House buying stragegy to help a child to get into middle school STEM magnet at Takoma Park Middle.

[Anonymous]

Apparently many people buy homes within the boundaries of the Takoma Park Middle to increase the chance of their child of getting into the Math Magnet Program. Did it work for anyone who actually moved for this purpose? Did your child got in? If not, how did you feel about the area and your choice. Did you like the neighborhood school program just the same? There are lots of good homes in that are usually coming up on the market in season and buying there is much easier then in most areas. Would love to hear actual experiences of people who did make such a move.

[Anonymous]

1. You are right, MCPS does select from geographic location, in that the less-wealthy districts and the cluster neighborhoods have an advantage. This is to counter-balance the reality that public schools in rich districts are better, because families consider education to be more important and have the means to coach and tutor their children. There is a peer cohort effect in these schools.

2. The selection for the magnet programs is EXTREME. Unless you would love to live in Takoma Park no matter what (commute, quality of life, etc), you have to be very sure of what you're doing. On critical thinking tests, this is the equivalent of scoring within the 99th percentile, meaning that if your child scored at the 98th percentile in an elementary InView test, for example, they're probably not going to be selected at the middle school level. Less than half of the students selected for the elementary "magnets" (they're called Centers for Enriched Studies) are selected for the middle school magnets, and these already score in the 98th-99th percentile range on the Cogat test.


I have a 99th percentiler, but since I don't want to live in Takoma Park, I'm not going to risk it.

[Anonymous]

You may want to post this on the MD public schools board. However you will probably get a lot of replies like the one above advising you against it unless you actually want to live in TP and won't be resentful if your child doesn't get in.

[Anonymous]

I haven't heard of anyone doing this. It sounds pretty stupid. Its true that there are seats set aside for TP students at the middle level who only compete against each other so the TP admits have much lower scores than kids from elsewhere in the county BUT every in boundary UMC kid is trying to get those spots. If you end up #26 you are basically screwed. The school does not rank high overall and the low performing students greatly outnumber the mediocre and high performing students. If your kids are young, its likely the magnet won't even exist when they reach middle school. The writing is on the wall so to speak that the magnet days are numbered in MCPS. You would most likely end up in private school.

We've had friends over the years who have lived in TP. Every single family went to private schools and looked at the magnets as a windfall if they got in (save 3 years of private school tuition) but no one counted on it.

[Anonymous]

I live in Takoma Park, in the historic district - there are about 12 middle schoolers on my block and all but two attend TPMS (magnet and non magnet) and all are very happy with the school. But I echo other’s don’t pursue this unless you actually want to live here.

[Anonymous]

I know someone for whom this worked, but they had a child who was an EXTREME outlier and might have been admitted even without the TPMS feeder preference, and they were coming from outside MCPS and therefore their calculus was different.

For what it is worth, not all of Takoma Park gets preference at TPMS. There are parts of Takoma Park zoned for Rolling Terrace and SSIMS, and those kids do not have preference.

Conversely, there's a part of Silver Spring zoned for TPMS that does have access to the preference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I haven't heard of anyone doing this. It sounds pretty stupid. Its true that there are seats set aside for TP students at the middle level who only compete against each other so the TP admits have much lower scores than kids from elsewhere in the county BUT every in boundary UMC kid is trying to get those spots. If you end up #26 you are basically screwed. The school does not rank high overall and the low performing students greatly outnumber the mediocre and high performing students. If your kids are young, its likely the magnet won't even exist when they reach middle school. The writing is on the wall so to speak that the magnet days are numbered in MCPS. You would most likely end up in private school.

We've had friends over the years who have lived in TP. Every single family went to private schools and looked at the magnets as a windfall if they got in (save 3 years of private school tuition) but no one counted on it.

Oh, for heaven's sake. I have lived in TP for 25 years and the private school families are a small minority. TPMS is a great school whether or not your kid is in the magnet.

[Anonymous]

This should be in the MD Public Schools forum.

[Anonymous]

Don't forget that the special preference is a historical artifact. No one really paid attention in the past but MCPS is getting bad PR from it now. I wouldn't count on it continuing too long into the future now that it is getting all this negative attention.

[Anonymous]

I'm pretty sure all TP middle schoolers are now zoned for TPMS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm pretty sure all TP middle schoolers are now zoned for TPMS.

No. All kids zoned for Piney Branch are zoned for TPMS, but there are kids inside Takoma Park zoned for SSIMS. Chosen at random from Zillow, like this one: https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/pmf,pf_pt/37285702_zpid/globalrelevanceex_sort/39.014248,-76.948157,38.951132,-77.059737_rect/12_zm/u1_sch/26749_sc/

Takoma Park address. SSIMS school zone.

[Anonymous]

This is the TPMS boundary:

http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/TakomaParkMS.pdf

[Anonymous]

This is the reason we did not move to Poolesville. Yes, it gives a better chance for any Poolesville resident high schooler to be accepted into the magnet programs or to cherry-pick the various magnet courses, we just did not want to live in such an isolated community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I haven't heard of anyone doing this. It sounds pretty stupid. Its true that there are seats set aside for TP students at the middle level who only compete against each other so the TP admits have much lower scores than kids from elsewhere in the county BUT every in boundary UMC kid is trying to get those spots. If you end up #26 you are basically screwed. The school does not rank high overall and the low performing students greatly outnumber the mediocre and high performing students. If your kids are young, its likely the magnet won't even exist when they reach middle school. The writing is on the wall so to speak that the magnet days are numbered in MCPS. You would most likely end up in private school.

We've had friends over the years who have lived in TP. Every single family went to private schools and looked at the magnets as a windfall if they got in (save 3 years of private school tuition) but no one counted on it.

Do you really know that the TP kids’ scores are lower? TP is a very stem-oriented area, with lots of scientist / intellectual parents whose kids are very smart. There may be a few with an advantage of living here, but those in boundary spots are largely taken by kids who would have gotten in anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven't heard of anyone doing this. It sounds pretty stupid. Its true that there are seats set aside for TP students at the middle level who only compete against each other so the TP admits have much lower scores than kids from elsewhere in the county BUT every in boundary UMC kid is trying to get those spots. If you end up #26 you are basically screwed. The school does not rank high overall and the low performing students greatly outnumber the mediocre and high performing students. If your kids are young, its likely the magnet won't even exist when they reach middle school. The writing is on the wall so to speak that the magnet days are numbered in MCPS. You would most likely end up in private school.

We've had friends over the years who have lived in TP. Every single family went to private schools and looked at the magnets as a windfall if they got in (save 3 years of private school tuition) but no one counted on it.

Do you really know that the TP kids’ scores are lower? TP is a very stem-oriented area, with lots of scientist / intellectual parents whose kids are very smart. There may be a few with an advantage of living here, but those in boundary spots are largely taken by kids who would have gotten in anyway.

She doesn't know, she's just spewing out ignorance.