Reply to Gifted & talented programs and magnet school opportunities in the public schools?

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Reply to "Gifted & talented programs and magnet school opportunities in the public schools?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]GT identification (SIPPI) is state-mandated, but matching local programming often is insufficient and certainly is inconsistent (funding, training, diverse needs, local school administration priorities).
[b]-&gt;[/b] Communities with active familiy involvement sometimes see cohorted treatment, and better in-class differentiation is more available where there are larger cohorts of high-ability (and/or highly prepped) students; this persists to availability of higher-level HS courses (and availability of grade-skipping class placement at a few ESs & MSs, along with certain path-favoring electives at a few MSs) due to an MCPS policy of allowing community pull/local-school administration decision to determine availability of such.

There are not enough magnet seats, generally, to match the population in need (or with interest).
[b]-&gt;[/b] A lottery is utilized for ES & MS magnets, and for some interest-based HS magnet programs.

Local norming of test scores are used for criteria-based ES & MS magnet lottery pool inclusion.
[b]-&gt;[/b] A higher-flying student at a higher-FARMS school may have a better chance of being included in the pool as an edge case if they have managed to be exposed (via outside enrichment or otherwise) to higher-level content despite the presumed more difficult cohort.

SIPPI/GT identification is a separate process from lottery qualification.
[b]-&gt;[/b] There is overlap, but no assurance of magnet lottery pool inclusion from GT identification.

Criteria-based HS programs can select students.
[b]-&gt;[/b] With the above-noted scarcity, the resulting competition favors those receiving outside enrichment, those having received better instruction with the above-noted locally dependent cohorting and/or those lucky enough to have been selected by lottery for earlier magnet programming.

There are local-only ES 4th/5th CES magnets (previously mentioned).
[b]-&gt;[/b] This confers a higher chance of being selected by lottery.

There are (some) local set-asides for ES/MS magnets.
[b]-&gt;[/b] This also confers a higher chance of being selected by lottery.

The current HS/MS program analysis aims to increase seats and distribute programs across the county, but commute times/transportation cost & related impacts (e.g., time for alternate activities, encumbered social interaction) will remain a consideration for many; in parallel, there is a boundary study for HS & MS that could impact the majority of the county; programs/boundaries/set-asides/selection paradigms are subject to change, but often jealously guarded by local/attending communities.
[b]-&gt;[/b] Location may matter, but pending or future changes may confound education-related domicile planning.[/quote]

There are not local set-asides for CES -- at least there are not for CCES. [/quote]

The four local-only CESs effectively are local set-asides, though these were mentioned in the list ahead of the call-out of local set-asides.  Not all ES magnet programs are Centers for Enriched Studies, however.

Language immersion can be seen as desirable, allowing a student to stretch even if the level of content taught is supposed to be equivalent to that provided in the standard English curriculum.  Not all immersion magnets have local set-asides, but Potomac ES's Chinese (Mandarin) Immersion program only has allowed consideration of out-of-bounds students if not all slots are filled locally -- the most generous local set-aside remaining in MCPS.[/quote]

Language immersion is not a magnet. It is interest-based.

CES is a criteria-based magnet, in that there are standards for being placed in the lottery. [/quote]

As a poster a few back noted, one-way immersion programs are offered on a magnet basis.  Though there are not criteria for admission (generally beginning in Kindergarten, so hard to do), many see these as opportunities for enrichment, even as the nature of that enrichment might be different from that offered at a CES.  Preserving such opportunity mostly to those in-bounds to Potomac ES seems...inequitable.

The criteria for CES lottery inclusion is the same (after local norming based on FARMS rate) for both regional and local-only CESs.  The ratio of seats to population at these local-only CESs is much higher, and that also seems...inequitable.[/quote]

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