magnet schools for Bethesda kids?

[Anonymous]

Good afternoon,

We recently moved into Parkside (20814) and have a 4th grader. I am just starting to learn about the magnet opportunities in 6th grade in this area. The websites are a tad confusing (clearly I wouldn't qualify for one of them!).

Which ones are we eligible for (for transportation) and which ones are we eligible for (without transportation)?

[Anonymous]

For middle school:

Takoma and Eastern are the application magnets available for Bethesda kids (transportation)

There are also 3 non-application magnets (no transportation)

[Anonymous]

First, there are two selective magnets, where students apply, take a test and are selected based on grades, teacher recs and test scores: one is for the Humanities at Eastern middle school in Silver Spring, and there is transportation available. The other is for the STEM at Takoma Park middle school and they share a bus with Eastern. From Bethesda, we were warned it might take an hour, one way!

Second, there are three "magnet" schools which are NOT selective, further up into Wheaton, which do not offer transportation. Only 20% of the seats are available for out of cluster students like your child. Parkland is for Aeronautics, Argyle is for digital design, and Loiderman is for the Arts. You can try the lottery twice, there is no selection on merit. The curriculum is the standard one, but they add the appropriate enrichment.

Third, each of these programs will host informational meetings in the Fall of 5th grade. Your school will send you the dates next year.

Let me tell you the truth for Bethesda-area families - transportation-wise, it's not really worth it unless your child really would not be able to function elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good afternoon,

We recently moved into Parkside (20814) and have a 4th grader. I am just starting to learn about the magnet opportunities in 6th grade in this area. The websites are a tad confusing (clearly I wouldn't qualify for one of them!).

Which ones are we eligible for (for transportation) and which ones are we eligible for (without transportation)?

There are two test in magnets:
Eastern Middle School in Silver Spring which is a Humanities and Communications Arts Magnet. The focus is on English, Social Studies and Media.
Takoma Park Middle School in Takoma which is a Science, Math and Comp Sci Magnet.
These programs each have 100 spots (although Takoma has an additional 25 for their neighborhood kids). They typically get around 800 applications per program. The applications are due in November and you need good grades, teacher recs. a strong application essay and most important of all you have to do well in the entrance exam.
There are also "choice" programs your child can apply to. Selection is primarily based on a lottery system I believe. There is no test.
I suggest you look these up as I am not that familiar with them. There is Loiderman for the performing arts, Argyle (I can't remember what it has) and Parkland which has an Aerospace program (I think). Just like the Eastern and Takoma these programs exist within a neighborhood school so the kids attending the program are a minority. People generally like Takoma, Eastern and Parkland schools. I know and know of several families who have withdrawn their kids from Loiderman and Argyle because they were not happy with the overall school environment and/or their kids were being bullied by neighborhood kids. All these programs are in the Silver Spring area.
You do qualify for transportation to Eastern and Takoma Park from all neighborhoods in the 16 high school clusters that send magnet kids to them. You can look up the magnet bus routes here:
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/transportation/busroutes/
I do not know if you qualify for transportation to the "choice" programs. It does not look like it is provided.

[Anonymous]

If you child STEM driven it may proven enriching to shoot for Takoma-Blair but as the PP said the rest of the programs are ehhhh compared to a proper AP load at the W's and the logistics and quality of life need to be taken into account. These programs were designed to pull W kids over so there is some meat on the carrot but there is also a reason there are none of these programs at the local schools. Unless your kids is tacking towards being an elite student they will most likely be better served at their home school. An A student at Whitman will have a better experience during and after high school than a B student at Blair's program, an A magnet student at blair can do what ever they want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:An A student at Whitman will have a better experience during and after high school than a B student at Blair's program, an A magnet student at blair can do what ever they want.

