I have had kids at Eastern who went to on to both public and private high schools. I agree with what has been said above. The humanities at Easternate great because of their interdisciplinary nature and the emphasis on research and writing. That math program is not so good. My private school kid had to repeat classes. The only downside I would say is for underrepresented minority kids. There are few black or Hispanic kids in the magnet. My child 'sprivate school is much more diverse racially. He felt somewhat isolated at Eastern.

My dc loves the IM teacher and says her science class is regularly derailed by ill behaved magnet kids.

She overheard two magnet teachers lamenting how poorly magnet kids treat non magnet kids.

Anonymous wrote:The summer homework is a lot. Way too much in my opinion. (I do not mean the media institute- I mean the actual summer work).

It was reading one book and answering questions. That didn't strike me as a lot.

Does Eastern have any after school clubs? Do they have math olympiad or anything like that?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A word of caution about the Math. I know a few kids who have gone from Eastern to SMAC and not all of them found the transition to PreCalculus in 9th grade to be easy. Having said that, I don't think they would have been better prepared if they had come from Pyle or Westland or North Bethesda. The Takoma kids do find it easier during the first year. If you have a kid who is a real Math whiz they will be fine no matter where they went to middle school but if you have come from a regular middle school and you are an average (for SMAC) Math student, you might end up taking Magnet Geometry in 9th grade. Not a disaster but you should be aware.
It sounds like the PP's son who went from Eastern to SMAC was an unusually strong Math student and so he was able to catch up relatively quickly with extra practice.
Bottom line: There are a few students who go from Eastern to SMAC every year so going to a humanities magnet in middle school is not a disadvantage if your child wants to attend SMAC for high school.

I'm the PP whose son made the transition and I 100% agree with this. Nicely said.

To the PP whose child went from eastern to SMAC, what do you think of the English and history offerings at blair(the ones available to SMAC students a. I imagine the cap offerings are much better). I know this is off topic but I thought you might be more likely to notice my question in this thread since you are checking in. TIA and apologies to others for taking this thread on a small detour

The summer homework is a lot. Way too much in my opinion. (I do not mean the media institute- I mean the actual summer work).

Anonymous wrote:

Would you elaborate on this summer intro week? Is it mandatory or optional, and was it early or close to start of school? I wasn't able to find anything on the website. Thanks!

It was almost immediately after school - so late June. It was not on any website. They sent out something in the mail in the spring. The magnet coordinator would also be a good person to ask about this year. It is available to everyone entering the magnet before 9th grade. I highly recommend it. It is at Blair and I recall it was 8-12 every day for a week.

Anonymous wrote:15:15 here. I honestly don't think the workload is any more than it was at Barnsley HGC. I'm always asking my kid in the evening if she's got more homework to do and the answer is always no, she got it done when she got home from school or during the day. She has afterschool band three days a week, but even so she's still usually done with her homework by dinnertime.

The great thing about the magnet program (besides the teachers) is that the curriculum is integrated across the magnet classes. So the 6th graders have English, Literature, World Studies, and Media as their magnet classes. Just as an example that I remember from the open house, if the kids are studying Greek/Roman history in World Studies, they may be reading about Greek/Roman mythology in English or Lit (and putting on a play featuring the gods) and designing a propaganda poster in Media learning how to represent the characteristics of a god or goddess using font, design elements, etc.

I think one of the coolest aspects of the program is the Media class. It's such a fun class -- for the intro week over the summer, the kids wrote, storyboarded, filmed, and edited their own movie previews. Right now they're learning about animation. The magnet kids make award-winning documentaries by the time they're in 8th grade.

My kid is only in 6th grade, and from what I've heard the workload does get heavier, but I compare her experience to my older kid sailing through middle school and I think being challenged is better than not being challenged.

Definitely go (and take your daughter) to the open house if it hasn't already happened. It is a fantastic opportunity to get a feel for the program.

Would you elaborate on this summer intro week? Is it mandatory or optional, and was it early or close to start of school? I wasn't able to find anything on the website. Thanks!

Anonymous wrote:A word of caution about the Math. I know a few kids who have gone from Eastern to SMAC and not all of them found the transition to PreCalculus in 9th grade to be easy. Having said that, I don't think they would have been better prepared if they had come from Pyle or Westland or North Bethesda. The Takoma kids do find it easier during the first year. If you have a kid who is a real Math whiz they will be fine no matter where they went to middle school but if you have come from a regular middle school and you are an average (for SMAC) Math student, you might end up taking Magnet Geometry in 9th grade. Not a disaster but you should be aware.
It sounds like the PP's son who went from Eastern to SMAC was an unusually strong Math student and so he was able to catch up relatively quickly with extra practice.
Bottom line: There are a few students who go from Eastern to SMAC every year so going to a humanities magnet in middle school is not a disadvantage if your child wants to attend SMAC for high school.

