Reply to How is the new pilot offering equivalent to TPMS/Eastern

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I’m a teacher not a parent, and I believe there should be differentiation for gifted kids, but here are my predictions:

Admin and counselors at places like Cabin John and Pyle get DELUGED with calls/emails from parents who think their child should be in the pilot classes. “We wanted to be close to home so we didn’t apply to the magnet, but my child could have gotten in and therefore they should be in that section.” There probably are way more qualified kids at a huge school like Pyle than there are spots in those classes.

Teachers get ticked off that they have five minutes to learn yet another curriculum, knowing that many parents will be displeased with the rollout and they’ll be the ones to bear the brunt of that.

Mega scheduling problems—yet to be determined, sure to happen. Tons of annoyed counselors upset that they too have yet another thing to deal with. Hopefully that master scheduling training will be done well.

Totally irritated principals who have disdain for the “pushy” gifted community who think their children are “special snowflakes”—and who’ve been trying to head off this type of differentiation for years. They now will have to admit defeat on the matter, at least temporarily.

It won’t be enough. No matter what, it won’t be enough. And there will be a lot of unhappy parents whose kids don’t get to take these classes. And so...

Eventually everyone will get to take the magnet-ish classes, and we’ll all be back to where we started. ?
 [/quote]

I am a teacher and a parent who fully supports your perspective.

My oldest decided not to take the magnet test as she didn't think she'd make the cut, but more importantly, she said she knows her stress level too well!  Having said that, I personally am against magnets.  But what makes me laugh is the ironic measures the system takes in creating and supporting test in magnets,  "special magnets" (Argyle, Loiderman, and Parkland), and now school-based magnets.

Instead of spending money busing kids from one school to the next and instead of trying to accommodate every Snowflake at the non-magnet schools, go back to community-supported schools and RAMP UP the rigor in on level classes.  Oh - and let's not forget the "all honors" courses, where a course is labeled as advanced across the board.

If even half of you knew what went on in "regular" classes, you'd lose your minds. We are graduating kids who can barely read and write, and I blame multiple stakeholders for shortsighted visions, fear of lawsuits, and selfish motives.[/quote]

Teacher again. Exactly. “On level” should look like what currently stands as “honors.” I recommend well-behaved, responsible kids take honors even if ability-wise they should be on-level, because on-level is often remedial or full of disruptive kids who won’t be held accountable for their behavior. The problem with all of this isn’t that the county is trying to implement a stop-gap measure, it’s that as usual they plowed ahead without considering all the ramifications. I believe in equity and understand what they’re trying to do, and even support it to a large extent, but it wasn’t done thoughtfully. And if we want our county schools to stay highly regarded, MCPS has to also meet the needs of the high performers. I think the biggest losers here in the end will be Westland and Pyle, because their size means there are many many high performers, and the parents are going to lose their minds when their kids don’t get into these GT classes. Or they’ll all have their kids start taking the magnet test, maybe even prep for it—not to go, but to ensure they get a space in one of these home school classes. I hope MCPS really thinks through all the possibilities before next year. I do think they should pilot SOMETHING in the home schools, but if they want to keep up staff morale, they’re going to have to be pretty sensitive with how they approach teachers/counselors about these changes. Last summer/start of year was a disaster in terms of tech implementation, and if there’s another hasty, failed roll out that sets staff up to be ambushed by miserable parents, and that also stresses out their admin to the point that they’re cranky and take it out on theim, I think there will be a teacher exodus. Everyone is replaceable, but at some point you’re losing the seasoned teachers and filling those slots with really inexperienced professionals. It’s already happening to a certain extent, though there are other factors too — weak leadership, long commutes, low performers bringing everyone else down etc..

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