Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The first part of this post is simply not true, at least not for the Whitman cluster in terms of there being "plenty" of kids attending the magnets.

There are exact numbers in the Choice Study and they are so low for the Whitman cluster that on some charts they don't even list them for privacy reasons.

True from the Bethesda area high schools the Whitman cluster sends very few. On the other hand BCC sends 11 and WJ sends 17 to the two high school magnets. Westland sends 10 and North Bethesda sends 6 to the middle school magnets.

This was the main point. People like to think the the magnets are heads and shoulders above other scenarios but truth be told the local populations around the W's who are all for the most part highly educated and successful themselves don't even bother pushing for their kids to apply or accept because of their local option. Say what you will but these families know what they are looking at and still very few opt in. It might help the best of the best STEM students but not your average smart kid. I know why local families hold on to the notion that it is a super program but it is more about sheltering strong students from general population kids that could derail their focus. That isn't as big of a problem at a place like Whitman opposed to say an Einstein.

Before you scoff remember that the school within a school is basically in the magnet's charter and all the metrics are going to be higher simply due to the kids selected. They would be high if they had them watch Disney movies all day.

The magnet is about addressing the needs of very high-performing kids, where such needs cannot be met in home schools.

It is not about "sheltering strong students from general population kids," FFS.

Have you always been naive to reality or are you just regurgitating what you hope it's true? Why do you think the programs are put in schools with historically low preforming student bodies and not in locations with higher concentrations of "very high-preforming kids". Why do you think they have to dedicate local slots for takoma instead of making them compete with everybody else in the same pool? Also the fact that the magnet kids share any classes with the local kids is a fairly recent phenomenon, they used to even have an entirely separate lunch peiord when I went through the program not to mention different school hours and bells for classes. We didn't even walk the halls with the local kids. So just because they have recently tweaked it to look less isolationist, that doesn't change the intent to prop up test numbers in low preforming localities in a way that the student's parents won't object to.

We live in Silver Spring and we have a carpool to Eastern in the morning. It's a 10 minute drive and allows our child to sleep until 7 instead of leaving at 7.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The county makes it really hard, logistically, for kids in the Whitman cluster to go the magnets.
Look at the magnet route for TPMS. 6:45 pick up time from Whitman for an 8:15 start. They do not pick up for any of the elementary schools in the cluster for some nutty reason. Many students are 15-25 minutes away from Whitman. That bus takes you to Eastern where you have to switch to a "shuttle" to Takoma so three legs taking your kid at least 1 hour and 45 minutes ONE WAY.

My child who is considerably closer to Takoma than Whitman catches the bus at 6:45 too. A friend's child, also closer to Takoma than Whitman and us catches the bus at 6:27! These are both Silver Spring locations. While school may start at 8:15 most buses arrive by 7:50. There is no conspiracy against Whitman cluster kids. There is no bus switching in the morning, you stay on the same bus which makes stops at Blair, Eastern, and finally at Takoma.

School starts at 7:45.

We're talking about middle school not high school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The county makes it really hard, logistically, for kids in the Whitman cluster to go the magnets.
Look at the magnet route for TPMS. 6:45 pick up time from Whitman for an 8:15 start. They do not pick up for any of the elementary schools in the cluster for some nutty reason. Many students are 15-25 minutes away from Whitman. That bus takes you to Eastern where you have to switch to a "shuttle" to Takoma so three legs taking your kid at least 1 hour and 45 minutes ONE WAY.

My child who is considerably closer to Takoma than Whitman catches the bus at 6:45 too. A friend's child, also closer to Takoma than Whitman and us catches the bus at 6:27! These are both Silver Spring locations. While school may start at 8:15 most buses arrive by 7:50. There is no conspiracy against Whitman cluster kids. There is no bus switching in the morning, you stay on the same bus which makes stops at Blair, Eastern, and finally at Takoma.

There may be no bus switching on your route but they certain switch buses on ours.

