Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think what they are proposing is to make more magnets, but also restrict access to those zones.

So, if you look at what they started to do with IB, they created regional IB programs but kept RMIB as the flagship.

This has been unevenly successful, because the "best" kids still went to RMIB and there were not enough kids at the regional programs to create a strong cohort.

So it will be interesting to see if they learn from that, or double down.

And keeping RMIB as County wide instead of regional is part of the problem and makes little sense. The idea of regional IB programs makes sense because the goal is to serve all students regardless of area of the county. I like the idea of regions with a standard offering of programs. Nod a program is going to be county wide it needs to be because the facilities have been built to sustain such a program that might be cost prohibitive to build out in 6 or more regions.

If you had a lot of high performing kids equally spread out across the district, I might agree with you, but that's not how it really is. Certain regional programs will be weaker than others, and they won't be able to offer the same IB courses across all the different regional programs simply because of demand.

Very few actually graduate with ib degrees. Most prefer ap.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I gave up a long time ago on the magnets. We supplement and enrich at home, and my kids are big fish in little ponds at their home schools.

Yeah, there's definitely a point of diminishing returns with magnet programs. If they're more than 15 minutes away from home, don't do it. Not worth the headache in extra travel time. Most students who are sitting on buses for 45 minutes to an hour just to go to a magnet school would be better off doing what you're suggesting.

PP you replied to. Exactly. They enjoyed the CES, which was near our house, but then commute and college admissions issues made us think twice about middle and high school magnets, which are far away from our house. What my kids missed out on was the cohort and some inspiring teachers - but they've each found a few similar souls at their home schools, and some excellent teachers (also some terrible ones).

I don't want to discourage anyone from applying and attending! My kids are 15 and 20 now, so we have no skin in the magnet game anymore. But let's just say it's not necessarily a no-brainer to get into a magnet...

We opted against applying to RM for these reasons. If I had a stem genius kid, I think Blair would be worth it but I felt sticking with our home W school was otherwise the better choice for our family. While I wish the writing instruction were stronger, there’s no lack of work load challenge with dozens of APs on offer. APs are also sometimes a better choice than IB to obtain college credit, though they shouldn’t be. At times my son, now in 10th, wishes he had pursued RM for the cohort, but on the whole I think we’re all happier with neighborhood friends and bus service. If our home school weren’t as strong, we’d have pursued RM but with two commuting parents, we’ve never pursued any of the special programs like immersion schools. I hope the district doesn’t mess with Blair’s stem magnet.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I gave up a long time ago on the magnets. We supplement and enrich at home, and my kids are big fish in little ponds at their home schools.

They have better odds at elite school acceptances that way.

It's all MCPS so that doesn't move the needle. Move out to Shenandoah or somewhere and be valedictorian if you want to stand out.

Based on what they have talked aboiut in Board meetings, I don't think this is just about magnet programs. It's also about non-magnets housed in local schools. For example, WJ has APEX, B-CC has IB, there are others as well. These are not open to students outside the school.

Not 100% clear from the article exactly what they are going to do, but rollout of many things over the past few years has been abysmal. Cautiously optimistic that Taylor won't eff this one up, but will wait and see.

Cart. Before. Horse.

Alternately, if you build it, they will come.

Ensure the regionals offer the courses and ensure the feeders offer and promote the requisite rigor. RMIB will have plenty of high performers to support excellence in a then-to-be regional magnet. So will the others.

Anonymous wrote:
RM has IB An/App Functions and IB Precalculus, Springbook doesn't.

Those are not real IB classes. The only authorized IB classes are:

Mathematics: analysis and approaches SL

Mathematics: analysis and approaches HL

Mathematics: applications and interpretation SL

Mathematics: applications and interpretation HL

https://www.ibo.org/programmes/diploma-programme/curriculum/mathematics/

RM has IB physics, Springbrook doesn't.
RM also has IB psych, IB music and theater, IB philosophy.

Springbrook has IB Music, Theatre, and Psych. I'm not sure what the issue is here.

I am not sure that Springbrook will have that many IB class selections in several years simply because there may not be the interest in them due to the caliber of students. RMIB students are high performing, and they take a ton of IB/AP classes. RM even has more AP course selections.

RM offers these courses because you have the top students from the district in the program. If you spread those top students out, there won't be the scale to offer the variety of classes in all of the regional IBs. It's just not possible. Like I said, RMIB students take the max number of IB/AP courses that they can. Not all IB students would do that so you won't have enough interest to offer all these courses at all the regional IBs.

All you would succeed in doing is bringing down a high caliber program. It's a shame that MCPS sees that as equity.

Springbrook course curriculum
https://coursebulletin.montgomearyschoolsmd.org/SchoolCourseCatalogs/School/04798/top

RM course curriculum
https://coursebulletin.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/SchoolCourseCatalogs/CountyWide/04201/05

When my oldest child went through Springbrook IB, they all took HL English, History, and Biology. They all took SL Spanish/French, Math, and Art/Psych.
Now they have all of these options: https://sites.google.com/mcpsmd.net/springbrook-ib/diploma-dp/courses

This is the power of the regional magnets, coordinators that go above and beyond, and exceptional students that would have never been able to attend RMIB because of distance and length of bus rides. That is equity at work.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think what they are proposing is to make more magnets, but also restrict access to those zones.

