Pyle screwed up its implementation of the advanced cohorted curriculum. The first two years they had AIM it got it really positive reviews. I think the third year they put everyone in AIM which was really stupid but Pyle parents can be aggressive and everyone was pushing for that for their own child so they caved and put everyone in it.

They still have the cohorted history which is pretty decent but it's not the same.

I live in ChCh, so closer to magnets. Kids did both TPMS and EMS. We had a carpool in the AM because I was concerned about everyone (me included) getting enough sleep and the bus left early!

Kids took the bus home in the afternoon, which they generally enjoyed as time to hang out with peers.

The magnets were a fantastic experience for both kids and really helped them become self-learners and people with interests.

But, TBH, from Pyle the commute is long enough that I might decide against it, particularly if it was both ways by bus. Do Pyle kids have access to any of the advanced classes at Pyle? Math and Science are likely to be marginally better at Pyle than EMS. Humanities at Pyle will be same as TPMS. I thought MCPS was spinning out 1 magnet curriculum class to each local school - did that ever happen?

There was a survey years back about sending schools to magnets. I believe it was for HS and that Whitman had one of the lowest but other schools like Churchill, Wooton, WJ had many more.

Blair is very diverse in terms of SES even without the magnet. Eastern less so. TPMS has a significant UMC percentage.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Considering the reason for the IB TP magnet set asides was that kids mostly from Potomac, Bethesda and Rockville were squeezing out the silver spring kids, they have to be coming regardless of specific kids decisions. Pyle is wildly regarded as the best middle school in the state so that specific school, kids might be slightly less incentivized to look for better tracked programs.

On one hand the point of the magnet program to get kids to self integrate into the eastern most schools with the poorest demographics but that doesn’t still apply. There are now even poorer areas in MoCo and the tolerance for upper SES kids hoarding the opportunities isn’t the same as it was decades ago

It's funny how much things have changed in the last 30 years.

Well sort of, Takoma would most likely be ok without the magnet but Blair and eastern would fall off a cliff. We will see if the prestige of the programs take a collective hit after a decade of lottery.

It’s just a bit disingenuous to complain about upper SES kids disproportionately taking magnet spots that were designed for them.

Anonymous wrote:Considering the reason for the IB TP magnet set asides was that kids mostly from Potomac, Bethesda and Rockville were squeezing out the silver spring kids, they have to be coming regardless of specific kids decisions. Pyle is wildly regarded as the best middle school in the state so that specific school, kids might be slightly less incentivized to look for better tracked programs.

On one hand the point of the magnet program to get kids to self integrate into the eastern most schools with the poorest demographics but that doesn’t still apply. There are now even poorer areas in MoCo and the tolerance for upper SES kids hoarding the opportunities isn’t the same as it was decades ago

It's funny how much things have changed in the last 30 years.

Considering the reason for the IB TP magnet set asides was that kids mostly from Potomac, Bethesda and Rockville were squeezing out the silver spring kids, they have to be coming regardless of specific kids decisions. Pyle is wildly regarded as the best middle school in the state so that specific school, kids might be slightly less incentivized to look for better tracked programs.

On one hand the point of the magnet program to get kids to self integrate into the eastern most schools with the poorest demographics but that doesn’t still apply. There are now even poorer areas in MoCo and the tolerance for upper SES kids hoarding the opportunities isn’t the same as it was decades ago

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's the list of initial offers and then there is the list of actual attendees. The actual attendee list ends up strongly shifting towards geographical proximity to the schools.

I don't think this is true for TPMS. Tons of kids from Potomac/Rockville.

17:45 here. You are right, it is more of an Eastern thing.

Anonymous wrote:There's the list of initial offers and then there is the list of actual attendees. The actual attendee list ends up strongly shifting towards geographical proximity to the schools.

I don't think this is true for TPMS. Tons of kids from Potomac/Rockville.

Another Pyle family here. We decided no on the magnets because of the travel time. DC1 now in HS wonders what was missed. DC2 zero regrets about staying at Pyle. If they'd been more comfortable on the local bus it wouldn't have been such a big stretch to use combo of MCPS buses and longstanding area parental car pool. When we looked at it the buses always first went to Blair, then on to the magnets. Arrgh. There's the list of initial offers and then there is the list of actual attendees. The actual attendee list ends up strongly shifting towards geographical proximity to the schools. We do know Pyle zoned families that happily make it work - some of those continue to Blair. A small number of Pyle students make it into the HS magnets. Another issue for us though was that the core of the TPMS/Eastern magnet cohort goes on to Blair. For our DCs starting over socially back at home HS in 9th was not likely to be a good route. So would we plan to bus/car commute from 6th-12th? No. YMMV

Anonymous wrote:I'm wondering if anyone knows how many kids or what percent of kids end up choosing magnet (either MSMC or Eastern/Takoma Park) vs going to Pyle?

Is Pyle better?

What are the advantages of Eastern or Takoma Park over Pyle? Disadvantages (other than commute and friends)?

Thanks for constructive feedback!

The answer is very few.
Pyle academics are better than the schools in the MSMC but if your child has a specific interest in the arts or the other concentration areas it may be a good choice.
Pyle academics are inferior by a lot as compared with Eastern and TPMS but only you know if it's worth it for your child.
Pre-lottery there were only two Pyle kids at TPMS in my child's grade. Heard it was only a handful at Eastern too. We know two kids who got into both and one turned down TPMS for Eastern and the other one turned down Eastern for TPMS. Another child got into both and went to Pyle. We don't know anyone else who got in but went to Pyle unless it was from the wait pool.
Since the lottery, I think more kids are turning down the magnets from the Pyle area.

Why bother? WPES kids already have had Algebra, so Pyle would just build on that.