Regional model - which programs in which schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:The thing I don’t like for region 1 is putting humanities at Whitman. I would really like to see this at Einstein or Northwood, and I don’t care which. My DCC kids could apply to IB at BCC but that’s still the second furthest option. I don’t see why Whitman needs a major draw magnet.

Neither BCC nor Whitman need magnets. They already have all the advanced classwork in their schools that they need. We know this because vanishingly few kids from these schools go to RMIB or Blair SMCS.

Obviously, these schools will attract high-performing kids from Einstein and Northwood (and maybe Blair) who have access to transportation from their parents. It won't go the other way around. BCC students and definitely not Whitman students will definitely NOT be traveling to Einstein, Northwood or Blair. This is how you create inequity. You try to make everything uniform, the same for everyone, but you ignore how these schools, including their course offerings, and the populations they serve are very different, and so trying to give everyone the same thing means giving more opportunities to the wealthiest students.

Yes, exactly.  The program analysis team admitted they did not consider equity in where programs were placed, and it shows. They seemed confused at the idea that anyone would have expected them to.  They really do not understand equity at all, and just use it as a buzzword.

And to the other poster who said "if Whitman doesn't have magnets, no one from out of boundaries will get to go to Whitman"... you can still give Whitman interest-based programs that allow out of boundary kids to go to Whitman if they really want.  The languages magnet seems fine to me-- Whitman offers more languages than other schools, let kids from other schools take advantage of Whitman language classes if they really want them. Their interest-based LASJ program also seems fine to me as an acceptable generic "I want my kid at Whitman, here's a way to do it" option.  

However, criteria-based academic magnets drawing top students are a totally different ballgame.  They increase the number of advanced students and advanced classes at schools, which can be really important and valuable for schools that struggle with that otherwise.  Giving a program like that to Whitman not only gives this benefit to a school that does not at all need it rather than to a school like Northwood that would have gained a lot from it, but actually actively hurt other schools by decreasing the number of advanced students in-bounds who stay. 

(It's also just offensive that Whitman kids will get a leg up in admissions to the humanities program because they will have a local set-aside that gives them a disproportionate share of slots.)

I'm not sure how this would really work for Region 5 - Currently we have Watkins Mill, Gaithersburg HS and Magruder and QO in Region 5. As a QO parent we would rather send our advanced kid to QO and just take AP courses rather than going to Gaithersburg HS which does not have a good rep and because the magnet will most likely be diluted with no strong cohorts for Region 5. I'm sure there will be other parents from QO who think the same.

It sucks because we had access to Poolesville before but now our kid who has no inclination to do anything in the medical field has to go to Gaithersburg or Watkins Mill for the advanced courses they are interested in and we want our kid in a learning environment not in schools with the worst reputations upcounty.

Just stay at QO. My DD is at Blair but if she was a bit younger she would not be attending a magnet. Even Blair won't be Blalr anymore. I predict many of these magnets will fail and at some point we will be back to a few strong ones.

Nothing will change at Blair. It will be fine.

Except 2/3rd of the gifted kids being imported in for the magnet won’t come and the special teachers will have options to go head new programs. The minimal middle class local pop will find it’s self applying to the two better schools it finds it’s self clustered with as it will no longer be the best of the DCC but in the bottom half of its new group. This too will cause a brain drain as motivated kids no longer seek it.

Without the influx Blair’s scores will fall and it will revert to being a high school version of eastern which it natively is.

You don't know much about this area, do you? There are tons of middle class families in the Blair/Northwood/Einstein area (the difference is that there are fewer upper-class families and more poor and working-class families than west of here, not that there's not many middle class families.) We don't need Blair to have a super-advanced program with the top 1% of kids in it to keep liking it-- it's popular largely because it's a good school, not because the SMCS kids are brilliant. And most of us don't want to go to Whitman or BCC, especially Whitman. Yes, Blair SMCS will change from being a super-elite program to "just" a strong program for smart kids, but we have plenty of smart kids in this area and most of us just don't care about it being an elite program as much as the parents from W schools do.

There is a huge misunderstanding about SMCS curriculum. The entire junior and senior years are designed to take only advanced STEM electives to get to learn one or two majors really in-depth and in-breadth, and all these advanced STEM electives require at least finishing Calc BC or MVC/DE in order to just understand the course content (or for biology or chemistry related electives, finishing AP bio or AP chem with a solid test score is some minimal entry level requirement). Tell me how you fill the seats with Blair-only students that usually won't take AP STEM courses until junior or senior year? What makes SMCS unique then?

