Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Were there kids who scored in the 99th percentile within MCPS (vs 99 percentile nationally). Who didn’t get in the magnets? I don’t remember anyone like that posting when the results come out, but of course that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

Yes absolutely. My kid was at a regional CES and there were only 8 kid admitted across all three CES classes. There were many really high scoring kids who did not get into the Magnet MS.

MCPS changed the MS Magnets around last year. Instead of pulling just the highest scoring kids, they took lower scoring students who scored high relative to others at their lower performing schools. In other words, a kid with an 89%ile score at a lower performing school would get in over a 99%ile kid at a school with lots of 99%ile kids.

That’s being equitable.

There is no such thing as being equitable in performance. You can either produce or you can't, I don't care how young your mom was or the status of your dad or papers. The door out of the lower class will never be wide open, you are just shuffling the mechanisms the middle class use. Get a bunch of not quite the top of their class poor kids at the magnet programs and the upper SES will change the marker for what makes a college resume standout. Semesters studied abroad or private swim teams competitions or the like.

I get the "we need that" mob mentality when people see disparities, but people should ask is that really what is doing it? Causation or correlation. If the magnet was all poor kids who somehow performed similarly today, nobody would care. Look at Banneker in DC.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid went from a regional CES to the home MS. 99% for MAP scores.

She likes the AIM HIGH courses. English is pretty sad because it’s mixed ability English and there are some kids who have trouble writing basic sentences. Science has been good because she has a good teacher.

For English, even in TPMS it is mixed with non magnet, which is worse than average home MS

How is this "worse" and why do people think mixed abilities in English adversely affect their kids? I've had 2 kids come out of HGC (more competitive than CESs are now), get into both Eastern & Takoma, choose Takoma and have GREAT experiences in English. FWIW, there were also a bad and a meh experience, but the issue was not the class ability, it was the teacher. (The bad teacher is gone). Just because kids are at different reading/writing levels doesn't mean they can't learn together or even learn from one another in discussions and lectures and activities. Teachers have wonderful resources at varying lexile levels to work with a variety of levels. It's not like math. Keep an open mind about learning potential in a mixed English class. So much of it is what kid brings to the table in his/her writing and what the teacher offers in terms of lessons and feedback. Having diverse perspectives in the class can also be a learning tool.

DC is at Takoma and has good teacher for English but the lack of rigor in the course is the problem. They read 4 books per year and have very little writing. I think people mean that the lack of rigor may be due to meeting needs of mixed ability class. It is a big step down from CES but not worse than our home middle school. Global studies I think would be better in home middle school because Takoma doesn’t use the cohort model for this (but does have the enriched course this year, technically) - but it also doesn’t seem very rigorous.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid went from a regional CES to the home MS. 99% for MAP scores.

She likes the AIM HIGH courses. English is pretty sad because it’s mixed ability English and there are some kids who have trouble writing basic sentences. Science has been good because she has a good teacher.

For English, even in TPMS it is mixed with non magnet, which is worse than average home MS

How is this "worse" and why do people think mixed abilities in English adversely affect their kids? I've had 2 kids come out of HGC (more competitive than CESs are now), get into both Eastern & Takoma, choose Takoma and have GREAT experiences in English. FWIW, there were also a bad and a meh experience, but the issue was not the class ability, it was the teacher. (The bad teacher is gone). Just because kids are at different reading/writing levels doesn't mean they can't learn together or even learn from one another in discussions and lectures and activities. Teachers have wonderful resources at varying lexile levels to work with a variety of levels. It's not like math. Keep an open mind about learning potential in a mixed English class. So much of it is what kid brings to the table in his/her writing and what the teacher offers in terms of lessons and feedback. Having diverse perspectives in the class can also be a learning tool.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Were there kids who scored in the 99th percentile within MCPS (vs 99 percentile nationally). Who didn’t get in the magnets? I don’t remember anyone like that posting when the results come out, but of course that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

Yes absolutely. My kid was at a regional CES and there were only 8 kid admitted across all three CES classes. There were many really high scoring kids who did not get into the Magnet MS.

MCPS changed the MS Magnets around last year. Instead of pulling just the highest scoring kids, they took lower scoring students who scored high relative to others at their lower performing schools. In other words, a kid with an 89%ile score at a lower performing school would get in over a 99%ile kid at a school with lots of 99%ile kids.

That’s being equitable.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD only complains about the non-enriched classes and kids in them who aren’t following, disrupt class, etc. She likes the mat and humanities (especially humanities) a lot. I prefer this new method. DD is very bright, gets straight A’s, but she “only” scores lows 90’s in standardized tests. So under the old system she wouldn’t have had the enrichment and some of her cohort would be missing from our home school.

So, I take it that the cohort in the enriched math (AIM) and enriched humanities is pretty strong? It's just the other classes?

It's my understanding that the magnet middle schools all have mixed-peer group classes for the non-core magnet classes; is that correct? So, mixed cohort English classes in TPMS and mixed cohort math classes in Eastern??

