Please sign this petition to continue countywide magnets

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with the magnet supporters that MCPS is gaslighting the public when they claim they can scale all of these programs regionally. But I also struggle with believing their claim that the countywide magnets can be scaled. If they could've added more seats to the magnets, they would have. But they haven't.

And so I have to support the regional model, even though I know it's going to be a mess.

It's like saying I'm going to support Trump, even though I know he is going to bring a mess. And now look at the mess. It will take decades to fix back, if there'll be any more democracy in this country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It worked very well when we kept the CESs, but added ELC and made parents feel like their kids were getting the CES experience at their home schools. Why don’t we add a few extra cohorted math and science classes to each region, tell parents that’s the magnet experience, but still keep the existing STEM magnets so the truly gifted kids can still take these tiny, super specialized advanced classes? Everyone will be happy.

Exactly. The truly gifted kids should go to the existing programs and the ones who didn't make the cut but are advanced stay in the new regional magnets

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It worked very well when we kept the CESs, but added ELC and made parents feel like their kids were getting the CES experience at their home schools. Why don’t we add a few extra cohorted math and science classes to each region, tell parents that’s the magnet experience, but still keep the existing STEM magnets so the truly gifted kids can still take these tiny, super specialized advanced classes? Everyone will be happy.

Exactly. The truly gifted kids should go to the existing programs and the ones who didn't make the cut but are advanced stay in the new regional magnets

That is literally not how the CES works. It’s also not a fair system for (anyone, including) high school magnets when there are more kids who meet the criteria than there are current spots provided.

[Anonymous]

Why is MCPS punishing excellence

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I certainly will

I certainly won’t. I hope the new programs are designed so that only a few high schools send kids to them.

+1 I certainly won’t sign. Woefully inadequate number of seats as it is.

SMCS should expand so there are significantly more openings and shorter commutes.

Totally agree. There are plenty of kids able to academically thrive in the current magnet programs who are turned down because of the lack of seats. If these changes mean more kids have access to more accelerated classes than they otherwise would at non-magnet schools, then I'm all for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It worked very well when we kept the CESs, but added ELC and made parents feel like their kids were getting the CES experience at their home schools. Why don’t we add a few extra cohorted math and science classes to each region, tell parents that’s the magnet experience, but still keep the existing STEM magnets so the truly gifted kids can still take these tiny, super specialized advanced classes? Everyone will be happy.

Exactly. The truly gifted kids should go to the existing programs and the ones who didn't make the cut but are advanced stay in the new regional magnets

CES has lottery for 85-99 percetile kids. Lots of 99 percentiule don't win the lottery and 85 percentiles win it.

Truly gifted kids are not amking to CES.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It worked very well when we kept the CESs, but added ELC and made parents feel like their kids were getting the CES experience at their home schools. Why don’t we add a few extra cohorted math and science classes to each region, tell parents that’s the magnet experience, but still keep the existing STEM magnets so the truly gifted kids can still take these tiny, super specialized advanced classes? Everyone will be happy.

Exactly. The truly gifted kids should go to the existing programs and the ones who didn't make the cut but are advanced stay in the new regional magnets

That is literally not how the CES works. It’s also not a fair system for (anyone, including) high school magnets when there are more kids who meet the criteria than there are current spots provided.

Exactly. And the lottery requirement for middle school is so low that you are really not getting the best of the best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with the magnet supporters that MCPS is gaslighting the public when they claim they can scale all of these programs regionally. But I also struggle with believing their claim that the countywide magnets can be scaled. If they could've added more seats to the magnets, they would have. But they haven't.

And so I have to support the regional model, even though I know it's going to be a mess.

It's like saying I'm going to support Trump, even though I know he is going to bring a mess. And now look at the mess. It will take decades to fix back, if there'll be any more democracy in this country.

No. That analogy doesn't hang.