SMCS curriculum is not designed to fit the needs from the top 10%. The new enrollment demographic will make it a re-branded AP-Stem program in every sense, and the top 1% will loose the opportunity to access the electives forever. This is not a huge loss for W-schools or region 4: they will find plenty supplement resource. Not the case for other schools, including Blair.

My DC who is in Blair SMCS told me this story: one day they wanted to take a bathroom break during class period. They went one bathroom and found kids making out; heading to another one and found the same thing. So they went downstairs for another bathroom full of weed smell. It took a long detour to find the 4th one that is usable. This is a normal Blair day.

I’m impressed they have access to the bathrooms. Ours are locked for most of the day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The thing I don’t like for region 1 is putting humanities at Whitman. I would really like to see this at Einstein or Northwood, and I don’t care which. My DCC kids could apply to IB at BCC but that’s still the second furthest option. I don’t see why Whitman needs a major draw magnet.

Neither BCC nor Whitman need magnets. They already have all the advanced classwork in their schools that they need. We know this because vanishingly few kids from these schools go to RMIB or Blair SMCS.

Obviously, these schools will attract high-performing kids from Einstein and Northwood (and maybe Blair) who have access to transportation from their parents. It won't go the other way around. BCC students and definitely not Whitman students will definitely NOT be traveling to Einstein, Northwood or Blair. This is how you create inequity. You try to make everything uniform, the same for everyone, but you ignore how these schools, including their course offerings, and the populations they serve are very different, and so trying to give everyone the same thing means giving more opportunities to the wealthiest students.

Yes, exactly.  The program analysis team admitted they did not consider equity in where programs were placed, and it shows. They seemed confused at the idea that anyone would have expected them to.  They really do not understand equity at all, and just use it as a buzzword.

And to the other poster who said "if Whitman doesn't have magnets, no one from out of boundaries will get to go to Whitman"... you can still give Whitman interest-based programs that allow out of boundary kids to go to Whitman if they really want.  The languages magnet seems fine to me-- Whitman offers more languages than other schools, let kids from other schools take advantage of Whitman language classes if they really want them. Their interest-based LASJ program also seems fine to me as an acceptable generic "I want my kid at Whitman, here's a way to do it" option.  

However, criteria-based academic magnets drawing top students are a totally different ballgame.  They increase the number of advanced students and advanced classes at schools, which can be really important and valuable for schools that struggle with that otherwise.  Giving a program like that to Whitman not only gives this benefit to a school that does not at all need it rather than to a school like Northwood that would have gained a lot from it, but actually actively hurt other schools by decreasing the number of advanced students in-bounds who stay. 

(It's also just offensive that Whitman kids will get a leg up in admissions to the humanities program because they will have a local set-aside that gives them a disproportionate share of slots.)

I'm not sure how this would really work for Region 5 - Currently we have Watkins Mill, Gaithersburg HS and Magruder and QO in Region 5. As a QO parent we would rather send our advanced kid to QO and just take AP courses rather than going to Gaithersburg HS which does not have a good rep and because the magnet will most likely be diluted with no strong cohorts for Region 5. I'm sure there will be other parents from QO who think the same.

It sucks because we had access to Poolesville before but now our kid who has no inclination to do anything in the medical field has to go to Gaithersburg or Watkins Mill for the advanced courses they are interested in and we want our kid in a learning environment not in schools with the worst reputations upcounty.

Just stay at QO. My DD is at Blair but if she was a bit younger she would not be attending a magnet. Even Blair won't be Blalr anymore. I predict many of these magnets will fail and at some point we will be back to a few strong ones.

Nothing will change at Blair. It will be fine.

Except 2/3rd of the gifted kids being imported in for the magnet won’t come and the special teachers will have options to go head new programs. The minimal middle class local pop will find it’s self applying to the two better schools it finds it’s self clustered with as it will no longer be the best of the DCC but in the bottom half of its new group. This too will cause a brain drain as motivated kids no longer seek it.

Without the influx Blair’s scores will fall and it will revert to being a high school version of eastern which it natively is.

You don't know much about this area, do you? There are tons of middle class families in the Blair/Northwood/Einstein area (the difference is that there are fewer upper-class families and more poor and working-class families than west of here, not that there's not many middle class families.) We don't need Blair to have a super-advanced program with the top 1% of kids in it to keep liking it-- it's popular largely because it's a good school, not because the SMCS kids are brilliant. And most of us don't want to go to Whitman or BCC, especially Whitman. Yes, Blair SMCS will change from being a super-elite program to "just" a strong program for smart kids, but we have plenty of smart kids in this area and most of us just don't care about it being an elite program as much as the parents from W schools do.

