Blair Magnet Program

[Anonymous]

I understand this hyper-focus on Map-M scores bc the application is extremely skimpy so every little bit seems like it has to matter a lot, but the Blair Magnet coordinator said at the open house that their MEDIAN score is 270, which means half the kids have below 270. Map M is not the only factor.

My kid just got into Blair. Map M 279.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bit of advice. Stop talking about MAP scores. You'll sound silly. They are irrelevant in the magnet. Many kids have MAP above 300 and there's no correlation between MAP and the classes they take and how they do or whether they are a star on the math team or would never touch math team with a 10 foot pole.

Interesting. I have 3 kids and have followed their map scores for years. If found them to be pretty reflective of their math skills.

You have three kids in HS in the magnet? Once you are in the 290-300+ range which DC says basically everyone is either coming into the magnet or after the first year it does not really seem to reflect much of anything. By the end of 1st semester of year 1 of magnet everyone has the base knowledge to do any MAP problems which are really easy compared to magnet problems. But I'm sure it helps to follow the scores when they are younger or in lower math to track progress.

No, my other kids are younger, and the oldest was just accepted to Blair. I don't have any experience with HS math classes, which is why I am asking questions. But I do have experience with the entirety of MAP-m range.

Since we were told that the median map of the incoming class is in the 270s I could see how the score could be used for placement, given that there is little other information available. From my experience, comparing the exact same child over time, the difference between 270ish and 320ish is significant. DC would not be able to follow the same material at 270 as they could as their score went up. That I can tell you for sure.

I get it that the score doesn't matter "after the first semester". I sure hope so. But that's a lot of math later.

Okay, I get where you are coming from so maybe we can explain it in those terms. I'd say the material that Precal and Functions start with starts in the 260-270 map range. For a lot of kids that would be review but the review is really fast and in a lot more depth than before. It's also very proof based. MAp is designed to cover superficial knowledge, not more analytical thinking. Almost any kid being accepted would be qualified in terms of base knowledge to do either path. But not everyone cares to do that much work or has the interest in the subject. Your child having a very high map score may find the first few months easier than their classmate with 270 map scores but the 270 kid will catch up quickly and you may find the 270 kid is actually better at real math than your 320 kid, or not. You can't tell and that was the point of the other post.

Ok, thank you. Btw, DC told me there are proofs on map-m, and not only in geometry, either.

[Anonymous]

Summer factoring camp was offered in June 2024. My kid was unable to attend due to prior summer plans. It probably would have been helpful in terms of meeting people and teachers and in starting to get a handle on the expected level of familiarity with some math concepts. It might have made the initial adjustment to Precalc easier. But it was fine to skip it, and my kid still thinks keeping their prior summer plans was the right answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Summer factoring camp was offered in June 2024. My kid was unable to attend due to prior summer plans. It probably would have been helpful in terms of meeting people and teachers and in starting to get a handle on the expected level of familiarity with some math concepts. It might have made the initial adjustment to Precalc easier. But it was fine to skip it, and my kid still thinks keeping their prior summer plans was the right answer.

Was he able to get some kind of summer package?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Summer factoring camp was offered in June 2024. My kid was unable to attend due to prior summer plans. It probably would have been helpful in terms of meeting people and teachers and in starting to get a handle on the expected level of familiarity with some math concepts. It might have made the initial adjustment to Precalc easier. But it was fine to skip it, and my kid still thinks keeping their prior summer plans was the right answer.

Was he able to get some kind of summer package?

There was an optional summer packet. My kid got that plus the factoring camp package from a friend who attended the camp.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do they decide who goes to Functions? How DC is currently in H Geometry but their MAP was 315+

If your child is in TPMS the teacher will make the recommendation. Otherwise they will evaluate during factoring camp at the beginning of the summer. Even if your child is not recommended they can ask to be put in Functions or if they are put in Functions they can ask to not be in it.

There is some flexibility the first few weeks. One of DC's friends asked not to be in Functions on the first day even though they were recommended for it and later a high number of other classmates dropped out during the trial period. If you don't hit a certain grade on the assessments by a certain time you are automatically dropped. You don't have a choice at that point.

