Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The magnet will have enough applicants regardless of whether they make the info session virtual. It’s not like there’s incentive to reach more people. It’s a program only for the most advanced and motivated.

Having a parent able to drive you to Blair on a school night has little to do with being the most advanced and motivated. It's far easier to do if you live closer to Blair or are from a family that is well-off enough that there's a car available and a parent home from work to do this.

Parent engagement is pivotal to success in the program, particularly if the kid lives further away. Kids eventually miss a bus, stay after, etc.

So you're saying that kids need to have helicopter parents and live close by to be successful at Blair SMCS. That seems to be a good argument to dismantle it and have regional programs.

The regional programs will all be garbage.

That's your opinion, not a fact. But they definitely won't be dominated by only 4 HS out of the 30+ that are in MCPS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The magnet will have enough applicants regardless of whether they make the info session virtual. It’s not like there’s incentive to reach more people. It’s a program only for the most advanced and motivated.

Having a parent able to drive you to Blair on a school night has little to do with being the most advanced and motivated. It's far easier to do if you live closer to Blair or are from a family that is well-off enough that there's a car available and a parent home from work to do this.

Parent engagement is pivotal to success in the program, particularly if the kid lives further away. Kids eventually miss a bus, stay after, etc.

So you're saying that kids need to have helicopter parents and live close by to be successful at Blair SMCS. That seems to be a good argument to dismantle it and have regional programs.

+1 It's hard to call these programs county-wide when parts of the country have far more access to them, while others require a lot of parental effort as a pre-requisite to access them.

.

Which is why we should slow down or stop the regional programs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The magnet will have enough applicants regardless of whether they make the info session virtual. It’s not like there’s incentive to reach more people. It’s a program only for the most advanced and motivated.

Having a parent able to drive you to Blair on a school night has little to do with being the most advanced and motivated. It's far easier to do if you live closer to Blair or are from a family that is well-off enough that there's a car available and a parent home from work to do this.

Parent engagement is pivotal to success in the program, particularly if the kid lives further away. Kids eventually miss a bus, stay after, etc.

So you're saying that kids need to have helicopter parents and live close by to be successful at Blair SMCS. That seems to be a good argument to dismantle it and have regional programs.

The regional programs will all be garbage.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The magnet will have enough applicants regardless of whether they make the info session virtual. It’s not like there’s incentive to reach more people. It’s a program only for the most advanced and motivated.

Having a parent able to drive you to Blair on a school night has little to do with being the most advanced and motivated. It's far easier to do if you live closer to Blair or are from a family that is well-off enough that there's a car available and a parent home from work to do this.

Parent engagement is pivotal to success in the program, particularly if the kid lives further away. Kids eventually miss a bus, stay after, etc.

So you're saying that kids need to have helicopter parents and live close by to be successful at Blair SMCS. That seems to be a good argument to dismantle it and have regional programs.

+1 It's hard to call these programs county-wide when parts of the country have far more access to them, while others require a lot of parental effort as a pre-requisite to access them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The magnet will have enough applicants regardless of whether they make the info session virtual. It’s not like there’s incentive to reach more people. It’s a program only for the most advanced and motivated.

Having a parent able to drive you to Blair on a school night has little to do with being the most advanced and motivated. It's far easier to do if you live closer to Blair or are from a family that is well-off enough that there's a car available and a parent home from work to do this.

Parent engagement is pivotal to success in the program, particularly if the kid lives further away. Kids eventually miss a bus, stay after, etc.

So you're saying that kids need to have helicopter parents and live close by to be successful at Blair SMCS. That seems to be a good argument to dismantle it and have regional programs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would imagine the in person demand is part of getting people to grapple with the time and distance. If you can’t show up for a single info session, is this Bery demanding commute going to be something you can manage for your family every weekday?

The "bery" demanding commute isn't as much of an issue since Blair SMCS offers bus service to kids every day. But if you think that part of MCPS admissions to a magnet should be the ability to drive 40 minutes each way for a single hour on a single school night, well, that's your vision of what equity and merit looks like.

+1 They have so many calls that are streamed out--why couldn't they do that for the RMIB and Blair SMCS ones unless they were trying to make it harder for people to get the information? It was particularly striking because they offered the Poolesville info session via email with a virtual link in the same email where they said the Blair session was only in person at Blair.

