Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We'll see how much better the magnet programs get in a few years.

I think they will get better. They'll be picking the best kids from a much larger pool, rather than the ones with the most motivated parents.

I am all for universal screening. Let the best kid win. Oh wait, this is not merit but social engineering.

Home environment and parent committment matters a lot. If you prioritize education in your home, your kids will benefit. I suspect that parenting choices will show now. A parent who reads to their child everyday and are themselves educated will give a head-start to their child that others can'y match. MCPS cannot make up for that.

Meanwhile, URMs continue to fall behind in PARCC and MAPs and SATs and Algebra...oh dear!

Anonymous wrote:I don't have a dog in this race, but from what I've read the program is too small. The county has grown so much since it began and they would have no trouble filling another MS magnet. If there are kids that can do the work, simply make another program somewhere in the middle.

What??!! How dare you use common sense when suggesting solutions to MCPS issues? Next you will say that schools should have a defined and comprehensive curriculum and use textbooks!

Humbug!

Anonymous wrote:
Cream will always rise to the top. MCPS needs to fix its BASIC curriculum first. I predict that the URMs will continue to fall behind and the achievement gap will turn into an achievement chasm. Asian-Americans need to vote Republican. VOTE!

Why would voting Republican help? Seems as likely to land me in an internment camp.

I don't have a dog in this race, but from what I've read the program is too small. The county has grown so much since it began and they would have no trouble filling another MS magnet. If there are kids that can do the work, simply make another program somewhere in the middle.

Cream will always rise to the top. MCPS needs to fix its BASIC curriculum first. I predict that the URMs will continue to fall behind and the achievement gap will turn into an achievement chasm. Asian-Americans need to vote Republican. VOTE!

Gifted classes should be for the gifted, not simply for the above average. These children are at least 2 standard deviations smarter than the average person.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We'll see how much better the magnet programs get in a few years.

I think they will get better. They'll be picking the best kids from a much larger pool, rather than the ones with the most motivated parents.

How do we know they're picking the best students? They are only looking at test scores and location. This does not seem an effective recipe. But, there are many students that can work at this level if chosen for the program. We need a variety of admissions criteria and more seats.

Well, MCPS has decided they can't add enough seats to meet demand. Take it up with your Councilperson. Standards are higher because now they're screening everyone instead of a select few.

Anonymous wrote:This is BS that should have been addressed in the article:

"Mr. Lin, an engineering manager who immigrated from China two decades ago, said his 11-year-old daughter had earned good grades in an elementary school for enriched studies, but was effectively de-selected this spring. She was not invited to continue in the magnet program into middle school."

She wasn't de-selected. There are fewer middle school than elementary seats.

Well said. I teach in a magnet in MCPS. I’m very happy with the caliber and demographics of this year’s cohort.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We'll see how much better the magnet programs get in a few years.

I think they will get better. They'll be picking the best kids from a much larger pool, rather than the ones with the most motivated parents.

How do we know they're picking the best students? They are only looking at test scores and location. This does not seem an effective recipe. But, there are many students that can work at this level if chosen for the program. We need a variety of admissions criteria and more seats.

Anonymous wrote:
I will echo the Asian PP, and say that as a fellow Asian, I am relieved there are no more parent nominations and teacher recommendations. Soft criteria are never good.

There is no such thing as a fair selection process, since the applicants will always be judged on a very narrow range of their multiple talents and skills. But the least we can do is make the process as TRANSPARENT and OBJECTIVE as possible.

I agree w/ universal screenings, but not about teacher recommendations. These are important factors. Some kids shine because they prep for tests. Some kids stand out to teachers. If these people assign grades to our children and decide if they pass the material and at what level, their recommendations should be useful and a part of the process.

Anonymous wrote:We'll see how much better the magnet programs get in a few years.

I think they will get better. They'll be picking the best kids from a much larger pool, rather than the ones with the most motivated parents.

I thought this was interesting and had not heard this number before:

"The county also changed its paradigm about whom the special schools should serve: not the students with the highest abilities across the county, but rather, those students who are outliers at their neighborhood schools, with fewer than 20 peers with similar abilities."

This number makes sense for our CES, where the demographics did not change this year - based on simple visual observation at open house and BTSN. But I've never seen this figure bandied about before.

Anonymous wrote:And what is this all about?

SILVER SPRING, Md. — It was a searing summer day before the start of the school year, but Julianni and Giselle Wyche, 10-year-old twins, were in a classroom, engineering mini rockets, writing in journals and learning words like “fluctuate” and “cognizant.”

Do they now have remedial 'gifted' education? Why were these kids even in school?

You know the answer to this, if you take a minute (or care). The children are naturally gifted (their test scores etc. bear that out), but their education thus far has not been up to the level of the children with whom they will be attending class, so they can get quick instruction in the summer and be able to be just as competent as the child that is coming from an enhanced, enriched, background.

We'll see how much better the magnet programs get in a few years.