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

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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I did not find the parents arguments for keeping the system as is in the Bethesda magazine article convincing at all. One parent mentioned how her kid got to take quantum mechanics at Blair. No one needs to take quantum mechanics in HS and if that is indeed your jam, you can take a college class for it. 
Also, parents of a 4th grader expressing concern that their kid is on track to take multivariable calculus in 9th grade and what will the kid do then. Almost no students are ready to take multivariable calculus in 9th grade. And if they are, then take the next class at MC or UMD or virtual. Public school systems are not designed to serve the tiniest of tiny percentage of outliers. There is a case for regional magnets[/quote]

Public schools can differentiate to meet the needs of a variety of student cohorts. If magnet schooling isn't something you see happening for your student, MCPS has plenty of other choices. The school district doesn't need to stop the current magnets to provide additional programming. Why is this an either/or situation?[/quote]

As with most things, it’s fundamentally a fairness issue. If most highly performing kids are shut out for one reason or another, and the only people who want to keep the program as-is are those who are currently in it or have been in it, or are in the tiniest of tiny outliers, then you have a fairness issue. [/quote]

So your solution is to just ignore them? [/quote]

Well no one is asking me, but my solution isn’t to ignore them (if “them” is the young Sheldons). Public school should provide equal programming across high schools so that top performers can access the same classes wherever they are in the county. There’s no need to ration it if you have enough kids who can handle the classes. You can accommodate the young Sheldons within that, or they can take classes at MCC or wherever, but you shouldn’t shut kids out to cater to people who want things to stay exactly the same because they think the program won’t be as good if more (equally eligible) people can take the classes. [/quote]

DP.  Not saying there shouldn't be equivalent programming across schools, but do you realize that you are saying in the same breath thst there should be programming coincident with need available to top performers, but not to tippy-top performers? :roll:

I agree that there likely are more students who would benefit from the programming of current top magnets.  It does not seem that MCPS is willing to keep the "top-ness" of those magnets as they expand.

Let us know when they have indicated that depth and breadth comparable to that currently available at Blair SMCS will be available at the other STEM regionals (and that there won't be several years where that won't be the case).  For that matter, let us know when they have indicated that Blair SMCS will keep programming comparable to that which it has today.[/quote]

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