There is a huge misunderstanding about SMCS curriculum. The entire junior and senior years are designed to take only advanced STEM electives to get to learn one or two majors really in-depth and in-breadth, and all these advanced STEM electives require at least finishing Calc BC or MVC/DE in order to just understand the course content (or for biology or chemistry related electives, finishing AP bio or AP chem with a solid test score is some minimal entry level requirement). Tell me how you fill the seats with Blair-only students that usually won't take AP STEM courses until junior or senior year? What makes SMCS unique then?

SMCS curriculum is not designed to fit the needs from the top 10%. The new enrollment demographic will make it a re-branded AP-Stem program in every sense, and the top 1% will loose the opportunity to access the electives forever. This is not a huge loss for W-schools or region 4: they will find plenty supplement resource. Not the case for other schools, including Blair.

My DC who is in Blair SMCS told me this story: one day they wanted to take a bathroom break during class period. They went one bathroom and found kids making out; heading to another one and found the same thing. So they went downstairs for another bathroom full of weed smell. It took a long detour to find the 4th one that is usable. This is a normal Blair day.

Oh come on! I have a Blair magnet kid and I question whether you do. My kid, a junior, and clearly one of the stronger students on many criteria, is also a local kid who would have gone to Blair regardless - there are many other similar kids. What you are claiming is nonsense. Blair magnet kids do not take AP biology or AP chem in 9th or 10th and the vast majority take AP calculus bc in 11th (though they finish the course first semester). If the kids who attend the magnet are Blair only kids, they will follow the same curriculum.

I guess you are lying because I have a junior too and none of the top kids in their grade are from local. By saying top, I mean who had already won national level prizes on stem competitions.

And most of the top kids had already taken ap bio or ap chem tests, self-studying of course. I can’t recall any of my kid friends who hadn’t completed either of these AP tests yet. I’m not saying Blair doesn’t have top 1% kid. Of course you do. But not enough to from a sizable cohort.

[Anonymous]

Oh come on! I have a Blair magnet kid and I question whether you do. My kid, a junior, and clearly one of the stronger students on many criteria, is also a local kid who would have gone to Blair regardless - there are many other similar kids. What you are claiming is nonsense. Blair magnet kids do not take AP biology or AP chem in 9th or 10th and the vast majority take AP calculus bc in 11th (though they finish the course first semester). If the kids who attend the magnet are Blair only kids, they will follow the same curriculum.

You are totally delusional. Average SAT scores for Blair magnet kids are more than 400 points higher than for Blair non-magnet kids. The divide is so deep, it is not even funny. There is no question that under the new regional program future Blair STEM magnet cohort will be substantially weaker than the current ones. And if most top STEM Whitman and BCC kids decide that it is not worthy commuting every morning to Blair for a watered down magnet, MCPS may as well shut the magnet down and spend resources elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The thing I don’t like for region 1 is putting humanities at Whitman. I would really like to see this at Einstein or Northwood, and I don’t care which. My DCC kids could apply to IB at BCC but that’s still the second furthest option. I don’t see why Whitman needs a major draw magnet.

Neither BCC nor Whitman need magnets. They already have all the advanced classwork in their schools that they need. We know this because vanishingly few kids from these schools go to RMIB or Blair SMCS.

Obviously, these schools will attract high-performing kids from Einstein and Northwood (and maybe Blair) who have access to transportation from their parents. It won't go the other way around. BCC students and definitely not Whitman students will definitely NOT be traveling to Einstein, Northwood or Blair. This is how you create inequity. You try to make everything uniform, the same for everyone, but you ignore how these schools, including their course offerings, and the populations they serve are very different, and so trying to give everyone the same thing means giving more opportunities to the wealthiest students.

Yes, exactly.  The program analysis team admitted they did not consider equity in where programs were placed, and it shows. They seemed confused at the idea that anyone would have expected them to.  They really do not understand equity at all, and just use it as a buzzword.

And to the other poster who said "if Whitman doesn't have magnets, no one from out of boundaries will get to go to Whitman"... you can still give Whitman interest-based programs that allow out of boundary kids to go to Whitman if they really want.  The languages magnet seems fine to me-- Whitman offers more languages than other schools, let kids from other schools take advantage of Whitman language classes if they really want them. Their interest-based LASJ program also seems fine to me as an acceptable generic "I want my kid at Whitman, here's a way to do it" option.  

However, criteria-based academic magnets drawing top students are a totally different ballgame.  They increase the number of advanced students and advanced classes at schools, which can be really important and valuable for schools that struggle with that otherwise.  Giving a program like that to Whitman not only gives this benefit to a school that does not at all need it rather than to a school like Northwood that would have gained a lot from it, but actually actively hurt other schools by decreasing the number of advanced students in-bounds who stay. 

