Why do parents from high FARMS school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child left a well regarded private school to go to the Blair SMCS magnet. When they turned 16, they got a car and now easily drive to school. We 100% recognize this as privilege and they do as well, compared to many of their friends that have to bus an hour to school now.

We would have loved for our home school to have a highly advanced track and our kid to be able to have the manifold benefits of going to a neighborhood school with neighborhood friends and still get advanced coursework. If MCPS can hire/spread out the teachers to make this plan happen, we are all for it.

I think a lot of folks would love this but it doesn't seem to be the plan proposed by MCPS. Unless by "highly advanced track" you mean having a calculus class. AFAIK that is all they have said: "every school will offer calculus".

[Anonymous]

I would love to hear what deranged level of course offerings should be offered at every school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How about no magnets and each school has equal course offerings in stem, humanities, and arts? That sounds fair to me. Also, no basing it on “student interest” because that is a bogus cop out.

I wish they would do this but they won’t.

How are you planning to fund this?

I don’t know, by not funding consultants for studies every couple of years? By not paying to bus students all over the county for unnecessary magnets? Your rhetorical answer is a cop out. How do school districts anywhere that have equal offerings at high schools fund it? None of it matters because MCPS is going to do what it’s going to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child left a well regarded private school to go to the Blair SMCS magnet. When they turned 16, they got a car and now easily drive to school. We 100% recognize this as privilege and they do as well, compared to many of their friends that have to bus an hour to school now.

We would have loved for our home school to have a highly advanced track and our kid to be able to have the manifold benefits of going to a neighborhood school with neighborhood friends and still get advanced coursework. If MCPS can hire/spread out the teachers to make this plan happen, we are all for it.

I think a lot of folks would love this but it doesn't seem to be the plan proposed by MCPS. Unless by "highly advanced track" you mean having a calculus class. AFAIK that is all they have said: "every school will offer calculus".

Which is already the case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How about no magnets and each school has equal course offerings in stem, humanities, and arts? That sounds fair to me. Also, no basing it on “student interest” because that is a bogus cop out.

I wish they would do this but they won’t.

How are you planning to fund this?

I don’t know, by not funding consultants for studies every couple of years? By not paying to bus students all over the county for unnecessary magnets? Your rhetorical answer is a cop out. How do school districts anywhere that have equal offerings at high schools fund it? None of it matters because MCPS is going to do what it’s going to do.

Do you have any examples of a model MCPS could follow?

No? So you have no idea what anything costs, and you have no idea how any district operates, but the school district should fulfill your ignorant wishes. Cool!

[Anonymous]

Rich people move to certain neighborhoods "for the schools". Poor people move where affordable, or can't afford to move. That creates and perpetuates inequality.

Solution:

1. Announce a multi year migration to equal (not "equitable") advanced programs everywhere, with no bussing.

2. County has 25 high schools and 1000 seats per year for special programs? 40 seats per year per school, done. Not enough seats at Whitman for all the geniuses? Oh, well!

3. Rich people start moving to high FARMS areas "for the schools".

.... Or they move to a different county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read all of the comments. It has nothing to do with what the parents want, it about test scores. The schools with significant needs often have lower test scores. To counter that, MCPS put programs for advanced students into those schools to help bring up those test scores.

And this doesn’t actually help the majority of kids at the school, just helps to make the problem by having the more resourced kids in a segregated part of the school.

It’s very Nice White Parents.

[Anonymous]

*mask the problem

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read all of the comments. It has nothing to do with what the parents want, it about test scores. The schools with significant needs often have lower test scores. To counter that, MCPS put programs for advanced students into those schools to help bring up those test scores.

And this doesn’t actually help the majority of kids at the school, just helps to make the problem by having the more resourced kids in a segregated part of the school.

It’s very Nice White Parents.

Many of us are fine with no regional programs, just strengthen the home school. Our kids are not in segregated programs. They are in interest based programs that are being put at risk by:
- creating new magnet programs that mimic our interest based programs at other schools and
- Dissolving the DCC which allows kids to select schools based on their interests (it isn't perfect and should probably be dissolved but in a thoughtful way that builds on what schools have built)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read all of the comments. It has nothing to do with what the parents want, it about test scores. The schools with significant needs often have lower test scores. To counter that, MCPS put programs for advanced students into those schools to help bring up those test scores.

And this doesn’t actually help the majority of kids at the school, just helps to make the problem by having the more resourced kids in a segregated part of the school.

It’s very Nice White Parents.

Many of us are fine with no regional programs, just strengthen the home school. Our kids are not in segregated programs. They are in interest based programs that are being put at risk by:
- creating new magnet programs that mimic our interest based programs at other schools and
- Dissolving the DCC which allows kids to select schools based on their interests (it isn't perfect and should probably be dissolved but in a thoughtful way that builds on what schools have built)

The new model also allows kids to select schools based on their interest. It just isn't limited to the DCC and instead seeks to make sure all students in MCPS have this option PLUS it seeks to strengthen all home schools, which in the end serve the most students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read all of the comments. It has nothing to do with what the parents want, it about test scores. The schools with significant needs often have lower test scores. To counter that, MCPS put programs for advanced students into those schools to help bring up those test scores.

And this doesn’t actually help the majority of kids at the school, just helps to make the problem by having the more resourced kids in a segregated part of the school.

It’s very Nice White Parents.

