Any updates on the DOE Investigation on discrimination case for magnet middle schools MCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't worry so much about retaliation as having my child become the Whitman cluster equivalent of #BeckyWithTheBadGrades.

We know there were ZERO sending middle schools with no kids accepted to the magnets, but that the bar was higher for clusters with a large number of "high achieving" kids, in order to select outliers from each sending school.


I would not want my kid publicly identified as a "above average but not exceptional" kid in a court case. I mean, my kid actually IS above average but not exceptional, but there's something particularly cruel about making that the basis of a legal complaint.

I think the point is that these kids WERE actually exceptional. But did not get accepted. Whereas many kids who were ‘above average and not exceptional’ did get in.

My kid in a 5th grade CES did not get in and she’s completely fine with it. But she knows of several truly exceptional students who were denied admission. Yes, they happen to be Asian. And even the young 5th graders have discussed how it’s a strange, possibly unfair system of admission. They’re bright kids and they know what’s going on.

How do you know this?

Because at the CES, everyone is well aware of the other kids’ strengths and weaknesses. The kids are smart and somewhat competitive about scores. And they spend two years together.

Not competitive in a bad way at all. The kids are challenged and they know which students to go to if they need help editing their papers. Or if they’re having trouble with a Math worksheet, Larlo is a math whiz and can explain concepts easily.

They know which kid is going to which school and they know which kids scored really high on the CoGat/MAPs and didn’t get in.

DD’s teacher even told them that two years ago, dozens of kids from our regional CES got into the Magnet MS. This year, there were only 5.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. If our kids were denied admission based on cohort factor then that kid should receive education comparable to that offered in the magnet school. The enrichment courses AIM and Global Humanities are not the same to the magnet curriculum. Hence the parents who filed compain - Hats off to you for trying to get whats constitutionally and legally right of each of our kid - equitable access to education.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Exactly, everyone who posts acts on cohort for their decision making, and then wants to pretend it's insignificant when MCPS does the same.

People sort themselves when they fear their kid will not be the top student. It's better to be a mediocre student at top school, because when the student's not self-motivated the surrounding students become all important (at least that's the fearful parent logic). But this is exactly why the cohort model makes sense. The students who rise to the very top in each setting are the ones to watch, and the ones who might find a magnet transformative. The next 30 best kids may be very good at a high SES school, but they're already punching above their weight, because of their cohort--which was bought and paid for by their parents.

A parent makes decisions that is best for their own child.

MCPS needs to make decisions that is best for ALL the children. Here, we have MCPS only concerned about certain groups, hence "peer cohort".

That's the difference.

Which is exactly why they (1) added the cohort factor and (2) added the new enriched classes in the home middle schools.

1. the enriched classes are a joke. If they are so great, they should put it in the "magnet" with the lower scoring kids, and move the more challenging magnet curriculum to a school that has WAY MORE higher scoring students. That would be serving ALL children.

2. adding peer cohort doesn't serve ALL students. It only serves those who live in a school cluster with a small higher performing student body, and statistically who don't score as high as those left at the home school with a joke of "enriched" classes. These kids score way higher than those who got into the magnet purely because of peer cohort, and it is highly insulting to those students who were not admitted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So being smart in a school with mediocre kids could get you access to a magnet program and the enriched material associated with it. But being exceptional in a school with other exceptional kids means you stay behind in your home cohort and do not get access to enriched material, because you can self enrich? Nice.

I do not know why people are against kids studying / preparing for tests. It is not like the kids who prepare come in to the test knowing that the answer for question 1 is C, for question 2 is D etc....

Yes. Because the magnet program does not exist to be a prize, it exists to serve the needs of students whose needs can't be met in the home school.

Is there access to enriched material in the home school? Yes, there is.

No, there is not. That is exactly what this lawsuit is about! Such misinformation on here.

MCPS only offers an enriched Humanities course and AIM in 6th grade. There is NO enriched English course. Every single kid takes Advanced English in 6th grade at our MS. Whether you have come from a CED reading complex books, or whether you come from a class where you are still working on fundamental reading skills. There is one additional support class the 6th graders are required to take if they need extra help in getting up to grade level.

