Anonymous wrote:From the sound of some of these posts, parents are more concerned about the status of getting into Eastern or Takoma than the actual classroom experience their children will have. Why this immediate assumption that enriched classes at home middle schools won’t be good? Are the Takoma and Eastern classes taught by Harvard faculty? They are all MCPS middle school teachers. Some of them move from teaching at one school to teaching at another every year. They’re all qualified. There’s no reason they can’t teach good enriched classes.

+1000

From the sound of some of these posts, parents are more concerned about the status of getting into Eastern or Takoma than the actual classroom experience their children will have. Why this immediate assumption that enriched classes at home middle schools won’t be good? Are the Takoma and Eastern classes taught by Harvard faculty? They are all MCPS middle school teachers. Some of them move from teaching at one school to teaching at another every year. They’re all qualified. There’s no reason they can’t teach good enriched classes.

Anonymous wrote:This would essentially make the magnets much less attractive. Opening up a bunch of spaces would water down the program. Just like when taking honors classes became the norm at high schools.

But would there be a need for such a middle school magnet program if the home schools offered significant, test-in enrichment classes? There should be enough kids in each middle school to achieve a decent cohort at that age. I understand that for some of the smaller elementary schools a cohort might not exist, but the middle schools are all big enough, aren’t they?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

No. The county is offering two "enriched" classes. But the general consensus seems that these classes are not of the same rigor as magnet classes.
What is being proposed by OP is the elementary school local CES model for certain middle schools. Those local middle school magnets would teach using similar curriculum as magnets.

What do you mean by "not of the same rigor as magnet classes"?

Like not as deep as magnet classes.

Who’s made the “general consensus”? Very few parents would be in a position to judge the new classes rolled out this year against the magnets. I think it’s upset parents whose child didn’t get it who are already biased and maybe the new classes aren’t meeting their expectations. I’ve had children at a very good home middle school and one in the magnet program in sixth. I’m not blown away by the magnet.

+1 I can compare from experience (my DCC kids) the new enriched math class and MS magnet math class and there is not much difference in curriculum. Both kids had/have great teachers. Sixth grade Computer science at magnet is meh. Science is the big plus.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

No. The county is offering two "enriched" classes. But the general consensus seems that these classes are not of the same rigor as magnet classes.
What is being proposed by OP is the elementary school local CES model for certain middle schools. Those local middle school magnets would teach using similar curriculum as magnets.

What do you mean by "not of the same rigor as magnet classes"?

Like not as deep as magnet classes.

Who’s made the “general consensus”? Very few parents would be in a position to judge the new classes rolled out this year against the magnets. I think it’s upset parents whose child didn’t get it who are already biased and maybe the new classes aren’t meeting their expectations. I’ve had children at a very good home middle school and one in the magnet program in sixth. I’m not blown away by the magnet.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

So my MS humanities magnet kid has 3 magnet classes, all in humanities, compared to the 2 enriched home-school MS classes, of which 1 is humanities and 1 is math.

Yikes. My kid was offered a spot at Eastern and I never thought about the possibility that the more enriched math class that's available at the home middle school wouldn't be offered to Eastern kids. Will the enriched math class be offered next year to Eastern kids?

Nope, no enriched classes offered at Eastern or Takoma. It's the magnet, or nothing.

Does anyone know whether this might change at Eastern in the next year or two? It is our home school and I currently have a fourth grader.

Not that I know of. It seems stupid, really. It would be great if Humanities kids at Eastern could also take enriched math, and vice versa at Takoma. Lots of kids excel at both, and it's kind of a shame to make them specialize at such a young age.


But it would seem that high-scoring EMS and TPMS kids should have a leg up in magnet admissions, since their home school doesn't have anything to offer them in the way of enrichment or support. In-bounds kids who score high in math have slots set aside for them at TPMS, but I'd think that Eastern kids, and high verbal scorers at TPMS, would also have a less explicit advantage. One of the selection criteria is whether appropriate support can be offered at the home school, and these are really the only two schools that don't offer anything extra at all for in-bounds kids.

This would essentially make the magnets much less attractive. Opening up a bunch of spaces would water down the program. Just like when taking honors classes became the norm at high schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In an effort to increase elementary school CES seats, MCPS recently opened several local CES programs at schools like Rachel Carson ES, Matsunaga ES etc. The thinking was that these schools traditionally sent a high number of students to regional CES programs anyway.

