Questions about Richard Montgomery IB program

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:8:32..I am the PP you quoted. I hope our kids know each other and are friends!

8:32 here: me too!

[Anonymous]

The magnet program was put at RM 25 years ago. At that time it did need the help and that was why it was selected. However, the program worked and the school is a different place. Also there was re-dristicting done at the same time. Which probably also helped.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think anyone here said anything about race. I certainly wouldn't want to send my kids to Damascus High School and isn't that all white kids? Race doesn't have anything to do with how RM is but funny how everyone always jumps the gun at that. It is not a top school which is why it was picked to have the IB program in it. This isn't rocket science here. The magnet and IB programs go in the lower performing schools. Lower performing schools = more kids that don't give a crap vs that do and more uninvolved parents than involved. People give RM all these great grades and actually move into the area thinking it is a great school. Take out the IB and many other MCP high schools blow it away.

Not necessarily. Maybe more kids who haven't had the same advantageous, language-rich upbringing and more parents who work two jobs to support their families and don't have a cultural orientation towards involvement in school.

My husband and I both work jobs 40-50hrs a week. I am still involved in my both my kid's schools. I take vacation days to volunteer at the elementary school and am on the PTA for both schools. That statement is a cop-op to the lazies of this wold. You either care and find a way or don't. And the language issue, don't even get me started....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The magnet program was put at RM 25 years ago. At that time it did need the help and that was why it was selected. However, the program worked and the school is a different place. Also there was re-dristicting done at the same time. Which probably also helped.

Yes Ritchie Park was placed into the district and the school's families/neighborhoods had an absolute fit because of it. No one wanted their kids to leave Wootton and go there. And guess what? Most of the good families moved away and crap is moving into those neighborhoods. Ritchie Park has major issues. Then they added Twinbrook school to RM. Fun. And yes, those 20% IB really bring up the rear. Fallsgrove has been begging to leave that district since day 1. They sold homes on the basis that they were going to Lakewood/Wootton and then slammed RM district on them. A lot of issues. I have been in the area for awhile. My husband went to RM and we sent 1 of our 3 kids thru RM. THe others switched to private before JW. Been there, done that. Not impressed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Yes Ritchie Park was placed into the district and the school's families/neighborhoods had an absolute fit because of it. No one wanted their kids to leave Wootton and go there. And guess what? Most of the good families moved away and crap is moving into those neighborhoods. Ritchie Park has major issues. Then they added Twinbrook school to RM. Fun. And yes, those 20% IB really bring up the rear. Fallsgrove has been begging to leave that district since day 1. They sold homes on the basis that they were going to Lakewood/Wootton and then slammed RM district on them. A lot of issues. I have been in the area for awhile. My husband went to RM and we sent 1 of our 3 kids thru RM. THe others switched to private before JW. Been there, done that. Not impressed.

...you're calling people crap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think anyone here said anything about race. I certainly wouldn't want to send my kids to Damascus High School and isn't that all white kids? Race doesn't have anything to do with how RM is but funny how everyone always jumps the gun at that. It is not a top school which is why it was picked to have the IB program in it. This isn't rocket science here. The magnet and IB programs go in the lower performing schools. Lower performing schools = more kids that don't give a crap vs that do and more uninvolved parents than involved. People give RM all these great grades and actually move into the area thinking it is a great school. Take out the IB and many other MCP high schools blow it away.

Not necessarily. Maybe more kids who haven't had the same advantageous, language-rich upbringing and more parents who work two jobs to support their families and don't have a cultural orientation towards involvement in school.

My husband and I both work jobs 40-50hrs a week. I am still involved in my both my kid's schools. I take vacation days to volunteer at the elementary school and am on the PTA for both schools. That statement is a cop-op to the lazies of this wold. You either care and find a way or don't. And the language issue, don't even get me started....

PP, if you are working 40-50 hours a week, you are not working two jobs. And you have paid vacation time, which you may schedule for when you want it. And you don't work in the evenings (assuming that your PTA meets in the evenings). And you have time and opportunity to post on DCUM during regular working hours. Can you understand that there are people who do not have the advantages you have?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is the IB program more humanities based, or does it have a science base also. Maybe an IB program teacher can answer this question better. I would like to my child to take the science courses, like biology, physics, chemistry along with anything else. Anybody know how strong the IB is on the science program. Also, does the IB program of each school differ in the courses, ex. humanities vs. sciences vs. engineering/mathematics etc.

I'd like to know about this too. I think most of us are familiar with AP courses but IB is rarer in Montgomery County. I've heard IB is a better program for kids who are interested in the humanities but that is not the same as saying it is inferior to an AP-based program for a child interested in science.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How well does the IB program serve students who are well-rounded but have a strong interest in science. Is the program strong in this area? We are zoned for Walter Johnson but our child is interested in the RM IB program. We are not sure whether she would be better off at RM. Any thoughts? She is an excellent student with a good work ethic so we do think she would do well in the IB program but wonder she should just go to WJ. Thanks.

I would never pull my kid into RM, IB or not and leave WJ. No way. The IB program might be rigorous but the student population overall is not impressive - hence why RM is the IB location (bump the scores up.)

You could say the same about the middle school magnets, from which thousands of students have benefited over the years.

It is a tradeoff - better academics for an often iffy social environment. The families who choose to send their kids to these schools obviously think it is worthwhile but I personally wish the magnet schools were a little more spread out.

This is code for, "if only the magnet programs weren't part of larger schools with non-white, non-rich kids." I.e., PP thinks the magnets should be in Potomac, or maybe they should be all-school magnets like TJ in Virginia.

