Reply to MCCPTA Gifted Education Committee's Complaint about Systemic Failures by MCPS

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Reply to "MCCPTA Gifted Education Committee's Complaint about Systemic Failures by MCPS"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
Thank you for posting this on DCUM. 
I support the work of the Gifted Education Committee.

One of my children was shut out of a seat at a magnet middle school, despite excellent grades and high MAP scores, and finding CES instruction very easy. The lottery discriminates against high-performing students, and relegates them to general education classes that cannot be sufficiently adjusted, despite the best efforts of the teachers. As a result, my child hates school, because she spends her school days rather bored and frustrated.

Not only that, but [b]MCPS does not implement equal access to accelerated classes in each of their schools.[/b] I learned that some middle schools offered Algebra 1 to 6th graders in reasonably good standing, but my child's middle school refused her entry to that class, despite consistently high MAP-M scores, and despite administering a test the summer before 6th grade, on which she answered most questions correctly. I was shown that test: it consisted mostly of Algebra 1 content. She was asked to do well on the content of the class she was asking to enroll in, not on the content of class she was asking to skip! And, when she made a few mistakes, she was refused entry.

It's incredibly short-sighted of MCPS to abandon a portion of the students they serve, the very group that has the potential to do great things, and increase the risk that they become un-motivated, depressed and isolated because they are not adequately challenged.

[/quote]

It isn't only classes it is also offerings like math and science teams. My first two kids went to magnet middle school programs, while the 2 younger kids went to Newport Mill Middle School. I don't have a kid there now, but NMMS had very lackluster afterschool offerings. Very little interest in academic teams unlike magnet MS programs where these types of "clubs" are well supported by staff and parents. If you have had kids go through the magnets and the comprehensive programs, you realize there is a huge difference in opportunities for students who are really into academics. Newport Mill is not the only MS I've heard complaints about among my parent friends.

Some aspects of the curriculum are very tightly controlled by central office whereas others (like letting 6th graders take Algebra I) seem to be left to individual principals. It is confusing to parents and unfair to children.[/quote]

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