Reply to MCPS to end areawide Blair Magnet and countywide Richard Montgomery's IB program

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Reply to "MCPS to end areawide Blair Magnet and countywide Richard Montgomery's IB program"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I appreciate the perspective of the current student, but listen to those of us with experience outside specialized schools. You would still have your string peer group because you would be taking the same classes for your specialized program. Possibly some of your electives might be integrated with “regular” kids, but it’s an important life skill for you to learn. You will not live your adult life surrounded by peers with your same level of intelligence, motivation, and access.

My own experience at a HS in a different state with 3,000 students, 555 in my graduating class. Our grade had a cohort of kids on advanced tracks and we were need up with almost all of our classes together for 4 years because we were the only students eligible for those advanced courses.[/quote]

MCPS doesn't have a TJ or Stuy.
The countywide programs already have electives and even core courses shared with the host school.

Regardless, people who have never seen a specialized countywide program for don't understand the value it provides for the students who would be bored in the "advanced" courses.

When we were young, students who didn't have access to such programs would graduate high school early or Dual Enroll at a university, and have to find a gap year program or deal with the social challenge of being a year or more younger than their classmates. [/quote]

And that’s what will happen again. For the regular advanced kids there are already many options - there is a wealth of AP classes, more IB spots than demand, the CAP program, Project Lead the Way, early college, dual enrollment. SO MANY options, not all well used. Any motivated advanced student can build a path through high school that meets their needs. But for the very highly motivated and extremely high achieving, Blair is the offering with the track record of meeting their needs. For a very small number of kids who need it. It is extremely short sighted to take this away. [/quote]

A) Blair isn’t going away it’s catchment area is changing 
B) If it’s for a very small number of kids then it actually makes sense if it does go away and instead funnel those kids to their next stage at university. The county has to be good stewards of resources in providing opportunity.[/quote]

So basically don’t provide a challenge for the most advanced learners. Got it!

Where does this logic end? Should UMD become open enrollment in order to provide opportunities?

The only thing I find persuasive against the magnets is that the academic pressure is too much now because of the escalating competition. I’m not sure how you solve for that - if kids do just as well in a less intense setting then maybe it is important for schools to consider the kids’ overall wellness. But you hear plenty of stories of kids from top public HS fighting the same battles for accomplishments so I am not at all sure that this is unique to the culture of magnets. [/quote]

No one said don’t provide any challenge for the most advanced learners.  What they said, is that at a certain point, you have to review the scale of a class against the resources of a district and determine WHERE those students would be best served.  The determination might well be made it would be best to served those students at University because that’s the level they now need.

It makes little sense to try to import every college level classes into HS for a very small number of students. It would make more sense to create university linkage programs and allow them to take courses there. Or even allow them to graduate early.[/quote]

That's not an acceptable answer for one of the most affluent school districts in the country.  [/quote]

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