Reply to Is it good or bad that MCPS placed Magnet schools in the lowest performing schools?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am an Asian-American parent, with kids who have been/are in the magnet programs.  I do not mind that my kid is being bused to school that are lowest performing and I do not mind that my kid takes some classes with non-magnet students.  I think it is a win-win for all - students, MCPS - that we have magnet schools that are placed in the lowest performing schools.

What I want to see is an expansion of the magnet program, more seats, and [b]merit based selection[/b].   I want the test statistics of chosen students shared with everyone.  I want the magnet programs to have more enrichment AND I want the magnet curriculum, projects and assignments to be freely available and shared with the entire county using MyMCPS portal.

I think keeping a portion of the seats for local students who show academic capability and competitive stats is a good thing.  It attracts people to homes in these areas.  The aim of magnet may have been integration, and now it seems that it has shifted to closing the achievement gap. Magnet programs are not the right tool to close achievement gaps.

What I would like to see is that magnet remains the vehicle for meeting the needs of  all highly gifted students as well as providing them a cohort of similar ability students.  I do believe that all students should be tested for these programs though.  That is a good step.

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We have merit-based selection.[/quote]

No, we don't.  Merit means academic performance in the classroom and the actual admission test. Merit does not mean race, gender, or low SES, or being zoned to poor performing schools.   Please do not twist the meaning of merit to mean what you think it should mean.   This is social engineering for a problem (achievement gap) that MCPS has failed to solve by actually teaching poor performing URM students.  MCPS has played the race card very cleverly and divided the parent community. They have made highly gifted students and high performing racial groups the villains, whereas the truth is that they have failed to bring up the standards of education and achievement of URM students for years now.   We have many  students who are functionally illiterate  and they are graduating out of MCPS.  All MCPS cares is the optics that many delusional people buy.  This is a way for MCPS to be absolved of all responsibilities to not bridge the achievement gap. In fact in the last 7 years the gap has widened. 
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[b]I hardly think that this is some ploy for MCPS to "close" the achievement gap. [/b] First of all the gap is pretty intractable.  Second, closing the gap in small segment of the school population (ie magnets) does nothing for the overall gap.  That is not the reason MCPS is doing this.  [/quote]

Then you must be sleeping through all those hearings on Metis report. The Metis report is all about how URMs are not in these magnet programs proportionally. It recommended specific group norms. That is exactly what the middle school magnet pilot did this year.

The interesting thing is MCPS made clear that they are not doing anything to the high school magnet programs this year. And there is no immediate plan to change the high school magnet tests. I heard some grumble about changes in admission standard but not much. I wonder whether MCPS is too scared to change the composition of Blair SMAC or RM IB too much. [/quote]

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