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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I attended an IB high school that was not a magnet, and anyone could enroll in the IB courses assuming they met the criteria for the equivalent AP class.

Of the entire class of 450, exactly 8 of us did the full diploma.

[b]All of that is to say that I think these claims of "unqualified" students being allowed in are overblown at best, and racist/classist nonsense at worst. [/b]

The kids you don't want in the IB classes? They largely aren't going to sign up for them. [/quote]

Not all IB schools and their  student bodies are same.  RM is not just a IB school, it is a magnet IB school. How hard is this for you to understand, the magnet student are invited all across the county to join a program designed for academically highly gifted (not just who can do well in IBDP or AP)? Students who could have gone to one of the other 7/8 IB schools but would not find their intellectual peers to are recruited to this program. Letting RM-kids join the same magnet IB program without going through the same selection process is a back-door. Highly Gifted children (like other special need children) have special academic need and their education opportunity should not be compromised

[b]It is like forming very successful Varsity team by excruciating selection and then let the coach's son into the team since he was there watching all the games.
[/b]
What is racist and classist in this? Academic preparedness and intellectual curiosity is not limited to a class or race. RM cluster is neither full of URM or poor, in case you do not know. [/quote]

This is a cheap analogy, the accusation is not that there's nepotism or favoritism but that there's a flimsy application process for the 11th grade local students.  And why should there be a formal process when the students have two years of performance in HS to back up their interest.  A better comparison, it's like noticing a talented kid on the JV team, does coach say nice job next year try out for varsity, hope you make it this time, or do they move the kid to varsity based on performance?  Having students grouped appropriately is in everyone's best interest and any information should be used to do this.

And what should RM do, no one will answer this?  Every HS has a group of high achieving local students, for whatever reason they didn't end up at magnets, maybe they weren't interested then, maybe they didn't show the same promise in MS, but at some point they out pace the regular course offering.  Worst case they need to be bused to a different school or sent to community college.  But if the classes are already at their HS they should have access to them, (Blair doesn't send any local students to MCC for a math or science class).  The fact that there's already a magnet means it's unlikely some other signature program will be started for the local population, like the APEX program at Walter Johnson (and if they did, would magnet students be shut out?).  Having a parallel IB program doesn't make much sense as separating the two populations prevents the scheduling benefits that the larger pool should have.  And how can it ever be clear that there are two distinct IB diplomas and a regular diploma offered at the school or justified that students take the same classes but they're not the same?  There's really no perfect solution, so why not err in the direction of opening the umbrella a little?

The hangup seems to be the right to claim magnet status or the wording of the mailing that goes out with the transcript, but, come on, HS is the time in HS, not the piece of paper.  If there's any value to the program, that should show up intrinsically in the students who put in the time completing it and no scrap of paper will capture that.  To say otherwise just disparages the actual education in the program--don't these students already write better, score better, accomplish more because of these four years?[/quote]

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