Is it good or bad that MCPS placed Magnet schools in the lowest performing schools?

[Anonymous]

We didn't live here when this first occurred but what were the original goals of placing the high school magnet programs in the worst performing schools? Does it work or does it create a false impression of the schools, hide problems in failing schools and create bigger performance divisions in areas? Do the non-magnet kids benefit in any way from having a school within a school?

What would happen in they all shut down and everyone went back to their home school? Wouldn't those kids still do well anyway and then resources could be focused on the struggling students?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We didn't live here when this first occurred but what were the original goals of placing the high school magnet programs in the worst performing schools? Does it work or does it create a false impression of the schools, hide problems in failing schools and create bigger performance divisions in areas? Do the non-magnet kids benefit in any way from having a school within a school?

What would happen in they all shut down and everyone went back to their home school? Wouldn't those kids still do well anyway and then resources could be focused on the struggling students?

The premise of your question is factually incorrect.

[Anonymous]

Huh? This is logically really flawed.

[Anonymous]

I believe the magnet programs have in large part caused further divide in the MCPS school system. When you bus gifted children from all school districts to another school...naturally, the original school district where those children would have made a positive impact are no longer there. All that is left are the second tier students whom in the end pull down not only test scores for the school but also college admissions rankings.
The end result is that schools like Paint Branch High school, Sherwood HS, etc ... are now in communities that NOBODY want to move to. It is like a snow ball effect on these communities...school goes downhill, new families stop moving there, the older generations cannot sell their houses, housing prices plummet, low income families move in, and the cycle keeps going on and on...

[Anonymous]

The original history of the magnet programs was to accomplish "pull" integration. They were placed in high minority schools (which also happen to be poorer performing for a variety of reasons like segregation) in the hope that people would willingly integrate these schools by applying to magnet programs.

This happened in the late 70s and early 80s. It is somewhat shocking that MoCo was still pretty segregated even then. But as MoCo officials were trying to decide how to integrate, they had to consider how efforts at "push" integration worked around them. In DC, there was white flight out of the city. In Prince William, VA, the county shut the public school system down entirely. In Boston, there was a lot of protesting of busing.

MoCo decided to use magnets as "pull" integrators until a Suprem Court case barred the use of race as a factor in transfers btwn schools for magnet programs.

Magnets were also used to assuage the white fears that integrated schools would be weaker academically. The perception of weaker academics could spur white flight. So magnets became a white retention strategy, even though admission was by supposedly neutral testing.

Also, there used to be more magnets - for example, Chevy chase, North Chevy Chase and Rosemary Hills all used to have special math, science or technology programs. This was done to retain families when those schools were changed to split articulation in order to integrate with the "black" elementary, Rosemary Hills.

I remember this because I was a student in the system when it happened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

This happened in the late 70s and early 80s. It is somewhat shocking that MoCo was still pretty segregated even then. But as MoCo officials were trying to decide how to integrate, they had to consider how efforts at "push" integration worked around them. In DC, there was white flight out of the city. In Prince William, VA, the county shut the public school system down entirely. In Boston, there was a lot of protesting of busing.

Why is it shocking? Montgomery County schools were segregated by law until the early 1960s. Montgomery County neighborhoods were segregated too, including by law. I don't find it surprising at all that the schools were still highly segregated in the late 1970s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I believe the magnet programs have in large part caused further divide in the MCPS school system. When you bus gifted children from all school districts to another school...naturally, the original school district where those children would have made a positive impact are no longer there. All that is left are the second tier students whom in the end pull down not only test scores for the school but also college admissions rankings.
The end result is that schools like Paint Branch High school, Sherwood HS, etc ... are now in communities that NOBODY want to move to. It is like a snow ball effect on these communities...school goes downhill, new families stop moving there, the older generations cannot sell their houses, housing prices plummet, low income families move in, and the cycle keeps going on and on...