I don't get why people only seem to be whining about Blair SMCS not having a virtual option. Other than Poolesville, none of the other schools did to my knowledge. We live in East County and my kid is interested in the Whitman program - and the open house would have been a hike for us - but I'm not complaining. We did attend the Blair SMCS OH and honestly most of the time was spent going through those Q&As. If you didn't attend, I don't think you missed much in terms of information for parents. The kids were split into 3 groups and left to have mini-sessions with Blair students where they talked about electives, after-school activities, and stuff 8th graders would be interested in. So, if you didn't go in person, your kid missed that, but in terms of the Q&As there wasn't much substance outside of the slides (he did go into more depth, but again, nothing significant that I can recall).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The magnet will have enough applicants regardless of whether they make the info session virtual. It’s not like there’s incentive to reach more people. It’s a program only for the most advanced and motivated.

Having a parent able to drive you to Blair on a school night has little to do with being the most advanced and motivated. It's far easier to do if you live closer to Blair or are from a family that is well-off enough that there's a car available and a parent home from work to do this.

Parent engagement is pivotal to success in the program, particularly if the kid lives further away. Kids eventually miss a bus, stay after, etc.

Anonymous wrote:The magnet will have enough applicants regardless of whether they make the info session virtual. It’s not like there’s incentive to reach more people. It’s a program only for the most advanced and motivated.

Having a parent able to drive you to Blair on a school night has little to do with being the most advanced and motivated. It's far easier to do if you live closer to Blair or are from a family that is well-off enough that there's a car available and a parent home from work to do this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whitman Social Justice info session was also in person for a single hour only at Whitman. But they don't offer bus transport to that program, so that is already made clear up front.

But I also don't understand why they couldn't have given a link to these sessions.

What the heck is Whitman Social Justice?

In the time it took you to post that, you could have googled the above and figured out it's also a special HS program offered by MCPS. Don't be dim.

Anonymous wrote:Whitman Social Justice info session was also in person for a single hour only at Whitman. But they don't offer bus transport to that program, so that is already made clear up front.

But I also don't understand why they couldn't have given a link to these sessions.

What the heck is Whitman Social Justice?

The magnet will have enough applicants regardless of whether they make the info session virtual. It’s not like there’s incentive to reach more people. It’s a program only for the most advanced and motivated.

Whitman Social Justice info session was also in person for a single hour only at Whitman. But they don't offer bus transport to that program, so that is already made clear up front.

But I also don't understand why they couldn't have given a link to these sessions.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would imagine the in person demand is part of getting people to grapple with the time and distance. If you can’t show up for a single info session, is this Bery demanding commute going to be something you can manage for your family every weekday?

The "bery" demanding commute isn't as much of an issue since Blair SMCS offers bus service to kids every day. But if you think that part of MCPS admissions to a magnet should be the ability to drive 40 minutes each way for a single hour on a single school night, well, that's your vision of what equity and merit looks like.

+1 They have so many calls that are streamed out--why couldn't they do that for the RMIB and Blair SMCS ones unless they were trying to make it harder for people to get the information? It was particularly striking because they offered the Poolesville info session via email with a virtual link in the same email where they said the Blair session was only in person at Blair.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would imagine the in person demand is part of getting people to grapple with the time and distance. If you can’t show up for a single info session, is this Bery demanding commute going to be something you can manage for your family every weekday?

So only people who live near Blair need apply? That's kind of what happens anyway--only 4 HS clusters send most of the kids to SMCS.

Ofc proximity plays a role in dedicating to these programs. Or at least a group of carpooling kids.

That's great if you want to set up your own special carpool. But public bus service does exist for students, so it's not determinative of whether someone can get to Blair. Having a single session on a single night with no other options to get that info is pretty inconvenient for some parts of the county.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would imagine the in person demand is part of getting people to grapple with the time and distance. If you can’t show up for a single info session, is this Bery demanding commute going to be something you can manage for your family every weekday?

So only people who live near Blair need apply? That's kind of what happens anyway--only 4 HS clusters send most of the kids to SMCS.

People complain about this allllll of the time. But it’s not like the magnet can be replicated at multiple schools across the county to make them easier to get to.