Blair SMCS Program October 23 info session

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People complain that MCPS sends too many messages and yet here we are also complaining about not enough messages.

I don’t complain MCPS sends too many messages. I do complain that some of their messages are dumb. I do think they could have sent more messages than one about the HS program info sessions.

The only one who sends too many messages is Jostens-who presumably was given my email by MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Given that the magnet serves mostly kids from wealthy schools that presumably have advance coursework at their home schools, this seems….like a bad use of taxpayer dollars.

The wealthy people are the ones providing taxpayer dollars, pal.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The magnet will have enough applicants regardless of whether they make the info session virtual. It’s not like there’s incentive to reach more people. It’s a program only for the most advanced and motivated.

Having a parent able to drive you to Blair on a school night has little to do with being the most advanced and motivated. It's far easier to do if you live closer to Blair or are from a family that is well-off enough that there's a car available and a parent home from work to do this.

Parent engagement is pivotal to success in the program, particularly if the kid lives further away. Kids eventually miss a bus, stay after, etc.

So you're saying that kids need to have helicopter parents and live close by to be successful at Blair SMCS. That seems to be a good argument to dismantle it and have regional programs.

The regional programs will all be garbage.

That's your opinion, not a fact. But they definitely won't be dominated by only 4 HS out of the 30+ that are in MCPS.

No one really knows. We know the math will be pretty mcps standard. We know there will be electives. We know there will be no 9th period.

They said there will be 9th period, at least in the Region 4 Wootton example SMCS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Given that the magnet serves mostly kids from wealthy schools that presumably have advance coursework at their home schools, this seems….like a bad use of taxpayer dollars.

The wealthy people are the ones providing taxpayer dollars, pal.

You again! I’m sure the responses to you will go well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:What are the 4 schools?

I know three are Blair, Wootton, and Churchill. It was in some slides presented at one of the BOE meetings. I don’t know the fourth.

It’s not like Wootton and Churchill are the closest schools to Blair, suggesting proximity isn’t the main driver of who utilizes the program.

Ah someone posted the data above. The fourth is WJ.

Yet Whitman and BCC are further away and send relatively few kids to the program. BCC and Whitman have more NMSF than the above schools, so it's hard to argue that they're lacking in talent there.

Yeah, because the Wootton and Churchill and WJ NMSF students ARE AT BLAIR.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So you have three of the richest schools utilizing a majority of spots, at a program meant to draw economic diversity not just to the school but to the area (and diversity I here mean richer people). Perfect, well done, no notes.

Not sure why you are confused. They wanted to bring rich kids to a poor school, and they did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wooton, WJ, Blair and other DCC schools. Some but not a lot from Churchill.
Very few from Whitman and BCC as others noted.

Churchill has the second highest at 77 after Wootton’s 105. WJ and Blair are distant 3rd and 4th.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I would imagine the in person demand is part of getting people to grapple with the time and distance. If you can’t show up for a single info session, is this Bery demanding commute going to be something you can manage for your family every weekday?

The "bery" demanding commute isn't as much of an issue since Blair SMCS offers bus service to kids every day. But if you think that part of MCPS admissions to a magnet should be the ability to drive 40 minutes each way for a single hour on a single school night, well, that's your vision of what equity and merit looks like.

+1 They have so many calls that are streamed out--why couldn't they do that for the RMIB and Blair SMCS ones unless they were trying to make it harder for people to get the information? It was particularly striking because they offered the Poolesville info session via email with a virtual link in the same email where they said the Blair session was only in person at Blair.

They wanted to see students in person and parents too to "weed" them out. Playing games

The info session was anonymous.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Why didn't MCPS offer a zoom link? They had one for Poolesville and several of the other programs.

Even for RMIB--there was no virtual link but they had 2 different sessions at different times. But just one for Blair SMCS so if you couldn't make it for some reason, you were SOL.

Think for a moment and wonder why

I know why and I don't like the answer.

No one ever said the selection process for Blair SMCS was particularly robust. It's only based on grades and a single MAP-M data point.

And a kiddie version of a resume and cover letter

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So you have three of the richest schools utilizing a majority of spots, at a program meant to draw economic diversity not just to the school but to the area (and diversity I here mean richer people). Perfect, well done, no notes.

Not sure why you are confused. They wanted to bring rich kids to a poor school, and they did.

Yes which is why it is perfection and no notes.

But it is striking that people want to have magnets at high Farms schools with the presumption of helping the less resourced kids at the school. Obviously with school choice at least this magnet just serves the wealthy and maybe helps the less resourced kids a little.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the 4 schools?

I know three are Blair, Wootton, and Churchill. It was in some slides presented at one of the BOE meetings. I don’t know the fourth.