THAT is the issue.

The parents of this complaint are trying to advocate for more offerings at their home school. Which MCPS is not doing other than two classes. Nowhere near what is offered at the Magnet MS.

Folks on this very thread are complaining about magnet admission, NOT more course offerings at the home school. If your home middle school is not offering differentiated English - a thing that does exist at other schools - then maybe the problem is your administration. I'd focus your efforts there.

[Anonymous]

Agree, These kind of crazy racist comments should not be allowed here. What is shame ..

,

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tiger Mom Asians

You can keep playing the system

Move to a crappier area of the county

Your kid will get accepted to the magnet program and you can save hundreds of thousands in real estate costs

Double Win

I’m not Asian, but I don’t get why these types of posts are allowed and accepted and embraced on this site.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree, These kind of crazy racist comments should not be allowed here. What is shame ..

,

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tiger Mom Asians

You can keep playing the system

Move to a crappier area of the county

Your kid will get accepted to the magnet program and you can save hundreds of thousands in real estate costs

Double Win

I’m not Asian, but I don’t get why these types of posts are allowed and accepted and embraced on this site.

MCPS probably thinks the same thing, so why wouldn't others who like the "peer cohort" nonsense think it's acceptable, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So being smart in a school with mediocre kids could get you access to a magnet program and the enriched material associated with it. But being exceptional in a school with other exceptional kids means you stay behind in your home cohort and do not get access to enriched material, because you can self enrich? Nice.

I do not know why people are against kids studying / preparing for tests. It is not like the kids who prepare come in to the test knowing that the answer for question 1 is C, for question 2 is D etc....

Yes. Because the magnet program does not exist to be a prize, it exists to serve the needs of students whose needs can't be met in the home school.

Is there access to enriched material in the home school? Yes, there is.

No, there is not. That is exactly what this lawsuit is about! Such misinformation on here.

MCPS only offers an enriched Humanities course and AIM in 6th grade. There is NO enriched English course. Every single kid takes Advanced English in 6th grade at our MS. Whether you have come from a CED reading complex books, or whether you come from a class where you are still working on fundamental reading skills. There is one additional support class the 6th graders are required to take if they need extra help in getting up to grade level.

THAT is the issue.

The parents of this complaint are trying to advocate for more offerings at their home school. Which MCPS is not doing other than two classes. Nowhere near what is offered at the Magnet MS.

Folks on this very thread are complaining about magnet admission, NOT more course offerings at the home school. If your home middle school is not offering differentiated English - a thing that does exist at other schools - then maybe the problem is your administration. I'd focus your efforts there.

Don’t worry. We luckily do have a group of parents that have been advocating through ES and will do this through MS.

However, this is a system-wide MCPS issue. MCPS should have an enriched Language Arts curriculum that is offered universally in all MSs. For all kids who can handle the work.

Yes folks are complaining about Magnet admissions because that is one of the issues. AThe OCR Complaint deals with the discrimination that occurred. But is also is trying to advocate for more enriched classes system-wide.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree, These kind of crazy racist comments should not be allowed here. What is shame ..

,

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tiger Mom Asians

You can keep playing the system

Move to a crappier area of the county

Your kid will get accepted to the magnet program and you can save hundreds of thousands in real estate costs

Double Win

I’m not Asian, but I don’t get why these types of posts are allowed and accepted and embraced on this site.

It's the same casual racism that allows De Blasio and Carranza in NYC to ignore the effects of their intended policies regarding the selective high schools on the mostly poor Asian American students who dominate those student bodies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't worry so much about retaliation as having my child become the Whitman cluster equivalent of #BeckyWithTheBadGrades.

We know there were ZERO sending middle schools with no kids accepted to the magnets, but that the bar was higher for clusters with a large number of "high achieving" kids, in order to select outliers from each sending school.


I would not want my kid publicly identified as a "above average but not exceptional" kid in a court case. I mean, my kid actually IS above average but not exceptional, but there's something particularly cruel about making that the basis of a legal complaint.

