Another article about the magnet programs in Washington Post

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This the key point! How can you know what the kid feels. What if 3 groups of kids feel differently. I don't want to wade in those murky waters personally. But what I do know is that if you want a teacher who is relatable to a certain group of kids in MCPS, simply inserting "Hispanic" is meaningless. You are going to have to start getting very specific about what is being sought after.

How do you know this?

Its self evident.. I believe a teacher of any background can relate to kids. If you are not like me and believe that a kid has to be of the same background as a group to relate to them then simply inserting a "Hispanic" is going to be hit or miss for reasons we've already discussed.

It's not self-evident to the groups who represent (or say they represent) Hispanic groups in the county and are calling more Hispanic teachers in MCPS. Why do you know more about this than those groups?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Throughout the country, this is the primary purpose of magnet programs. They are not meant to serve the children with resources. They are meant to pull bright, hard-working kids out of problematic schools. Look at the racial breakdown of magnets in other districts the size of MOCO. They are generally over 70% minority.

I haven't checked the truth behind the post. But didn't someone post last week that half of Blair magnet kids end up at UMD? Why pay all this money for kids that would have ended up at UMD anyway had they stayed at their home schools? I can't believe the money isn't better spent. As a county, what are we actually getting out of these magnet programs? Is there research that magnt students have gone on to better and brighter things than the AP/IB kids in the home schools?

Magnets should be used to help students who are motivated and intelligent - but not so lucky in the birth lottery. Plus, keeping the bulk of magnet kids in their home schools will make all of the schools stronger.

By the same logic, why waste money on early interventions for poorly performing students when it will not close the achievement gap and/or when they will get admission in magnet programs and colleges based upon affirmative action anyways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This the key point! How can you know what the kid feels. What if 3 groups of kids feel differently. I don't want to wade in those murky waters personally. But what I do know is that if you want a teacher who is relatable to a certain group of kids in MCPS, simply inserting "Hispanic" is meaningless. You are going to have to start getting very specific about what is being sought after.

How do you know this?

Its self evident.. I believe a teacher of any background can relate to kids. If you are not like me and believe that a kid has to be of the same background as a group to relate to them then simply inserting a "Hispanic" is going to be hit or miss for reasons we've already discussed.

It's not self-evident to the groups who represent (or say they represent) Hispanic groups in the county and are calling more Hispanic teachers in MCPS. Why do you know more about this than those groups?

Say they represent being the operative word. But to indulge you has the question been asked.

[Anonymous]

Oh, I forgot that on DCUM, everybody is an expert on everything. So never mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Throughout the country, this is the primary purpose of magnet programs. They are not meant to serve the children with resources. They are meant to pull bright, hard-working kids out of problematic schools. Look at the racial breakdown of magnets in other districts the size of MOCO. They are generally over 70% minority.

I haven't checked the truth behind the post. But didn't someone post last week that half of Blair magnet kids end up at UMD? Why pay all this money for kids that would have ended up at UMD anyway had they stayed at their home schools? I can't believe the money isn't better spent. As a county, what are we actually getting out of these magnet programs? Is there research that magnt students have gone on to better and brighter things than the AP/IB kids in the home schools?

Magnets should be used to help students who are motivated and intelligent - but not so lucky in the birth lottery. Plus, keeping the bulk of magnet kids in their home schools will make all of the schools stronger.

By the same logic, why waste money on early interventions for poorly performing students when it will not close the achievement gap and/or when they will get admission in magnet programs and colleges based upon affirmative action anyways.

Or why have science classes? Most students won't go on to be scientists. Or art (most students won't go on to be artists), music (most students won't go on to be musicians), or sports teams (most students won't go on to be athletes)?

[Anonymous]

How about - Year round school for poor URM students starting from pre-K? These students must get into gifted programs to get into 10 month of regular school schedule.

This will bridge the achievement gap in my opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How about - Year round school for poor URM students starting from pre-K? These students must get into gifted programs to get into 10 month of regular school schedule.

This will bridge the achievement gap in my opinion.

You want to pass a law with different school attendance requirements depending on the student's race/ethnicity and the student's family's income? Really?