It’s not like Wootton and Churchill are the closest schools to Blair, suggesting proximity isn’t the main driver of who utilizes the program.

Ah someone posted the data above. The fourth is WJ.

Yet Whitman and BCC are further away and send relatively few kids to the program. BCC and Whitman have more NMSF than the above schools, so it's hard to argue that they're lacking in talent there.

The schools above send many of their MMSF to Blair which is why Blair is typically so well represented. Even saying Blair (which is the biggest high school in the county) is one of the biggest feeders to SMCS is disingenuous. Even with the leg up of anchored slots in the middle school magnets for Takoma Park that feed SMCS, Blair only sends a small group of kids every year (less than 10) per grade (Out of a freshman class of almost 1000) out of the 110 magnet admissions per grade. Hell the county most likely bumped it up from 100 to get the couple of local kids in. Truth is 261 kids from the 5 Ws take up 60% of the total slots and the other 12 High schools only manage 40% combined. That 60/40 split doesn't even take into account it isn't prioritized or pushed at BCC and Whitman where the need to hunt for peer group is minimal and money provides way more access to colleges than any course load in a public school will ever hope to.

Truth is that without that influx of talent into Blair it will fall precipitously in standing and test scores in the new reginal model

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wooton, WJ, Blair and other DCC schools. Some but not a lot from Churchill.
Very few from Whitman and BCC as others noted.

Churchill has the second highest at 77 after Wootton’s 105. WJ and Blair are distant 3rd and 4th.

Where is this data?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wooton, WJ, Blair and other DCC schools. Some but not a lot from Churchill.
Very few from Whitman and BCC as others noted.

Churchill has the second highest at 77 after Wootton’s 105. WJ and Blair are distant 3rd and 4th.

Where is this data?

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://us-east1-menlo-inspect.menlosecurity.com/safeview-fileserv/tc_download/2aae7c3a79e628ba27c64773ff6fb5d89c88f7c7ec304b65405cbd60ea3d2309/?&cid=NB13E88EC8B89&rid=9f85e389f4d575cc7550437afd715a74&cl=od_menlo_2c&file_url=https%3A%2F%2Fgo.boarddocs.com%2Fmabe%2Fmcpsmd%2FBoard.nsf%2Ffiles%2FDJVQ56678E2B%2F%24file%2FAttachment%2520D%2520SY2025%2520Student%2520Enrollment%2520Countywide%2520Programs%2520250724.pdf&type=original

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the 4 schools?

I know three are Blair, Wootton, and Churchill. It was in some slides presented at one of the BOE meetings. I don’t know the fourth.

It’s not like Wootton and Churchill are the closest schools to Blair, suggesting proximity isn’t the main driver of who utilizes the program.

Ah someone posted the data above. The fourth is WJ.

Yet Whitman and BCC are further away and send relatively few kids to the program. BCC and Whitman have more NMSF than the above schools, so it's hard to argue that they're lacking in talent there.

The schools above send many of their MMSF to Blair which is why Blair is typically so well represented. Even saying Blair (which is the biggest high school in the county) is one of the biggest feeders to SMCS is disingenuous. Even with the leg up of anchored slots in the middle school magnets for Takoma Park that feed SMCS, Blair only sends a small group of kids every year (less than 10) per grade (Out of a freshman class of almost 1000) out of the 110 magnet admissions per grade. Hell the county most likely bumped it up from 100 to get the couple of local kids in. Truth is 261 kids from the 5 Ws take up 60% of the total slots and the other 12 High schools only manage 40% combined. That 60/40 split doesn't even take into account it isn't prioritized or pushed at BCC and Whitman where the need to hunt for peer group is minimal and money provides way more access to colleges than any course load in a public school will ever hope to.

Truth is that without that influx of talent into Blair it will fall precipitously in standing and test scores in the new reginal model

The special Blair curriculum does not exist to give kids good PSAT scores. Parents provide their kids test prep independently of school offerings, just as many parents put their kids in MAP test prep to get into Blair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the 4 schools?

I know three are Blair, Wootton, and Churchill. It was in some slides presented at one of the BOE meetings. I don’t know the fourth.

It’s not like Wootton and Churchill are the closest schools to Blair, suggesting proximity isn’t the main driver of who utilizes the program.

Ah someone posted the data above. The fourth is WJ.

Yet Whitman and BCC are further away and send relatively few kids to the program. BCC and Whitman have more NMSF than the above schools, so it's hard to argue that they're lacking in talent there.

Yeah, because the Wootton and Churchill and WJ NMSF students ARE AT BLAIR.

Evidently the NMSF students chose to leave for a reason.