I'm the PP whose son made the transition and I 100% agree with this. Nicely said.

A word of caution about the Math. I know a few kids who have gone from Eastern to SMAC and not all of them found the transition to PreCalculus in 9th grade to be easy. Having said that, I don't think they would have been better prepared if they had come from Pyle or Westland or North Bethesda. The Takoma kids do find it easier during the first year. If you have a kid who is a real Math whiz they will be fine no matter where they went to middle school but if you have come from a regular middle school and you are an average (for SMAC) Math student, you might end up taking Magnet Geometry in 9th grade. Not a disaster but you should be aware.
It sounds like the PP's son who went from Eastern to SMAC was an unusually strong Math student and so he was able to catch up relatively quickly with extra practice.
Bottom line: There are a few students who go from Eastern to SMAC every year so going to a humanities magnet in middle school is not a disadvantage if your child wants to attend SMAC for high school.

It's very kid-dependent re how they handle the workload. But most kids are very stressed/busy during 7th grade because there is a big research paper.

My child did come from an HGC and it was definitely a step up. Part of it is that they are suddenly balancing multiple classes/teachers and adjusting to middle school. Then in 7th when they are adjusted the workload increases again.

My younger child (also in an HGC) didn't apply after seeing older child's workload.

I think it is a great program for the right student. The magnet classes are fantastic and the other classes have been fine. My child who is there would not have been happy at our home school.

11:41 poster, thank you for the detailed reply, that information is truly helpful. Both parents can help the kid with math and he will probably continue to do math outside of school even if he goes to Eastern, so it sounds like that will be a fine path for him if he doesn't go to TPMS. And so happy to hear your kids are doing well in all the programs!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 7th grader has good science and Algebra teachers but the 6th science teacher was terrible.

Magnet classes are very good. It's a lot of work though.

My DD was also accepted and this is what I'm worried about. Can you explain a bit more about the workload? My daughter loves to read but doesn't love to write. She's actually more of a mathy kid but was waitlisted at Takoma. We're going to give it a shot but I'm worried about her burning out in middle school. She's currently at an HGC and can handle that level of work. Is it a drastic increase in homework time commitment coming from an HGC?

I would say no. The people who have the biggest shock are those who came from a non-HGC elementary school and need to adjust to middle school (with 7 different teachers) and the magnet program workload at the same time.

I've had a few children go through Eastern's program. My children who write down their homework and fill out their agenda did fine. The one that did not, struggled at first. They all were not good writers when they started but loved reading. All became strong writers and without realizing it.

As to the math - all posts here are correct. The math teachers are just normal MCPS math teachers. Some ok, some good, some not ok. They would be the same as if you remained in your home school. That being said, two of my children who have 'graduated' from Eastern were accepted into the Blair SMAC (Math magnet) program so it didn't hurt them in that way.

All are involved in different sports/activities year-round. However, we don't have the commuting issue as we live fairly close by.

I hope that helps.

To the poster whose kids went to Eastern then Blair SMAC -- were your kids able to perform at the same level as the TMPS kids, maybe after some adjustment, including in math competitions, or were they behind from the get go and, though they were able to get a great math education, never quite caught up to the other kids? My kid is a math whiz but also loves reading/writing and, like all of us, could use some intense writing instruction. Blair is so much closer to us that I think that would be better than Richard Montgomery IB for high school. So Eastern magnet MS then a try for Blair SMAC seems ideal (I know he may not get in anywhere, but still, I'd like the information), but I would hate to have him disadvantaged in the math area, since that is where his true talent is and he likes math competitions. Any wisdom to share?

That is a great question. I'm the PP. So I have one that actually went to SMAC from Eastern so far (two got in -- one is at CAP; one is still in MS). It was an adjustment for the first quarter. There is an intensive math 'week' in the summer before 9th grade that I called "Algebra II by Fire Hose" where everyone did poorly on the test the first day and much better after 5 days. The TPMS students did incrementally better (e.g. from 21 to 25 right) and non TPMS students improved more (15 to 23 right -- these are just examples, but you get the idea). You take home the packet and can continue to work on it all summer. That was a help - but I remember him coming home with huge eyes from that first day. It was helpful to sit down at the table to make him realize it just was practice rather than raw brain power. It helps if a parent is there to say it (if one of you was an engineer or math major). I would constantly say that practice is an easy problem to fix - raw brain horsepower is harder to fix.