And would this requirement apply to the kids of my neighbors, who are African-Americans with a law degree and an MBA, respectively? Please explain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So the fact that 40% of the program are National Merit Scholars and the average SAT score of the program is 2250 means nothing if kids choose to go to UMD because it has the program they want or is most financially manageable to them.

The middle class/upper middle-class kids would still likely have SAT scores of 2250 and be NMS at their home schools. The lower-income students would still be at the magnet. So, I'm not saying it means nothing, I'm saying it's a wash.

Do you really think that UMD is these kids dream school? (I'm not saying anything bad about the school). If Blair really created amazing students we would see more students going to top schools (both because they would get in and because of merit scholarships).

You must have young kids - certainly not college ready yet.

About 1/2 MCPS high schools have not even 1 NMSF. Not even 1. Out of 130-160 NMSF in MCPS produce every year, about 1/2 comes from two programs - Blair Magnet and RM/IB (about equal number from each). This year each produced slightly over 40 kids. Think about that for a moment - out of 100 kids, 40-some are NMSF. These kids are performing at a very high level. If they mix-in kids just based on color of their skin, it just means either those kids will fail (if they maintain current standard) or water-downing the program (if you want to retain all kids at any cost).

As for UMD comment, a lot of kids in this area with parents making 200k and up, they are not qualified to get FA at top tier schools. So, many take UMD path with merit aid and save money for post-college education - med school, law school, phd...etc. including all of my kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How about - Year round school for poor URM students starting from pre-K? These students must get into gifted programs to get into 10 month of regular school schedule.

This will bridge the achievement gap in my opinion.

You want to pass a law with different school attendance requirements depending on the student's race/ethnicity and the student's family's income? Really?

And would this requirement apply to the kids of my neighbors, who are African-Americans with a law degree and an MBA, respectively? Please explain.

Well, we are talking about changing the admissions criteria for magnets based on race/ethnicity and family income, are we not? So, why not change the attendance requirement for schools as well?

[Anonymous]

MCPS moves one step closer to mediocrity... Sigh... How sad.

[Anonymous]

I KNOW that Diego's quote is correct. My DC actually asked a Latino classmate, who he sits next to who had just won an academic award, why the classmate hadn't applied to RMIB. The classmate didn't know it existed despite the phone calls and my DC's group talking about it non-stop all fall.

The difference is I don't blame MCPS. They try. I'm sure they could try harder but how much effort should they put in for how much result?

I blame Diego Uriburu, and other leaders like him, personally. He really should be on top of trying to get the word out to the families he thinks he represents. If he really represents them, he could do it.

Whining to get MCPS to spend 100s of thousands of dollars to do what he could do for $13,000 is silly. He should write up a proposal for twenty five get-togethers, with $500 budgets for each HS cluster, my guess is MCPS would be happy to fund it, and get the word out to the people need to hear it.


This quote is from the article:
“It is outrageous,” said Diego Uriburu, co-chair of the Montgomery County Latino Advocacy Coalition. “There are great inequities in terms of access. The majority of our families don’t even know these programs exist.”

Sorry, I don't buy this. I have a second grader in MCPS. I received TWO phone calls about the Parent Questionnaire and BOTH were translated completely in Spanish.

The questionnaire itself was also translated in Spanish.

If your phone number is in the directory, then you also received this message. We're at a Title 1 School, so I completely understand that some people have more barriers than others, but the above quote is just ridiculous.

So you think the guy is just making it up about lots of families not knowing the programs exist?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How about - Year round school for poor URM students starting from pre-K? These students must get into gifted programs to get into 10 month of regular school schedule.

This will bridge the achievement gap in my opinion.

You want to pass a law with different school attendance requirements depending on the student's race/ethnicity and the student's family's income? Really?

And would this requirement apply to the kids of my neighbors, who are African-Americans with a law degree and an MBA, respectively? Please explain.

Well, we are talking about changing the admissions criteria for magnets based on race/ethnicity and family income, are we not? So, why not change the attendance requirement for schools as well?

