Reply to "Enrichment" in local MS after 6th grade

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
You really don't know what you're talking about. When my current Eastern 8th grader tested for magnet MS, around 600 students applied. And her educational experience has been head and shoulders above that my older kid had at our home W-feeder MS. It's not just about peer cohort -- although it is great for her to be with very smart and hard-working fellow students -- it's that the curriculum and teachers are far better than those at the home MS. I've also had two kids go through CES, and the difference in curriculum between CES and the home ES is also night and day. My kids came from a well-regarded ES that we actually really like, had great teachers, and were still bored out of their minds by 3rd grade because the materials were too easy and because the teachers had to spend all their time with the kids who needed more help. Even if they'd been in fully tracked classrooms, though, the curriculum is still bad.

Peer cohorts don't teach smart kids -- smart kids need, and deserve, to have their needs met with excellent curricular materials, well-trained teachers, and enough tracking that they aren't just getting on with it because the teacher has to devote his/her time to the kids who aren't getting it.

So it is a sham and a travesty that MCPS has not truly expanded the magnet programs to meet the needs of all the students who are capable of succeeding and thriving, whether they are "outliers" or whether they have a "peer cohort."[b] And the fact that they don't have a plan for meeting the needs of these students at the home MS beyond 7th grade demonstrates that their promise was and is hollow[/b].[/quote]

I don't remember much concern on DCUM about the needs of highly-able students left to languish in the home middle school, before MCPS changed the middle-school admissions process. (In fact I don't remember any, but maybe there was some and I just don't remember.) But now that it's different highly-able students left to languish in the home middle school, we never hear the end of it on DCUM.[/quote]

Oh, c’mon. I pulled my kid when Curr 2.0 was rolled out - he was in a challenging local private that is not considered the best of the best. He loved school again. Pulled second child after 3rd grade a few years back. MCPS’s main focus is “closing the achievent gap.” They are doing this by letting able kids stagnate and reassuring parents that their kids will be “fine.” No wonder private school apps were up 20% this fall. [/quote]

You may be surprised to learn every   single   public   district    in the US is subject to the same federal pressure to close the achievement gap.  They all must demonstrate what they are doing to be effective at this goal or $$$ go away.   'sSo it looks like it's being done at the local level, but really they're just following federal mandates, everywhere.  Yes each district has some flexibility in how they pursue this primary goal.  But they can't substitute higher goals.   Or so it has been explained to me.[/quote]

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