I also asked the magnet coordinator for his test score -- I told it to him because it was good. I would not have told him if it was average. That helped his confidence. My student who went to CAP was not told their math test score, for example. It wasn't as good.

They will tell you that the difference between middle school instruction disappears in the first semester and I agree with that. It did take him a bit to feel confident. He's beyond fine now.

He didn't join the math competitions until late in his sophomore year and that did impact his ability to 'compete'. That was due to him being an introvert however -- if he had joined his freshman year, he would have been fine if he kept at it.

So, there is an initial difference -- some kids have seen the problems before and know the simple tricks for computer programming or math. HOWEVER, that only helps for the first time the problem is shown. After that, everyone is at the same place trying to learn.

If your child has any inclination for math over other subjects, I highly recommend it. It is absolutely the best math instruction he/she will ever receive. Much better than a calculus teacher at a research university!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 7th grader has good science and Algebra teachers but the 6th science teacher was terrible.

Magnet classes are very good. It's a lot of work though.

My DD was also accepted and this is what I'm worried about. Can you explain a bit more about the workload? My daughter loves to read but doesn't love to write. She's actually more of a mathy kid but was waitlisted at Takoma. We're going to give it a shot but I'm worried about her burning out in middle school. She's currently at an HGC and can handle that level of work. Is it a drastic increase in homework time commitment coming from an HGC?

I would say no. The people who have the biggest shock are those who came from a non-HGC elementary school and need to adjust to middle school (with 7 different teachers) and the magnet program workload at the same time.

I've had a few children go through Eastern's program. My children who write down their homework and fill out their agenda did fine. The one that did not, struggled at first. They all were not good writers when they started but loved reading. All became strong writers and without realizing it.

As to the math - all posts here are correct. The math teachers are just normal MCPS math teachers. Some ok, some good, some not ok. They would be the same as if you remained in your home school. That being said, two of my children who have 'graduated' from Eastern were accepted into the Blair SMAC (Math magnet) program so it didn't hurt them in that way.

All are involved in different sports/activities year-round. However, we don't have the commuting issue as we live fairly close by.

I hope that helps.

Thank you! That's very helpful. We also live close by so I'm not worried about the commute. That's great to hear your children were able to go on to Blair SMAC! Eastern does seem ideal in the focus on reading/writing and still being able to take upper level math. Thanks for your insight!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 7th grader has good science and Algebra teachers but the 6th science teacher was terrible.

Magnet classes are very good. It's a lot of work though.

My DD was also accepted and this is what I'm worried about. Can you explain a bit more about the workload? My daughter loves to read but doesn't love to write. She's actually more of a mathy kid but was waitlisted at Takoma. We're going to give it a shot but I'm worried about her burning out in middle school. She's currently at an HGC and can handle that level of work. Is it a drastic increase in homework time commitment coming from an HGC?

I would say no. The people who have the biggest shock are those who came from a non-HGC elementary school and need to adjust to middle school (with 7 different teachers) and the magnet program workload at the same time.

I've had a few children go through Eastern's program. My children who write down their homework and fill out their agenda did fine. The one that did not, struggled at first. They all were not good writers when they started but loved reading. All became strong writers and without realizing it.

As to the math - all posts here are correct. The math teachers are just normal MCPS math teachers. Some ok, some good, some not ok. They would be the same as if you remained in your home school. That being said, two of my children who have 'graduated' from Eastern were accepted into the Blair SMAC (Math magnet) program so it didn't hurt them in that way.

All are involved in different sports/activities year-round. However, we don't have the commuting issue as we live fairly close by.

I hope that helps.

To the poster whose kids went to Eastern then Blair SMAC -- were your kids able to perform at the same level as the TMPS kids, maybe after some adjustment, including in math competitions, or were they behind from the get go and, though they were able to get a great math education, never quite caught up to the other kids? My kid is a math whiz but also loves reading/writing and, like all of us, could use some intense writing instruction. Blair is so much closer to us that I think that would be better than Richard Montgomery IB for high school. So Eastern magnet MS then a try for Blair SMAC seems ideal (I know he may not get in anywhere, but still, I'd like the information), but I would hate to have him disadvantaged in the math area, since that is where his true talent is and he likes math competitions. Any wisdom to share?