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[quote=Anonymous]
Aug 25, 2025
I am providing the following update with a summary of the proposal presented by the school district to the board of education, along with my commentary. Please comment or contact me directly with your feedback.

Summary of Proposed Changes from Board of Education Meeting

Issues of "equity and access" are at the core of the proposed changes. The goal for the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) is to "move from a model of scarcity to a model of abundance." She indicated that for many students, attending a special program "requires long bus rides." She stated that "expanding pathways and programs" will "strengthen our district." The superintendent later added that "assets [special programs] are all over the place without any real focus."

There will be public information meetings to give information to the community in September and October. It has been decided that in the areas of mathematics and business/finance, every school should have advanced courses like Calculus, rather than making Business/Finance one of the special programs.

In the area of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), the proposal divides STEM into four strands--Science Math (Advanced), Technology (IT), Technology (Engineering), and Science Related CTE (non healthcare). Poolesville and Montgomery Blair High Schools were identified as the only "Science Math (Advanced)" programs currently existing; one would have to be built in each new region that does not currently have one. On slides with a list of advanced technology courses, AP Computer Science A (Java) is listed as the highest possible course. Schools with other STEM related programs such as Project Lead the Way were identified as incumbent Technology (Engineering) schools within their regions.

The proposal indicated a position of a program coordinator for each special program, which would start as a part time position filled by a teacher in the program who also provides instruction, but would eventually be a full time position.

In regards to Poolesville, the Global Ecology Studies Program (GESP) was shown as a strand folded into the STEM/SMCS program. It is unclear whether the GESP curriculum is to be folded into the criteria-based SMCS curriculum in forming the new regional model, or whether GESP will remain a standalone program but only be open to Poolesville area students.

MCPS motivated the move to a regional model for programs based on their experience with the International Baccalaureate (IB) programs. Local IB programs struggled to compete against Richard Montgomery High School. Breaking up big large programs is part of the intention to strengthen the regional programs.

"We wanted to expand [the IB program] into … three schools … we worked really hard to try to level them to the same standard … but … the Richard Montgomery IB program is so highly established, very entrenched in our community [and] continued to be the one [that was] sought after."

The Board of Education expressed concern that the "same course" at different schools may not be of the same quality. MCPS stated "we'll come back to that" and that they would have to figure it out. The Board of Education questioned how new programs would be supported, not just financially, but in terms of training of teachers. The superintendent responded that "there's not a whole lot to add that's not part of the general curriculum already." MCPS indicated that "if we're offering a program in one place, it needs to be the same high quality in another place" and their proposed solution and budget indicates a two-week teacher training for "new to Magnet" plus a one week teacher externship. The county also indicated the development of collaboration between teachers of similar program across regions to promote consistency and a learning community.

Commentary

Our largest concerns are around the "critical mass effect" and around sufficient support to operate existing programs and new programs if they are created.

As documented in our petition and by numerous supporters who have posted here, one of the greatest benefits of the SMCS program has been the ability of students to learn from like-minded peers, even if they lived far from each other. We remain concerned about the reduction in this critical mass effect if like-minded peers are separated into six regions.

Our additional concern is related to having adequate resources to initiate and maintain special programs. MCPS admitted very openly the difficulty it had when trying to replicate the Richard Montgomery IB program, and how ultimately the spinoff programs failed to achieve the desired levels of success. When the SMCS program was created, teachers were provided with additional planning time during the school day to plan curriculum and co-teach to foster a cohort model. There were hundreds of paid professional development opportunities, not merely a three week process as proposed by the county. And funding was much more greatly available for state of the art equipment. Even now, in the existing SMCS program, additional planning time, teacher professional development opportunities, and budgets for state of the art technology have become severely reduced. We worry that the new programs would be programs in name only unless they were adequately funded to the same levels that SMCS was in its initiation phase.

Our loudest message must be--fund programs well enough to be proper programs. While we maintain that fewer schools enhances education through the critical mass effect, regardless of the number of schools that MCPS chooses to place advanced STEM programs in, each one must be adequately funded with extra planning time to foster a cohort model with coteaching, ample professional development, both initially and ongoing for staff in these programs, to become subject matter experts in advanced and emerging technologies, and adequate budgetary allocations for purchase of expensive advanced materials for student use in a special program. For the MCPS proposal of six regions to succeed, they must be willing to commit to this. [/quote]

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