I don't think MCPS sees the pull integration as necessary anymore. By definition that is a program designed to attract and support white/asian students into the magnets which at least on the surface seems to be the opposite of trying to equal things out. The schools with magnets don't need to them to survive. Poolesville, Blair and maybe RM are already over capacity -neither school would shut down if the magnets ended. It makes no sense to spend $$$ busing kids in from other areas to schools that are already overcrowded.

I predict that this may be the last year for the magnet program. MCPS needs money both for a curriculum replacement and to expand the extended school year program. The writing is on the wall that the money for this is going to come from shutting down the gifted/magnet programs across the county and having the new curriculum offer some sort of gifted level in the home schools.

Poolesville will survive, Blair will survive. Richard Montgomery will survive.

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Anonymous wrote:I think adding some focus to the top 25% to the curriculum at all schools is a good thing..but the top 3-5% will lose out if the centers disappear.

That’s BS. I scored 99th percentile in every test I took as a kid. I did enriched programs at my home school and was perfectly fine. I think you really don’t know that many kids in those percentiles. The only kids who truly need something completely removed from all other groups of kids are the ones with IQs in the 160s and above. By definition, those are few and far between.

Availability of enriched programs depends on the school and the population. This is why cohort matters because a critical mass of students exists at some schools to potentially differentiate further among the academically strong.

I was in Chappaqua public schools. The demographics are essentially like Potomac. We all did fine.

Not everyone lives in a Potomac-esque neighborhood in MOCO.

Yep, no magnet necessary in Potomac. Just move to the Churchill or Wootton school district and you're set.

Don’t tell that to the Cold Spring parents. My point is that Chappaqua works perfectly well without magnets and so can MCPS. Provide high quality instruction in the home schools and you’re fine.

I think MCPS agrees with you, hence they are trying to pull students from other areas of the county that do not have a large enough cohort of students of strong academic ability to justify instruction to meet their needs at that school. MCPS currently doesn't have the resources to differentiate instruction for one or two outlier students per grade at their home school.

I think the problem is that MCPS has not been differentiating for any advanced students.

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Anonymous wrote:I think adding some focus to the top 25% to the curriculum at all schools is a good thing..but the top 3-5% will lose out if the centers disappear.

That’s BS. I scored 99th percentile in every test I took as a kid. I did enriched programs at my home school and was perfectly fine. I think you really don’t know that many kids in those percentiles. The only kids who truly need something completely removed from all other groups of kids are the ones with IQs in the 160s and above. By definition, those are few and far between.

Availability of enriched programs depends on the school and the population. This is why cohort matters because a critical mass of students exists at some schools to potentially differentiate further among the academically strong.

I was in Chappaqua public schools. The demographics are essentially like Potomac. We all did fine.

Not everyone lives in a Potomac-esque neighborhood in MOCO.

Yep, no magnet necessary in Potomac. Just move to the Churchill or Wootton school district and you're set.

Don’t tell that to the Cold Spring parents. My point is that Chappaqua works perfectly well without magnets and so can MCPS. Provide high quality instruction in the home schools and you’re fine.

I think MCPS agrees with you, hence they are trying to pull students from other areas of the county that do not have a large enough cohort of students of strong academic ability to justify instruction to meet their needs at that school. MCPS currently doesn't have the resources to differentiate instruction for one or two outlier students per grade at their home school.

And yet they really aren’t doing much of anything to really provide high quality instruction in home schools. There’s no science or social studies curriculum to speak of (especially on the K-5 level) and the technology overuse is egregious. So I really don’t believe they care.

If you go back and look at the history of this forum, the focus and caring" on the parent end is mainly regarding SES segregation and the feedback loop between school cohort and property values.

Most parents would be more concerned about maintaining school boundaries than enhancing the curriculum.

The DCUM "W School Booster Squad" sold MCPS on the importance of a peer cohort. Deal with it.

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Anonymous wrote:I think adding some focus to the top 25% to the curriculum at all schools is a good thing..but the top 3-5% will lose out if the centers disappear.

That’s BS. I scored 99th percentile in every test I took as a kid. I did enriched programs at my home school and was perfectly fine. I think you really don’t know that many kids in those percentiles. The only kids who truly need something completely removed from all other groups of kids are the ones with IQs in the 160s and above. By definition, those are few and far between.

Availability of enriched programs depends on the school and the population. This is why cohort matters because a critical mass of students exists at some schools to potentially differentiate further among the academically strong.

I was in Chappaqua public schools. The demographics are essentially like Potomac. We all did fine.

Not everyone lives in a Potomac-esque neighborhood in MOCO.

Yep, no magnet necessary in Potomac. Just move to the Churchill or Wootton school district and you're set.

Don’t tell that to the Cold Spring parents. My point is that Chappaqua works perfectly well without magnets and so can MCPS. Provide high quality instruction in the home schools and you’re fine.

I think MCPS agrees with you, hence they are trying to pull students from other areas of the county that do not have a large enough cohort of students of strong academic ability to justify instruction to meet their needs at that school. MCPS currently doesn't have the resources to differentiate instruction for one or two outlier students per grade at their home school.

And yet they really aren’t doing much of anything to really provide high quality instruction in home schools. There’s no science or social studies curriculum to speak of (especially on the K-5 level) and the technology overuse is egregious. So I really don’t believe they care.

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Anonymous wrote:I think adding some focus to the top 25% to the curriculum at all schools is a good thing..but the top 3-5% will lose out if the centers disappear.