Many of us are fine with no regional programs, just strengthen the home school. Our kids are not in segregated programs. They are in interest based programs that are being put at risk by:
- creating new magnet programs that mimic our interest based programs at other schools and
- Dissolving the DCC which allows kids to select schools based on their interests (it isn't perfect and should probably be dissolved but in a thoughtful way that builds on what schools have built)

The new model also allows kids to select schools based on their interest. It just isn't limited to the DCC and instead seeks to make sure all students in MCPS have this option PLUS it seeks to strengthen all home schools, which in the end serve the most students.

It's not clear at all to me how they are going to strengthen the home schools.

Also they aren't making access to local programs equal. Whitman and BCC each have their own engineering programs for example. DCC students have accessed engineering at Wheaton. Now under the new proposal DCC students can share the engineering program at Blair while BCC and Whitman students stay at their home schools. Fine, but in the meantime BCC and Whitman will siphon off a bunch of the humanities oriented kids from Einstein, Northwood and Blair to their and humanities magnet programs. So the humanities offerings at those three schools will decrease. Why are they doing this? BCC and Whitman kids don't need this, they already have the course offerings at their home schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rich people move to certain neighborhoods "for the schools". Poor people move where affordable, or can't afford to move. That creates and perpetuates inequality.

Solution:

1. Announce a multi year migration to equal (not "equitable") advanced programs everywhere, with no bussing.

2. County has 25 high schools and 1000 seats per year for special programs? 40 seats per year per school, done. Not enough seats at Whitman for all the geniuses? Oh, well!

3. Rich people start moving to high FARMS areas "for the schools".

.... Or they move to a different county.

And there goes the high income tax base that supports many programs within MCPS and the county at large. Smart move...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read all of the comments. It has nothing to do with what the parents want, it about test scores. The schools with significant needs often have lower test scores. To counter that, MCPS put programs for advanced students into those schools to help bring up those test scores.

And this doesn’t actually help the majority of kids at the school, just helps to make the problem by having the more resourced kids in a segregated part of the school.

It’s very Nice White Parents.

Many of us are fine with no regional programs, just strengthen the home school. Our kids are not in segregated programs. They are in interest based programs that are being put at risk by:
- creating new magnet programs that mimic our interest based programs at other schools and
- Dissolving the DCC which allows kids to select schools based on their interests (it isn't perfect and should probably be dissolved but in a thoughtful way that builds on what schools have built)

The new model also allows kids to select schools based on their interest. It just isn't limited to the DCC and instead seeks to make sure all students in MCPS have this option PLUS it seeks to strengthen all home schools, which in the end serve the most students.

It's not clear at all to me how they are going to strengthen the home schools.

Also they aren't making access to local programs equal. Whitman and BCC each have their own engineering programs for example. DCC students have accessed engineering at Wheaton. Now under the new proposal DCC students can share the engineering program at Blair while BCC and Whitman students stay at their home schools. Fine, but in the meantime BCC and Whitman will siphon off a bunch of the humanities oriented kids from Einstein, Northwood and Blair to their and humanities magnet programs. So the humanities offerings at those three schools will decrease. Why are they doing this? BCC and Whitman kids don't need this, they already have the course offerings at their home schools.

The latest slides changes Blair’s engineering program to technology. There’s not engineering magnet in region 1. So ONLY Whitman and BCC kids get engineering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rich people move to certain neighborhoods "for the schools". Poor people move where affordable, or can't afford to move. That creates and perpetuates inequality.

Solution:

1. Announce a multi year migration to equal (not "equitable") advanced programs everywhere, with no bussing.

2. County has 25 high schools and 1000 seats per year for special programs? 40 seats per year per school, done. Not enough seats at Whitman for all the geniuses? Oh, well!

3. Rich people start moving to high FARMS areas "for the schools".

.... Or they move to a different county.

Or they just go to private. Hell, DC starts looking better and easier as a commute if I’m sending my kids to private school. The reality is there is nowhere near the budget or land availability or political will for anything close to what you’re recommending.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read all of the comments. It has nothing to do with what the parents want, it about test scores. The schools with significant needs often have lower test scores. To counter that, MCPS put programs for advanced students into those schools to help bring up those test scores.

And this doesn’t actually help the majority of kids at the school, just helps to make the problem by having the more resourced kids in a segregated part of the school.

It’s very Nice White Parents.

Many of us are fine with no regional programs, just strengthen the home school. Our kids are not in segregated programs. They are in interest based programs that are being put at risk by:
- creating new magnet programs that mimic our interest based programs at other schools and
- Dissolving the DCC which allows kids to select schools based on their interests (it isn't perfect and should probably be dissolved but in a thoughtful way that builds on what schools have built)

The new model also allows kids to select schools based on their interest. It just isn't limited to the DCC and instead seeks to make sure all students in MCPS have this option PLUS it seeks to strengthen all home schools, which in the end serve the most students.

It's not clear at all to me how they are going to strengthen the home schools.

Also they aren't making access to local programs equal. Whitman and BCC each have their own engineering programs for example. DCC students have accessed engineering at Wheaton. Now under the new proposal DCC students can share the engineering program at Blair while BCC and Whitman students stay at their home schools. Fine, but in the meantime BCC and Whitman will siphon off a bunch of the humanities oriented kids from Einstein, Northwood and Blair to their and humanities magnet programs. So the humanities offerings at those three schools will decrease. Why are they doing this? BCC and Whitman kids don't need this, they already have the course offerings at their home schools.

The latest slides changes Blair’s engineering program to technology. There’s not engineering magnet in region 1. So ONLY Whitman and BCC kids get engineering.

SMH1