Both sides are deluding themselves in different ways. The magnets want both countywide and regional programming to co-exist but you can't really do both at scale. It's one or the other.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It worked very well when we kept the CESs, but added ELC and made parents feel like their kids were getting the CES experience at their home schools. Why don’t we add a few extra cohorted math and science classes to each region, tell parents that’s the magnet experience, but still keep the existing STEM magnets so the truly gifted kids can still take these tiny, super specialized advanced classes? Everyone will be happy.

Exactly. The truly gifted kids should go to the existing programs and the ones who didn't make the cut but are advanced stay in the new regional magnets

CES has lottery for 85-99 percetile kids. Lots of 99 percentiule don't win the lottery and 85 percentiles win it.

Truly gifted kids are not amking to CES.

That was a Covid era policy adjustment that’s never been changed back. Today’s high school seniors weren’t admitted to CESs or middle school magnets via lottery.

Some people complain about the lottery system because it doesn’t yield the best of the best. Now we’re going to change the high school magnets to their admissions less competitive as well. We’ll admit everyone who meets minimum criteria, which will produce the exact same caliber of students as a lottery that randomly selects from everyone who meets minimum criteria. I hope everyone enjoys special programs that are focused on the basement instead of the ceiling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It worked very well when we kept the CESs, but added ELC and made parents feel like their kids were getting the CES experience at their home schools. Why don’t we add a few extra cohorted math and science classes to each region, tell parents that’s the magnet experience, but still keep the existing STEM magnets so the truly gifted kids can still take these tiny, super specialized advanced classes? Everyone will be happy.

Exactly. The truly gifted kids should go to the existing programs and the ones who didn't make the cut but are advanced stay in the new regional magnets

CES has lottery for 85-99 percetile kids. Lots of 99 percentiule don't win the lottery and 85 percentiles win it.

Truly gifted kids are not amking to CES.

That was a Covid era policy adjustment that’s never been changed back. Today’s high school seniors weren’t admitted to CESs or middle school magnets via lottery.

Some people complain about the lottery system because it doesn’t yield the best of the best. Now we’re going to change the high school magnets to their admissions less competitive as well. We’ll admit everyone who meets minimum criteria, which will produce the exact same caliber of students as a lottery that randomly selects from everyone who meets minimum criteria. I hope everyone enjoys special programs that are focused on the basement instead of the ceiling.

+100000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It worked very well when we kept the CESs, but added ELC and made parents feel like their kids were getting the CES experience at their home schools. Why don’t we add a few extra cohorted math and science classes to each region, tell parents that’s the magnet experience, but still keep the existing STEM magnets so the truly gifted kids can still take these tiny, super specialized advanced classes? Everyone will be happy.

Exactly. The truly gifted kids should go to the existing programs and the ones who didn't make the cut but are advanced stay in the new regional magnets

CES has lottery for 85-99 percetile kids. Lots of 99 percentiule don't win the lottery and 85 percentiles win it.

Truly gifted kids are not amking to CES.

That was a Covid era policy adjustment that’s never been changed back. Today’s high school seniors weren’t admitted to CESs or middle school magnets via lottery.

Some people complain about the lottery system because it doesn’t yield the best of the best. Now we’re going to change the high school magnets to their admissions less competitive as well. We’ll admit everyone who meets minimum criteria, which will produce the exact same caliber of students as a lottery that randomly selects from everyone who meets minimum criteria. I hope everyone enjoys special programs that are focused on the basement instead of the ceiling.

You can have the exact same criteria that let your very special child gain admittance, and just let in the number of students who meet that exact same criteria. In other words, you can create more seats to meet the need without changing the criteria.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It worked very well when we kept the CESs, but added ELC and made parents feel like their kids were getting the CES experience at their home schools. Why don’t we add a few extra cohorted math and science classes to each region, tell parents that’s the magnet experience, but still keep the existing STEM magnets so the truly gifted kids can still take these tiny, super specialized advanced classes? Everyone will be happy.

