"Enriched" Classes for MS have now become the "advanced" water down classes at our MS

[Anonymous]

It sounds like OP's child is at Cold Spring CES. So whatever MSs those feed in to

[Anonymous]

Cabin John
Frost
Hoover

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Yes and no. I don't think the school ever received the proper curriculum nor resources to maintain the "cohort" classes so they decided to just enroll all. That way, they can say the kids are indeed "enriched".

This seems like a cop-out. It's easy to blame the Central Office, but I think OP needs to take a hard look in the mirror. The issue is her, and her fellow parents, who the administration knew would have kittens if there was an enriched class that their child wasn't placed into.

+100

OP here. No, I am not sour grapes.

There are kids in our Elementary School 5th grade compact 5/6 class who did not get into the magnets. I was very shocked that they did not. They are exceptional, in my opinion. Their MAP-M scores easily went into the 260's, 270's and even 280's. They also do national competitions. The fact is: I believe this is the "cohort" AIM was meant to serve at the Middle School. Likewise, there are kids who did exceptionally well and can benefit from a deeper enrichment in 6th grade, and I believe again that the enriched social studies class is meant to meet their needs. I think there is something fundamentally wrong when the middle school decides to enroll all 6th graders in the social studies class. And I do not think all fifth graders taking Compacted 5/6 should be in AIM, likely including my own child.

OP, is it Cabin John? I found the course bulletin online and it doesn't list criteria or language about the central office like other schools.

[Anonymous]

Hoover also seems to be offering the Enriched Humanities course to the entire 6th grade. However, Applied IM has requirements set by the central office.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hoover also seems to be offering the Enriched Humanities course to the entire 6th grade. However, Applied IM has requirements set by the central office.

I should have added I got this info from the course bulletin published on the school's website.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:what MS is the OP?

If you look at the course bulletins for numerous W-feeder middle schools you see that for 19-20 AIM and IM are offered for grade 6 and that AIM requires data from central office (cogat, map, parcc etc). same for global humanities.

OP- can you post your course bulletin?

Yes, please post the bulletin and what school is this? I think you are a troll OP.

OP is either a troll, or someone who can't parse written information, and yet is certain her child is one of the few who qualify for advanced work. If we're to believe it, DCUM is an orchard of parents with contrary fruit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Yes and no. I don't think the school ever received the proper curriculum nor resources to maintain the "cohort" classes so they decided to just enroll all. That way, they can say the kids are indeed "enriched".

This seems like a cop-out. It's easy to blame the Central Office, but I think OP needs to take a hard look in the mirror. The issue is her, and her fellow parents, who the administration knew would have kittens if there was an enriched class that their child wasn't placed into.

+100

OP here. No, I am not sour grapes.

There are kids in our Elementary School 5th grade compact 5/6 class who did not get into the magnets. I was very shocked that they did not. They are exceptional, in my opinion. Their MAP-M scores easily went into the 260's, 270's and even 280's. They also do national competitions. The fact is: I believe this is the "cohort" AIM was meant to serve at the Middle School. Likewise, there are kids who did exceptionally well and can benefit from a deeper enrichment in 6th grade, and I believe again that the enriched social studies class is meant to meet their needs. I think there is something fundamentally wrong when the middle school decides to enroll all 6th graders in the social studies class. And I do not think all fifth graders taking Compacted 5/6 should be in AIM, likely including my own child.

OP, is it Cabin John? I found the course bulletin online and it doesn't list criteria or language about the central office like other schools.

I attended the Cabin John meeting and found this out last night when the teachers were going over the coursework presentation availlable next year. FWIW, I had heard other parents mention about this already and they didn't seem as bothered by it (which surprised me as their kids were very high performers.) Other MS are keeping intact the original intention of the enriched classes, so I had just assumed the other parents misinterpreted. It wasn't until I looked at the course bullentin that I realized how our MS is handling this.

[Anonymous]

Hoover only offers Math 6 and AIM according to their parent info night slides. And no mention of Historical Inquiry into Global Humanities or regular Historical Inquiry. It seems like all students will be placed in enrichment.

[Anonymous]

Why are the different schools' requiments so different? Does Cabin John/Hoover have so many highly able students as part of their cohort compared to Frost/Pyle?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are the different schools' requiments so different? Does Cabin John/Hoover have so many highly able students as part of their cohort compared to Frost/Pyle?

Absolutely not. I can't find the table but pretty sure the identified cohort student number runs about the same among Hoover/CJ/Frost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. My point is that kids who did not get admitted into Takoma or Eastern were told there is an "enriched" program at their home middle school for the highly abled cohort. Yes, our middle school is the one that made the decision. It is a Middle School issue because central office made certain decisions but did not provide the proper curriculum for the highly abled kids. The fact that this is the second year into this supposedly "enriched magnet" program, and we are already seeing the MS admitting EVERYTHING student into the "magnet social studies" class underscores the lack of tailoring it to the cohort. For math, all they did is took away the IM and replaced it with the name AIM and then offered Math 6.

MCPS can't speak out both side of their mouths. If they want to bring an enriched program and differentiated it for the highly cohort like they said they would, then do it properly!

OTOH as one poster keeps telling us, at least your child does not have to ride a bus to the magnet program /s
Seriously though, I am sorry.
I think the only solution if MCPS is determined to continue with the cohort criteria is to open a set of middle school magnets in the Western part of the county. Perhaps in North Bethesda.

I think a middle school magnet at N Bethesda would be great as they already have a GT/LD program. Those GT/LD kids are NOT getting any advanced education - just what the school offers all students. They would really benefit from an opportunity to be in advanced class with other GT cohort.

Making space at any of the Western Downcounty middle schools would require some massive redistricting to make space. Are you up for that?

This is not going to happen. The whole point of universal testing for MS was to racially balance the magnet programs. They can't even get it to work in Eastern county. A magnet serving only western county would make that goal even harder. There is no evidence that the county wants to increase spots in magnet programs. They are moving towards a model of providing home school enrichment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are the different schools' requiments so different? Does Cabin John/Hoover have so many highly able students as part of their cohort compared to Frost/Pyle?

I think this is the decision of the principal. I don't mind all students taking more advanced courses, as long as they're really more advanced than before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are the different schools' requiments so different? Does Cabin John/Hoover have so many highly able students as part of their cohort compared to Frost/Pyle?

I think this is the decision of the principal. I don't mind all students taking more advanced courses, as long as they're really more advanced than before.

But all students aren't the same academic level. It didn't work too well when my kids' elementary school principal made compacted math opt-out. This was a couple of years ago. Not sure what's happening there now.

[Anonymous]

Newsflash for incoming 6th grade parents. MCPS MS curriculum is really lame. It does not surprise me that a school like Hoover feels it can make do without an on-level section of History and Math.

Have people considered that maybe there is no need to be "gifted" to benefit from these enriched classes, and that is why they are offering them to everyone. There are no "advanced or honors" classes in the regular curriculum, so there is no curricular distinction between "advanced" and "gifted", hence they are just sticking everyone in the gifted classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are the different schools' requiments so different? Does Cabin John/Hoover have so many highly able students as part of their cohort compared to Frost/Pyle?

I think this is the decision of the principal. I don't mind all students taking more advanced courses, as long as they're really more advanced than before.

So from reading the posts here, at Frost and Pyle, they require a MAP score of at least 95%, but at Hoover and CJ they will just allow anyone in for the Enriched Humanities? That doesn't make sense. The curriculum description look exactly the same across all schools. So if they are slotting students in more advanced courses, it must mean those kids are more advanced else why else would schools allow this?