Blair Magnet Program

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do they decide who goes to Functions? How DC is currently in H Geometry but their MAP was 315+

If your child is in TPMS the teacher will make the recommendation. Otherwise they will evaluate during factoring camp at the beginning of the summer. Even if your child is not recommended they can ask to be put in Functions or if they are put in Functions they can ask to not be in it.

There is some flexibility the first few weeks. One of DC's friends asked not to be in Functions on the first day even though they were recommended for it and later a high number of other classmates dropped out during the trial period. If you don't hit a certain grade on the assessments by a certain time you are automatically dropped. You don't have a choice at that point.

Thank you. They are not in TPMS and we need to travel abroad in mid June. Is summer camp crucial?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do they decide who goes to Functions? How DC is currently in H Geometry but their MAP was 315+

If your child is in TPMS the teacher will make the recommendation. Otherwise they will evaluate during factoring camp at the beginning of the summer. Even if your child is not recommended they can ask to be put in Functions or if they are put in Functions they can ask to not be in it.

There is some flexibility the first few weeks. One of DC's friends asked not to be in Functions on the first day even though they were recommended for it and later a high number of other classmates dropped out during the trial period. If you don't hit a certain grade on the assessments by a certain time you are automatically dropped. You don't have a choice at that point.

What is factoring camp? This is the first I've heard of summer requirements for the magnet. Is there any more information to be had on this? We're doing summer planning now and I'd love to know if my kid has school requirements.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bit of advice. Stop talking about MAP scores. You'll sound silly. They are irrelevant in the magnet. Many kids have MAP above 300 and there's no correlation between MAP and the classes they take and how they do or whether they are a star on the math team or would never touch math team with a 10 foot pole.

Interesting. I have 3 kids and have followed their map scores for years. If found them to be pretty reflective of their math skills.

You have three kids in HS in the magnet? Once you are in the 290-300+ range which DC says basically everyone is either coming into the magnet or after the first year it does not really seem to reflect much of anything. By the end of 1st semester of year 1 of magnet everyone has the base knowledge to do any MAP problems which are really easy compared to magnet problems. But I'm sure it helps to follow the scores when they are younger or in lower math to track progress.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do they decide who goes to Functions? How DC is currently in H Geometry but their MAP was 315+

If your child is in TPMS the teacher will make the recommendation. Otherwise they will evaluate during factoring camp at the beginning of the summer. Even if your child is not recommended they can ask to be put in Functions or if they are put in Functions they can ask to not be in it.

There is some flexibility the first few weeks. One of DC's friends asked not to be in Functions on the first day even though they were recommended for it and later a high number of other classmates dropped out during the trial period. If you don't hit a certain grade on the assessments by a certain time you are automatically dropped. You don't have a choice at that point.

What is factoring camp? This is the first I've heard of summer requirements for the magnet. Is there any more information to be had on this? We're doing summer planning now and I'd love to know if my kid has school requirements.

It's not required. They have not held it some years due to space. Your child can skip it and it won't impact anything but it's nice to get a preview of the teachers and the style of problems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do they decide who goes to Functions? How DC is currently in H Geometry but their MAP was 315+

If your child is in TPMS the teacher will make the recommendation. Otherwise they will evaluate during factoring camp at the beginning of the summer. Even if your child is not recommended they can ask to be put in Functions or if they are put in Functions they can ask to not be in it.

There is some flexibility the first few weeks. One of DC's friends asked not to be in Functions on the first day even though they were recommended for it and later a high number of other classmates dropped out during the trial period. If you don't hit a certain grade on the assessments by a certain time you are automatically dropped. You don't have a choice at that point.

Thank you. They are not in TPMS and we need to travel abroad in mid June. Is summer camp crucial?

This is out of date. The summer camp hasn’t happened for the past two years. Instead the kids get a take home test to submit IF they are interested. They have to be honest in taking it in timed conditions. TPMS teachers do NOT make recommendations. Many kids that get in to functions drop out. If they don’t have a certain grade at a certain point they are required to switch back to precalc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bit of advice. Stop talking about MAP scores. You'll sound silly. They are irrelevant in the magnet. Many kids have MAP above 300 and there's no correlation between MAP and the classes they take and how they do or whether they are a star on the math team or would never touch math team with a 10 foot pole.

