RM IB Program?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:RM isn't going to lose the RMIB program. The question is just whether it will stay countywide or only serve kids in its region.

Someone on a different thread thought the IB program would go to Kennedy. It’s seems hard to believe with IB so entrenched at RM. I am concerned though. What do people think?

No one is talking about RM losing the RMIB program. The proposal is to potentially add others (or similar "Global Humanities" programs) in other regions. Kennedy already has a regional IB program so it's logical that they would be one of the other ones, although not as much of a slam-dunk as RM keeping RMIB.

Isn't Kennedy and RM in the same region under initial proposed regions?

Oh yeah. They'll probably give Kennedy the STEM magnet then. They are going to get enough flack for making RMIB regional, I can't imagine they'd actually want to deal with the drama of taking it away (plus it just makes sense to keep programs with existing strong teachers in place where possible), whereas the Kennedy IB program is newer and not very well thought of so it's unlikely anyone is going to protest them losing it. And STEM is likely a bigger draw than IB (outside of RMIB, which I think is popular for reasons besides IB itself) and they will want to draw as many magnet kids to Kennedy as possible to help with diversity.

Good luck with drawing west side kids to an untested brand new program placed in a school with safety issues and 50-60 min bus ride in rush hour.

Plenty of really smart kids on the east side

Define "plenty"? If there were "plenty", why don't some of the east county schools have more AP and advanced math classes like some of the west county schools do?

I get that people are trying to be "inclusive", but let's be real, test scores and lack of kids in advanced classes tell a different story to the narrative that there are "plenty of really smart kids on the east side". Are there some? Of course. I went to a lower income school, and there were some really smart kids, but it was a small minority. The same 30 or so kids were in the same AP classes together, and we only had like 3 or 4 AP classes.

Certainly enough to fill a small magnet program. You don't seem very good at math.

But most Eastside kids could not apply to the hypothetical mscs magnet at Kennedy because they would be zoned for a different one

Also, ^PP assumes that "if they build it, they will come". No. Even some of the RMIB students don't take some of the really advanced HL classes.

GPA is not a good measure of whether someone can handle rigorous courses because of grade inflation here. And "honors" classes area a joke, so that's not a good measure either.

There is a well known and desirable magnet at Wheaton HS that requires 0 west side kids. You all are off your rockers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:STEM kids should be developing strong writing and critical thinking skills too

As long as every HS provides access to similar non-magnet-but-high-level courses, those in STEM magnets distributed among these schools will be able to have those needs met. It's only in cases where we don't make sure all of the non-magnet but higher-end courses are ubiquitous that we'd have that problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:STEM kids should be developing strong writing and critical thinking skills too

STEM kids should have oppurtunity to study higher level STEM courses first to begin with. In absence of that talking about writing is just waste of time.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Blair magnet is in the same precarious situation. It’s staggering that they are considering getting rid of these flagship programs

The melodrama

No melodrama. Just know building these type of programs aren't easy and you might not want to shut them down so quickly.

[Anonymous]

I am sure this has been suggested but I dont understand why MCPS cannot retain RMIB as their county wide flagship IB and expand the IB options to the 6 regions as well. This whole effort to "expand" should not require giving up something that MCPS has grown and cultivated for all these years. Same is true for SMCS programs at Blair and Poolesville. The cohort and teachers are what make RMIB/Blair/Poolesville worth for all those kids that CHOOSE to make the long trips. They are NOT forced to do so. So expand away but leave the choice to the students on where they want to go.

[Anonymous]

Do you need a 4.0 GPA in middle school to get into RMIB? My kid got 2 Bs in middle school…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am sure this has been suggested but I dont understand why MCPS cannot retain RMIB as their county wide flagship IB and expand the IB options to the 6 regions as well. This whole effort to "expand" should not require giving up something that MCPS has grown and cultivated for all these years. Same is true for SMCS programs at Blair and Poolesville. The cohort and teachers are what make RMIB/Blair/Poolesville worth for all those kids that CHOOSE to make the long trips. They are NOT forced to do so. So expand away but leave the choice to the students on where they want to go.