Can MCPS open similar local magnet middle school programs within the schools that traditionally used to send a high number of students to regional schools? I know that with good intentions, MCPS started two enriched classes last year. But it seems like the actual curriculum of these classes is far from the regional magnet curriculum. It also does not include the rest of the magnet courses.

Just a thought. I hope someone from MCPS reads these posts.

Isn't this what the county is already doing?

No. The county is offering two "enriched" classes. But the general consensus seems that these classes are not of the same rigor as magnet classes.
What is being proposed by OP is the elementary school local CES model for certain middle schools. Those local middle school magnets would teach using similar curriculum as magnets.

If these home school enrichment classes were 80% as rigorous and deep as the magnet school classes, but would serve 100% of the kids identified as needing that kind of enrichment, wouldn’t that be better than our current system?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

No. The county is offering two "enriched" classes. But the general consensus seems that these classes are not of the same rigor as magnet classes.
What is being proposed by OP is the elementary school local CES model for certain middle schools. Those local middle school magnets would teach using similar curriculum as magnets.

What do you mean by "not of the same rigor as magnet classes"?

Like not as deep as magnet classes.

Meaning what?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

No. The county is offering two "enriched" classes. But the general consensus seems that these classes are not of the same rigor as magnet classes.
What is being proposed by OP is the elementary school local CES model for certain middle schools. Those local middle school magnets would teach using similar curriculum as magnets.

What do you mean by "not of the same rigor as magnet classes"?

Like not as deep as magnet classes.

Anonymous wrote:

No. The county is offering two "enriched" classes. But the general consensus seems that these classes are not of the same rigor as magnet classes.
What is being proposed by OP is the elementary school local CES model for certain middle schools. Those local middle school magnets would teach using similar curriculum as magnets.

What do you mean by "not of the same rigor as magnet classes"?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In an effort to increase elementary school CES seats, MCPS recently opened several local CES programs at schools like Rachel Carson ES, Matsunaga ES etc. The thinking was that these schools traditionally sent a high number of students to regional CES programs anyway.

Can MCPS open similar local magnet middle school programs within the schools that traditionally used to send a high number of students to regional schools? I know that with good intentions, MCPS started two enriched classes last year. But it seems like the actual curriculum of these classes is far from the regional magnet curriculum. It also does not include the rest of the magnet courses.

Just a thought. I hope someone from MCPS reads these posts.

Isn't this what the county is already doing?

No. The county is offering two "enriched" classes. But the general consensus seems that these classes are not of the same rigor as magnet classes.
What is being proposed by OP is the elementary school local CES model for certain middle schools. Those local middle school magnets would teach using similar curriculum as magnets.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

So my MS humanities magnet kid has 3 magnet classes, all in humanities, compared to the 2 enriched home-school MS classes, of which 1 is humanities and 1 is math.

Yikes. My kid was offered a spot at Eastern and I never thought about the possibility that the more enriched math class that's available at the home middle school wouldn't be offered to Eastern kids. Will the enriched math class be offered next year to Eastern kids?

Nope, no enriched classes offered at Eastern or Takoma. It's the magnet, or nothing.

Does anyone know whether this might change at Eastern in the next year or two? It is our home school and I currently have a fourth grader.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rather than re-creating "magnet" programs in middle schools, why not offer true honors classes for the MS core courses (Social Studies, English, Math, Science). Most advanced children would be served by these, and they can stay in neighborhood schools. MCPS can keep the regional magnets open for the kids who are true outliers.

This seems like a no-brainer. As much as magnet programs that focus on STEM or humanities appeal to some kids, keeping it more general ala carte as it were is probably a good idea too.

I also think communities impacted by this should advocate for these changes strongly.

People advocated to have true magnet like enriched classes. But MCPS offered mediocre substitute.

What does "true magnet like enriched classes" mean to you?

Anonymous wrote:

So my MS humanities magnet kid has 3 magnet classes, all in humanities, compared to the 2 enriched home-school MS classes, of which 1 is humanities and 1 is math.

Yikes. My kid was offered a spot at Eastern and I never thought about the possibility that the more enriched math class that's available at the home middle school wouldn't be offered to Eastern kids. Will the enriched math class be offered next year to Eastern kids?

Nope, no enriched classes offered at Eastern or Takoma. It's the magnet, or nothing.

My Eastern Humanities 6th grader's IM class is pretty good this year, though. I'm no expert, but it looks to me like the teacher has offered a lot of enrichment and application of the concepts, and definitely gone beyond the basics. Fairly certain the whole class are 6th graders, and many but not all are magnet students.