Reply to Did the Takoma MS magnet got MORE white this year?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think people want easy answers, and there aren't any.

It would be EASY to just use CogAT or a similar test to "fine tune" peer groups, but that assumes CoGAT is the right tool for identifying gifted kids, and/or kids with a large amount of potential.

We all know that the smartest kids we went to school with are not necessarily the most successful today, and, as young people get older, working hard and staying focused becomes almost as important as having "gifts."

Additionally, there are multiple ways to be "gifted" and giftedness is often present in some areas and not others. This means that tests like the CogAT will be "spiky" for some kids, which makes an easy solution hard.

If you take the kid who has a 99% across the board but leave behind the kid who has a 99.99999% on one subtest but a 75% in another, does that serve the second kid?

These are HARD questions, and we haven't even touched the ways in which the tests themselves are culturally biased.

I know we all want a hard and fast rule, but that's not how life works.

[/quote]

This is clear: When 100s of straight A student is BORED with the ES or MS work, class, lack of discussion, projects. Something needs to be done.

No need to speculate who's going to be Steve Jobs later, or have a big A Ha moment at age 16 and suddenly start applying him/herself.  Challenge the student today, challenge the student appropriately. Kids have academic track records by 3rd and 4th grade, no need to put SPECULATION as the number 1 determinant for access to a CES or magnet program.  No need to project that if Little Julio was just in a special program his 70% scores would be 90% scores.  That's speculation.  Just what DC did and then everyone ended up cheating to make kids graduate programs and look like a success.

Teachers know when smart kids are bored, or aren't having their interests built or worse, are losing their love of learning. But they can't deviate from C2.0, or they have too much material to cover lightly, or no time, or easier to just stay on script.

Ideally you'd switch to private school, every top kid I know who was bored and switched, practically snapped out of a funk and loved school again.   More ideally, this big, $$$$ public school district would nuture these such students, not only the ESOL, FARMS, bottom half, but the top ones.

[/quote]
Well said.  It's sad that the only program MCPS has that can challenge the top-tier private schools (it's test-in magnet program) is being changed due to political correctness and jealousy.  I can just picture the conversation

Administrator #1:  "Wow, look at those SAT scores over there at Blair.  It's really amazing isn't it?  We need to send out a press release!"
Administrator #2:  "Definitely!  Hold on a second, all these names of Intel Scholars sound Asian.  Let me see the full list of Magnet students.  All these names sound Asian and White."
Administrator #1:  "Yea, they've been gaming the system for years.  Sending their kids to tutors, supplementing education, and actually filling out the application"
Administrator #2:  "Oh no, we can't have that!  That isn't fair"
Administrator #1:  "I know.  We send parents information and leave phone mail message constantly in both English and Spanish but Hispanics and African Americans don't apply"
Administrator #2:  "It sounds like we need try and make the application easier."
Administrator #1:  "I've got a better idea!  Lets get rid of the application all together.  Test everyone."
Administrator #2:  "Brilliant!  But what about the fact that Black and Hispanics test lower across the board on all standardized tests, how do we overcome that?"
Administrator #1:  "We should just set up quotas by race."
Administrator #2:  "I wish.  They passed a stupid law against quotas."
Administrator #1:  "Let's think, how can we get around the law.  Most Whites and Asians like to live in the same snobby rich areas, right?"
Administrator #2:  "Right... God I had those Whites and Asians!"
Administrator #1:  "Then lets say that if you live in an area where your home school has other really smart kids then you get penalized in the admissions process."
Administrator #2:  "Great Idea!  That way, we can say that we aren't giving preference to race, we can disguise it as preference by opportunity."
Administrator #1:  "Wait, but won't that make the SAT scores at Blair go down?  Won't that make us look bad?"
Administrator #2:  "Of course it will but we are doing it for the greater good.  Plus, we work for the Government.  What are they going to do fire us?
Administrator #1:  "Ha ha ha ha ha ha!"
Administrator #2:  "Ha ha ha ha he he ha ha!"[/quote]

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