Because MCPS and the school board members are stupid. Trying to solve social issues thru education system. Total garbage at this point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am sure this has been suggested but I dont understand why MCPS cannot retain RMIB as their county wide flagship IB and expand the IB options to the 6 regions as well. This whole effort to "expand" should not require giving up something that MCPS has grown and cultivated for all these years. Same is true for SMCS programs at Blair and Poolesville. The cohort and teachers are what make RMIB/Blair/Poolesville worth for all those kids that CHOOSE to make the long trips. They are NOT forced to do so. So expand away but leave the choice to the students on where they want to go.

The main reason to dissolve the countywide programs would be to save on the transportation costs of bussing kids from across the county for the RMIB program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am sure this has been suggested but I dont understand why MCPS cannot retain RMIB as their county wide flagship IB and expand the IB options to the 6 regions as well. This whole effort to "expand" should not require giving up something that MCPS has grown and cultivated for all these years. Same is true for SMCS programs at Blair and Poolesville. The cohort and teachers are what make RMIB/Blair/Poolesville worth for all those kids that CHOOSE to make the long trips. They are NOT forced to do so. So expand away but leave the choice to the students on where they want to go.

The main reason to dissolve the countywide programs would be to save on the transportation costs of bussing kids from across the county for the RMIB program.

Uh.. if transportation cost is the issue, then opening several programs in each region won't address that issue. IMO, it would make it worse.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The analytical writing focus was outstanding preparation for college. APs cover a lot of content, valuable to a point, but don’t foster critical thinking, writing, and research skills in the same way. The internal assessments offer excellent training, and what AP course has anything resembling an EE writing project?

An issue is the preponderance of students who want STEM now and suffer through the humanities classes at RMIB. Given overwhelming interest and aptitude, MCPS would benefit from a much larger, TJ-like STEM magnet and keep RMIB for the humanities and truly cross-disciplinary kids. Plus beef up Einstein. Something like 4 Blair-like STEM magnets plus RMIB and Einstein could be successful in meeting demand, but would cost too much money to implement.

Though most want to see expanded access, not one of the proposals actually saves money in the end or is clear about maintaining the current high standards across the board. What a mess.

Yes, that's an issue. RMIB is a poor choice for any kid into STEM and many more kids want to pursue STEM now.

STEM programs are lacking big time in MCPS. 100-150 seats for such a large county is simply too little. Hopefully, strong STEM magnets can be provided by MCPS in regional models to increase seats.

IMO it's probably a staffing issue. There is a shortage of teachers, but even worse in STEM subjects. Throw in more advanced STEM courses, and staffing issues become even bigger.

It's very difficult to find a good CS teacher, though maybe some of the laid off CS folks will go into teaching CS in public schools. But, not everyone can teach CS even if they know how to code. Again, it's a staffing issue.

So they will expand the magnets and need more staffing!

do you think that's an easy thing to do, especially for the advanced STEM classes?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:RM isn't going to lose the RMIB program. The question is just whether it will stay countywide or only serve kids in its region.

Someone on a different thread thought the IB program would go to Kennedy. It’s seems hard to believe with IB so entrenched at RM. I am concerned though. What do people think?

No one is talking about RM losing the RMIB program. The proposal is to potentially add others (or similar "Global Humanities" programs) in other regions. Kennedy already has a regional IB program so it's logical that they would be one of the other ones, although not as much of a slam-dunk as RM keeping RMIB.

Isn't Kennedy and RM in the same region under initial proposed regions?

Oh yeah. They'll probably give Kennedy the STEM magnet then. They are going to get enough flack for making RMIB regional, I can't imagine they'd actually want to deal with the drama of taking it away (plus it just makes sense to keep programs with existing strong teachers in place where possible), whereas the Kennedy IB program is newer and not very well thought of so it's unlikely anyone is going to protest them losing it. And STEM is likely a bigger draw than IB (outside of RMIB, which I think is popular for reasons besides IB itself) and they will want to draw as many magnet kids to Kennedy as possible to help with diversity.