And many kids have scores in the 280 range and are acing their classes! Sometimes even doing better than the 300 plus kids. It’s meaningless

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bit of advice. Stop talking about MAP scores. You'll sound silly. They are irrelevant in the magnet. Many kids have MAP above 300 and there's no correlation between MAP and the classes they take and how they do or whether they are a star on the math team or would never touch math team with a 10 foot pole.

Interesting. I have 3 kids and have followed their map scores for years. If found them to be pretty reflective of their math skills.

MAP score "rank" roughly matches math skill "rank", but can be a poor match for students who focus a lot only on higher-level school math or only on highly enriched grade-level subjects. Many students do both, so aren't affected by this.

It is reflective of knowledge up to about 290 (Algebra 2 + basic stats), but for highly above grade level / enrolled course scores doesn't distinguish exposure to the recipes via Khan/IXL vs solving previously unseen problems via personal innovation, and it doesn't test depth at the level of Magnet math. So it's a noisy signal for ability to handle enriched content.

(See all the posts about math homework, and only math homework, taking hours per night. This is not intended by the teachers; these are students who hyper-accelerated without sufficient depth of understanding, because they weren't challenged to stretch beyond the basic school curriculum.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do they decide who goes to Functions? How DC is currently in H Geometry but their MAP was 315+

If your child is in TPMS the teacher will make the recommendation. Otherwise they will evaluate during factoring camp at the beginning of the summer. Even if your child is not recommended they can ask to be put in Functions or if they are put in Functions they can ask to not be in it.

There is some flexibility the first few weeks. One of DC's friends asked not to be in Functions on the first day even though they were recommended for it and later a high number of other classmates dropped out during the trial period. If you don't hit a certain grade on the assessments by a certain time you are automatically dropped. You don't have a choice at that point.

Thank you. They are not in TPMS and we need to travel abroad in mid June. Is summer camp crucial?

No, you can just have your child register for whatever class, Functions or Pre-cal, they want. They will send you a Google registration form after you accept going to Blair. Factoring camp just helps them assess for recommendations but they are not rigid about it. Hence, the weeding out process for Functions is something that happens after they are in the class for I think 2 months and not before that. Before you ask lots of brilliant kids drop out of it. No one cares. I think in one thread a poster said every kid is roughly the same smart and I think that's right based on what the program director says. Choosing functions or not choosing functions is more about how they want to spend their time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do they decide who goes to Functions? How DC is currently in H Geometry but their MAP was 315+

If your child is in TPMS the teacher will make the recommendation. Otherwise they will evaluate during factoring camp at the beginning of the summer. Even if your child is not recommended they can ask to be put in Functions or if they are put in Functions they can ask to not be in it.

There is some flexibility the first few weeks. One of DC's friends asked not to be in Functions on the first day even though they were recommended for it and later a high number of other classmates dropped out during the trial period. If you don't hit a certain grade on the assessments by a certain time you are automatically dropped. You don't have a choice at that point.

Thank you. They are not in TPMS and we need to travel abroad in mid June. Is summer camp crucial?

This is out of date. The summer camp hasn’t happened for the past two years. Instead the kids get a take home test to submit IF they are interested. They have to be honest in taking it in timed conditions. TPMS teachers do NOT make recommendations. Many kids that get in to functions drop out. If they don’t have a certain grade at a certain point they are required to switch back to precalc.

2 years ago it was about funding and space and last year it was about teacher availability. I thought it was coming back this year? Is that wrong?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do they decide who goes to Functions? How DC is currently in H Geometry but their MAP was 315+

If your child is in TPMS the teacher will make the recommendation. Otherwise they will evaluate during factoring camp at the beginning of the summer. Even if your child is not recommended they can ask to be put in Functions or if they are put in Functions they can ask to not be in it.

