Anonymous wrote:

In addition to in-consortium students, there are ~80 students per grade level (~25%) that are from out-of-consortium. They get a place at the school by lottery (not an academic requirement). All students in the school are considered magnet students, and they all have access to all of the courses and programs offered at the school. Students are placed in academic courses according to their readiness - some students are in all of the highest academic classes (English, Math, Science, World Studies, Language), some students have a mix of the highest classes and regular classes, and some are in just regular classes.

Argyle, Parkland and Loederman are terrible examples. These are poorly performing schools that are not desirable to anyone. Their latest PARCC scores show that 70-80% of the kids fail ELA. This is no way competes with the quality of TPMS, Eastern or Blair and no one in their right mind who values academic excellence would choose this model.

A lottery is not a magnet. Saying that a school is a whole magnet when anyone in the school can get in if their grades are high enough and then lowering the standards because not enough kids meet a high standard to get in is not a magnet.

What is VERY concerning is that this is exactly the type of dishonest BS that MCPS pulls. Shut down the real magnets and then slap the name magnet on a bunch of schools without any gifted magnet education going on. The real idea here is to save money on busses and create better optics.

save money on busses
create better test scores
make skilled, educated families buy homes closer to whole magnet schools
hope that highly performing kids' habits rubs off on the poorly performing kids
close the achievement gap
half the teachers live north of MoCo, closer to these schools
show that Central Office is doing something, anything

Anonymous wrote:

In addition to in-consortium students, there are ~80 students per grade level (~25%) that are from out-of-consortium. They get a place at the school by lottery (not an academic requirement). All students in the school are considered magnet students, and they all have access to all of the courses and programs offered at the school. Students are placed in academic courses according to their readiness - some students are in all of the highest academic classes (English, Math, Science, World Studies, Language), some students have a mix of the highest classes and regular classes, and some are in just regular classes.

Argyle, Parkland and Loederman are terrible examples. These are poorly performing schools that are not desirable to anyone. Their latest PARCC scores show that 70-80% of the kids fail ELA. This is no way competes with the quality of TPMS, Eastern or Blair and no one in their right mind who values academic excellence would choose this model.

A lottery is not a magnet. Saying that a school is a whole magnet when anyone in the school can get in if their grades are high enough and then lowering the standards because not enough kids meet a high standard to get in is not a magnet.

What is VERY concerning is that this is exactly the type of dishonest BS that MCPS pulls. Shut down the real magnets and then slap the name magnet on a bunch of schools without any gifted magnet education going on. The real idea here is to save money on busses and create better optics.

There are lots of different ways to be a magnet school, eh? Application-only test-in gifted is not the only way.

Anonymous wrote:And I always thought the point of those whole school magnet, was to draw kids from the East to those schools.

correct either draw high performing kids from the west county to the east county magnets (bolster scores), OR draw educated, literate whole families to buy a property in the east county (bolster real estate demand).

This would end up diverting a lot of funds from education to bussing so would put it under the heading of terrible ideas.

Anonymous wrote:I'm pretty sure that a whole school magnet is a school that only offers magnet-level classes like TJ. What would be the point of calling something a whole school magnet when large portions of the student body take an entirely different set of classes.

Churchill, Whitman or Wootton are the only school where 80-90% of the student body could qualify for magnet level classes and even with though schools 90% of the kids would not want to do magnet level work. What would you do with the 10-20% that aren't magnet level- bus them out of the school boundary? Plus Wootton takes in kids with learning disabilities that come from the learning center at Dufief so that wouldn't be fair to those kids who have a mainstream experience now. It doesn't seem like MCPS has any desire to make the W schools more attractive.

Most districts do offer magnet only schools like TJ and it is better than the hodge podge of programs all over the county but it wouldn't make any sense to think an "open door" magnet would stop the school within a school problem. MCPS could use the Brickyard site as a test-in only magnet with no preference for residential boundaries like other schools and shut down the other magnets. Poolesville would have a problem with low enrollment and Blair people would have a nervous breakdown if they lost their magnets. However, no one in MCPS cares about Poolesville much and Blair is over capacity so taking out the magnet is probably on the MCPS radar.

You are associating magnet with advanced classes. That is not accurate. A magnet can be teaching at any level, it is just a school that pulls from a wider area usually due to some type of "hook". It could be advanced classes or it could be a language option or it could be an interest in the arts..

In addition to in-consortium students, there are ~80 students per grade level (~25%) that are from out-of-consortium. They get a place at the school by lottery (not an academic requirement). All students in the school are considered magnet students, and they all have access to all of the courses and programs offered at the school. Students are placed in academic courses according to their readiness - some students are in all of the highest academic classes (English, Math, Science, World Studies, Language), some students have a mix of the highest classes and regular classes, and some are in just regular classes.

