Reply to I fear for the future of Einstein.

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Reply to "I fear for the future of Einstein."

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have to wonder which central office staffer thought to themselves "Whitman just doesn't have enough academically advanced kids with lots of resources, we need to bring more into Whitman from East county schools!"[/quote]

They probably think some families who can’t afford Whitman but want a top rated top resourced school would like a chance to apply in. It’s bizarre to me that people wouldn’t want at least the option for access to a school that is known to be the best. Fine if you don’t want to take advantage of the option and I get the downsides of the commute. But [b]it’s weird that you would think just because you wouldn’t want to send your kid there that nobody would. [/b][/quote]

It's weird for you to say this when my previous post clearly indicates my concern is that kids/families will want to go to Whitman, not that they won't.

Every MCPS school has academically advanced kids, of all racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. But the availability of advanced coursework in any given school is dependent on "interest" - or more specifically the cohort of academically advanced kids that are interested in taking the course. This is why Whitman's course bulletin lists 9 different AP social studies courses and Einstein has 5. The academically advanced cohort at Einstein is smaller than the one at Whitman (or BCC). Now, you take 50 kids from Einstein and put them in the humanities magnet, another 50 get into the languages program, another 50 go to BCC for IB. What do you think happens to the academically advanced kids that get left behind, either because they can't fit in a 1 hour each way commute or because they struck out in the lottery? They lose more humanities options at Einstein. If you don't put the humanities magnet at Whitman, nothing bad happens to them. Few Whitman students will go to BCC or Northwood, because they have so much advanced humanities courses at their home school. What would be the point of traveling all that way? Plus their cohort is large enough anyway.[/quote]

I honestly think they could swap the medical programs and put them at Whitman and put the Humanities program at Einstein and give back the performing arts to Northwood and everyone would feel a little more satisfied. [/quote]

DP - no, thank you.  I’m glad Einstein will have medical sciences.  Whitman doesn’t need anything special beyond being Whitman and I mean that sincerely.[/quote]

That’s fine, and you can have your opinion, but they are putting a program in every school so unless you think 24 schools should get a program and Whitman should be excluded because reasons, they’re going to get something. Honestly it doesn’t sound like Einstein people will be satisfied no matter what is offered to them. [/quote]

We want the same opportunities that your kids get at Whitman at our home schools.  If you get arts and academics, shouldn’t our kids as well.  I think you don’t understand the huge disparities at each school.

The medical program is very basic.  [/quote]

You’d be much better served advocating as a group for reasonable things like getting the Humanities magnet rather than asking for ridiculous things like getting the humanities AND medical AND performing arts and Northwood and Whitman getting nothing. It seems like you have several very reasonable posters but the unrealistic ones are hurting your cause. [/quote]

I don't care about humantities.  Northwood can advocate for themselves.  Whitman has everything they need so saying they get nothing is false.  They get to keep everything they have and are in a bubble.[/quote]

Einstein parents just want to protect VAPA. A Visual and Performing arts magnet only makes sense at Einstein. Einstein has the best arts program in the DCC and arguably the entire county.[/quote]

“Einstein parents” are not a monolith.  I care about things other than VAPA and plenty of other Einstein parents to, too.  Stop pretending to speak for the entire group.[/quote]
+1 adding that this is even more complicated because the majority of families that will be impacted by this do not yet have children at Einstein. Our ES PTA is organizing feedback from.the community. However, MCPS should really be doing much more to understand what communities want or need instead of farming out community engagement to the PTAs. And they should have done this before developing any proposals or any dumb rules like that every school should have a criteria based program.

No, Whitman does not need a criteria based program. They already have a multitude of wealth based programs. In Region 1, vanishingly few BCC or Whitman students are going to travel to Einstein or Northwood or even Blair. But a larger portion (not all) Einstein students especially (due to geography) but also Northwood and Blair students, especially if they have cars and no work/sibling care commitments, will be interested in going to Whitman and BCC. It is the reverse of the original intention of the Blair magnet which was to reduce segregation. This plus the boundaries they are proposing will supercharge racial and socioeconomic segregation because the kids that can travel to Whitman and BCC will be wealthier and  Whiter than the rest of their home school populations.[/quote]

I read some of the proposal and they're actually adding a few hundred busses and expecting this restricting to increase transportation costs... So I don't know why everyone is talking about driving.

But this poster is correct in that there will be reverse migration: everyone who is affluent will migrate to the rich kid schools. [/quote]

Will there really be enough spaces in the "rich kid schools" for it have a statistically significant impact on the home schools?

We're another DCC family who could afford to move and aren't going to/don't want to. We're waiting to learn if our home school will be Blair or Northwood (it's currently Northwood). I would much prefer to stay at the home school unless there is an incredibly compelling program, and even then, the commute and social aspects are not insignificant. [/quote]

My guess is it will be an average of 30-40 kids per grade in total attending the 3 programs at Whitman and BCC. Might vary by school. Einstein might have more since it is the closest to BCC and Blair will have CAP and whatever the new version of SMCS.

That's not nothing especially when admin are telling kids at Einstein they "don't have enough interest" to staff the courses that kids want.[/quote]

For context, high schools have about 400-600 kids per grade.  So 30-40 kids per school per grade leaving for criteria-based academic magnets elsewhere is 5-10% of the grade.  This may not be a huge deal if you are also hosting an academic magnet yourself where top kids from other schools come in to balance it out.  But if you don't, you are potentially losing half or more of your demand for certain advanced classes.

[/quote]

Thank you.

At Einstein 18% of students scored a 4 (the highest score) on the ELA MCAP. That's 72 kids per grade in a school with 1,600 enrolled (that's what's planned for Einstein). 30-40 kids going to BCC and Whitman for IB, Humanities and Languages per grade from Einstein is literally half the cohort. And that is just two schools. Blair's CAP program will draw another 10 kids.

Maybe the biomedical program will shore up STEM at Einstein at least? I have my doubts about that and would absolutely prefer to have no regional programs over this disgrace.[/quote]

MCAP is uncalibrated and useless. 1% of the county got 4 on Math. [/quote]

Ok. How many kids would you say are interested in advanced humanities coursework at Einstein?[/quote]

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