Reply to Profile of students accepted into selective magnet middle schools?

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[quote=Anonymous]Since the SCt. left standing the Court of Appeals decision in the Eisenberg case (that MCPS improperly used race as a factor in deciding on a child's application to a magnet program), MCPS is not permitted to consider, by law, the race of the child applying to the magnet program.  Since then, it has also been presumed that the school could not use other immutable characteristics like sex or ethnicity to tip the balance in similar magnet program decisions.

So, MCPS is NOT permitted to balance out entering magnet classes by gender.  What MCPS IS permitted to do is to put together more programs that encourage girls at an earlier age to be interested in and comfortable performing well in math and science.  However, since MCPS has basically gutted the lower level acceleration in math and gutted ES science, it's hard to see how to encourage more girls to apply to TPMS.  MCPS could also do the same for boys -- encouraging them to be interested in reading and history.  IME, my daughter benefitted in terms of her self-esteem from being invited to skip grades in math.  She had never before thought of herself as "good at math".  That was something reserved for boys, who constituted most of the students in accelerated maths.  Similarly, when my DS was having trouble with reading and writing even though his scores showed he was very bright, our concerns were dismissed, because "girls are better earlier at those things and you think he is having trouble, but really he is just a boy...."  (Turns out he had a SLD and is now doing well after receiving private instruction in reading and writing.)  MCPS could also put less importance on teacher recommendations -- as I do agree with another PP that teachers tend to give recommendations to those students who are obedient, sit still, follow directions and read, write and speak well, all of which tends to skew towards girls in ES.

As to the gender imbalance in magnets -- our experience both at EMS and TPMS has been that while there may be fewer boys in a class at EMS and fewer girls at TPMS, there are enough of both sexes in each class to make students comfortable expressing a point of view that might be more gender-representative. If anything, IME, the old gender norms still rule in MS magnets (i.e. even when there are way more girls in class, no one is talking about the sexist plot elements of Pearl Buck's "The Good Earth" which all 6th graders read.) Not to mention that the "magnet program" is limited to 3 classes out of 7 a day (4 in 6th grade).  The kids in the magnet are in no way isolated or separated from the rest of the school in their non-magnet classes or lunch.   These magnet programs are in not akin to a private single-sex school. [/quote]

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