The bus switching is on the ride home.

Anonymous wrote:If you're in Silver Spring that means that you could realistically drive your kid to school in 10 minutes to a half hour and I'm betting there are "central" stops closer to your home than 25 minutes away. If you work in D.C. (like many parents do all over the metro area) driving from Bethesda to Takoma Park and then to D.C. is a horrible detour. Total non-starter for most families I know.

Not when you have a job and other kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The county makes it really hard, logistically, for kids in the Whitman cluster to go the magnets.
Look at the magnet route for TPMS. 6:45 pick up time from Whitman for an 8:15 start. They do not pick up for any of the elementary schools in the cluster for some nutty reason. Many students are 15-25 minutes away from Whitman. That bus takes you to Eastern where you have to switch to a "shuttle" to Takoma so three legs taking your kid at least 1 hour and 45 minutes ONE WAY.

That is really unfortunate.

+1. BCC parent with children who have gone to Sil Spring magnets. Even for us, living in the east of our cluster, the bus ride is too long and we carpool. If we lived west of Wisconsin Ave, I wouldn't even allow DC to apply to magnets; the commute time outweighs the benefit, even if my child were Einstein himself.

For same reason, we won't send kids to RMIB.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The county makes it really hard, logistically, for kids in the Whitman cluster to go the magnets.
Look at the magnet route for TPMS. 6:45 pick up time from Whitman for an 8:15 start. They do not pick up for any of the elementary schools in the cluster for some nutty reason. Many students are 15-25 minutes away from Whitman. That bus takes you to Eastern where you have to switch to a "shuttle" to Takoma so three legs taking your kid at least 1 hour and 45 minutes ONE WAY.

My child who is considerably closer to Takoma than Whitman catches the bus at 6:45 too. A friend's child, also closer to Takoma than Whitman and us catches the bus at 6:27! These are both Silver Spring locations. While school may start at 8:15 most buses arrive by 7:50. There is no conspiracy against Whitman cluster kids. There is no bus switching in the morning, you stay on the same bus which makes stops at Blair, Eastern, and finally at Takoma.

School starts at 7:45.

Earliest Potomac pick up is at 6:16. That's dedication!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The county makes it really hard, logistically, for kids in the Whitman cluster to go the magnets.
Look at the magnet route for TPMS. 6:45 pick up time from Whitman for an 8:15 start. They do not pick up for any of the elementary schools in the cluster for some nutty reason. Many students are 15-25 minutes away from Whitman. That bus takes you to Eastern where you have to switch to a "shuttle" to Takoma so three legs taking your kid at least 1 hour and 45 minutes ONE WAY.

My child who is considerably closer to Takoma than Whitman catches the bus at 6:45 too. A friend's child, also closer to Takoma than Whitman and us catches the bus at 6:27! These are both Silver Spring locations. While school may start at 8:15 most buses arrive by 7:50. There is no conspiracy against Whitman cluster kids. There is no bus switching in the morning, you stay on the same bus which makes stops at Blair, Eastern, and finally at Takoma.

There may be no bus switching on your route but they certain switch buses on ours.

If you're in Silver Spring that means that you could realistically drive your kid to school in 10 minutes to a half hour and I'm betting there are "central" stops closer to your home than 25 minutes away. If you work in D.C. (like many parents do all over the metro area) driving from Bethesda to Takoma Park and then to D.C. is a horrible detour. Total non-starter for most families I know.

Anonymous wrote:The county makes it really hard, logistically, for kids in the Whitman cluster to go the magnets.
Look at the magnet route for TPMS. 6:45 pick up time from Whitman for an 8:15 start. They do not pick up for any of the elementary schools in the cluster for some nutty reason. Many students are 15-25 minutes away from Whitman. That bus takes you to Eastern where you have to switch to a "shuttle" to Takoma so three legs taking your kid at least 1 hour and 45 minutes ONE WAY.

