what AP Calc BC is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Which MCPS high schools don’t offer any science APs?

Einstein. No AP Bio, Chem, or Physics

That’s an IB school. Do they offer comparable HL courses?

Yes

Math IB is not comparable to anything beyond Calc

The question was about Bio, Chem, and Physics.

There are no AP's for that. There are not comparable classes.

There are IB HL classes for all three.

That doesn't work with kids who want or are on the AP track. IB is two years. And, its under what AP Calc BC is.

Einstein is an IB school. That is the advanced track at Einstein.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Which MCPS high schools don’t offer any science APs?

Einstein. No AP Bio, Chem, or Physics

That’s an IB school. Do they offer comparable HL courses?

Yes

Math IB is not comparable to anything beyond Calc

The question was about Bio, Chem, and Physics.

There are no AP's for that. There are not comparable classes.

There are IB HL classes for all three.

That doesn't work with kids who want or are on the AP track. IB is two years. And, its under what AP Calc BC is.

Einstein is an IB school. That is the advanced track at Einstein.

That is one advanced track but not the most. It depends on when they started Algebra. Some of the feeder schools allow for Algebra in 6th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think what they are proposing is to make more magnets, but also restrict access to those zones.

So, if you look at what they started to do with IB, they created regional IB programs but kept RMIB as the flagship.

This has been unevenly successful, because the "best" kids still went to RMIB and there were not enough kids at the regional programs to create a strong cohort.

So it will be interesting to see if they learn from that, or double down.

I think there is a strong cohort of IB kids at BCC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://bethesdamagazine.com/2025/05/16/mcps-exploring-regional-programming/

What do you all think of this? I hope they don't change the requirements or water down the eligibility criteria of the existing magnets PHS, Blair and RM are really good and watering them down in any way would be a net negative for the county as a whole. If they leave the existing magnets functioning the way they are and add more options in local schools, it is not a bad idea.

The article talked only about adding more mini magnets like "Health Science" where the whole program is just up to 4 special courses plus related regular courses. They aren't talking about SMACS and IB. (IB already has regional options).