(It's also just offensive that Whitman kids will get a leg up in admissions to the humanities program because they will have a local set-aside that gives them a disproportionate share of slots.)

I'm not sure how this would really work for Region 5 - Currently we have Watkins Mill, Gaithersburg HS and Magruder and QO in Region 5. As a QO parent we would rather send our advanced kid to QO and just take AP courses rather than going to Gaithersburg HS which does not have a good rep and because the magnet will most likely be diluted with no strong cohorts for Region 5. I'm sure there will be other parents from QO who think the same.

It sucks because we had access to Poolesville before but now our kid who has no inclination to do anything in the medical field has to go to Gaithersburg or Watkins Mill for the advanced courses they are interested in and we want our kid in a learning environment not in schools with the worst reputations upcounty.

Just stay at QO. My DD is at Blair but if she was a bit younger she would not be attending a magnet. Even Blair won't be Blalr anymore. I predict many of these magnets will fail and at some point we will be back to a few strong ones.

Nothing will change at Blair. It will be fine.

Except 2/3rd of the gifted kids being imported in for the magnet won’t come and the special teachers will have options to go head new programs. The minimal middle class local pop will find it’s self applying to the two better schools it finds it’s self clustered with as it will no longer be the best of the DCC but in the bottom half of its new group. This too will cause a brain drain as motivated kids no longer seek it.

Without the influx Blair’s scores will fall and it will revert to being a high school version of eastern which it natively is.

You don't know much about this area, do you? There are tons of middle class families in the Blair/Northwood/Einstein area (the difference is that there are fewer upper-class families and more poor and working-class families than west of here, not that there's not many middle class families.) We don't need Blair to have a super-advanced program with the top 1% of kids in it to keep liking it-- it's popular largely because it's a good school, not because the SMCS kids are brilliant. And most of us don't want to go to Whitman or BCC, especially Whitman. Yes, Blair SMCS will change from being a super-elite program to "just" a strong program for smart kids, but we have plenty of smart kids in this area and most of us just don't care about it being an elite program as much as the parents from W schools do.

There is a huge misunderstanding about SMCS curriculum. The entire junior and senior years are designed to take only advanced STEM electives to get to learn one or two majors really in-depth and in-breadth, and all these advanced STEM electives require at least finishing Calc BC or MVC/DE in order to just understand the course content (or for biology or chemistry related electives, finishing AP bio or AP chem with a solid test score is some minimal entry level requirement). Tell me how you fill the seats with Blair-only students that usually won't take AP STEM courses until junior or senior year? What makes SMCS unique then?

SMCS curriculum is not designed to fit the needs from the top 10%. The new enrollment demographic will make it a re-branded AP-Stem program in every sense, and the top 1% will loose the opportunity to access the electives forever. This is not a huge loss for W-schools or region 4: they will find plenty supplement resource. Not the case for other schools, including Blair.

My DC who is in Blair SMCS told me this story: one day they wanted to take a bathroom break during class period. They went one bathroom and found kids making out; heading to another one and found the same thing. So they went downstairs for another bathroom full of weed smell. It took a long detour to find the 4th one that is usable. This is a normal Blair day.

Oh come on! I have a Blair magnet kid and I question whether you do. My kid, a junior, and clearly one of the stronger students on many criteria, is also a local kid who would have gone to Blair regardless - there are many other similar kids. What you are claiming is nonsense. Blair magnet kids do not take AP biology or AP chem in 9th or 10th and the vast majority take AP calculus bc in 11th (though they finish the course first semester). If the kids who attend the magnet are Blair only kids, they will follow the same curriculum.

I guess you are lying because I have a junior too and none of the top kids in their grade are from local. By saying top, I mean who had already won national level prizes on stem competitions.

And most of the top kids had already taken ap bio or ap chem tests, self-studying of course. I can’t recall any of my kid friends who hadn’t completed either of these AP tests yet. I’m not saying Blair doesn’t have top 1% kid. Of course you do. But not enough to from a sizable cohort.

I can categorically state that you don’t know all the kids and cannot possibly make that statement. You don’t know my kid and you DO NOT know where all the kids live. You absolutely do not. My own kid who is very well connected within the program does not know where all the kids live or if they are also inbound for Blair - and many of their friends don’t know anything about school boundaries even if they do know where we live - it’s just not important to them.

Additionally, most of the kids do NOT self study for those tests in 9th or 10th grade. In fact they are specifically and clearly (and repeatedly) advised not to!