My child who is considerably closer to Takoma than Whitman catches the bus at 6:45 too. A friend's child, also closer to Takoma than Whitman and us catches the bus at 6:27! These are both Silver Spring locations. While school may start at 8:15 most buses arrive by 7:50. There is no conspiracy against Whitman cluster kids. There is no bus switching in the morning, you stay on the same bus which makes stops at Blair, Eastern, and finally at Takoma.

Anonymous wrote:The county makes it really hard, logistically, for kids in the Whitman cluster to go the magnets.
Look at the magnet route for TPMS. 6:45 pick up time from Whitman for an 8:15 start. They do not pick up for any of the elementary schools in the cluster for some nutty reason. Many students are 15-25 minutes away from Whitman. That bus takes you to Eastern where you have to switch to a "shuttle" to Takoma so three legs taking your kid at least 1 hour and 45 minutes ONE WAY.

That is really unfortunate.

The county makes it really hard, logistically, for kids in the Whitman cluster to go the magnets.
Look at the magnet route for TPMS. 6:45 pick up time from Whitman for an 8:15 start. They do not pick up for any of the elementary schools in the cluster for some nutty reason. Many students are 15-25 minutes away from Whitman. That bus takes you to Eastern where you have to switch to a "shuttle" to Takoma so three legs taking your kid at least 1 hour and 45 minutes ONE WAY.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think the above statements contradict eachother. There are kids going to Whitman that are incredibly bright that don't bother applying to Blair and could probably get in. It's not just that their parents think the academics are good enough but it's just too far.
But, yes, the vast majority of kids at Whitman would not be able to get in.
If you look at the SAT performance and college admissions of Whitman's top students and the admissions numbers from comparable high schools there are probably very roughly 10-15 kids who could get in but don't apply. Extrapolating that there are probably 100 kids who could have a reasonable chance of getting in but don't apply. Yes, I am pulling these numbers out of thin air but they are based in the numbers in the Choice Study for other nearby high performing high schools.

This seems true, In fact, just substitute any moco high-school...

I am sure there are lots of very bright kids at Whitman. This is why their students earn the highest SAT scores in the county. Around 1870. This is probably a reflection of the large number of highly educated parents who live in the cluster. As far as I know the curriculum is standard for any MCPS high school. I will also note that atalso note that Whitman does not produce more NMSF scholars than bcc or wj and Produces fewer NMSF scholars than wootton. I am not sure why so few Whitman students apply to blair but I hope it isn't because they think the curriculum and peer group is comparable because it isn't, as several posters in a position to compare have stated. I think one poster mentioned that blair smac produced 38 NMSF scholars that is from a cohort of 100 kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think the above statements contradict eachother. There are kids going to Whitman that are incredibly bright that don't bother applying to Blair and could probably get in. It's not just that their parents think the academics are good enough but it's just too far.
But, yes, the vast majority of kids at Whitman would not be able to get in.
If you look at the SAT performance and college admissions of Whitman's top students and the admissions numbers from comparable high schools there are probably very roughly 10-15 kids who could get in but don't apply. Extrapolating that there are probably 100 kids who could have a reasonable chance of getting in but don't apply. Yes, I am pulling these numbers out of thin air but they are based in the numbers in the Choice Study for other nearby high performing high schools.

This seems true, In fact, just substitute any moco high-school...

I am sure there are lots of very bright kids at Whitman. This is why their students earn the highest SAT scores in the county. Around 1870. This is probably a reflection of the large number of highly educated parents who live in the cluster. As far as I know the curriculum is standard for any MCPS high school. I will also note that atalso note that Whitman does not produce more NMSF scholars than bcc or wj and Produces fewer NMSF scholars than wootton. I am not sure why so few Whitman students apply to blair but I hope it isn't because they think the curriculum and peer group is comparable because it isn't, as several posters in a position to compare have stated. I think one poster mentioned that blair smac produced 38 NMSF scholars that is from a cohort of 100 kids.