That’s BS. I scored 99th percentile in every test I took as a kid. I did enriched programs at my home school and was perfectly fine. I think you really don’t know that many kids in those percentiles. The only kids who truly need something completely removed from all other groups of kids are the ones with IQs in the 160s and above. By definition, those are few and far between.

Availability of enriched programs depends on the school and the population. This is why cohort matters because a critical mass of students exists at some schools to potentially differentiate further among the academically strong.

I was in Chappaqua public schools. The demographics are essentially like Potomac. We all did fine.

Not everyone lives in a Potomac-esque neighborhood in MOCO.

Yep, no magnet necessary in Potomac. Just move to the Churchill or Wootton school district and you're set.

Don’t tell that to the Cold Spring parents. My point is that Chappaqua works perfectly well without magnets and so can MCPS. Provide high quality instruction in the home schools and you’re fine.

I think MCPS agrees with you, hence they are trying to pull students from other areas of the county that do not have a large enough cohort of students of strong academic ability to justify instruction to meet their needs at that school. MCPS currently doesn't have the resources to differentiate instruction for one or two outlier students per grade at their home school.

I pulled my kid from MCPS because they don’t have a long term vision. I swear they’re making this all up as they go. Mark my words, Dr. Smith will retire before anything gets settled. I moved my kid to a school that educates the whole kid and teaches everything. I pay through the ears for it, but it’s a priority for me.

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Anonymous wrote:Yeah, since these programs are put in the schools with poor people and in ghetto area or inaccessible areas (Poolesville) they should shut it down. Let W schools rule!!

When magnet students go to their home schools they are top performing students. They have higher chances of getting into Ivy schools. Affluent people and Asians will always supplement their students so that's great.

Asians will move to NoVa, because they are not wedded to any specific place in DMV, so so-called better schools like QO, NW and Damascus will become what they really are - low performing schools with all races except Asians.

Do it. I dare you, MCPS. Because Asians are already going to HoCo and schools like Centennial HS.

Classist and racist.

Oh, you poor deluded fool. Don't you know?

Classist and racist = American

When you remove merit from the equation then only class and race is left. That is the reason Whites are entitled and that is the reason URMs expect handouts.

This is become a nation of racist and classist people - who carry guns. There is no harm in being American and Asians need to embrace that philosophy too.

I can only imagine what your impressionable accesssory to your family's reputation (i.e. what some of us refer to as our child) wrote on the free response questionaire.

Anonymous wrote:I hope so. It is hard for someone like me to understand that MCPS is telling us that they are not teaching all the kids the best curriculum they could. Most of us think even APs are a joke now, and they are. Having Magnets is wrong. All kids are deserving of quality curriculum and education.

It’s mind boggling. I also fail to understand how they can justify barely teaching any subjects other than math and reading. If MCPS can actually provide a decent curriculum in core subjects (math, reading, science, social studies) we’ll switch back. Until then, we’re in private.

I hope so. It is hard for someone like me to understand that MCPS is telling us that they are not teaching all the kids the best curriculum they could. Most of us think even APs are a joke now, and they are. Having Magnets is wrong. All kids are deserving of quality curriculum and education.

Anonymous wrote:The point of magnets was pull integration. Beyond this does the county really care at all? Probably not.

Yes, it is a way to offset the decades of segregation that is still present throughout the county.

The point of magnets was pull integration. Beyond this does the county really care at all? Probably not.

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Anonymous wrote:I think adding some focus to the top 25% to the curriculum at all schools is a good thing..but the top 3-5% will lose out if the centers disappear.

That’s BS. I scored 99th percentile in every test I took as a kid. I did enriched programs at my home school and was perfectly fine. I think you really don’t know that many kids in those percentiles. The only kids who truly need something completely removed from all other groups of kids are the ones with IQs in the 160s and above. By definition, those are few and far between.

Availability of enriched programs depends on the school and the population. This is why cohort matters because a critical mass of students exists at some schools to potentially differentiate further among the academically strong.

I was in Chappaqua public schools. The demographics are essentially like Potomac. We all did fine.

Not everyone lives in a Potomac-esque neighborhood in MOCO.

Yep, no magnet necessary in Potomac. Just move to the Churchill or Wootton school district and you're set.

Don’t tell that to the Cold Spring parents. My point is that Chappaqua works perfectly well without magnets and so can MCPS. Provide high quality instruction in the home schools and you’re fine.

Anonymous wrote:It seems clear that MCPS is trying to move to a model more akin to NoVa, in which the top quartile or so is getting enrichment (see Piney Branch ES).

Which....is exactly what needs to happen. For all the complaining about how there aren't enough seats, people are freaking out because they are creating ore seats.

And in a few years we will decline Fairfax complaining that there us really not much difference in the higher level curriculum.

Not so many high performers in Potomac as much as there are few low SES families bringing down the average which I guess is something, but hardly equates to giftedness.

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Anonymous wrote:I think adding some focus to the top 25% to the curriculum at all schools is a good thing..but the top 3-5% will lose out if the centers disappear.

That’s BS. I scored 99th percentile in every test I took as a kid. I did enriched programs at my home school and was perfectly fine. I think you really don’t know that many kids in those percentiles. The only kids who truly need something completely removed from all other groups of kids are the ones with IQs in the 160s and above. By definition, those are few and far between.

Availability of enriched programs depends on the school and the population. This is why cohort matters because a critical mass of students exists at some schools to potentially differentiate further among the academically strong.

I was in Chappaqua public schools. The demographics are essentially like Potomac. We all did fine.

Not everyone lives in a Potomac-esque neighborhood in MOCO.

Yep, no magnet necessary in Potomac. Just move to the Churchill or Wootton school district and you're set.