Magnet humanities program experience MLK

[Anonymous]

Anyone have idea about the program and teachers

[Anonymous]

NP. I would also love to hear some feedback.

[Anonymous]

I had a child in the program at Clemente before it moved to MLK, so I can speak about the program. The three magnet classes - English, World Studies, and Media - are well integrated and themed and were challenging and interesting all three years. The Media classes are teacher dependent - 6th and 7th grade for us were with one teacher who was just fantastic. 8th grade was meh - the teacher seemed to rest on the laurels of what the kids learned in 6th and 7th grade while doing the big projects in 8th grade. Lots of neat projects happened, but there was a lot of disorganization and a lot of kids hanging out in class doing nothing. The English and World Studies classes didn't seem as teacher dependent. I know we had some new teachers cycle into the classes, and they still seemed well designed and implemented. The 6th grade reading class seems purposeless. It's supposed to be a double period with English - it was and wasn't at different times at Clemente, and it really didn't seem to matter, despite the claims about the point of it. Magnet teachers from Clemente have the option to shift to MLK as the program rolls up from 6th to 7th to 8th. Some have done so, you can't guarantee the rest will. But I'd bet that any teacher that chooses to teach the magnet courses is excited for the opportunity, so any changes in curriculum implementation will be made up with enthusiasm.

Your math, science, and electives are with the general population. My child was accepted to both programs and had to choose. It just meant that math and science were horribly boring and they really didn't learn anything (coming from an HGC elementary and with engineering parents - they really had done most of the science already.) It's not a fault of the school or the curriculum - it's just that MCPS doesn't currently offer advanced middle school students all the courses that meet their readiness. Whatever - don't sweat it. Didn't hold my kid back from taking the highest level math and science classes in HS.

As for the school - hopefully a parent from MLK can pipe in about specifics. But in general, it's a middle school with a mix of students. Concerns that might be raised will be true for all the middle schools in the county with a diverse population. The reality is, that students in advanced classes really aren't impacted academically by students who aren't in advanced classes. And socially they don't mix much (the only kids in middle school that my kids have had issues with, are other kids in the magnet ...)

Overall - a great decision to join the magnet.

[Anonymous]

Thanks so much for taking the time to write a detailed reply. That was great.

Any MLK parents on here with anything to offer about the school?

[Anonymous]

Bump