I don't think we ARE talking about changing the admissions criteria. I think we're talking about ensuring that we're capturing all of the "highly gifted" kids irrespective of race/ethnicity or family income. Right now the HGC and other magnets programs are wildly disproportionate to the population of the district. If we assume true giftedness (rather than just good coaching) occurs at a similar rate in each group, then we clearly have a problem with identifying gifted kids from URM groups. The idea isn't that MCPS would lower the bar. The idea is that there are kids who would clear the bar but are not currently being identified.

The alternative is that we just accept that our "gifted" program is really a program for high achieving but not necessarily gifted kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe people do not apply or enroll their kids as MCPS doesn't make it easy. We are trying to transfer from private to public and I went to register my child last week and they refused enrollment and told me to come back over the summer. If I cannot even enroll my child, how on earth would I figure out this or other programs? So, if you have to apply months in advanced and they don't even let you register your child, how on earth do they get considered for any special programs?

You can find out about the different programs and the application process online at the MCPS website. Forms, deadlines and program information should be available. I do not believe you have to be currently enrolled in a MCPS school in order to apply to a special program although it would make your application process a little more complex. Once you have identified the program(s) your child wishes to apply to you could call the program director to get guidance on how to apply. For middle school and high school magnet programs, the information meetings are in October, the applications are due in Nov, the tests are in Dec and the results are announced in Feb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I KNOW that Diego's quote is correct. My DC actually asked a Latino classmate, who he sits next to who had just won an academic award, why the classmate hadn't applied to RMIB. The classmate didn't know it existed despite the phone calls and my DC's group talking about it non-stop all fall.

The difference is I don't blame MCPS. They try. I'm sure they could try harder but how much effort should they put in for how much result?

I blame Diego Uriburu, and other leaders like him, personally. He really should be on top of trying to get the word out to the families he thinks he represents. If he really represents them, he could do it.

Whining to get MCPS to spend 100s of thousands of dollars to do what he could do for $13,000 is silly. He should write up a proposal for twenty five get-togethers, with $500 budgets for each HS cluster, my guess is MCPS would be happy to fund it, and get the word out to the people need to hear it.


This quote is from the article:
“It is outrageous,” said Diego Uriburu, co-chair of the Montgomery County Latino Advocacy Coalition. “There are great inequities in terms of access. The majority of our families don’t even know these programs exist.”

Sorry, I don't buy this. I have a second grader in MCPS. I received TWO phone calls about the Parent Questionnaire and BOTH were translated completely in Spanish.

The questionnaire itself was also translated in Spanish.

If your phone number is in the directory, then you also received this message. We're at a Title 1 School, so I completely understand that some people have more barriers than others, but the above quote is just ridiculous.

So you think the guy is just making it up about lots of families not knowing the programs exist?"

Right before the new application cycle opens, they put flyer all over the MCPS schools. Kids know (or should know) about the magnets. In addition, magnet coordinators visit schools non-stop for weeks and weeks to introduce their programs and answer questions. After schools meetings are held and everyone is invited. Multiple calls are made... I mean, that's still not enough?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So the fact that 40% of the program are National Merit Scholars and the average SAT score of the program is 2250 means nothing if kids choose to go to UMD because it has the program they want or is most financially manageable to them.

The middle class/upper middle-class kids would still likely have SAT scores of 2250 and be NMS at their home schools. The lower-income students would still be at the magnet. So, I'm not saying it means nothing, I'm saying it's a wash.

Do you really think that UMD is these kids dream school? (I'm not saying anything bad about the school). If Blair really created amazing students we would see more students going to top schools (both because they would get in and because of merit scholarships).

You must have young kids - certainly not college ready yet.

About 1/2 MCPS high schools have not even 1 NMSF. Not even 1. Out of 130-160 NMSF in MCPS produce every year, about 1/2 comes from two programs - Blair Magnet and RM/IB (about equal number from each). This year each produced slightly over 40 kids. Think about that for a moment - out of 100 kids, 40-some are NMSF. These kids are performing at a very high level. If they mix-in kids just based on color of their skin, it just means either those kids will fail (if they maintain current standard) or water-downing the program (if you want to retain all kids at any cost).

As for UMD comment, a lot of kids in this area with parents making 200k and up, they are not qualified to get FA at top tier schools. So, many take UMD path with merit aid and save money for post-college education - med school, law school, phd...etc. including all of my kids.

This is my concern.