Reply to How is the new pilot offering equivalent to TPMS/Eastern

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Going back to the OP's question which is whether the new pilot would be equivalent I think the short answer is probably not.  I realize that MCPS has not given us any details of these two classes but I don't think it is possible to replicate the magnet experience in the home school because:
1.  Peer cohort.  Eastern and TPMS bring together the most motivated and highest performing kids from 20 home middle schools and this does create a special learning environment and allows teachers to move more quickly and dig deeper.  It is one of the most important (and most subtle) advantages of a true magnet program.
2.  At Eastern at least, you have three magnet courses (four in sixth grade) and the teachers coordinate with each other throughout the year.  So for example, in 6th grade when you learn about the Russian Empire in World Studies, you would be reading Animal Farm in English.  During Greek Fest you learn about Greek history and culture in World Studies, read Greek myths in English and this culminates in an all day interdisciplinary festival where students participate in Socratic debates, display posters about famous Greeks they have researched, write and perform skits that meld modern media tools and Greek mythology and screen Greek themed animation shorts they made in their media class.
In seventh grade, they research and write a ten page research paper which is more involved than anything my child has done in high school including AP courses.  They spend two days in the UMD library doing research and are expected to use scholarly books and articles as part of their research.  This paper is a project that is jointly supervised by their history and english teachers.
In eighth grade they do smaller projects but many of them are interdisciplinary.  The CSPAN documentary for example (you may have seen the thread about the number of Eastern kids who won awards this year) is primarily a media project but the students find their topics as a result of work they do in their 8th grade US History class.  They make several documentaries that year and I would say all of them are heavily informed by material they learn in their US History class.
3.  The workload is quite high and one of the reasons the middle school and high school magnet programs have been so successful is because they have typically screened for intelligence (Cogat and MAP scores), ability/study skills (grades and teacher recs.) and motivation (teacher recs and application essays).  It also means that the curricula and expectations are not likely to be dumbed down and watered down over time.
There are tons of projects and papers every single year and the expectations are really high.  Even classes like media which sounds easy involve a lot of work especially in 8th grade when you make a few documentaries, and work on several other projects including a capstone personal project (my son for example wrote an eighty page novella).  
One of the main reasons the kids get so much out of the program is because the teachers give them very demanding projects and papers and expect them to perform at a high level.
The interdisciplinary projects are especially tough because every year there are several time periods when you have multiple projects and papers due simultaneously in all of your magnet classes.  I have to say though that as stressful as that can be, these are the experiences my kid got the most out of because he was only able to make deep and meaningful connections across the disciplines as a result of these cross and interdisciplinary projects.
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This is OP.  Thank you to all who have tried to stay relatively on topic, especially 03/09/2018 08:14 (who answered my questions), and those who avoided the bait of some random posters making preposterous remarks about the selection process (i.e. somehow it was base on URM, or that the "snowflakes" who weren't selected weren't as qualified and deserve it).  We know cohort was used strongly as a selection process and I am fine with that as I do feel kids who are outliers in lower performing schools need opportunities, too.  So kudos to mcps for trying to make the shift.  However, the questions in place are if the handful of kids who are qualified but kept back to the local schools are being serviced properly, and are administrators and teachers being given a fair opportunity to support them?  This is where mcps really failed, in my opinion.  Also, what about the kids who are qualified but opted out of taking the test because they did not know that a pilot program was opening up at their middle school?  At the end of the day, it is the teachers who make this happen and if they feel ill-prepared to support because there isn't a rigorous program in place or all the training/time necessary to support such program isn't there, it does all of us a disservice in wasting resources.  [/quote]

OP, I think MCPS has to start somewhere and yes, it will be a roller coaster ride for the first cohort of kids and teachers but that is the nature of a field test. The teachers have to grow into their new roles just like anyone starting a new job/responsibilities. Also, MCPS will most like have some sort of appeal process for students that didn't take the test.  If not, I think parents have the right to contact their school and advocate on behalf of their kids that did not take the Cogat. [/quote]

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