Reply to Two paths to magnet program at Richard Montgomery High School

Forum Index » Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)

Reply to "Two paths to magnet program at Richard Montgomery High School"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

OP Here. I am supportive of all qualified students (RM and non-Rm cluster) to get support to advance academically. I also support a path for "qualified" students at RM to enter the magnet IB program in 11th grade. I am opposed to the following:

1. Letting RM students enter the magnet IB program without any "qualification" vetting (this is a recent change) and hence lowering the cohort academic level
2. Keeping the 2nd path to the magnet program secretive from non-RM parents/students and hence prohibiting them from making informed choice
3. Not letting non-RM student access to this 2nd chance that RM-student get and hence excluding them from a county owned program unfairly
4. Overcrowding the magnet program without renegotiating magnet resource for increased class sizes and hence lowering the support distribution for the special need magnet students

What I want to achieve to bring this out before the open house:

1. Inform the interested non-RM parents to ask questions and challenge the decision to lower the magnet academic level in 11th and 12th garde
2. Encourage non-RM parents to demand MCPS to oversee a program they own so that principal does not gut it on his whim
3. Inform the parents to help students make decision to join RM knowing what they get vs. what they lose
4. Preserve integrity of a magnet program in MCPS so that the HG students do not flee the public education system
5. Encourage all parents to demand MCPS to open more magnet programs to accommodate all Highly Gifted students and not refuse any qualified student a spot

None of these affect my children specifically. They will be out of the MCPS system in a year. I am deeply committed to highly gifted public education and am very sad that MCPS treats this set of special need student population with contempt. I do not limit my participation to anonymous forum only. I am fairly vocal in my school communities. This is just an extension of my small effort to leave something intact and if not better. [/quote]

Look, I don't think this is the secret you make it out to be, I certainly knew about it three years ago [b]when my DC could have applied (wasn't a factor in our decision), others have said the same[/b].  I know families who bought houses in the RM cluster partly for this reason. A formal application process is for accessing unknown students.  Why should the school need to do this when the students have already been studying at RM for two years and meet prerequisites?  I can understand why a teen might find this unfair, but I think an adult should be able to make peace with it.  Having students take the courses they are capable of taking is in everyone's best interest and should be the benefit of housing a magnet program.  You admit this is your axe to grind on the way out the door, so essentially spite.  You're accusing every one of being un-adult, yet you're the arrested one.  This is your child's school, not yours, chill.[/quote]

NP here.  I think OP made some good points. Your DC could have applied but did not! So, you have not been in the program and I can say that you have an axe to grind and are spiteful because of sour grapes.

It is hard for parents to think that there are students who are more academic advanced than their own. It is human nature to minimize what others have.  You obviously have not been in a situation that you have felt the school is not meeting the academic needs of your student.  In such a case, your questions are being fueled by what exactly?

And do not be naive. Real Estate values are directly linked to the perceived or real advantages of a good school.  Good schools are measured by student performance.  Without the magnet students in RMIB bolstering its scores, the real estate prices in that area will drop.  The school is blessed because it has a magnet program.  They are benefiting from the scores of the collection of exceptional students that RMIB gets. However, these bright students have a real need for a strong cohort and accelerated program.   The classroom dynamics change when you do not have the students of the same caliber in the classroom. The lessons go slower, the discussions become less stimulating, the rigor drops.   It is great if RM is doing a great job in preparing its comprehensive MYP students for RMIB DP.  In that case, they should be prepared to test into the IB magnet program.  Else, they can do the diploma program with their own cohort? Surely the school has prepared enough students in the 2 years to create 1 classroom of IB diploma students? [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics