Reply to Gifted & talented programs and magnet school opportunities in the public schools?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]As predicted, OP's question has become yet another debate on expanding the magnets, so I may as well weigh in.

I think expanding access to the HS magnets is a good thing, EVEN IF it means some incremental drop in "rigor" in the formerly county-wide magnets.

Right now, MCPS has an approach that seeks to max out the potential of a handful of kids while leaving the rest with almost no access to differentiated or enriched instruction until 11th grade.

This is the wrong approach for a public school system, particularly one with as many high achievers as MCPS has.

There's no denying that expanding access from the "top" 1% to the "top" 5% will make some sort of a difference, but not a meaningful one and certainly not one that should stop MCPS from expanding the programs. [/quote]

I agree more access is needed. But why can’t MCPS preserve a well established program and allow top 1% continue to access it while having other top 5% programs. It’s a mistake to kill these nationally recognized successful programs just for equity. [b]Many people chose to live in Montgomery county due to these programs. [/b]
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If we are going to make an economic/real estate argument, it makes FAR more sense to expand the magnets than to assume that people are moving here on the off chance that their child will be one of the 200 kids per year who get into these "well-established programs."[/quote]

But you forget people have choices. When MCPS has worse reputation than FCPS or HCPS, why would they want to come to MCPS? Think about prince george county which has easy commute to DC but people do not prefer to move there. [/quote]

Sounds like you should support increased taxation to serve both those needing general advancement/differentiation [i]and[/i] those needing radically advanced coursework.

And, of course, support the same to achieve the best means of identifying (early) the [i]ability[/i] that might require that far more differentiated program (rather than those who simply test well from prep, not that there isn't overlap between the two groups), ensuring that it is nurtured with public funding so that these programs remain truly accessible across economic circumstance.

For those pointing to Fairfax/TJ, why should we think that there are not a proportionate number of MoCo students that would show need for this kind of program?  There would be more than twice the number currently admitted across both SMCS sites.  And that's with TJ clearly oversibscribed.  One could point to the fact that Blair SMCS has even higher-level offerings than those at TJ, but there is the liklihood that among any hundred admitted there would be enough who would rise with the offered curriculum to support at least single sections of those courses.[/quote]

Does Fairfax county tax more than Montgomery county? No. Instead of increasing taxes, we need to focus on fiscal responsibility and reduce wasteful spending MCPS currently has with such bloated central office. [/quote]

That's been debunked.  Fairfax County's per-student operational spend is all of three quarters of a percent lower than MoCo's.  The "bloated central office" comparison comes from the difference in the way FCPS has categorized many centrally-managed staff with roughly equivalent functions as those at at MCPS as school-based.

Each system could improve management to control costs.  MoCo's higher tax rate, though, has much more to do with non-education-oriented spending, giveaways, etc.[/quote]

It seems like Montgomery County residents are getting a less favorable deal compared to Fairfax. Fairfax pays less in taxes but offers both centralized county-wide magnets and regional AAP (Advanced Academic Program) centers. They appear to deliver better educational quality and equity with fewer resources. So why is MCPS consistently less competent? ”
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That seems to be moving the goalposts, there, unless you are a different poster.

I may agree that Fairfax has provided better (I may consider that to have been the case back to the 80s), and I may agree with the other PP that there have been less than farsighted MCPD initiatives, but I also think that the economic, clutural and linguistic demographics in Fairfax have presented less of a burden to FCPS than those in MoCo have presented to MCPS.

From an AAP/magnet standpoint, MCPS has more readily adopted the national trend of the past few decades against robustly addressing GT, despite its being a state-recognized need and associated programming costing considerably less than that for other need categories, while FCPS has resisted the trend (though not completely).[/quote]

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