Reply to Size & placement of regional magnet programs set to decimate non-host, non-rich schools

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I mean, there’s a whole thread right now worrying that the regional magnets will be watered down because they will allegedly admit students by a lottery of only moderately qualified applicants: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/105/1317129.page

And yet this thread claims there will be a major brain drain from the other schools.

So both of these worries can’t be true.[/quote]

No, they actually go hand in hand.  If the regional programs were only enrolling the top 2-3% of kids, there would still be plenty of kids at home schools who are interested in and can succeed in advanced classes.  But since they're set to instead enroll the top 10-15% of kids, that simultaneously leads both to a less rigorous experience in the magnet programs than there currently is, and a less rigorous experience at the home schools who have lost the top 10-15% of their students.  [/quote]

This.   MCPS has managed to screw everyone who doesn’t live in Potomac on this one. It’s actually fairly impressive.   [/quote]

Yup. Think about everyone who loses here:

-- Highly gifted kids who thrive with really advanced classes won't get them at magnets anymore. 
-- Magnets will provide more of a baseline honors/AP experience for the top 15% of students or so. 
-- Non-rich schools will go backwards on the number of advanced classes they can offer
-- Better-off families who can manage transportation, even those who would prefer to stay at their home schools with neighborhood kids, will feel compelled to send their kids to a magnet because that's the only place they'll find a variety of challenging classes and a sizable peer group of kids interested in academic success
-- Most poorer students, even very smart ones, won't be able to make the transportation work to the regional magnets so will be the main ones dealing with reduced options at their home schools 
-- The student mix at these schools will become poorer, less diverse, fewer students focused on academics, and probably less desirable for teachers and will lose good teachers

Almost all of this could be avoided by making this a smaller increase in the number of students at magnets rather than a huge one.  And barring that, most of it could be avoided by changing the program placement so that the schools that lose more top students than they gain are the richer ones who can afford to lose them without crippling their offerings.  But Taylor and his team are so darn stubborn that they won't consider the kind of harm they're doing in a way that would enable them to change course.[/quote]
+1[/quote]

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