Specialty program spreadsheets
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Anonymous
| Does anyone know where the spreadsheets went for the entire specialty program list? It was there two weeks ago and now it doesn't seem to be showing up. |
Anonymous
| They took it down. I have a PDF copy if you want it, but I guess you'd have to send me your email address. |
Anonymous
| Yeah, I downloaded it and saved the PDF since I knew it went away last year. |
Anonymous
| I asked PGCS about this a few days ago. They took it down intentionally for unspecified reasons and do not plan to put it back up. |
Anonymous
| What is it? |
Anonymous
|
The raw lottery results spreadsheet for the Specialty program. Right now you can't access it you can only input the number and see where you are.
I've played around with hit some and it seems that for some schools no one got in (TAG MS) and for some everyone who applied and was eligible got in. |
Anonymous
| My child moved one spot higher on the waitlist for 6th grade TAG at Greenbelt Middle. So one kid got it. My other child is on the waitlist for 8th grade TAG at Greenbelt Middle - no movement at all. Last year, I think 4 kids got in there for 7th grade because my child moved up 4 spots but didn't get in. What is so ridiculous is the time and money spent for so few spots. What a waste of tax dollars. This is our 4th year of trying to get into middle school TAG. There really isn't room in PGCPS for good students. My kids attend regular PGCPS and they are are especially tired of classmates who disrupt class and substitute teachers who are abysmal. Our only hope is to test into Roosevelt. One of our kids goes there and is pleased. It's like living in China - your life depends on how you do on one test when you are 14. |
Anonymous
I played around with it too. Did you notice that there were large numbers of kids in the upper grades of the TAG program that were not eligible (I specifically looked at Fifth grade TAG at Glenarden. The waitlist numbers at the higher levels weren't shifted down at all. I asked the program office about it. First they told me it was live. Then they said the specialty office holds some spots or something like that for specialty program reasons. Then they said they were waiting for the RAG office to determine if those kids were eligible or not and it would get updated in May. We need a more transparent process. |
Anonymous
|
I think that parents and PTA's should lobby a lot harder for more TAG middle school slots. If you play with the numbers for Glennarden Woods, Highland Park and Capitol Heights ES it looks like all the 2nd graders got slots there. That's over TAG 150 kids being drained out of the local ES. Those kids automatically get into TAG MS. If they aren't going to have more slots open at MS, why even bother telling us to apply for the lottery. If they can expand French Immersion, Spanish Immersion and TAG at ES level, why not expand at MS level. Seems like low hanging fruit to me. There are 63 TAG eligible kids on the Kenmoor MS waitlist for 6th grade. That's 2 full classes of TAG kids who are going to get a lower quality of TAG services than the other TAG kids in the county. PGCPS are REQUIRED to provide TAG services to identified kids. What happens to those kids who may not be ready for all day TAG at 6 or 7 years old who are ready at 10 or 11? It is unfair and frankly I think that it could be a lawsuit against the county. I have no faith in the TAG office people right now. They either have no idea what is going on or are just blowing smoke up my a$$ when I ask about available slots at MS level.
If they don't fix this MS problem now they are never going to keep middle class families in the county. We need to lobby Dr Maxwell and Mr Baker on this or it will never be addressed. I'm pretty sure that this isn't even on Baker's radar. If we keep ES kids in their local schools through 5th grade that will improve our neighborhood ES schools. That in turn will eventually impact the middle schools etc. It's this sort of thing that makes me want to throw my hands in the air and give up. |
Anonymous
| Opening more Middle School TAG slots would be a really good thing for our county. |
Anonymous
I don't understand this point, PP. What are you trying to say? |
Anonymous
The problem is that Kenmoor MS is already over capacity. No room for more TAG classes unless you move some other kids elsewhere. And there are kids on the wait list because the Kenmoor TAG program is, well, pretty decent. If the county finds a middle school that is under enrolled, and attempts to put a TAG program there -- it will be a new program, unproved record, maybe the school is under enrolled because it's not a great environment... a lot of unknowns. |
Anonymous
Sorry the rambling....I wasn't clear at all 
My point is that many parents decide to send their kids to the TAG ES magnets because they see that as a guaranteed path to a good middle school and then onto the IB HS program. I think that if they knew they had a guaranteed spot (or at least some reasonable odds) of getting into a TAG MS then they would choose to stay at their local school. Because of the TAG drain in 2nd grade, it is harder for local ES to justify expending resources to provide Tag in the Regular Classroom (TRC) or even more faculty for Tag Pull Out sessions. If there were more schools offering TRC then the non-TAG kids in that class would benefit by being challenged by the TAG curriculum. And that would snowball into higher test scores etc. Additionally, the parents who put their kids into the TAG lottery are often of have a higher SES than the general student body. Parents of a higher SES are more likely to be involved in PTA etc so parental involvement in the school goes down at those schools where there is a high TAG drain. An example of the TAG MS issue can be seen by comparing Spellman (Great School Rating of 6) to Rockledge (Great School Rating of 6). Spellman lost about 12% of the class between 1st and 2nd grade last year. Rockledge's enrollment increased by 1. Acceptance rates to their TAG magnets are basically the same. So what is one of the apparent differences? Spellman feeds into Gholson (GS rating of 3) while Rockledge feeds into Samuel Ogle MS (GS rating of 7) and Bowie HS. |
Anonymous
I would think that the most logical thing to do would be to move the non-TAG students to one of the neighboring underenrolled MS. I know that wouldn't be popular but the TAG trained faculty is already in place at Kenmoor so the immediate cost to the county would be minimal. |
Anonymous
| Yes, that would be really unpopular. Move local kids further away so kids who live further from the school can come there....? |