Reply to MCPS to end areawide Blair Magnet and countywide Richard Montgomery's IB program

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Blair's SMCS magnet can't exist in its current form without a 9th period, so the students have 8 classes a semester.  This requires extra funding to pay teachers for an extra period, which is a big factor in the limit on the number of students in the program.  (The same applies to the Blair CAP magnet, but they are not required to have a 9th period in grades 11-12.)

My older kid is a rising senior in Blair SMCS, and my younger kid is a rising freshman at Blair, but not in the SMCS magnet. The younger one is trying to do as close to a DIY SMCS magnet as he can, but, aside from the accelerated math (4 semesters of Algebra 2 and Precalc being compressed into 3 semesters or 2 for Functions), and the accelerated CS path (which is not done by all SMCS students), he cannot possibly fit the equivalent classes into his schedule because of the lack of a 9th period.  That's 4 full extra class periods over the 4 years that the magnet students get that are typically rigorous classes in interesting STEM subjects with a weighted GPA boost.

Unless other schools offer an extra class period, they cannot replicate the SMCS magnet, even aside from the actual course content.[/quote]

Thanks for raising up this valid point and sharing your story about a "sensitivity test" your younger one tried. You should be proud of him of his motive to self-pushing to a better stance.

MCPS never said they would try to make the new regional STEM programs a replica of SMACS magnet. For one, they don't understand the SMACS curriculum and don't even want to spend time to try to understand it. For two, they can make a dumbed-down program elsewhere and than using "equity" to force SMACS outing the extra period, if by that time the extra period was not already unnecessary considering the significant dilution of the student's competence level. So you'll end up with killing SMACS. They just never want to admit that but people are not dumb. [/quote]

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