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

[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.

We love the enriched classes at our school. They're totally wonderful! It's like the magnet but without the long bus ride,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

You will then not be happy with the new SAT scoring system giving scores reflecting adversity. But Yale loves it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Sure, it is when some kids are reaping the benefit of better schools. This just makes it a fair race.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

Yes vote for Comrade Trump!

[Anonymous]

Wow. Its nice to know some school is dpoing the enriched classes right. May I ask which school this is. Thank you

Anonymous wrote:

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.

We love the enriched classes at our school. They're totally wonderful! It's like the magnet but without the long bus ride,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Sure, it is when some kids are reaping the benefit of better schools. This just makes it a fair race.

According to BOE, all MCPS schools are good, and schools with lots of lower income kids are just as good as schools with lots of high income kids. I heard it straight from their mouths at a boundary meeting.

The "benefit" of a better school is not provided by MCPS, btw. MCPS has an obligation to treat ALL schools and students equally. If you look at peer cohort, that is not treating them as equals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Sure, it is when some kids are reaping the benefit of better schools. This just makes it a fair race.

Sorry, but life is unfair. Perhaps you would be willing to give half your money to a low income kid so that everything is "fair".

-signed someone who grew up low income to uneducated parents who didn't know any English when I was in school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Sure, it is when some kids are reaping the benefit of better schools. This just makes it a fair race.

Sorry, but life is unfair. Perhaps you would be willing to give half your money to a low income kid so that everything is "fair".

-signed someone who grew up low income to uneducated parents who didn't know any English when I was in school.

What you're saying here is, "Life is unfair AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM SHOULDN'T DO ANYTHING TO MAKE IT LESS UNFAIR."

Well, I disagree with that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Sure, it is when some kids are reaping the benefit of better schools. This just makes it a fair race.

According to BOE, all MCPS schools are good, and schools with lots of lower income kids are just as good as schools with lots of high income kids. I heard it straight from their mouths at a boundary meeting.

The "benefit" of a better school is not provided by MCPS, btw. MCPS has an obligation to treat ALL schools and students equally. If you look at peer cohort, that is not treating them as equals.

On the contrary, NOT looking at peer cohort would be treating schools and students UNequally.

DCUM is all about the importance of peer cohort when it comes to the "good" schools in Bethesda/Potomac vs the "bad" schools in the DCC. But when peer cohort potentially disadvantages DCUM kids in Bethesda/Potomac, suddenly all of the schools are equally good.

[Anonymous]

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.

This.
Also it looks like MCPS lowered the bar on the test scores they now consider to be qualifying for the MS magnets in order to imply that a kid at the 86th percentile from a low performing cluster is as deserving of a spot as a 99th percentile kid from a high performing cluster

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
This.
Also it looks like MCPS lowered the bar on the test scores they now consider to be qualifying for the MS magnets in order to imply that a kid at the 86th percentile from a low performing cluster is as deserving of a spot as a 99th percentile kid from a high performing cluster

Maybe it would help if you stopped thinking of admission to the middle-school magnet program as a prize that you deserve or don't deserve, depending on your test scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
This.
Also it looks like MCPS lowered the bar on the test scores they now consider to be qualifying for the MS magnets in order to imply that a kid at the 86th percentile from a low performing cluster is as deserving of a spot as a 99th percentile kid from a high performing cluster

Maybe it would help if you stopped thinking of admission to the middle-school magnet program as a prize that you deserve or don't deserve, depending on your test scores.

Not a prize but an experience that many highly gifted children need

[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.

Name the middle schools that offer differentiated English instruction beyond English and Advanced English. In our middle school everyone "on level" or above is in Advanced English. There is no differentiated English instruction (with a cohort class and different curriculum) for advanced learners. I'm in the DCC so know people at lots of different MSs, and haven't heard anybody raving about their fabulous english instruction at comprehensive middle schools.

[Anonymous]

I've had kids go through TPMS magnet and Eastern magnet. My youngest was not offered magnet admission, but was offered enriched classes. These enriched classes are nothing like the magnet experience. My child at Eastern won a cspan documentary award for middle schoolers. My TPMS kid placed in the National Science Bowl. These are "prestigious" national level competitions that faculty advisors in the magnet programs are able to help kids compete in, and win. This is why people are mad.

My youngest kid's MS doesn't even offer mathcounts or significant academic after school programming.

I would expand the magnet program. I think they should rank kids by test scores in all ES's. Top 3% (or less if they need to) from each school gets a spot automatically in the magnet. The remainder of the seats go to the most qualified FARMS students based on test scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
This.
Also it looks like MCPS lowered the bar on the test scores they now consider to be qualifying for the MS magnets in order to imply that a kid at the 86th percentile from a low performing cluster is as deserving of a spot as a 99th percentile kid from a high performing cluster

Maybe it would help if you stopped thinking of admission to the middle-school magnet program as a prize that you deserve or don't deserve, depending on your test scores.

DP

I certainly don’t think of it as a prize. My kid spent 45 minutes on a bus ride to the CES for two years. Great experience but we would have much preferred a strong enrichment program at the home school. What was the prize? Lots of time spent on he bus?

It’s not a ‘prize’. It’s a necessity for kids who need to be challenged at school instead of wasting their time ‘reading to themselves’ as my kid did for most of third grade.