Blair as a whole school magnet?

[Anonymous]

Kennedy is likely to be made into a large-scale magnet according to two friends who go to the meetings. It will take 8 years at least, though. This is to offset the strain on Blair and increasingly the high school in Olney (I forget its name, is that one Magruder)? Anyway.

[Anonymous]

We don't need Blair magnet or any magnet program really. More effort should be put on those as risk students. It's ridiculous that MCPS has so many "special" programs for kids at advantage, while ignoring the needs of students who can barely make to grade-level.

[Anonymous]

For TPMS and Blair, think of the socialization similar to a college fraternity or sorority where kids in the magnet do have some classes and friends outside the magnet kids but they mainly are with the other magnet kids. The elementary school is different. All these comments about the magnet kids mixing with the local kids is MCPS spin. The kids are so different in terms of academics, SES, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We don't need Blair magnet or any magnet program really. More effort should be put on those as risk students. It's ridiculous that MCPS has so many "special" programs for kids at advantage, while ignoring the needs of students who can barely make to grade-level.

How would you know what other highly gifted kids need? What are your credentials to make that statement? A kid with a photographic memory should sit for 12 years in classes with everyone else bored out of their mind? Perhaps we don't need Special Ed for autistic kids or ESOL for non English speakers. Nothing special for anyone. Let's drop all kids in the same class together and really see how good it is for your "normal kid" with no special case students pulled out.

[Anonymous]

A good school system should not be ignoring anyone's needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A good school system should not be ignoring anyone's needs.

Capt. obvious strikes again!!!

[Anonymous]

Apparently it was not so obvious to the prior "focus only on the at risk" poster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We don't need Blair magnet or any magnet program really. More effort should be put on those as risk students. It's ridiculous that MCPS has so many "special" programs for kids at advantage, while ignoring the needs of students who can barely make to grade-level.

This is great idea! Let's get rid of the only programs working right in MCPS. MCPS is screwing up everything else, why stop now??

[Anonymous]

Note that "whole school magnet' can also mean schools like Argyle and Loiderman middle schools where enhanced programming is provided to all students. I doubt this model would work at the high school level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Note that "whole school magnet' can also mean schools like Argyle and Loiderman middle schools where enhanced programming is provided to all students. I doubt this model would work at the high school level.

Well, the schools in the DCC offer academies, basically electives clustered in a focused area of study, and Blair does have a STEM academy. As argued above this isn't a back door into the magnet, still it is an opportunity the magnet affords to the general population.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We don't need Blair magnet or any magnet program really. More effort should be put on those as risk students. It's ridiculous that MCPS has so many "special" programs for kids at advantage, while ignoring the needs of students who can barely make to grade-level.

Some of us do.

It is not an either/or proposition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We don't need Blair magnet or any magnet program really. More effort should be put on those as risk students. It's ridiculous that MCPS has so many "special" programs for kids at advantage, while ignoring the needs of students who can barely make to grade-level.

all children matter!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We don't need Blair magnet or any magnet program really. More effort should be put on those as risk students. It's ridiculous that MCPS has so many "special" programs for kids at advantage, while ignoring the needs of students who can barely make to grade-level.

This is not true. There are plenty of resources for kids who are struggling - they get pulled out to see reading specialists and they have ESOL classes and teachers in the schools. There are tons of these kids and they are served within their home school. The county does spend a lot of money on staffing.
The highly gifted are by definition a small minority of the school population (around 3%) which is why it is not possible to have programs in their home schools - they might have a couple of peers in each grade in their home elementary school for example. This is why they are put into magnet programs- you need to pull the top 3-5 kids from each school into a central location so they can have a strong peer group/cohort. These programs do not receive any additional funding or any additional resources from MCPS with two exceptions - they are provided transportation and MCPS does provide them staffing for a program coordinator (this seems reasonable when you think that there might be 100 kids in the school in a magnet program. This person typically has other school-wide responsibilities too). They do have a specialized curriculum but that is a one time expense that is quite modest. It is not an ongoing expense. They do not have special teachers really. Their class sizes are the same. They don't get additional materials. What they are getting is an appropriate education with a group of peers. They are not taking anything away from other children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This will never happen. Blair pulls Takoma Park neighborhood. For those of us who live nearby, we understand that Takoma always gets what it wants from the BOE. There are neighborhoods closer to Blair (even people who are walking distance) who are zoned for Northwood so that Blair can take Takoma.

And as a parent of two magnet kids, I agree that the magnets are just about the only thing in MCPS that is working and that they need to be left alone.

But the closest high school to TP is Blair.

Sure, there is no other HS in that lower corner of the county but Blair is at the very tip of it's catchment, not at all central. Almost none of the neighborhoods within walking distance actually attend Blair. Woodmore is the one exception.

It's true. My kid could walk to Blair but will instead be bused to Einstein. I'm fine with Einstein, but the inefficiency of the situation is kind of irritating.

Re: the PP who said "Takoma always gets what it wants." Blair used to be where SSIMS is, correct? I thought that was the reason so many neighborhoods close to Blair were not zoned for it. The boundaries were never redrawn to account for the newer location.

We, too, are less than a mile from Blair, but are zoned for Northwood. Then again, we're zoned for SSIMS but are closer to Eastern. Makes my head spin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This will never happen. Blair pulls Takoma Park neighborhood. For those of us who live nearby, we understand that Takoma always gets what it wants from the BOE. There are neighborhoods closer to Blair (even people who are walking distance) who are zoned for Northwood so that Blair can take Takoma.

And as a parent of two magnet kids, I agree that the magnets are just about the only thing in MCPS that is working and that they need to be left alone.

But the closest high school to TP is Blair.

Sure, there is no other HS in that lower corner of the county but Blair is at the very tip of it's catchment, not at all central. Almost none of the neighborhoods within walking distance actually attend Blair. Woodmore is the one exception.

It's true. My kid could walk to Blair but will instead be bused to Einstein. I'm fine with Einstein, but the inefficiency of the situation is kind of irritating.

Re: the PP who said "Takoma always gets what it wants." Blair used to be where SSIMS is, correct? I thought that was the reason so many neighborhoods close to Blair were not zoned for it. The boundaries were never redrawn to account for the newer location.

We, too, are less than a mile from Blair, but are zoned for Northwood. Then again, we're zoned for SSIMS but are closer to Eastern. Makes my head spin.

No, that's not what happened, look at the map on the first page of the thread. SSIMS and the Dale Dr. neighborhoods surrounding it are not zoned for Blair, so it's not just the old lines preserved. The boundaries have definitely been re-drawn at least once since Blair moved. When Northwood was reopened and the DCC was created, the Four-Corners neighborhoods were sent there.