Reply to What did the board say about the Regional model and the DCC for upcoming school year?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]So what I understand is all 3 MSMC schools feed into the region where Kennedy and Wheaton are.

My question now is can all the CURRENT 7th graders in those schools, (regardless of where they will go in 2027/28 when DCC will be dissolved) apply to Kennedy and Wheaton coming  FALL since all three schools feed into that region? Basically grandfathering them because they are already attending those schools.[/quote]

Yes. Current 7th graders in those schools can continue and will be grandfathered in.

But starting next year, those DCC kids outside of Region 3 should be cut off since the DCC no longer exists and they can't cross regions anymore.[/quote]

Interesting. So my kid from Clarksburg who goes to Argyle now can actually apply to Blair CAP or Wheaton Engineering, along with applying to the magnets in our region?

Is Wheaton Engineering the only engineering focused high school is MCPS?

[/quote]

I doubt that seriously.  Usually you can apply to the HS magnets/programs in your region unless they were countywide.  Given that there is no longer countywide programs/schools your kid can apply to the programs/magnets in region.

The ability to continue with your program is respect to the school and program the student would currently be in when the new model takes affect. Meaning if that if they are already in a HS program they won’t have to leave that school/program. [/quote]

I wonder if the kids in the MSMC will actually be told which school's magnet program they can apply to or it will be left to the parents to figure it out themselves.

I[b]t worked a bit different with MSMC before - basically any kid attending those middle schools, even if they were not part of the DCC could apply to specific programs in the DCC - that was how they pulled in out of consortium kids by dangling this carrot in front of them. It was the only way upcounty school kids were able to go to down county schools like Wheaton Engineering and Blair CAP[/b]

[/quote]

Yes, and that would be part of the inequity that folks want to see resolved. All 8th graders are sent letters indicating which programs they are eligible to apply currently.  I don't see why that wouldn't continue.[/quote]

So far all they have done is get rid of the NEC and DCC. If they were offering something they want others to have why are they getting rid of them?[/quote]

In what will be a futile attempt to entice westside students to apply for eastside schools' ill-conceived, or collapsed, regional programs, MCPS instituted east-west regions. Instead there will be a Hunger Games scenario of eastside parents with the social/financial capital applying to get their students into westside programs, for which there will be too few seats.

Rearranging the chairs on the ship deck here.[/quote]

There won't be too few seats, except in regions where only one of the academic magnets ends up being considered desirable and the others are avoided.

They are assuming 15%+ of kids will attend criteria-based academic magnets (and over 40% will attend regional programs total) and creating spaces accordingly.  Many families will not be able to make the transportation work, will not want to leave their home school, and/or will pick a different regional program other than the criteria-based ones (i.e. if they are interested in arts, for example.)  So I would expect that anyone in the top 25%-30% of a given school/grade will be able to get into a criteria-based academic program if they want it (not necessarily the specific one they want, but one of them.)

[b]The real problem will be putting some of these schools into academic "death spirals."  If anyone in the top 25-30% of a given school -- which at most non-rich schools includes all or almost all kids who would be qualified for and interested in advanced classes-- can leave for a magnet at another school, and half or more of them actually do, it's really going to hollow out what's available at these schools.  And if these schools have fewer advanced classes and fewer kids taking advanced classes (and probably also fewer skilled teachers with experience teaching advanced classes, many of whom will likely move to magnets and/or rich schools that still have a strong cohort of advanced kids), their academic reputations will drop.  This will cause families who otherwise wanted to stay at their home school to feel like they have to travel elsewhere for their kids to get the basic education and course availability they need, which will then hollow out the home school even further, and the cycle will continue.  [/b][/quote]

This is exactly my worry

In the DCC my impression is that Kennedy HS death spiraled. I don't see how the regional model will help Kennedy at all. The same kids that left Kennedy before will still leave, just to different schools.[/quote]

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