So, if you look at what they started to do with IB, they created regional IB programs but kept RMIB as the flagship.

This has been unevenly successful, because the "best" kids still went to RMIB and there were not enough kids at the regional programs to create a strong cohort.

So it will be interesting to see if they learn from that, or double down.

And keeping RMIB as County wide instead of regional is part of the problem and makes little sense. The idea of regional IB programs makes sense because the goal is to serve all students regardless of area of the county. I like the idea of regions with a standard offering of programs. Nod a program is going to be county wide it needs to be because the facilities have been built to sustain such a program that might be cost prohibitive to build out in 6 or more regions.

If you had a lot of high performing kids equally spread out across the district, I might agree with you, but that's not how it really is. Certain regional programs will be weaker than others, and they won't be able to offer the same IB courses across all the different regional programs simply because of demand.

The regional IB program at Springbrook has strengthened the program there. The cohorts used to be 20 students, and every student pretty much took the same classes. Now the rising junior cohort is over 70 students and growing, and lots of options are available to the students that were not available before.

My family has put several students through their program and we are grateful to the current leadership of the IB and MYP Coordinators there.

Look at the difference in course curriculum between the two.

RM has IB An/App Functions and IB Precalculus, Springbook doesn't.
RM has IB physics, Springbrook doesn't.
RM also has IB psych, IB music and theater, IB philosophy.

I am not sure that Springbrook will have that many IB class selections in several years simply because there may not be the interest in them due to the caliber of students. RMIB students are high performing, and they take a ton of IB/AP classes. RM even has more AP course selections.

RM offers these courses because you have the top students from the district in the program. If you spread those top students out, there won't be the scale to offer the variety of classes in all of the regional IBs. It's just not possible. Like I said, RMIB students take the max number of IB/AP courses that they can. Not all IB students would do that so you won't have enough interest to offer all these courses at all the regional IBs.

All you would succeed in doing is bringing down a high caliber program. It's a shame that MCPS sees that as equity.

Springbrook course curriculum
https://coursebulletin.montgomearyschoolsmd.org/SchoolCourseCatalogs/School/04798/top

RM course curriculum
https://coursebulletin.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/SchoolCourseCatalogs/CountyWide/04201/05

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think what they are proposing is to make more magnets, but also restrict access to those zones.

So, if you look at what they started to do with IB, they created regional IB programs but kept RMIB as the flagship.

This has been unevenly successful, because the "best" kids still went to RMIB and there were not enough kids at the regional programs to create a strong cohort.

So it will be interesting to see if they learn from that, or double down.

And keeping RMIB as County wide instead of regional is part of the problem and makes little sense. The idea of regional IB programs makes sense because the goal is to serve all students regardless of area of the county. I like the idea of regions with a standard offering of programs. Nod a program is going to be county wide it needs to be because the facilities have been built to sustain such a program that might be cost prohibitive to build out in 6 or more regions.

If you had a lot of high performing kids equally spread out across the district, I might agree with you, but that's not how it really is. Certain regional programs will be weaker than others, and they won't be able to offer the same IB courses across all the different regional programs simply because of demand.

The regional IB program at Springbrook has strengthened the program there. The cohorts used to be 20 students, and every student pretty much took the same classes. Now the rising junior cohort is over 70 students and growing, and lots of options are available to the students that were not available before.

My family has put several students through their program and we are grateful to the current leadership of the IB and MYP Coordinators there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think what they are proposing is to make more magnets, but also restrict access to those zones.

So, if you look at what they started to do with IB, they created regional IB programs but kept RMIB as the flagship.

This has been unevenly successful, because the "best" kids still went to RMIB and there were not enough kids at the regional programs to create a strong cohort.

So it will be interesting to see if they learn from that, or double down.

And keeping RMIB as County wide instead of regional is part of the problem and makes little sense. The idea of regional IB programs makes sense because the goal is to serve all students regardless of area of the county. I like the idea of regions with a standard offering of programs. Nod a program is going to be county wide it needs to be because the facilities have been built to sustain such a program that might be cost prohibitive to build out in 6 or more regions.

If you had a lot of high performing kids equally spread out across the district, I might agree with you, but that's not how it really is. Certain regional programs will be weaker than others, and they won't be able to offer the same IB courses across all the different regional programs simply because of demand.

The idea that we don’t have lots of high performing kids across the district is a myth. We do. There are kids in every school taking honors/AP/IB(if offered) who are not in magnet or specialized programs. What is missing is the rigor and support from ES all the way through. Which is why an ES analysis is planned following the Secondary. Further, there is always going to be 2nd or later place. That doesn’t mean that a program isn’t quality.