How much do you know about Blair SMAC??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you child STEM driven it may proven enriching to shoot for Takoma-Blair but as the PP said the rest of the programs are ehhhh compared to a proper AP load at the W's and the logistics and quality of life need to be taken into account. These programs were designed to pull W kids over so there is some meat on the carrot but there is also a reason there are none of these programs at the local schools. Unless your kids is tacking towards being an elite student they will most likely be better served at their home school. An A student at Whitman will have a better experience during and after high school than a B student at Blair's program, an A magnet student at blair can do what ever they want.

Eastern is nothing like any regular middle school program. The curriculum and students in the magnet are very different than those elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An A student at Whitman will have a better experience during and after high school than a B student at Blair's program, an A magnet student at blair can do what ever they want.

How much do you know about Blair SMAC??

I would like to know too!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you child STEM driven it may proven enriching to shoot for Takoma-Blair but as the PP said the rest of the programs are ehhhh compared to a proper AP load at the W's and the logistics and quality of life need to be taken into account. These programs were designed to pull W kids over so there is some meat on the carrot but there is also a reason there are none of these programs at the local schools. Unless your kids is tacking towards being an elite student they will most likely be better served at their home school. An A student at Whitman will have a better experience during and after high school than a B student at Blair's program, an A magnet student at blair can do what ever they want.

As a parent with personal knowledge of W schools as well as magnet programs I cannot agree with this post

[Anonymous]

There are plenty of Bethesda area kids who attend Eastern, Takoma Park, Blair and RMIB. I am not going to knock their home high schools (we are zoned for one of them) but the magnet programs are qualitatively different in terms of curriculum as well as the peer group. That does not mean that every bright kid would be better off in the magnet programs but if you have a kid who would thrive in that environment (enriched curriculum, able to work at least two grade levels above actual grade, faster pace, cross-disciplinary work, high expectations, peer group that is also bright and loves to learn) it is worth the bus ride. Yes you take non-magnet courses with the general school population but that is not a terrible thing. Takoma Park is a good middle school. At Eastern your child's math and science class is likely to have mostly magnet kids. Blair is a very good school. If you are taking AP or honors level classes the teachers are great. We have been very happy with social studies and english at blair. Foreign languages not so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you child STEM driven it may proven enriching to shoot for Takoma-Blair but as the PP said the rest of the programs are ehhhh compared to a proper AP load at the W's and the logistics and quality of life need to be taken into account. These programs were designed to pull W kids over so there is some meat on the carrot but there is also a reason there are none of these programs at the local schools. Unless your kids is tacking towards being an elite student they will most likely be better served at their home school. An A student at Whitman will have a better experience during and after high school than a B student at Blair's program, an A magnet student at blair can do what ever they want.

When comparing demographic apples to apples, the W's appear average for MCPS.

[Anonymous]

The first part of this post is simply not true, at least not for the Whitman cluster in terms of there being "plenty" of kids attending the magnets.

There are exact numbers in the Choice Study and they are so low for the Whitman cluster that on some charts they don't even list them for privacy reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good afternoon,

We recently moved into Parkside (20814) and have a 4th grader. I am just starting to learn about the magnet opportunities in 6th grade in this area. The websites are a tad confusing (clearly I wouldn't qualify for one of them!).

Which ones are we eligible for (for transportation) and which ones are we eligible for (without transportation)?

If you look at the transportation schedule you'll find your child would likely need to get on a bus around 6.15am at the nearest middle school and be dropped off there around 5.15pm.

[Anonymous]

Wootton is the second largest sender of kids to Blair after Takoma.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The first part of this post is simply not true, at least not for the Whitman cluster in terms of there being "plenty" of kids attending the magnets.

There are exact numbers in the Choice Study and they are so low for the Whitman cluster that on some charts they don't even list them for privacy reasons.

True from the Bethesda area high schools the Whitman cluster sends very few. On the other hand BCC sends 11 and WJ sends 17 to the two high school magnets. Westland sends 10 and North Bethesda sends 6 to the middle school magnets.