Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Métis stated that DCC was largely a failure since the top programs failed to utilize its base area in terms of creating greater equity within a diverse region. Instead these programs presently cater to many students who are from home schools with a strong peer group.

I completely agree that STEM magnet primarily benefits whites and asians from top clusters which are outside the DCC. Considering that the original goal was to get whites or asians from those areas o voluntary opt-into a lower performing school, the program did succeed. Whether this was or is a good goal is debatable.

If you want to send the top performers back to the W schools and fill the program with DCC whites what exactly have you achieved?

You may also want to consider that consultants reports like the Metis report usually find whatever the hiring organization wants it to find. It isn't an external audit. Standard practice in any big organization to get what you want is to fund a consultant to do a report saying what you want. The intent of the report was speculated to be a move toward ended or substantially defunded the gifted and talented programs. So be careful for what you wish ti get, you may end up with no choice programs.

I’d like to believe the goal made sense once upon a time but the world changed. There are more than a sufficient number of top performers from the DCC. It’s time to act on Métis and bettter utillize the DCC’s base area to create greater equity.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Métis stated that DCC was largely a failure since the top programs failed to utilize its base area in terms of creating greater equity within a diverse region. Instead these programs presently cater to many students who are from home schools with a strong peer group.

I completely agree that STEM magnet primarily benefits whites and asians from top clusters which are outside the DCC. Considering that the original goal was to get whites or asians from those areas o voluntary opt-into a lower performing school, the program did succeed. Whether this was or is a good goal is debatable.

If you want to send the top performers back to the W schools and fill the program with DCC whites what exactly have you achieved?

You may also want to consider that consultants reports like the Metis report usually find whatever the hiring organization wants it to find. It isn't an external audit. Standard practice in any big organization to get what you want is to fund a consultant to do a report saying what you want. The intent of the report was speculated to be a move toward ended or substantially defunded the gifted and talented programs. So be careful for what you wish ti get, you may end up with no choice programs.

I’d like to believe the goal made sense once upon a time but the world changed. There are more than a sufficient number of top performers from the DCC. It’s time to act on Métis and bettter utillize the DCC’s base area to create greater equity.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I just wanted to know the odds of my kid getting into his first choice HS. Why does every single mention of DCC high schools have to devolve into a debate about magnets, DCC vs Bethesda, race, etc?

I’d like to believe the goal made sense once upon a time but the world changed. There are more than a sufficient number of top performers from the DCC. It’s time to act on Métis and bettter utillize the DCC’s base area to create greater equity.

Anonymous wrote:

Métis stated that DCC was largely a failure since the top programs failed to utilize its base area in terms of creating greater equity within a diverse region. Instead these programs presently cater to many students who are from home schools with a strong peer group.

I completely agree that STEM magnet primarily benefits whites and asians from top clusters which are outside the DCC. Considering that the original goal was to get whites or asians from those areas o voluntary opt-into a lower performing school, the program did succeed. Whether this was or is a good goal is debatable.

If you want to send the top performers back to the W schools and fill the program with DCC whites what exactly have you achieved?

You may also want to consider that consultants reports like the Metis report usually find whatever the hiring organization wants it to find. It isn't an external audit. Standard practice in any big organization to get what you want is to fund a consultant to do a report saying what you want. The intent of the report was speculated to be a move toward ended or substantially defunded the gifted and talented programs. So be careful for what you wish ti get, you may end up with no choice programs.

Métis stated that DCC was largely a failure since the top programs failed to utilize its base area in terms of creating greater equity within a diverse region. Instead these programs presently cater to many students who are from home schools with a strong peer group.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I just wanted to know the odds of my kid getting into his first choice HS. Why does every single mention of DCC high schools have to devolve into a debate about magnets, DCC vs Bethesda, race, etc?

Anonymous wrote:

They need to reevaluate the mission in light of metis. About half the slots now are DCC and there's little problem filling the others with DCC kids who are more than capable of doing the work. Sure, you may have one or two fewer NMSFs but it would also improve equity in the county per metis.

I agree that they need to reevaluate the mission. I don't believe that swapping out non-DCC whites for DCC whites will achieve anything for equity. It will just make the W schools even stronger, make a few white DCC people happier and leave a bunch of non-W and non-DCC kids stranded. Equity improved=zippo.

If you want easier access to a magnet for your kid to avoid the low SES kids, then go after the save money by running fewer buses argument. The equity one doesn't hold up for you.

Reading the report and the sections on the lawsuits against MCPS for applying racial balancing to transfer requests in the 80s and 90s was interesting. There have been similar court findings against school systems in other states as well for using race or proxy measures for race in assignment and application acceptance.

Which brings up the entire question, how is it even legal for the school system to have racial balancing be its primary objective? I'm not arguing whether its right or wrong as there are some very good reasons why diversity is good. However, if diversity doesn't exist there just doesn't seem to be a legal basis for a school system to make it happen without a crossing a line into racial balancing acts which are illegal.

They need to reevaluate the mission in light of metis. About half the slots now are DCC and there's little problem filling the others with DCC kids who are more than capable of doing the work. Sure, you may have one or two fewer NMSFs but it would also improve equity in the county per metis.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The report seems to conclude that the DCC has not achieved its aims but then doesn’t suggest getting rid of it.

Specifically, the report states:

Key Finding 6: The MSMC has been more successful than the high school consortia (the
DCC and the NEC) in promoting racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity due in large
part to shifting demographics as well as three programmatic elements: the MSMC, unlike
the DCC and the NEC, does not utilize base areas, admits out-of-boundary students, and
has developed and implemented distinct, whole-school themes.

Sure, sounds like the DCC would be more successful according to Metis if they simply restricted access to programs like the STEM magnet to DCC residents.

but then those programs would falter from their core mission to bring in high achieving kids to the under preforming schools to help them with their test scores and demographics. Lets say you lock the magnet, than many of those national merit semifinalists will stay home. This would both raise the home schools scores and lower the blair scores taking the shine off the program. I fail to see what that would help.

They need to reevaluate the mission in light of metis. About half the slots now are DCC and there's little problem filling the others with DCC kids who are more than capable of doing the work. Sure, you may have one or two fewer NMSFs but it would also improve equity in the county per metis.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wouldn't restricting it to only DCC schools increase segregation within the DCC? This is already a big problem.

Whites and Asians still out score and apply to magnets exponentially more than AA and Latino students everywhere including the DCC. If you look at the demographic trends, the hispanic population is growing faster in the DCC than other cluster areas. This means fewer whites and asians within the DCC boundaries to spread around to all the schools.

I think the Hispanic population in North Bethesda aka Rockville and Gaithersburg far exceeds that of the DCC.

Gaithersburg and Silver Spring are fairly comparable at around 25%. Rockville is a few percentiles lower. Takoma is about half of SS and Kensington is about half of that (similar to Bethesda). The point is the DCC is made up a range of different areas much like the county and gross generalizations aren't helpful.