I think the point is that these kids WERE actually exceptional. But did not get accepted. Whereas many kids who were ‘above average and not exceptional’ did get in.

My kid in a 5th grade CES did not get in and she’s completely fine with it. But she knows of several truly exceptional students who were denied admission. Yes, they happen to be Asian. And even the young 5th graders have discussed how it’s a strange, possibly unfair system of admission. They’re bright kids and they know what’s going on.

How do you know this?

Because at the CES, everyone is well aware of the other kids’ strengths and weaknesses. The kids are smart and somewhat competitive about scores. And they spend two years together.

Not competitive in a bad way at all. The kids are challenged and they know which students to go to if they need help editing their papers. Or if they’re having trouble with a Math worksheet, Larlo is a math whiz and can explain concepts easily.

They know which kid is going to which school and they know which kids scored really high on the CoGat/MAPs and didn’t get in.

DD’s teacher even told them that two years ago, dozens of kids from our regional CES got into the Magnet MS. This year, there were only 5.

Because the applicant pool grew to 5 times what it had been and it no longer is based on parents recommending their kids it's a lot more competitive these days.

[Anonymous]

lol

that's not racism it's reality and all of you idiots are just reinforcing it

I proposed a solution if you are still pissed your kid isn't going to the magnet program and you aren't satisfied being surrounded by a cohort of high performing kids in your base school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So being smart in a school with mediocre kids could get you access to a magnet program and the enriched material associated with it. But being exceptional in a school with other exceptional kids means you stay behind in your home cohort and do not get access to enriched material, because you can self enrich? Nice.

I do not know why people are against kids studying / preparing for tests. It is not like the kids who prepare come in to the test knowing that the answer for question 1 is C, for question 2 is D etc....

Yes. Because the magnet program does not exist to be a prize, it exists to serve the needs of students whose needs can't be met in the home school.

Is there access to enriched material in the home school? Yes, there is.

No, there is not. That is exactly what this lawsuit is about! Such misinformation on here.

MCPS only offers an enriched Humanities course and AIM in 6th grade. There is NO enriched English course. Every single kid takes Advanced English in 6th grade at our MS. Whether you have come from a CED reading complex books, or whether you come from a class where you are still working on fundamental reading skills. There is one additional support class the 6th graders are required to take if they need extra help in getting up to grade level.

THAT is the issue.

The parents of this complaint are trying to advocate for more offerings at their home school. Which MCPS is not doing other than two classes. Nowhere near what is offered at the Magnet MS.

Your post specifically refers to the access to enriched material in the home school.

So yes, there is access to enriched material in the home school.

I will note, also, that what is offered at the magnet middle schools is three classes, vs. two at the home middle schools. One more class.

[Anonymous]

I remember reading about a group of parents who believed the Illuminati had rigged magnet admissions to help unwashed masses or some other crazy theory.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:lol

that's not racism it's reality and all of you idiots are just reinforcing it

I proposed a solution if you are still pissed your kid isn't going to the magnet program and you aren't satisfied being surrounded by a cohort of high performing kids in your base school

and I'll add I agree that this is social engineering. Magnets should be for top performers period. If you want to change the criteria don't call it a magnet. Call it what it is now Creating advanced cohorts for students from lower performing base schools.

P.S. quit voting for democrats

[Anonymous]

The peer cohort was the best thing the county's done ever. Decades ago politically connected parents got the school boundaries gerrymandered to create good and bad schools. These days people pay hundreds of thousands more for homes assigned to these good schools. Unfortunately, not everyone can afford to live in these areas. The cohort criteria simply level the playing field so all kids regardless of where they live get an equal opportunity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The peer cohort was the best thing the county's done ever. Decades ago politically connected parents got the school boundaries gerrymandered to create good and bad schools. These days people pay hundreds of thousands more for homes assigned to these good schools. Unfortunately, not everyone can afford to live in these areas. The cohort criteria simply level the playing field so all kids regardless of where they live get an equal opportunity.

Basing admission based on where you live is not providing EO.