Good luck with drawing west side kids to an untested brand new program placed in a school with safety issues and 50-60 min bus ride in rush hour.

Plenty of really smart kids on the east side

Define "plenty"? If there were "plenty", why don't some of the east county schools have more AP and advanced math classes like some of the west county schools do?

I get that people are trying to be "inclusive", but let's be real, test scores and lack of kids in advanced classes tell a different story to the narrative that there are "plenty of really smart kids on the east side". Are there some? Of course. I went to a lower income school, and there were some really smart kids, but it was a small minority. The same 30 or so kids were in the same AP classes together, and we only had like 3 or 4 AP classes.

Certainly enough to fill a small magnet program. You don't seem very good at math.

Sure you can fill a small magnet with anyone, even those who would struggle with the content. You don't seem so sharp yourself.

Look at the IB/AP/SAT scores per school. I posted it repeatedly, but people like you and MCPS like to ignore it, even though they are the ones who did the data analysis. They must've just hired someone to put the data together and not bothered doing the analysis part.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am sure this has been suggested but I dont understand why MCPS cannot retain RMIB as their county wide flagship IB and expand the IB options to the 6 regions as well. This whole effort to "expand" should not require giving up something that MCPS has grown and cultivated for all these years. Same is true for SMCS programs at Blair and Poolesville. The cohort and teachers are what make RMIB/Blair/Poolesville worth for all those kids that CHOOSE to make the long trips. They are NOT forced to do so. So expand away but leave the choice to the students on where they want to go.

The main reason to dissolve the countywide programs would be to save on the transportation costs of bussing kids from across the county for the RMIB program.

Uh.. if transportation cost is the issue, then opening several programs in each region won't address that issue. IMO, it would make it worse.

Shorter distance for 1000 kids to access stronger programs vs longer distance for 100 kids to acess super strong program-- That's the trade off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:RM isn't going to lose the RMIB program. The question is just whether it will stay countywide or only serve kids in its region.

Someone on a different thread thought the IB program would go to Kennedy. It’s seems hard to believe with IB so entrenched at RM. I am concerned though. What do people think?

No one is talking about RM losing the RMIB program. The proposal is to potentially add others (or similar "Global Humanities" programs) in other regions. Kennedy already has a regional IB program so it's logical that they would be one of the other ones, although not as much of a slam-dunk as RM keeping RMIB.

Isn't Kennedy and RM in the same region under initial proposed regions?

Oh yeah. They'll probably give Kennedy the STEM magnet then. They are going to get enough flack for making RMIB regional, I can't imagine they'd actually want to deal with the drama of taking it away (plus it just makes sense to keep programs with existing strong teachers in place where possible), whereas the Kennedy IB program is newer and not very well thought of so it's unlikely anyone is going to protest them losing it. And STEM is likely a bigger draw than IB (outside of RMIB, which I think is popular for reasons besides IB itself) and they will want to draw as many magnet kids to Kennedy as possible to help with diversity.

Good luck with drawing west side kids to an untested brand new program placed in a school with safety issues and 50-60 min bus ride in rush hour.

Plenty of really smart kids on the east side

Define "plenty"? If there were "plenty", why don't some of the east county schools have more AP and advanced math classes like some of the west county schools do?

I get that people are trying to be "inclusive", but let's be real, test scores and lack of kids in advanced classes tell a different story to the narrative that there are "plenty of really smart kids on the east side". Are there some? Of course. I went to a lower income school, and there were some really smart kids, but it was a small minority. The same 30 or so kids were in the same AP classes together, and we only had like 3 or 4 AP classes.

Certainly enough to fill a small magnet program. You don't seem very good at math.