About two thirds of the kids in the program are not taking the most rigorous classes in the program, are not doubling or tripling up on the most advanced STEM subjects and a good portion are just skating by and probably should have been somewhere else. You have absolutely no idea who has 4.0/4.94, already scored 1600 on SAT or what their extra curriculars are, or whatever awards or recognition they have. You just don’t. And to be frank, it’s pretty egregious that you both claim to know ALL the strong kids in the program AND where they live!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh come on! I have a Blair magnet kid and I question whether you do. My kid, a junior, and clearly one of the stronger students on many criteria, is also a local kid who would have gone to Blair regardless - there are many other similar kids. What you are claiming is nonsense. Blair magnet kids do not take AP biology or AP chem in 9th or 10th and the vast majority take AP calculus bc in 11th (though they finish the course first semester). If the kids who attend the magnet are Blair only kids, they will follow the same curriculum.

You are totally delusional. Average SAT scores for Blair magnet kids are more than 400 points higher than for Blair non-magnet kids. The divide is so deep, it is not even funny. There is no question that under the new regional program future Blair STEM magnet cohort will be substantially weaker than the current ones. And if most top STEM Whitman and BCC kids decide that it is not worthy commuting every morning to Blair for a watered down magnet, MCPS may as well shut the magnet down and spend resources elsewhere.

You are such a snob! Yes, of course, there are many smart kids in Blair that are not in the magnet. It is also a large school (largest in Maryland) with a diverse student body. Alongside the cohort of non magnet students who are taking very advanced classes and have very high SATs, there are also kids who struggle. Like at every school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Northwood’s new building was designed based on Northwood’s having an academy for musical theater and dance. It’s actually a big part of the design.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do regions 1 and 6 separate theatre and music? There are so many kids who do both and school musicals benefit from having strong musicians in the school.

+1

Are they gonna fix this? The arts should be at one school.

I really hope not, because Einstein actually got the visual arts and the music magnet in this iteration, which it really, really should. In the first iteration Northwood was given all the performing arts magnets. They split them up to try to assuage all the complaints.

Then they should just put theater and dance at Einstein too and place all of the engineering programs at Northwood. Splitting each in half is spreading the peanut butter too thin.

This would be nice to have Engineering or Stem or preferably both at Northwood as its far easier for the families to get between these two schools than other schools. One needs to be academic. Northwood is probably a better choice depending on their leadership.

These programs are silly in reality and all schools should have strong arts and stem. Einstein is set up to fail without advanced classes and reduced population.

I agree that Einstein could benefit from strengthening its STEM offerings. However, according to the academy coordinator, the Visual and Performing Arts Academy is the largest academy at the school, so the magnet programs should reflect the interests of the majority of its students. Blake and Woodward each have dedicated Visual Arts and Performing Arts programs. I don’t understand why Northwood and Einstein are required to share. VAPA and VAC should serve as the regional arts programs so students have the option to attend Einstein specifically to participate in its arts pathway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh come on! I have a Blair magnet kid and I question whether you do. My kid, a junior, and clearly one of the stronger students on many criteria, is also a local kid who would have gone to Blair regardless - there are many other similar kids. What you are claiming is nonsense. Blair magnet kids do not take AP biology or AP chem in 9th or 10th and the vast majority take AP calculus bc in 11th (though they finish the course first semester). If the kids who attend the magnet are Blair only kids, they will follow the same curriculum.

You are totally delusional. Average SAT scores for Blair magnet kids are more than 400 points higher than for Blair non-magnet kids. The divide is so deep, it is not even funny. There is no question that under the new regional program future Blair STEM magnet cohort will be substantially weaker than the current ones. And if most top STEM Whitman and BCC kids decide that it is not worthy commuting every morning to Blair for a watered down magnet, MCPS may as well shut the magnet down and spend resources elsewhere.

You are such a snob! Yes, of course, there are many smart kids in Blair that are not in the magnet. It is also a large school (largest in Maryland) with a diverse student body. Alongside the cohort of non magnet students who are taking very advanced classes and have very high SATs, there are also kids who struggle. Like at every school.

I am not a snob. Just a realist. I am not even saying that Blair magnet kids are all that. Many are socially awkward and there is much more for success in life than ability to solve math and physics problems. But when it comes to pure academics, they are way above any cohort anywhere in the state.

Yes, there are smart kids zoned for Blair but not nearly enough to fill the classroom to follow current Blair magnet curriculum. You are actually proving my point with the smart/struggling statement - that going forward Blair will be just a regular school, academically similar to other schools with similar demographics. And there is nothing wrong with that, except that the premier MD magnet will be no more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Northwood’s new building was designed based on Northwood’s having an academy for musical theater and dance. It’s actually a big part of the design.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do regions 1 and 6 separate theatre and music? There are so many kids who do both and school musicals benefit from having strong musicians in the school.