No it didn’t because schools were not required to implement it with fidelity which is why it was mixed throughout the county and we now have the problem with the CKLaA enrichment options. The only one that is working appropriately is Compacted Math and that is implemented across all schools in the county. And even with that, there are parents upset because they believe their little snowflake should be in the advance class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It worked very well when we kept the CESs, but added ELC and made parents feel like their kids were getting the CES experience at their home schools. Why don’t we add a few extra cohorted math and science classes to each region, tell parents that’s the magnet experience, but still keep the existing STEM magnets so the truly gifted kids can still take these tiny, super specialized advanced classes? Everyone will be happy.

Exactly. The truly gifted kids should go to the existing programs and the ones who didn't make the cut but are advanced stay in the new regional magnets

CES has lottery for 85-99 percetile kids. Lots of 99 percentiule don't win the lottery and 85 percentiles win it.

Truly gifted kids are not amking to CES.

That is my point. Make the cut 99 percentile for the existing magnets like Poolesville, Blair. Rest of the kids who are advanced can go to the new regional magnet schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It worked very well when we kept the CESs, but added ELC and made parents feel like their kids were getting the CES experience at their home schools. Why don’t we add a few extra cohorted math and science classes to each region, tell parents that’s the magnet experience, but still keep the existing STEM magnets so the truly gifted kids can still take these tiny, super specialized advanced classes? Everyone will be happy.

Exactly. The truly gifted kids should go to the existing programs and the ones who didn't make the cut but are advanced stay in the new regional magnets

CES has lottery for 85-99 percetile kids. Lots of 99 percentiule don't win the lottery and 85 percentiles win it.

Truly gifted kids are not amking to CES.

That was a Covid era policy adjustment that’s never been changed back. Today’s high school seniors weren’t admitted to CESs or middle school magnets via lottery.

Some people complain about the lottery system because it doesn’t yield the best of the best. Now we’re going to change the high school magnets to their admissions less competitive as well. We’ll admit everyone who meets minimum criteria, which will produce the exact same caliber of students as a lottery that randomly selects from everyone who meets minimum criteria. I hope everyone enjoys special programs that are focused on the basement instead of the ceiling.

+100000

+1

This is just going to become like the Parkland MS whole school magnet. My kid is there and honestly it is a magnet without really being a magnet school in theory. They didn't even offer Algebra 1 in 6th grade while the middle schools in Bethesda and Potomac are offering that. Kid made friends so stayed to complete MS.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I will not sign, and my kids have both been in a magnet. One graduated in 2025, and the other is in HS.

It's been a good experience for them, but there's far too much talent in the county to limit the participation to a few hundred students per grade level per year.[/quote]

This. Regional magnet programs are a good idea. [/quote]

+1 The "I got mine" posters are out in force, including hijacking parent chat groups at TPMS.

No. More opportunity is good and if we have to "dilute" classes that only 10 kids per year take in MCPS, so be it.[/quote]
Those classes that only 10 kids take won’t be diluted; they’ll be eliminated because those 10 kids will be distributed among many schools, none of which will have the talent pool to field enough students for these classes. That’s how these STEM programs will be diluted. We’ll have many good programs and no exceptional ones.[/quote]

If the very good programs provide access to 3x the number of students, as long as the delta between exceptional and very good isn't too large, then that is a win from the perspective of maximizing educational benefit across the county.[/quote]
I trust the SMCS teachers to know how big the delta is between very good STEM cohorting and exceptional STEM cohorting.

When we were in a race to develop the atomic bomb first or put a man on the moon first, we needed lots of very smart people to work together and a handful of geniuses to get us across the finish line. It seems like it would be beneficial to cater our educational system to both.[/quote]

Why limit it to Montgomery County then? Why not one magnet for the best and the brightest across the state of Maryland?[/quote]

NC has a fantastic HS residential magnet, but only for 11th and 12th grade. Logistically, and some point the commute is impossible, or it has to be residential, which is a huge life disruption.

Anyway, the obvious answer is that the right geo scope is whatever can fill classes.