Reply to For 8th graders -- how are you approaching the criteria-based programs?

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Reply to "For 8th graders -- how are you approaching the criteria-based programs?"

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[quote=Anonymous]No matter what MCPS says about existing programs and continuity (and the things I've heard and read keep changing in that regard), it won't address the challenge of staff shuffling.

So first there's the matter of academic programs moving around when the new regions are created.  Let's say that my DC (we're in the DCC) ranks first in their choice process a HS that is historically strong in a certain subject area and that has an open-admission academy for it.  They get in, they attend.  But this isn't a criteria-based program.  So after a year MCPS says, "oops, this academy is no more - we're not maintaining it because it is not criteria-based, and the subject area you came here for is going to be specifically prioritized at a different school now."  DC could be left either trying to change schools to follow the subject area (which seems unlikely unless the subject area happened to be moved to DC's home school), or wanting to stay at their current school but having to give up the subject area they went there for in the first place.

That dilemma seems almost inevitable at this point.  But what hasn't been fully discussed, to my mind, is that teachers and staff are going to end up being moved or moving themselves to accommodate the new region structures.  So that open-admission academy at the imaginary HS that I just imaginary-sent DC to could end up being gutted by default, as the teachers relocate elsewhere in the region.

Now, what about the criteria-based programs?  Unless those programs essentially stay exactly where they are, at least some teachers will need to switch schools to support the new region model.  And those teachers can't be in two places at once, supporting students who have been promised a teach-out at the same time as they are starting up a fresh program at a different school in the same region.

Maybe the criteria-based programs won't move or change at all.  But for the rest of the students, it feels like we are staring down a great deal of uncertainty and even a compromised educational experience.  Short-term pain for long-term gain doesn't feel worthwhile if you have an 8th grader right now.[/quote]

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