+1

Are they gonna fix this? The arts should be at one school.

I really hope not, because Einstein actually got the visual arts and the music magnet in this iteration, which it really, really should. In the first iteration Northwood was given all the performing arts magnets. They split them up to try to assuage all the complaints.

Then they should just put theater and dance at Einstein too and place all of the engineering programs at Northwood. Splitting each in half is spreading the peanut butter too thin.

This would be nice to have Engineering or Stem or preferably both at Northwood as its far easier for the families to get between these two schools than other schools. One needs to be academic. Northwood is probably a better choice depending on their leadership.

These programs are silly in reality and all schools should have strong arts and stem. Einstein is set up to fail without advanced classes and reduced population.

I agree that Einstein could benefit from strengthening its STEM offerings. However, according to the academy coordinator, the Visual and Performing Arts Academy is the largest academy at the school, so the magnet programs should reflect the interests of the majority of its students. Blake and Woodward each have dedicated Visual Arts and Performing Arts programs. I don’t understand why Northwood and Einstein are required to share. VAPA and VAC should serve as the regional arts programs so students have the option to attend Einstein specifically to participate in its arts pathway.

It seems like they could move all the arts to Einstein, give humanities to Northwood (leaving other smaller programs at Whitman), and set up region 1 for success.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Northwood’s new building was designed based on Northwood’s having an academy for musical theater and dance. It’s actually a big part of the design.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do regions 1 and 6 separate theatre and music? There are so many kids who do both and school musicals benefit from having strong musicians in the school.

+1

Are they gonna fix this? The arts should be at one school.

I really hope not, because Einstein actually got the visual arts and the music magnet in this iteration, which it really, really should. In the first iteration Northwood was given all the performing arts magnets. They split them up to try to assuage all the complaints.

Then they should just put theater and dance at Einstein too and place all of the engineering programs at Northwood. Splitting each in half is spreading the peanut butter too thin.

This would be nice to have Engineering or Stem or preferably both at Northwood as its far easier for the families to get between these two schools than other schools. One needs to be academic. Northwood is probably a better choice depending on their leadership.

These programs are silly in reality and all schools should have strong arts and stem. Einstein is set up to fail without advanced classes and reduced population.

I agree that Einstein could benefit from strengthening its STEM offerings. However, according to the academy coordinator, the Visual and Performing Arts Academy is the largest academy at the school, so the magnet programs should reflect the interests of the majority of its students. Blake and Woodward each have dedicated Visual Arts and Performing Arts programs. I don’t understand why Northwood and Einstein are required to share. VAPA and VAC should serve as the regional arts programs so students have the option to attend Einstein specifically to participate in its arts pathway.

It seems like they could move all the arts to Einstein, give humanities to Northwood (leaving other smaller programs at Whitman), and set up region 1 for success.

+1 Hopefully they make those changes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Northwood’s new building was designed based on Northwood’s having an academy for musical theater and dance. It’s actually a big part of the design.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do regions 1 and 6 separate theatre and music? There are so many kids who do both and school musicals benefit from having strong musicians in the school.

+1

Are they gonna fix this? The arts should be at one school.

I really hope not, because Einstein actually got the visual arts and the music magnet in this iteration, which it really, really should. In the first iteration Northwood was given all the performing arts magnets. They split them up to try to assuage all the complaints.

Then they should just put theater and dance at Einstein too and place all of the engineering programs at Northwood. Splitting each in half is spreading the peanut butter too thin.

This would be nice to have Engineering or Stem or preferably both at Northwood as its far easier for the families to get between these two schools than other schools. One needs to be academic. Northwood is probably a better choice depending on their leadership.

These programs are silly in reality and all schools should have strong arts and stem. Einstein is set up to fail without advanced classes and reduced population.

I agree that Einstein could benefit from strengthening its STEM offerings. However, according to the academy coordinator, the Visual and Performing Arts Academy is the largest academy at the school, so the magnet programs should reflect the interests of the majority of its students. Blake and Woodward each have dedicated Visual Arts and Performing Arts programs. I don’t understand why Northwood and Einstein are required to share. VAPA and VAC should serve as the regional arts programs so students have the option to attend Einstein specifically to participate in its arts pathway.

The arts are a huge draw but many leave within the dcc due to lack of stem as they don’t have much to offer stem kids. Without the dcc, it’s not going to be good. Arts kids can be start and into stem. Einstein and Northwood have always been the unappreciated stepkids of Mcps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Northwood’s new building was designed based on Northwood’s having an academy for musical theater and dance. It’s actually a big part of the design.

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Anonymous wrote:Why do regions 1 and 6 separate theatre and music? There are so many kids who do both and school musicals benefit from having strong musicians in the school.

+1

Are they gonna fix this? The arts should be at one school.

I really hope not, because Einstein actually got the visual arts and the music magnet in this iteration, which it really, really should. In the first iteration Northwood was given all the performing arts magnets. They split them up to try to assuage all the complaints.

Then they should just put theater and dance at Einstein too and place all of the engineering programs at Northwood. Splitting each in half is spreading the peanut butter too thin.

This would be nice to have Engineering or Stem or preferably both at Northwood as its far easier for the families to get between these two schools than other schools. One needs to be academic. Northwood is probably a better choice depending on their leadership.

These programs are silly in reality and all schools should have strong arts and stem. Einstein is set up to fail without advanced classes and reduced population.

I agree that Einstein could benefit from strengthening its STEM offerings. However, according to the academy coordinator, the Visual and Performing Arts Academy is the largest academy at the school, so the magnet programs should reflect the interests of the majority of its students. Blake and Woodward each have dedicated Visual Arts and Performing Arts programs. I don’t understand why Northwood and Einstein are required to share. VAPA and VAC should serve as the regional arts programs so students have the option to attend Einstein specifically to participate in its arts pathway.

It seems like they could move all the arts to Einstein, give humanities to Northwood (leaving other smaller programs at Whitman), and set up region 1 for success.

If Northwood will have arts regardless of what you call it put stem there for Northwood and Einstein kids.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The thing I don’t like for region 1 is putting humanities at Whitman. I would really like to see this at Einstein or Northwood, and I don’t care which. My DCC kids could apply to IB at BCC but that’s still the second furthest option. I don’t see why Whitman needs a major draw magnet.

Neither BCC nor Whitman need magnets. They already have all the advanced classwork in their schools that they need. We know this because vanishingly few kids from these schools go to RMIB or Blair SMCS.

Obviously, these schools will attract high-performing kids from Einstein and Northwood (and maybe Blair) who have access to transportation from their parents. It won't go the other way around. BCC students and definitely not Whitman students will definitely NOT be traveling to Einstein, Northwood or Blair. This is how you create inequity. You try to make everything uniform, the same for everyone, but you ignore how these schools, including their course offerings, and the populations they serve are very different, and so trying to give everyone the same thing means giving more opportunities to the wealthiest students.

Yes, exactly.  The program analysis team admitted they did not consider equity in where programs were placed, and it shows. They seemed confused at the idea that anyone would have expected them to.  They really do not understand equity at all, and just use it as a buzzword.

And to the other poster who said "if Whitman doesn't have magnets, no one from out of boundaries will get to go to Whitman"... you can still give Whitman interest-based programs that allow out of boundary kids to go to Whitman if they really want.  The languages magnet seems fine to me-- Whitman offers more languages than other schools, let kids from other schools take advantage of Whitman language classes if they really want them. Their interest-based LASJ program also seems fine to me as an acceptable generic "I want my kid at Whitman, here's a way to do it" option.  

However, criteria-based academic magnets drawing top students are a totally different ballgame.  They increase the number of advanced students and advanced classes at schools, which can be really important and valuable for schools that struggle with that otherwise.  Giving a program like that to Whitman not only gives this benefit to a school that does not at all need it rather than to a school like Northwood that would have gained a lot from it, but actually actively hurt other schools by decreasing the number of advanced students in-bounds who stay. 

(It's also just offensive that Whitman kids will get a leg up in admissions to the humanities program because they will have a local set-aside that gives them a disproportionate share of slots.)

I'm not sure how this would really work for Region 5 - Currently we have Watkins Mill, Gaithersburg HS and Magruder and QO in Region 5. As a QO parent we would rather send our advanced kid to QO and just take AP courses rather than going to Gaithersburg HS which does not have a good rep and because the magnet will most likely be diluted with no strong cohorts for Region 5. I'm sure there will be other parents from QO who think the same.

It sucks because we had access to Poolesville before but now our kid who has no inclination to do anything in the medical field has to go to Gaithersburg or Watkins Mill for the advanced courses they are interested in and we want our kid in a learning environment not in schools with the worst reputations upcounty.

Just stay at QO. My DD is at Blair but if she was a bit younger she would not be attending a magnet. Even Blair won't be Blalr anymore. I predict many of these magnets will fail and at some point we will be back to a few strong ones.

Nothing will change at Blair. It will be fine.