1. There is only one school district in MoCo: MCPS.
2. So the function of gifted students is to buoy the local school environment for second-tier and below students?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I believe the magnet programs have in large part caused further divide in the MCPS school system. When you bus gifted children from all school districts to another school...naturally, the original school district where those children would have made a positive impact are no longer there. All that is left are the second tier students whom in the end pull down not only test scores for the school but also college admissions rankings.
The end result is that schools like Paint Branch High school, Sherwood HS, etc ... are now in communities that NOBODY want to move to. It is like a snow ball effect on these communities...school goes downhill, new families stop moving there, the older generations cannot sell their houses, housing prices plummet, low income families move in, and the cycle keeps going on and on...

Low-income families = nobody?

[Anonymous]

Read the Metis Report on choice program, it has all the history and what is the problem the county is trying to solve now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I believe the magnet programs have in large part caused further divide in the MCPS school system. When you bus gifted children from all school districts to another school...naturally, the original school district where those children would have made a positive impact are no longer there. All that is left are the second tier students whom in the end pull down not only test scores for the school but also college admissions rankings.
The end result is that schools like Paint Branch High school, Sherwood HS, etc ... are now in communities that NOBODY want to move to. It is like a snow ball effect on these communities...school goes downhill, new families stop moving there, the older generations cannot sell their houses, housing prices plummet, low income families move in, and the cycle keeps going on and on...

no one wants to move to sherwood??? what are you talking about

[Anonymous]

The original history of the magnet programs was to accomplish "pull" integration. They were placed in high minority schools (which also happen to be poorer performing for a variety of reasons like segregation) in the hope that people would willingly integrate these schools by applying to magnet programs.

This happened in the late 70s and early 80s. It is somewhat shocking that MoCo was still pretty segregated even then. But as MoCo officials were trying to decide how to integrate, they had to consider how efforts at "push" integration worked around them. In DC, there was white flight out of the city. In Prince William, VA, the county shut the public school system down entirely. In Boston, there was a lot of protesting of busing.

MoCo decided to use magnets as "pull" integrators until a Suprem Court case barred the use of race as a factor in transfers btwn schools for magnet programs.

Magnets were also used to assuage the white fears that integrated schools would be weaker academically. The perception of weaker academics could spur white flight. So magnets became a white retention strategy, even though admission was by supposedly neutral testing.

Also, there used to be more magnets - for example, Chevy chase, North Chevy Chase and Rosemary Hills all used to have special math, science or technology programs. This was done to retain families when those schools were changed to split articulation in order to integrate with the "black" elementary, Rosemary Hills.

I remember this because I was a student in the system when it happened.

Fascinating. So are the schools that still have magnet programs more integrated now or about the same? It seems to me that the magnets only serve to hide the poor performance of the general student body and give MCPS a pass on dealing with the problems within that school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We didn't live here when this first occurred but what were the original goals of placing the high school magnet programs in the worst performing schools? Does it work or does it create a false impression of the schools, hide problems in failing schools and create bigger performance divisions in areas? Do the non-magnet kids benefit in any way from having a school within a school?

What would happen in they all shut down and everyone went back to their home school? Wouldn't those kids still do well anyway and then resources could be focused on the struggling students?

The premise of your question is factually incorrect.

I know more W propaganda.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We didn't live here when this first occurred but what were the original goals of placing the high school magnet programs in the worst performing schools? Does it work or does it create a false impression of the schools, hide problems in failing schools and create bigger performance divisions in areas? Do the non-magnet kids benefit in any way from having a school within a school?

What would happen in they all shut down and everyone went back to their home school? Wouldn't those kids still do well anyway and then resources could be focused on the struggling students?

Many of the magnet kids are from local schools. My Blair magnet kid walks to school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[

Fascinating. So are the schools that still have magnet programs more integrated now or about the same? It seems to me that the magnets only serve to hide the poor performance of the general student body and give MCPS a pass on dealing with the problems within that school.

How, specifically, do they do this?

[Anonymous]

I thought that the W schools go to Poolesville for STEM. Was Poolesville a failing school back in the 70s or were they trying to attract people out to the agricultural areas?

The eastern and up county schools go to Blair for STEM which still is a poor performing school of you take out the magnet program. It didn't seem to help.