Argyle, Parkland and Loederman are terrible examples. These are poorly performing schools that are not desirable to anyone. Their latest PARCC scores show that 70-80% of the kids fail ELA. This is no way competes with the quality of TPMS, Eastern or Blair and no one in their right mind who values academic excellence would choose this model.

A lottery is not a magnet. Saying that a school is a whole magnet when anyone in the school can get in if their grades are high enough and then lowering the standards because not enough kids meet a high standard to get in is not a magnet.

What is VERY concerning is that this is exactly the type of dishonest BS that MCPS pulls. Shut down the real magnets and then slap the name magnet on a bunch of schools without any gifted magnet education going on. The real idea here is to save money on busses and create better optics.

Anonymous wrote:And I always thought the point of those whole school magnet, was to draw kids from the East to those schools.

How would that even work, with the Middle School Magnet Consortium, where only a small number of students are from schools outside the consortium?

Oops, meant from the west...

And I always thought the point of those whole school magnet, was to draw kids from the East to those schools.

Parkland, Loiderman, and Argyle are the only true Whole School Magnets in the county. (And BTW, the one program that received heaps of praise in the Metis report studying all of the county choice programs.) All students that live in the consortium area for the three middle schools choose between the three middle schools, ostensibly by the focus of each school, but in reality also by proximity and parental perception of "best" school. In addition to in-consortium students, there are ~80 students per grade level (~25%) that are from out-of-consortium. They get a place at the school by lottery (not an academic requirement). All students in the school are considered magnet students, and they all have access to all of the courses and programs offered at the school. Students are placed in academic courses according to their readiness - some students are in all of the highest academic classes (English, Math, Science, World Studies, Language), some students have a mix of the highest classes and regular classes, and some are in just regular classes. An important part of the school programs is that students have 8 classes and the school run on a block schedule (4 classes per day). This allows students to take an additional elective class in the school's focus area.

The middle school magnet consortium concept could be applied elsewhere in the county - and quite frankly I'm surprised it hasn't been spread yet. It certainly is a good way to balance enrollment between multiple schools. There would be an additional cost for offering 8 classes instead of 7, because teachers still only teach 5 classes, and additional busing within the consortium.

I have no idea why Poolesville claims it is a whole school magnet, because they aren't. They are three test-in magnet programs placed in the same building, and all the rest of the home school population is placed in a 4th "house" called Independent Studies, which is just a regular high school academic program. They claim that all students have access to the upper level magnet classes, but in practice students generally don't have the prerequisites if they aren't in a specific magnet or the way the scheduling works, the elective classes always conflict with key courses in the general program or other magnets.

I'm pretty sure that a whole school magnet is a school that only offers magnet-level classes like TJ. What would be the point of calling something a whole school magnet when large portions of the student body take an entirely different set of classes.

Churchill, Whitman or Wootton are the only school where 80-90% of the student body could qualify for magnet level classes and even with though schools 90% of the kids would not want to do magnet level work. What would you do with the 10-20% that aren't magnet level- bus them out of the school boundary? Plus Wootton takes in kids with learning disabilities that come from the learning center at Dufief so that wouldn't be fair to those kids who have a mainstream experience now. It doesn't seem like MCPS has any desire to make the W schools more attractive.

Most districts do offer magnet only schools like TJ and it is better than the hodge podge of programs all over the county but it wouldn't make any sense to think an "open door" magnet would stop the school within a school problem. MCPS could use the Brickyard site as a test-in only magnet with no preference for residential boundaries like other schools and shut down the other magnets. Poolesville would have a problem with low enrollment and Blair people would have a nervous breakdown if they lost their magnets. However, no one in MCPS cares about Poolesville much and Blair is over capacity so taking out the magnet is probably on the MCPS radar.

Anonymous wrote:Poolesville is a whole school Magnet. Not sure what that means but perhaps parents from upcounty know more than me?

They say it is but it isn’t. 1/2 the kids are local kids who are not what one would traditionally call magnet quality. If poolsville is a whole school magnet then why not call Blair a whole school magnet with enhanced remedial magnet classes for the other 2600 kids

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Poolesville is a whole school Magnet. Not sure what that means but perhaps parents from upcounty know more than me?

You're right. It's a whole school magnet. The website says it is "the only whole school magnet in Montgomery County." Maybe they left out "at high school level?"

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/poolesvillehs/about/

Probably. Parkland’s website says it is Magnet MS. https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/parklandms/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Poolesville is a whole school Magnet. Not sure what that means but perhaps parents from upcounty know more than me?

where is poolesville? what companies are there to work at?

https://www.poolesvillemd.gov/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Poolesville is a whole school Magnet. Not sure what that means but perhaps parents from upcounty know more than me?

where is poolesville? what companies are there to work at?

It's farmland. Closest jobs would be Germantown or Gaithersburg on MD side. You could take whites ferry to VA, Loudon county.