Reply to 7/24 BOE meeting thread

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have a child who would be the inaugural class of this change, and the change looks reasonable to me.

Change is hard, but there have long been more kids capable of doing magnet-level work than spots available. Creating new, diverse, regions and expanding magnet offerings is a common-sense solution. [/quote]
Those are nice sentiments, but your post doesn’t address the actual logistical challenges presented by this plan. You call the plan reasonable; please explain how it is even feasible, let alone reasonable.

Do you have any children who have already participated in one of the existing high school magnet programs? I have a senior who has experienced a CES and magnets for middle school and high school. I’m surprised that anyone whose child will be in high school during this transition would support it. Significant and widespread changes will not roll out smoothly. There will be disparities in the implementation between regions. [/quote]

I'm the PP and I do have a child in one of the existing programs, after participating in a CES and MS magnet. Those experiences revealed how many talented kids are being missed by the current scarcity.

You asked about feasibility, as though no one has ever thought about this question before. This is not an insurmountable issue. It's just a matter of sequencing.

They've already drawn up the regions, and determined the 5 magnets for each region. Now they need to assign the programs to the schools. If we take the southernmost region, I'd assume Blair keeps STEM, Northwood gets medical, Einstein takes performing arts, B-CC has IB/Humanities, and Whitman takes leadership/public service. This more or less tracks with their existing programs.

Curricula already exist for most of those programs, so all they need to do is create the course sequence for performing/fine arts, building off VAC and probably CAP sequencing.

There is already an online system to apply to the magnets. So they just need to program the application to let the kids rank/select the programs that interest them, and to consider them only for those in their region.

Finally, transportation. That's sticky, but again not insurmountable. Right now, MCPS runs magnet busses all over the county, and across the DCC. Multiple busses for the Poolesville program go 20+ miles. The longest bus ride in the new regions would be about 10 miles. It's a logistical challenge, but not a particularly hard one.

[/quote]

10-20 mile bus rides are absurd.  And, what happens with after school activities for kids who have no transportation outside the school bus.  How about providing the same opportunities at all schools.[/quote]

That would make the special kids less special and we couldn’t possibly have that. Enough resources for everyone who qualifies? How scandalous! [/quote]
I have no qualms about admitting more students to special programs, but I don’t think substantially increasing the number of special programs and decreasing catchment areas is going to result in the same experience that today’s magnet students are having. It’s going to give more students something moderately better than what they currently have, while taking away the thing that is most valuable to the highest performing of the high performers: an exceptional cohort. Given the issues with staffing, can MCPS even deliver enough qualified teachers who are willing to take on these classes?[/quote]

So, I don't actually think it is the job of a public education system to offer classes that only 10/200,000 kids per year take. Yes, the top .1% of kids might lose access to "an exceptional cohort" but thousands of kids are going to benefit.

In public education, the goal cannot be to absolutely maximize the experience of a tiny handful of kids. It has to be serving the largest number of learners possible with available resources. [/quote]

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