If you look at both the numbers of students in AP classes and the resulting scores at some of these schools, it is apparent that some clusters will not have sufficient numbers of students to offer a wide range of advanced classes. It is just the truth.

What is apparent is that these clusters have not setup kids to succeed in these courses from start to finish nor provided the necessary rigor to ensure high scores. And while some am clusters may need three sections of an advance vs another only needing one, all should have the ability to take. As it stands now there are some courses not even offered and students often don’t even know a particular class is an option. These is true with AP courses as well as electives, and an issue that parents have discussed and even the ex-BOE member Lynne Harris spoke about.

What I want to know is how will they staff these new magnets? Even in current magnets, they can't find consistent successors.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think what they are proposing is to make more magnets, but also restrict access to those zones.

So, if you look at what they started to do with IB, they created regional IB programs but kept RMIB as the flagship.

This has been unevenly successful, because the "best" kids still went to RMIB and there were not enough kids at the regional programs to create a strong cohort.

So it will be interesting to see if they learn from that, or double down.

And keeping RMIB as County wide instead of regional is part of the problem and makes little sense. The idea of regional IB programs makes sense because the goal is to serve all students regardless of area of the county. I like the idea of regions with a standard offering of programs. Nod a program is going to be county wide it needs to be because the facilities have been built to sustain such a program that might be cost prohibitive to build out in 6 or more regions.

If you had a lot of high performing kids equally spread out across the district, I might agree with you, but that's not how it really is. Certain regional programs will be weaker than others, and they won't be able to offer the same IB courses across all the different regional programs simply because of demand.

The idea that we don’t have lots of high performing kids across the district is a myth. We do. There are kids in every school taking honors/AP/IB(if offered) who are not in magnet or specialized programs. What is missing is the rigor and support from ES all the way through. Which is why an ES analysis is planned following the Secondary. Further, there is always going to be 2nd or later place. That doesn’t mean that a program isn’t quality.

If you look at both the numbers of students in AP classes and the resulting scores at some of these schools, it is apparent that some clusters will not have sufficient numbers of students to offer a wide range of advanced classes. It is just the truth.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think what they are proposing is to make more magnets, but also restrict access to those zones.

So, if you look at what they started to do with IB, they created regional IB programs but kept RMIB as the flagship.

This has been unevenly successful, because the "best" kids still went to RMIB and there were not enough kids at the regional programs to create a strong cohort.

So it will be interesting to see if they learn from that, or double down.

And keeping RMIB as County wide instead of regional is part of the problem and makes little sense. The idea of regional IB programs makes sense because the goal is to serve all students regardless of area of the county. I like the idea of regions with a standard offering of programs. Nod a program is going to be county wide it needs to be because the facilities have been built to sustain such a program that might be cost prohibitive to build out in 6 or more regions.

If you had a lot of high performing kids equally spread out across the district, I might agree with you, but that's not how it really is. Certain regional programs will be weaker than others, and they won't be able to offer the same IB courses across all the different regional programs simply because of demand.

The idea that we don’t have lots of high performing kids across the district is a myth. We do. There are kids in every school taking honors/AP/IB(if offered) who are not in magnet or specialized programs. What is missing is the rigor and support from ES all the way through. Which is why an ES analysis is planned following the Secondary. Further, there is always going to be 2nd or later place. That doesn’t mean that a program isn’t quality.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I gave up a long time ago on the magnets. We supplement and enrich at home, and my kids are big fish in little ponds at their home schools.

Yeah, there's definitely a point of diminishing returns with magnet programs. If they're more than 15 minutes away from home, don't do it. Not worth the headache in extra travel time. Most students who are sitting on buses for 45 minutes to an hour just to go to a magnet school would be better off doing what you're suggesting.

PP you replied to. Exactly. They enjoyed the CES, which was near our house, but then commute and college admissions issues made us think twice about middle and high school magnets, which are far away from our house. What my kids missed out on was the cohort and some inspiring teachers - but they've each found a few similar souls at their home schools, and some excellent teachers (also some terrible ones).

I don't want to discourage anyone from applying and attending! My kids are 15 and 20 now, so we have no skin in the magnet game anymore. But let's just say it's not necessarily a no-brainer to get into a magnet...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think what they are proposing is to make more magnets, but also restrict access to those zones.

So, if you look at what they started to do with IB, they created regional IB programs but kept RMIB as the flagship.

This has been unevenly successful, because the "best" kids still went to RMIB and there were not enough kids at the regional programs to create a strong cohort.

So it will be interesting to see if they learn from that, or double down.

And keeping RMIB as County wide instead of regional is part of the problem and makes little sense. The idea of regional IB programs makes sense because the goal is to serve all students regardless of area of the county. I like the idea of regions with a standard offering of programs. Nod a program is going to be county wide it needs to be because the facilities have been built to sustain such a program that might be cost prohibitive to build out in 6 or more regions.

If you had a lot of high performing kids equally spread out across the district, I might agree with you, but that's not how it really is. Certain regional programs will be weaker than others, and they won't be able to offer the same IB courses across all the different regional programs simply because of demand.