Reply to Magnet MS results - Takoma Park & Eastern

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Reply to "Magnet MS results - Takoma Park & Eastern - anyone heard today?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Obviously we they screened the ENTIRE student popultion they found some really smart kids with parents who aren't obsessive about their kids' educations.  I love that they removed the parent component!  It means access for all, not just the savvy.  I'm eager to see what it means for CES!

However, there is an obvious need to make sure the high achieving kids who didn't get into a special program are having their academic needs met, and, as I think we all know, that means clustering.  This is good for kids and for teachers.  [/quote]

Agreed. People need to recognize that their white, UMC snowflake child isn't going to get a leg up just because they want snowflake to feel special 24/7. Equitable access to these programs is a *good* thing.

- a white UMC mom [/quote]

White UMC mother here; DH and I are both educated professionals.  DC got accepted to MS magnet this year and had they not had universal screening we wouldn't have even applied, because while we consider our child to be very smart, it wouldn't have crossed our mind to presume that our child would necessarily be head and shoulders above the rest.  (We're from the Midwest, so maybe it's Midwestern humbleness and "Please-you-go-ahead-of-us-ness"at play here :) ).  When DC got accepted and I saw the scores, I was surprised.  So if our family--white and UMC and education-oriented--wouldn't have even bothered applying, undoubtedly there are many, many other families out there who have highly able children but benefit from universal screening and removing the need for parental savvy and parental aspirations.

Ockham's razor: the simplest explanation is usually the best explanation.  They screened lots more people this year so not a surprise that the traditional results were different.  This is exactly what universal testing was designed to accomplish--finding the best candidates who otherwise wouldn't have tried/known.

[/quote]

This rings true.  I could easily have been a parent who didn't know to seek out these programs, but there was an older child on our street who went to an HGC (at the time).  That lead us to apply and get in, this snowballed among neighbors, I'd say our block was over represented.  And, probably no shortage of kids a couple streets over who never applied.  It was word of mouth that sparked interest even though everyone received the mailings.  As far as the poster who's saying their HGC is now under represented for the first time this year, it's probably that so many more students from their home ES were screened and found to be comparable to HGC peers.  It's not necessarily kids from elsewhere in the county that received the slots.

Congratulations to everyone who received good news, screening more kids is important.[/quote]

Another W parent here, white and living in a $1m+ house in Bethesda. I would not have requested testing for my 5th grader, but he was tested this year. He is a straight A student with high scores on Map and PARCC plus he scored highly on the magnet test. We are also foreign nationals (i.e. legal, but not American). He was NOT offered a place at either Eastern or Takoma Park, and that's totally fine, if he had been offered a spot it would have been a dilemma for us deciding due to the horrible 2 hours on buses each way issue. We are supplementing his academic strengths and interests already, outside of his ES and will continue to do so in MS. I am sure there are lots like us.[/quote]

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