Thank you. They are not in TPMS and we need to travel abroad in mid June. Is summer camp crucial?

This is out of date. The summer camp hasn’t happened for the past two years. Instead the kids get a take home test to submit IF they are interested. They have to be honest in taking it in timed conditions. TPMS teachers do NOT make recommendations. Many kids that get in to functions drop out. If they don’t have a certain grade at a certain point they are required to switch back to precalc.

2 years ago it was about funding and space and last year it was about teacher availability. I thought it was coming back this year? Is that wrong?

MCPS has stopped providing the finding permanently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bit of advice. Stop talking about MAP scores. You'll sound silly. They are irrelevant in the magnet. Many kids have MAP above 300 and there's no correlation between MAP and the classes they take and how they do or whether they are a star on the math team or would never touch math team with a 10 foot pole.

Interesting. I have 3 kids and have followed their map scores for years. If found them to be pretty reflective of their math skills.

MAP score "rank" roughly matches math skill "rank", but can be a poor match for students who focus a lot only on higher-level school math or only on highly enriched grade-level subjects. Many students do both, so aren't affected by this.

It is reflective of knowledge up to about 290 (Algebra 2 + basic stats), but for highly above grade level / enrolled course scores doesn't distinguish exposure to the recipes via Khan/IXL vs solving previously unseen problems via personal innovation, and it doesn't test depth at the level of Magnet math. So it's a noisy signal for ability to handle enriched content.

(See all the posts about math homework, and only math homework, taking hours per night. This is not intended by the teachers; these are students who hyper-accelerated without sufficient depth of understanding, because they weren't challenged to stretch beyond the basic school curriculum.)

No it’s not, it’s because the math teachers assign copious amounts of homework.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is the selection criteria at Blair magnet program purely based on merit? Or do they also do a lottery in addition to looking at test scores, academic performance, etc.?

no lottery ... there's a committee that reviews applications

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do they decide who goes to Functions? How DC is currently in H Geometry but their MAP was 315+

If your child is in TPMS the teacher will make the recommendation. Otherwise they will evaluate during factoring camp at the beginning of the summer. Even if your child is not recommended they can ask to be put in Functions or if they are put in Functions they can ask to not be in it.

There is some flexibility the first few weeks. One of DC's friends asked not to be in Functions on the first day even though they were recommended for it and later a high number of other classmates dropped out during the trial period. If you don't hit a certain grade on the assessments by a certain time you are automatically dropped. You don't have a choice at that point.

Thank you. They are not in TPMS and we need to travel abroad in mid June. Is summer camp crucial?

This is out of date. The summer camp hasn’t happened for the past two years. Instead the kids get a take home test to submit IF they are interested. They have to be honest in taking it in timed conditions. TPMS teachers do NOT make recommendations. Many kids that get in to functions drop out. If they don’t have a certain grade at a certain point they are required to switch back to precalc.

Since when?
Used to be if you’re coming from TPMS and recommended by the teachers for functions, you don’t go the the summer camp.
The summer camp was mostly for students coming from other schools to tryout and test for placements.

I don’t know “since when” but the class of 2027 certainly didn’t get recommendations from TPMS teachers. There was no summer camp for that class (current sophomores).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I understand this hyper-focus on Map-M scores bc the application is extremely skimpy so every little bit seems like it has to matter a lot, but the Blair Magnet coordinator said at the open house that their MEDIAN score is 270, which means half the kids have below 270. Map M is not the only factor.

My kid just got into Blair. Map M 279.

I have a kid there too but was in the 300+ group. I heard the average 2 years ago was around 285. I'd heard of kids in the 270s getting in so it's not just about score but suspect there is a cutoff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I understand this hyper-focus on Map-M scores bc the application is extremely skimpy so every little bit seems like it has to matter a lot, but the Blair Magnet coordinator said at the open house that their MEDIAN score is 270, which means half the kids have below 270. Map M is not the only factor.

My kid just got into Blair. Map M 279.