But most Eastside kids could not apply to the hypothetical mscs magnet at Kennedy because they would be zoned for a different one

Also, ^PP assumes that "if they build it, they will come". No. Even some of the RMIB students don't take some of the really advanced HL classes.

GPA is not a good measure of whether someone can handle rigorous courses because of grade inflation here. And "honors" classes area a joke, so that's not a good measure either.

There is a well known and desirable magnet at Wheaton HS that requires 0 west side kids. You all are off your rockers.

That's great for Wheaton, truly. But, can't say the same for the other east side schools. Look at the scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am sure this has been suggested but I dont understand why MCPS cannot retain RMIB as their county wide flagship IB and expand the IB options to the 6 regions as well. This whole effort to "expand" should not require giving up something that MCPS has grown and cultivated for all these years. Same is true for SMCS programs at Blair and Poolesville. The cohort and teachers are what make RMIB/Blair/Poolesville worth for all those kids that CHOOSE to make the long trips. They are NOT forced to do so. So expand away but leave the choice to the students on where they want to go.

The main reason to dissolve the countywide programs would be to save on the transportation costs of bussing kids from across the county for the RMIB program.

Uh.. if transportation cost is the issue, then opening several programs in each region won't address that issue. IMO, it would make it worse.

Shorter distance for 1000 kids to access stronger programs vs longer distance for 100 kids to acess super strong program-- That's the trade off.

ok, but that still doesn't address the transportation costs, which is what PP stated that they were trying to address.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:RM isn't going to lose the RMIB program. The question is just whether it will stay countywide or only serve kids in its region.

Someone on a different thread thought the IB program would go to Kennedy. It’s seems hard to believe with IB so entrenched at RM. I am concerned though. What do people think?

No one is talking about RM losing the RMIB program. The proposal is to potentially add others (or similar "Global Humanities" programs) in other regions. Kennedy already has a regional IB program so it's logical that they would be one of the other ones, although not as much of a slam-dunk as RM keeping RMIB.

Isn't Kennedy and RM in the same region under initial proposed regions?

Oh yeah. They'll probably give Kennedy the STEM magnet then. They are going to get enough flack for making RMIB regional, I can't imagine they'd actually want to deal with the drama of taking it away (plus it just makes sense to keep programs with existing strong teachers in place where possible), whereas the Kennedy IB program is newer and not very well thought of so it's unlikely anyone is going to protest them losing it. And STEM is likely a bigger draw than IB (outside of RMIB, which I think is popular for reasons besides IB itself) and they will want to draw as many magnet kids to Kennedy as possible to help with diversity.

Good luck with drawing west side kids to an untested brand new program placed in a school with safety issues and 50-60 min bus ride in rush hour.

Plenty of really smart kids on the east side

Define "plenty"? If there were "plenty", why don't some of the east county schools have more AP and advanced math classes like some of the west county schools do?

I get that people are trying to be "inclusive", but let's be real, test scores and lack of kids in advanced classes tell a different story to the narrative that there are "plenty of really smart kids on the east side". Are there some? Of course. I went to a lower income school, and there were some really smart kids, but it was a small minority. The same 30 or so kids were in the same AP classes together, and we only had like 3 or 4 AP classes.

Certainly enough to fill a small magnet program. You don't seem very good at math.

But most Eastside kids could not apply to the hypothetical mscs magnet at Kennedy because they would be zoned for a different one

Also, ^PP assumes that "if they build it, they will come". No. Even some of the RMIB students don't take some of the really advanced HL classes.

GPA is not a good measure of whether someone can handle rigorous courses because of grade inflation here. And "honors" classes area a joke, so that's not a good measure either.

There is a well known and desirable magnet at Wheaton HS that requires 0 west side kids. You all are off your rockers.

That's great for Wheaton, truly. But, can't say the same for the other east side schools. Look at the scores.

You've lost the plot. We are talking about magnet programs and whether or not there are enough smart kids east of 355 to populate a magnet at Kennedy. The answer is obviously yes.