MCPS - National Merit Seminfinalists pretty unevenly distributed, don't you think?
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Anonymous
What is your source for this information? |
Anonymous
| I know at two kids at Blair who are NMSFs who are not in any magnet program. And I know a pretty small sample of kids at Blair! |
Anonymous
The magnet program deserves even less credit since they got the smartest and most motivated kids. |
Anonymous
Well, then we know at least two NMSF kids at Blair are not in the magnet program. It is still possible they are the only two. |
Anonymous
| I don't understand the original poster. Who really think the NMSF kids would be evenly distributed when the test scores among school vary greatly? Is this somehow surprising? |
Anonymous
I also don't think the schools should list how many NMSF are at their school. It propagates the illusion that some schools are better than others. They all teach the same curriculum. The difference is that higher income families hire tutors for their kids so they are better prepared. If there was free PSAT prep and encouragement for kids at the schools who did not rank highly on the list, perhaps they would have as many NMSF as the "W" schools. |
Anonymous
And it is possible that they are not. Can someone please explain to me why so many people (at least on this thread) seem so invested in the Blair non-magnet, non-CAP population not performing as highly as their peers in W schools? |
Anonymous
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The charts posted previously don't lie. In the universe of public education, SES is destiny. In light of that reality, all public schools perform more or less the same.
On the other hand, taking your children out of the public-school matrix can make a difference. My children are enrolled in a Catholic parochial school in PG County that is majority-minority and moderate income (low by Washington standards). The kids there average around the 70th percentile on national standardized tests. If you put the same population in any MCPS school, they'd be at about the 50th percentile. From what I've heard from school administrators, these are typical results for the Archdiocesan schools in lower-income, minority communities. This is why the most highly educated demographic in America, if you cross-tabulate by race and religion, is black Catholics, and why in the Washington metro area, black Catholics, who make up 10% of the African American population, are 50% of the affluent African American population. Different curriculum, different culture, different results. |
Anonymous
I would like to know this too. |
Anonymous
It's not just on this thread. Any time statistical data shows a downcounty school performing well (college admissions, NMSF, etc.) people in Bethesda go nuts. It can be a sport watching this on various threads. That said, Blair is a much larger school than most or all of the other MCPS high schools, so it having more NMSF both in magnet and out shouldn't come as a total shock. |
Anonymous
| But WHY do people in Bethesda go nuts? Instead of thinking, for example, "Other kids in Montgomery County public schools are also doing well, yay!"? |
Anonymous
PP who posted the question here. THIS is exactly what I would like to know. Why are these people so invested in Blair kids NOT doing well? What is in it for them? Do they see it as a zero-sum game where only X% of kids can do well, so if Blair kids do well then W kids will not? |
Anonymous
Nobody is invested in Blair kids NOT doing well. They need to post the results differently, the information is misleading. |
Anonymous
How is the information misleading? Blair had this many, this other high school had that many, etc -- right? Why do you want the numbers divided into Magnet Blair and Non-Magnet Blair? |
Anonymous
| What about the RM parents? Are 50% + NMS in RM non-magnet? |