There is some flexibility the first few weeks. One of DC's friends asked not to be in Functions on the first day even though they were recommended for it and later a high number of other classmates dropped out during the trial period. If you don't hit a certain grade on the assessments by a certain time you are automatically dropped. You don't have a choice at that point.

Thank you. They are not in TPMS and we need to travel abroad in mid June. Is summer camp crucial?

This is out of date. The summer camp hasn’t happened for the past two years. Instead the kids get a take home test to submit IF they are interested. They have to be honest in taking it in timed conditions. TPMS teachers do NOT make recommendations. Many kids that get in to functions drop out. If they don’t have a certain grade at a certain point they are required to switch back to precalc.

My kid attended factoring camp summer 2024.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bit of advice. Stop talking about MAP scores. You'll sound silly. They are irrelevant in the magnet. Many kids have MAP above 300 and there's no correlation between MAP and the classes they take and how they do or whether they are a star on the math team or would never touch math team with a 10 foot pole.

Interesting. I have 3 kids and have followed their map scores for years. If found them to be pretty reflective of their math skills.

MAP score "rank" roughly matches math skill "rank", but can be a poor match for students who focus a lot only on higher-level school math or only on highly enriched grade-level subjects. Many students do both, so aren't affected by this.

It is reflective of knowledge up to about 290 (Algebra 2 + basic stats), but for highly above grade level / enrolled course scores doesn't distinguish exposure to the recipes via Khan/IXL vs solving previously unseen problems via personal innovation, and it doesn't test depth at the level of Magnet math. So it's a noisy signal for ability to handle enriched content.

(See all the posts about math homework, and only math homework, taking hours per night. This is not intended by the teachers; these are students who hyper-accelerated without sufficient depth of understanding, because they weren't challenged to stretch beyond the basic school curriculum.)

What a weird thing to say. Most are coming in with Geometry in 8th with a few Alg. 2. That's not hyper anything and lifetime AOPS and RSM kids are also taking a long. time with HW too. I have not met many of DC's friends but the only one I know, from DC's old MS, is spending a lot of time on math because the kid did not do AOPS and RSM and did not come from TPMS. They came from a regular program and did not have stem activities but just a really smart kid with only MCPS background.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bit of advice. Stop talking about MAP scores. You'll sound silly. They are irrelevant in the magnet. Many kids have MAP above 300 and there's no correlation between MAP and the classes they take and how they do or whether they are a star on the math team or would never touch math team with a 10 foot pole.

Interesting. I have 3 kids and have followed their map scores for years. If found them to be pretty reflective of their math skills.

You have three kids in HS in the magnet? Once you are in the 290-300+ range which DC says basically everyone is either coming into the magnet or after the first year it does not really seem to reflect much of anything. By the end of 1st semester of year 1 of magnet everyone has the base knowledge to do any MAP problems which are really easy compared to magnet problems. But I'm sure it helps to follow the scores when they are younger or in lower math to track progress.

No, my other kids are younger, and the oldest was just accepted to Blair. I don't have any experience with HS math classes, which is why I am asking questions. But I do have experience with the entirety of MAP-m range.

Since we were told that the median map of the incoming class is in the 270s I could see how the score could be used for placement, given that there is little other information available. From my experience, comparing the exact same child over time, the difference between 270ish and 320ish is significant. DC would not be able to follow the same material at 270 as they could as their score went up. That I can tell you for sure.

I get it that the score doesn't matter "after the first semester". I sure hope so. But that's a lot of math later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do they decide who goes to Functions? How DC is currently in H Geometry but their MAP was 315+

If your child is in TPMS the teacher will make the recommendation. Otherwise they will evaluate during factoring camp at the beginning of the summer. Even if your child is not recommended they can ask to be put in Functions or if they are put in Functions they can ask to not be in it.

There is some flexibility the first few weeks. One of DC's friends asked not to be in Functions on the first day even though they were recommended for it and later a high number of other classmates dropped out during the trial period. If you don't hit a certain grade on the assessments by a certain time you are automatically dropped. You don't have a choice at that point.

Thank you. They are not in TPMS and we need to travel abroad in mid June. Is summer camp crucial?