Except 2/3rd of the gifted kids being imported in for the magnet won’t come and the special teachers will have options to go head new programs. The minimal middle class local pop will find it’s self applying to the two better schools it finds it’s self clustered with as it will no longer be the best of the DCC but in the bottom half of its new group. This too will cause a brain drain as motivated kids no longer seek it.

Without the influx Blair’s scores will fall and it will revert to being a high school version of eastern which it natively is.

You don't know much about this area, do you? There are tons of middle class families in the Blair/Northwood/Einstein area (the difference is that there are fewer upper-class families and more poor and working-class families than west of here, not that there's not many middle class families.) We don't need Blair to have a super-advanced program with the top 1% of kids in it to keep liking it-- it's popular largely because it's a good school, not because the SMCS kids are brilliant. And most of us don't want to go to Whitman or BCC, especially Whitman. Yes, Blair SMCS will change from being a super-elite program to "just" a strong program for smart kids, but we have plenty of smart kids in this area and most of us just don't care about it being an elite program as much as the parents from W schools do.

There is a huge misunderstanding about SMCS curriculum. The entire junior and senior years are designed to take only advanced STEM electives to get to learn one or two majors really in-depth and in-breadth, and all these advanced STEM electives require at least finishing Calc BC or MVC/DE in order to just understand the course content (or for biology or chemistry related electives, finishing AP bio or AP chem with a solid test score is some minimal entry level requirement). Tell me how you fill the seats with Blair-only students that usually won't take AP STEM courses until junior or senior year? What makes SMCS unique then?

SMCS curriculum is not designed to fit the needs from the top 10%. The new enrollment demographic will make it a re-branded AP-Stem program in every sense, and the top 1% will loose the opportunity to access the electives forever. This is not a huge loss for W-schools or region 4: they will find plenty supplement resource. Not the case for other schools, including Blair.

My DC who is in Blair SMCS told me this story: one day they wanted to take a bathroom break during class period. They went one bathroom and found kids making out; heading to another one and found the same thing. So they went downstairs for another bathroom full of weed smell. It took a long detour to find the 4th one that is usable. This is a normal Blair day.

LOL
Blair has more than enough students to fill the seats.
Oh, regarding your story, maybe you were thinking of BCC, Churchill or Whitman . That's the normal day at these schools

[Anonymous]

Whenever there is a topic about the new regional model, a couple of posters from Einstein turn the discussion to be about art magnets that are complete waste of resources and almost nobody else cares about. Is there something in the water in the Einstein zone that makes the area full of future actors and musicians? I wish all six art magnets get moved to Einstein so that schools currently unfortunate to have them get some meaningful magnets instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Northwood’s new building was designed based on Northwood’s having an academy for musical theater and dance. It’s actually a big part of the design.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do regions 1 and 6 separate theatre and music? There are so many kids who do both and school musicals benefit from having strong musicians in the school.

+1

Are they gonna fix this? The arts should be at one school.

I really hope not, because Einstein actually got the visual arts and the music magnet in this iteration, which it really, really should. In the first iteration Northwood was given all the performing arts magnets. They split them up to try to assuage all the complaints.

Then they should just put theater and dance at Einstein too and place all of the engineering programs at Northwood. Splitting each in half is spreading the peanut butter too thin.

This would be nice to have Engineering or Stem or preferably both at Northwood as its far easier for the families to get between these two schools than other schools. One needs to be academic. Northwood is probably a better choice depending on their leadership.

These programs are silly in reality and all schools should have strong arts and stem. Einstein is set up to fail without advanced classes and reduced population.

I agree that Einstein could benefit from strengthening its STEM offerings. However, according to the academy coordinator, the Visual and Performing Arts Academy is the largest academy at the school, so the magnet programs should reflect the interests of the majority of its students. Blake and Woodward each have dedicated Visual Arts and Performing Arts programs. I don’t understand why Northwood and Einstein are required to share. VAPA and VAC should serve as the regional arts programs so students have the option to attend Einstein specifically to participate in its arts pathway.

How does the academy coordinator know? She doesn’t answer email or update their website. So many classes listed on the VAPA pathways that aren’t actually running.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whenever there is a topic about the new regional model, a couple of posters from Einstein turn the discussion to be about art magnets that are complete waste of resources and almost nobody else cares about. Is there something in the water in the Einstein zone that makes the area full of future actors and musicians? I wish all six art magnets get moved to Einstein so that schools currently unfortunate to have them get some meaningful magnets instead.

It’s great to see how much the Einstein community values the arts, especially with a student making it to Broadway last year! I’d love to see an arts magnet started there to keep that interest alive, but I also think we need to push for more STEM classes to make sure the students have a balanced curriculum.