Like another PP said, my kid who did the TPMS magnet had a great experience. This was coming from private school. There wasn't any "tradeoff" or "iffy social environment" for my kid.

Why not - there are kids getting on a bus at 6.15 to get to Eastern and Takoma Park (both in the Silver Spring area). This is ridiculous. So yes, why not have a couple of magnets in the western part of the county. I agree that Takoma Park is a nice school but not all parents are happy about the atmosphere at Eastern - there's a lot of bad language and the bathrooms are filthy. I don't care if the children are green or purple in color - that is besides the point.

[Anonymous]

I was in the first class at RM. What I can tell you from 25 years ago is that it prepared me in a way for college that I don't think AP could have done. I ended up at an Ivy and it was a cake walk compared to HS.

With AP, you pick and choose your courses. So you have English, History, Chemistry and they are discrete topics. In the IB program, it's much more cohesive so it brings everything together. In English, you learn about the subtleties of Shakespeare literature while in history you are studying the political events that are occurring and are causing Shakespeare to write the literature. In science, you are recreating the experiments that people are being ostracized for in your history class.

The most valuable skill the program taught me was time management and advocating for myself. Everyone in my class got pretty good about speaking up with history, english, and math all wanted to test on the same day. 25 years I'm sure they have a better system in place. The time management skills though prepared me for college and the actual work force. An assignment was given one day and it may not be referred to again until the due date.

25 years ago, we were segmented into a hallway pretty much isolated from the other kids. It was fine but I will say my high school experience socially was much different from DHs who was in a regular MCPS HS program. With the amount of work to be done, there just was no time for drinking, finding dope, skipping class, etc. DH and I often laugh that we both have a diploma that says Montgomery County High School on it. We had vastly different academic and social experiences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Why not - there are kids getting on a bus at 6.15 to get to Eastern and Takoma Park (both in the Silver Spring area). This is ridiculous. So yes, why not have a couple of magnets in the western part of the county. I agree that Takoma Park is a nice school but not all parents are happy about the atmosphere at Eastern - there's a lot of bad language and the bathrooms are filthy. I don't care if the children are green or purple in color - that is besides the point.

There are a couple of magnets in the western part of the county: the magnets at Roberto Clemente.

[Anonymous]

^^^plus the magnet at Poolesville.

[Anonymous]

Its funny that Ritchie Park is the highest of the RM cluster on the socio-economic ladder yet always seems to have complaints about it. Gueess the stats don't tell all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think anyone here said anything about race. I certainly wouldn't want to send my kids to Damascus High School and isn't that all white kids? Race doesn't have anything to do with how RM is but funny how everyone always jumps the gun at that. It is not a top school which is why it was picked to have the IB program in it. This isn't rocket science here. The magnet and IB programs go in the lower performing schools. Lower performing schools = more kids that don't give a crap vs that do and more uninvolved parents than involved. People give RM all these great grades and actually move into the area thinking it is a great school. Take out the IB and many other MCP high schools blow it away.

Not necessarily. Maybe more kids who haven't had the same advantageous, language-rich upbringing and more parents who work two jobs to support their families and don't have a cultural orientation towards involvement in school.

My husband and I both work jobs 40-50hrs a week. I am still involved in my both my kid's schools. I take vacation days to volunteer at the elementary school and am on the PTA for both schools. That statement is a cop-op to the lazies of this wold. You either care and find a way or don't. And the language issue, don't even get me started....

PP, if you are working 40-50 hours a week, you are not working two jobs. And you have paid vacation time, which you may schedule for when you want it. And you don't work in the evenings (assuming that your PTA meets in the evenings). And you have time and opportunity to post on DCUM during regular working hours. Can you understand that there are people who do not have the advantages you have?

No, I don't. I work four 12 hour night shifts a week and my 3rd goes to preschool where I work at least once a week as is required. Then I work at the other 2 in public school at least 2x a month. Take vacation days if I have to. My husband logs a ton of time commuting for his blue collar job, easily 10 hours more then he gets paid so he is barely here and we switch off with 25min to eat dinner, if that. We aren't rich and well off like you assume. We work very hard. And I sure would like some downtime every once in awhile but my kid's education is important. So unless you work every minute of everyday, there is no excuse to not be involved in your child's education. So sick of people giving other people excuses. Language, working FT, poverty etc... You either are involved or not. Kids care about school or they don't. They usually very much go hand in hand.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
What?! God, I feel sorry for your kid. [b]Do you really imagine that the kids at Clemente who sign up for after school activities are somehow less desireable as peers because they aren't white and well off?[/b] Honestly, what is going to happen to those kids when people with your kind of attitude continue to hold them down? What more do you want from them -- they are engaged in school-run activities, not selling drugs on some street corner, which is what I imagine you think they are doing.[/quote]

White OR ASIAN and well-off. In my experience as a person of European heritage in Montgomery County, people of European heritage in Montgomery County generally think of people of Asian heritage as honorary whites. Also, if the PP has a kid at the Clemente magnet program, there's a good chance that the PP is of Asian heritage. To my shame, I have only recently started to wonder what people of Asian heritage in Montgomery County generally think of people of European heritage as. [/quote]
You can add Indians too. As a person of European heritage, I don't care what race my kids' friends are as long as they are around others who have similiar values in terms of education. I specifically put them in afterschool activities with lots of kids from these cultures.

[Anonymous]

PP at 8:10, as far as I know, MCPS classifies people with South Asian heritage as "Asian".

Also, I don't think that "I don't care what race my kids' friends are" goes with " I specifically put [my kids] in afterschool activities with lots of kids from these cultures [races]."

You might ask some of the parents from India how they feel about putting their kids in afterschool activities with lots of white kids.