No, you can just have your child register for whatever class, Functions or Pre-cal, they want. They will send you a Google registration form after you accept going to Blair. Factoring camp just helps them assess for recommendations but they are not rigid about it. Hence, the weeding out process for Functions is something that happens after they are in the class for I think 2 months and not before that. Before you ask lots of brilliant kids drop out of it. No one cares. I think in one thread a poster said every kid is roughly the same smart and I think that's right based on what the program director says. Choosing functions or not choosing functions is more about how they want to spend their time.

It's like the CS sequence, but smoother.
In CS, the core is 4 semesters but some students skip semester 2.

In math, the core
("Precalculus") is 3 semesters at Blair (4 semesters at Poolesville) (plus a pre-semester of geometry if the student needs it), but there is an option to do the same content in 2 semesters ("Functions").

The basic structure of SMCS magnet is to finish HS-level honors (and enriched) science/math/CS by end of 10th, and then have wide freedom in choosing advanced-level electives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do they decide who goes to Functions? How DC is currently in H Geometry but their MAP was 315+

If your child is in TPMS the teacher will make the recommendation. Otherwise they will evaluate during factoring camp at the beginning of the summer. Even if your child is not recommended they can ask to be put in Functions or if they are put in Functions they can ask to not be in it.

There is some flexibility the first few weeks. One of DC's friends asked not to be in Functions on the first day even though they were recommended for it and later a high number of other classmates dropped out during the trial period. If you don't hit a certain grade on the assessments by a certain time you are automatically dropped. You don't have a choice at that point.

Thank you. They are not in TPMS and we need to travel abroad in mid June. Is summer camp crucial?

This is out of date. The summer camp hasn’t happened for the past two years. Instead the kids get a take home test to submit IF they are interested. They have to be honest in taking it in timed conditions. TPMS teachers do NOT make recommendations. Many kids that get in to functions drop out. If they don’t have a certain grade at a certain point they are required to switch back to precalc.

Since when?
Used to be if you’re coming from TPMS and recommended by the teachers for functions, you don’t go the the summer camp.
The summer camp was mostly for students coming from other schools to tryout and test for placements.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bit of advice. Stop talking about MAP scores. You'll sound silly. They are irrelevant in the magnet. Many kids have MAP above 300 and there's no correlation between MAP and the classes they take and how they do or whether they are a star on the math team or would never touch math team with a 10 foot pole.

Interesting. I have 3 kids and have followed their map scores for years. If found them to be pretty reflective of their math skills.

You have three kids in HS in the magnet? Once you are in the 290-300+ range which DC says basically everyone is either coming into the magnet or after the first year it does not really seem to reflect much of anything. By the end of 1st semester of year 1 of magnet everyone has the base knowledge to do any MAP problems which are really easy compared to magnet problems. But I'm sure it helps to follow the scores when they are younger or in lower math to track progress.

No, my other kids are younger, and the oldest was just accepted to Blair. I don't have any experience with HS math classes, which is why I am asking questions. But I do have experience with the entirety of MAP-m range.

Since we were told that the median map of the incoming class is in the 270s I could see how the score could be used for placement, given that there is little other information available. From my experience, comparing the exact same child over time, the difference between 270ish and 320ish is significant. DC would not be able to follow the same material at 270 as they could as their score went up. That I can tell you for sure.

I get it that the score doesn't matter "after the first semester". I sure hope so. But that's a lot of math later.

Okay, I get where you are coming from so maybe we can explain it in those terms. I'd say the material that Precal and Functions start with starts in the 260-270 map range. For a lot of kids that would be review but the review is really fast and in a lot more depth than before. It's also very proof based. MAp is designed to cover superficial knowledge, not more analytical thinking. Almost any kid being accepted would be qualified in terms of base knowledge to do either path. But not everyone cares to do that much work or has the interest in the subject. Your child having a very high map score may find the first few months easier than their classmate with 270 map scores but the 270 kid will catch up quickly and you may find the 270 kid is actually better at real math than your 320 kid, or not. You can't tell and that was the point of the other post.