I have a kid there too but was in the 300+ group. I heard the average 2 years ago was around 285. I'd heard of kids in the 270s getting in so it's not just about score but suspect there is a cutoff.

Two years ago the magnet coordinator said that the median admitted score was 281. So obviously with half of kids below that there were many in the 270s. If 270 really was the median last year, I’d guess that there was a blip that year and 280s is more like the normal distribution.

[Anonymous]

For at least the last 2 years they published simple advice to proceed from Geometry to Precalculus, from Algebra 2 to Precalculus or Functions (student choice), from Precalculus fo Functions, and to drop down from Functions to Precalculus if you feel overwhelmed.

Half the Functions starters don't finish, and that's totally fine. The difference is just one semester elective out of at least 16!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I understand this hyper-focus on Map-M scores bc the application is extremely skimpy so every little bit seems like it has to matter a lot, but the Blair Magnet coordinator said at the open house that their MEDIAN score is 270, which means half the kids have below 270. Map M is not the only factor.

My kid just got into Blair. Map M 279.

I have a kid there too but was in the 300+ group. I heard the average 2 years ago was around 285. I'd heard of kids in the 270s getting in so it's not just about score but suspect there is a cutoff.

Two years ago the magnet coordinator said that the median admitted score was 281. So obviously with half of kids below that there were many in the 270s. If 270 really was the median last year, I’d guess that there was a blip that year and 280s is more like the normal distribution.

Wasn't last year the year that was they "accidentally" got 130 acceptances instead of 100? A larger group would likely have a lower median.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do they decide who goes to Functions? How DC is currently in H Geometry but their MAP was 315+

If your child is in TPMS the teacher will make the recommendation. Otherwise they will evaluate during factoring camp at the beginning of the summer. Even if your child is not recommended they can ask to be put in Functions or if they are put in Functions they can ask to not be in it.

There is some flexibility the first few weeks. One of DC's friends asked not to be in Functions on the first day even though they were recommended for it and later a high number of other classmates dropped out during the trial period. If you don't hit a certain grade on the assessments by a certain time you are automatically dropped. You don't have a choice at that point.

Thank you. They are not in TPMS and we need to travel abroad in mid June. Is summer camp crucial?

This is out of date. The summer camp hasn’t happened for the past two years. Instead the kids get a take home test to submit IF they are interested. They have to be honest in taking it in timed conditions. TPMS teachers do NOT make recommendations. Many kids that get in to functions drop out. If they don’t have a certain grade at a certain point they are required to switch back to precalc.

Since when?
Used to be if you’re coming from TPMS and recommended by the teachers for functions, you don’t go the the summer camp.
The summer camp was mostly for students coming from other schools to tryout and test for placements.

I don’t know “since when” but the class of 2027 certainly didn’t get recommendations from TPMS teachers. There was no summer camp for that class (current sophomores).

Why would you make broad generalizations based on two year old info?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bit of advice. Stop talking about MAP scores. You'll sound silly. They are irrelevant in the magnet. Many kids have MAP above 300 and there's no correlation between MAP and the classes they take and how they do or whether they are a star on the math team or would never touch math team with a 10 foot pole.

Interesting. I have 3 kids and have followed their map scores for years. If found them to be pretty reflective of their math skills.

MAP score "rank" roughly matches math skill "rank", but can be a poor match for students who focus a lot only on higher-level school math or only on highly enriched grade-level subjects. Many students do both, so aren't affected by this.

It is reflective of knowledge up to about 290 (Algebra 2 + basic stats), but for highly above grade level / enrolled course scores doesn't distinguish exposure to the recipes via Khan/IXL vs solving previously unseen problems via personal innovation, and it doesn't test depth at the level of Magnet math. So it's a noisy signal for ability to handle enriched content.

(See all the posts about math homework, and only math homework, taking hours per night. This is not intended by the teachers; these are students who hyper-accelerated without sufficient depth of understanding, because they weren't challenged to stretch beyond the basic school curriculum.)

No it’s not, it’s because the math teachers assign copious amounts of homework.

+1 Yes they assign a lot on purpose and it seems to work. The kids end up with a really good foundation in math.