Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

New poster here - I have no idea what is done or allowed - but with a background in survey data analysis and behavioral sciences I had to chime in that there are certainly ways to get at race or ses without explicitly using race or ses or other demographic characteristics of interest (not to say they are doing this or that they should ) The easiest way would be by trying to select candidates based on their home school district and using general population means of how that district is composed. If a home school is predominantly in an area with a certain race, ethnicity, ses, etc. chances are, if you slect from that school you are more likely to get a student of whatever group you are targeting. Sure, not every student at that school will match the specific criteria, but if you select more from that school over a school with fewer of the targeted characteristic, you have a better chance of hitting your target.

That said, I agree with PP that claiming that there are undeserving kids getting in purely based on a given demographic characteristic is icky. We all know that there are more deserving kids than there are spots! So, even if such demographic targeting exists, it doesn't even imply that the 'trageted group' is of lower quality.

Public school education and its funding in Montgomery County is based on apartheid like in South Africa. Proxies and surrogates abound -- zip code, red and blue, up and downtown. This is black and white...no PhD in statistics necessary.

+1000

Don't know if targeted group is of lower quality. My DD was targeted because of race (I think because we are black) and asked to apply-she was told she would get in. She decided in favor of the home school and didn't apply. She is a good student though not like the kids who got in.

I completely believe the part about being "targeted" although I think recruited might be a better word. These programs are very eager to promote diversity, and rightly so.

I don't believe the part about being told she would get in. Maybe in the sense of "oh don't worry I'm sure she'll get in" based on her known grades and academic achievement, but they don't pre-clear certain people. The reason I say this is that I know a number of kids who are minorities and attend Eastern with good grades who did NOT get into CAP despite very much wanting to. So despite proven ability to do the kind of coursework CAP has, they probably didn't do well enough on the test . Your DD was probably an excellent candidate but it's not guaranteed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

New poster here - I have no idea what is done or allowed - but with a background in survey data analysis and behavioral sciences I had to chime in that there are certainly ways to get at race or ses without explicitly using race or ses or other demographic characteristics of interest (not to say they are doing this or that they should ) The easiest way would be by trying to select candidates based on their home school district and using general population means of how that district is composed. If a home school is predominantly in an area with a certain race, ethnicity, ses, etc. chances are, if you slect from that school you are more likely to get a student of whatever group you are targeting. Sure, not every student at that school will match the specific criteria, but if you select more from that school over a school with fewer of the targeted characteristic, you have a better chance of hitting your target.

That said, I agree with PP that claiming that there are undeserving kids getting in purely based on a given demographic characteristic is icky. We all know that there are more deserving kids than there are spots! So, even if such demographic targeting exists, it doesn't even imply that the 'trageted group' is of lower quality.

Public school education and its funding in Montgomery County is based on apartheid like in South Africa. Proxies and surrogates abound -- zip code, red and blue, up and downtown. This is black and white...no PhD in statistics necessary.

+1000

Don't know if targeted group is of lower quality. My DD was targeted because of race (I think because we are black) and asked to apply-she was told she would get in. She decided in favor of the home school and didn't apply. She is a good student though not like the kids who got in.

Anonymous wrote:So my kid has a 4.0 and is an all-around outstanding student at a MoCo middle school. But the kid was only wait listed at CAP. Not in a middle school magnet as we moved into the district from far away while she was in middle school.

Kid asks 'what more could I do'.

Honey, I have no idea. Given they don't reveal the test scores, I can't even give any insight there ...

Rather bemused that everyone who posts talks about acceptances (usually to both CAP and IB at Richard Montgomery). So just thought I'd introduce some diversity here.

Also, thank you CAP for saying you mailed the letters 31 January, they're postmarked Feb 3rd ... just in case this wasn't stressful enough.

Anonymous wrote:

New poster here - I have no idea what is done or allowed - but with a background in survey data analysis and behavioral sciences I had to chime in that there are certainly ways to get at race or ses without explicitly using race or ses or other demographic characteristics of interest (not to say they are doing this or that they should ) The easiest way would be by trying to select candidates based on their home school district and using general population means of how that district is composed. If a home school is predominantly in an area with a certain race, ethnicity, ses, etc. chances are, if you slect from that school you are more likely to get a student of whatever group you are targeting. Sure, not every student at that school will match the specific criteria, but if you select more from that school over a school with fewer of the targeted characteristic, you have a better chance of hitting your target.

That said, I agree with PP that claiming that there are undeserving kids getting in purely based on a given demographic characteristic is icky. We all know that there are more deserving kids than there are spots! So, even if such demographic targeting exists, it doesn't even imply that the 'trageted group' is of lower quality.

Public school education and its funding in Montgomery County is based on apartheid like in South Africa. Proxies and surrogates abound -- zip code, red and blue, up and downtown. This is black and white...no PhD in statistics necessary.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Agreed. In MoCo just being a PTA officer can bump up your chances.

Prove it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Agreed. In MoCo just being a PTA officer can bump up your chances.

Prove it.

+1 that is a ridiculous comment.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Agreed. In MoCo just being a PTA officer can bump up your chances.

Prove it.

Anonymous wrote:[

Anonymous wrote:

SES is not a proxy for race. SES is SES. Also, considering SES is legal. Also, please explain how they would admit based on SES. Did your child's application include your household income and education?

But sure, if you want to tell yourself that the reason they didn't admit your qualified, deserving, non-brown kid is because they had to admit some unqualified, undeserving brown kid, go ahead.

Seriously, people are you all this offensive at Blair?

I hate to say it but the picture you people paint of that school is ugly.

Anonymous wrote:

Agreed. In MoCo just being a PTA officer can bump up your chances.

Anonymous wrote:

New poster here - I have no idea what is done or allowed - but with a background in survey data analysis and behavioral sciences I had to chime in that there are certainly ways to get at race or ses without explicitly using race or ses or other demographic characteristics of interest (not to say they are doing this or that they should ) The easiest way would be by trying to select candidates based on their home school district and using general population means of how that district is composed. If a home school is predominantly in an area with a certain race, ethnicity, ses, etc. chances are, if you slect from that school you are more likely to get a student of whatever group you are targeting. Sure, not every student at that school will match the specific criteria, but if you select more from that school over a school with fewer of the targeted characteristic, you have a better chance of hitting your target.

That said, I agree with PP that claiming that there are undeserving kids getting in purely based on a given demographic characteristic is icky. We all know that there are more deserving kids than there are spots! So, even if such demographic targeting exists, it doesn't even imply that the 'trageted group' is of lower quality.

Public school education and its funding in Montgomery County is based on apartheid like in South Africa. Proxies and surrogates abound -- zip code, red and blue, up and downtown. This is black and white...no PhD in statistics necessary.

Anonymous wrote:

Public school education and its funding in Montgomery County is based on apartheid like in South Africa. Proxies and surrogates abound -- zip code, red and blue, up and downtown. This is black and white...no PhD in statistics necessary.

Actually all schools in America are based on an apartheid model. If you live in a middle-class or higher neighborhood you go to a good school thanks to local taxes. If you live in a poor area, you go to a crappy school. We're probably the only country in the developed world that uses this model and its not wonder a rich country such as ours has so much entrenched and growing poverty. MoCo at least tries to even the playing field a little bit by distributing the tax base to all schools. If they didn't do this we'd all have much greater problems. Still disparities exist due to PTA fund-raising disparities.