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

Yes, Poolesville is whole school magnet.
In Poolesville case you take exam to join the magnet program if you live in upper Montgomery County.
Kids who live in the school boundaries have a higher chance to be picked because they take 25% of the students from their own middle school and the rest of the kids can take magnet courses if their is space available.

My child is at Loiederman a creative performing arts whole school magnet. We carpool as there is No bussing out of boundary. My child loves and is thriving at LMS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

80 students per grade level across three grade levels and three schools and that's 720 families willing to provide their own transportation to the schools (no busing for out-of-area). You look at the school as a whole, and see a poorly performing school, but you are missing the fact that there are some very advanced students in these schools doing top academic work. I know that a fair amount of students come from Rockville, Gaithersburg, Germantown and even Clarksburg to go to Parkland and Argyle (have had kids/friends kids at both). They may not fit your elitist model of what a magnet should be, but part of what got the program high ratings from Metis was that the presence of additional high performing students allowed creation of more advanced courses, which benefits the home-school population and its advanced students. A school has a very different feel when only 30-40 students out of 300 in a grade are in "advanced" classes compared to 100-120 out of 300.

But go on dismissing this program. The families who have found this hidden gem are more than happy to not compete against you for a spot.

Can someone provide some examples of advanced math/science courses at these schools? (I'm just curious, I know nothing of these schools since I never read anything about them).

First - because they are an 8 period block schedule, students get an extra class over other middle schools. All students have English, Math, World Studies, Science, and PE (like all middle schools) and then 3 elective choices instead of two, which was typically a language, band/orchestra, and the focus electives. Each school has a focus area for one of the elective tracks - Parkland is Aerospace and Robotics and all students take two science classes each year, including one for high school credit in 8th grade. Argyle is Computer Science and Loiederman is Performing Arts - I don't know their exact courses, but I'm sure it's on their websites.

In addition to the doubled science classes, Parkland offered special electives including Astronomy, Research in Astronomy, Flight, Robotics 1, Robotics 2, and Introduction to Engineering Design (HS tech credit and 1st Project Lead the Way course). Due to high language demand, Parkland offers Spanish and French levels 1, 2, and 3, and Chinese 1A, 1B, and 2 all at the school (might have changed in the past few years). And while my kid was there, they had enough students to offer Algebra 2 at the middle school, instead of busing them to high school. Many kids entered high school with 8 credits - Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, French/Spanish 1, 2, 3, Honors Physics, and IED. And this was while we still had final exams and middle school students had to pass the exams to earn HS credit. This program was absolutely beyond the general middle school program, and arguably more rigorous than the middle school math/science program (and I've had a kid in that too.)

Anonymous wrote:

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.

80 students per grade level across three grade levels and three schools and that's 720 families willing to provide their own transportation to the schools (no busing for out-of-area). You look at the school as a whole, and see a poorly performing school, but you are missing the fact that there are some very advanced students in these schools doing top academic work. I know that a fair amount of students come from Rockville, Gaithersburg, Germantown and even Clarksburg to go to Parkland and Argyle (have had kids/friends kids at both). They may not fit your elitist model of what a magnet should be, but part of what got the program high ratings from Metis was that the presence of additional high performing students allowed creation of more advanced courses, which benefits the home-school population and its advanced students. A school has a very different feel when only 30-40 students out of 300 in a grade are in "advanced" classes compared to 100-120 out of 300.

But go on dismissing this program. The families who have found this hidden gem are more than happy to not compete against you for a spot.

Can someone provide some examples of advanced math/science courses at these schools? (I'm just curious, I know nothing of these schools since I never read anything about them).

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.

80 students per grade level across three grade levels and three schools and that's 720 families willing to provide their own transportation to the schools (no busing for out-of-area). You look at the school as a whole, and see a poorly performing school, but you are missing the fact that there are some very advanced students in these schools doing top academic work. I know that a fair amount of students come from Rockville, Gaithersburg, Germantown and even Clarksburg to go to Parkland and Argyle (have had kids/friends kids at both). They may not fit your elitist model of what a magnet should be, but part of what got the program high ratings from Metis was that the presence of additional high performing students allowed creation of more advanced courses, which benefits the home-school population and its advanced students. A school has a very different feel when only 30-40 students out of 300 in a grade are in "advanced" classes compared to 100-120 out of 300.

But go on dismissing this program. The families who have found this hidden gem are more than happy to not compete against you for a spot.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't mind a whole arts magnet high school. Just take Einstein HS and make it into a magnet, it already has the VAPA and VAC program, why not expand it?

but only for DCC residents

Yes but I was told that VAC was put at Einstein because it's in the center of the county not geographically but in the case where students have a reasonable commute. Why not make it a full arts magnet school, and require students to audition?

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't mind a whole arts magnet high school. Just take Einstein HS and make it into a magnet, it already has the VAPA and VAC program, why not expand it?

but only for DCC residents

I wouldn't mind a whole arts magnet high school. Just take Einstein HS and make it into a magnet, it already has the VAPA and VAC program, why not expand it?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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/

The local non-magnet kids have a house called ISP. These kids mix with the "real" magnet kids in their non-core classes.

Because kids zoned for Poolesville HS are fake kids? Or just "fake" magnet kids? How about kids zoned for Poolesville HS who are in the math/science, humanities, or global ecology magnet programs? Are they real or fake?

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

Tech companies out past Herndon, Dulles etc. There is a route over 15 or whites ferry but then you're stuck in Leesburg traffic going into Tysons. Its better than having to cut down from the north or across and over from the east. The good jobs are all in VA sadly and there simply isn't a fast way to get there through MD. Potomac isn't that bad if you are right near the bridge/495.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

BINGO!

They should probably expand the existing magnets that are popular. The county has grown so much since these started but the number of seats hasn't. For example, I'd add 100 more seats for a STEM magnet located between Poolesville and Blair. This reduced bussing from the existing program would probably cover the costs.

In addition, they should provide a stronger advanced track at most schools. Something like BCC's IB program is probably ideal. Specializing in HS isn't always a good idea.

Or maybe add additional seats to the existing programs instead..

Anonymous wrote:

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/

The local non-magnet kids have a house called ISP. These kids mix with the "real" magnet kids in their non-core classes.

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

Please get an economist or someone who has actual analytical ability!

You will not raise scores unless it is a test in magnet taking the highest students in a wide enough area to be competitive. Like A,P and L where the majority of the students are low performing if 80% of the seats must be filled by in boundary students for that school only and you place it in a low performing area you have to lower the standards to fill the seats. 80% of the students at A,P and L based on their current test scores could not get close to meeting the bar that exists for TPMS or Eastern.

Imagine that you moved the Blair magnet program to Kennedy and said that only 20% of the current SMAC students could test in and the rest of the students would come from Kennedy. How is that going to work out?

No one is going to move there just because MCPS slaps a magnet label on it.

Why does it matter that teachers live north? How would this give anyone a shorter commute? Do you work at TPMS and you only support this so you can work closer to home?

Central office doing something? Ha! LOL - yes its the central office making another terrible decision that wrecks education. This crew really excels at failure.

Anonymous wrote:

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

BINGO!

They should probably expand the existing magnets that are popular. The county has grown so much since these started but the number of seats hasn't. For example, I'd add 100 more seats for a STEM magnet located between Poolesville and Blair. This reduced bussing from the existing program would probably cover the costs.

In addition, they should provide a stronger advanced track at most schools. Something like BCC's IB program is probably ideal. Specializing in HS isn't always a good idea.

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

BINGO!