OP: it seems like all of her new friends are in one or both enriched classes with her. If they take the same electives, they end up in a lot together just because of how the schedules fall. I imagine at least some of those kids would’ve been at a magnet, so for my DD this has been a positive. Cohort for social scene + enrichment offered for her.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD only complains about the non-enriched classes and kids in them who aren’t following, disrupt class, etc. She likes the mat and humanities (especially humanities) a lot. I prefer this new method. DD is very bright, gets straight A’s, but she “only” scores lows 90’s in standardized tests. So under the old system she wouldn’t have had the enrichment and some of her cohort would be missing from our home school.

So, I take it that the cohort in the enriched math (AIM) and enriched humanities is pretty strong? It's just the other classes?

It's my understanding that the magnet middle schools all have mixed-peer group classes for the non-core magnet classes; is that correct? So, mixed cohort English classes in TPMS and mixed cohort math classes in Eastern??

At Eastern, my sixth grader has non-magnet math, science, and PE classes. But actually the math class is AIM, so it does have a cohort there, which includes non-magnet students. There's also the Literature in the Humanities class, which used to be part of the magnet program but is now an elective, and is taken by almost all the magnet students but also some neighborhood students as well.

Anonymous wrote:My DD only complains about the non-enriched classes and kids in them who aren’t following, disrupt class, etc. She likes the mat and humanities (especially humanities) a lot. I prefer this new method. DD is very bright, gets straight A’s, but she “only” scores lows 90’s in standardized tests. So under the old system she wouldn’t have had the enrichment and some of her cohort would be missing from our home school.

So, I take it that the cohort in the enriched math (AIM) and enriched humanities is pretty strong? It's just the other classes?

It's my understanding that the magnet middle schools all have mixed-peer group classes for the non-core magnet classes; is that correct? So, mixed cohort English classes in TPMS and mixed cohort math classes in Eastern??

My DD only complains about the non-enriched classes and kids in them who aren’t following, disrupt class, etc. She likes the mat and humanities (especially humanities) a lot. I prefer this new method. DD is very bright, gets straight A’s, but she “only” scores lows 90’s in standardized tests. So under the old system she wouldn’t have had the enrichment and some of her cohort would be missing from our home school.

Even back before the enriched classes, 6th grade was usually alright for former CES students.

Adding a language, more levels of math, going to a new school and being in the youngest grade so they hadn't seen what happens in the school year, all made it bearable.

7th was actually, the worst. They knew enough to get in trouble but didn't yet see HS as being real.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have older kids. It happened to several of their friends. I have a current 6th grader. She is not in AIM because we didn’t push for that. Other parents did.

AIM has only existed for two years, so for your older kids friends it was likely "regular" IM, still an advanced class, but not the class the OP has asked about.

Well, PP, you are half right. These were very bright kids from W feeder MS. Very much like the kids in AIM this year. Some of them took Algebra in 6th grade instead. Very few kids are really ready for that kind of acceleration, some were not ready for IM. If not, it will catch up with them.

My current 6th grader had high stats but was not in the elusive 99th percentile - I thought that’s what OP asked about. Not interested in AIM because that’s not the track we want her on for math. She’s gifted, but not that math kid. DS was and is that kid.

Some kids are ready for that and have the natural math abilities and love for the subject, like our DS. He’s just made that way / no extra prep work. I’m sure your kid is like that too PP, but my point is that not every kid is. You may not like to hear that, but it’s true. Maybe AIM will work out better than Algebra in 6th grade. I don’t know.

Best of luck to your 99th percentile kid, PP.

It’s interesting to read the responses about the local enriched classes. I have a 99%’er (national and mcps norms) currently getting all As in sixth grade at a magnet middle, and I still wonder about whether the home middle would have been a viable option. I think socially the magnet is a better fit and my kid is really enjoying the curriculum and class work and discussions, but there are significant trade offs with the long and early bus ride (>1 hour each way), as well as significant amounts of homework (so far, a minimum of 1 hour and often more like 2 or more hours every day, including weekends). A good cohort and good enriched classes at the local school could be an attractive option, but our local middle ranks very low in the cohort criteria (judging from the data gathered in the field test), and my kid doesn’t have any friends there anyway (went to a regional CES and friends from 5th grade and other activities are all scattered at other schools, but there are good friends at the magnet with my kid).

Anonymous wrote:Send your kid to private so they can only be with rich white kids. I'm not worrying about it. All I care is they have the opportunity to take honors and AP in high school. I couldn't care less about middle school.

And still here you are trying to answer questions about MS.

Anonymous wrote:Send your kid to private so they can only be with rich white kids. I'm not worrying about it. All I care is they have the opportunity to take honors and AP in high school. I couldn't care less about middle school.

FFS. What is wrong with you people?

Why would you assume CES kids are rich and white? My kid was at a CES and we are not rich and certainly not White.

Gross.

And kids at a Magnet MS are definitely not there to be around rich, White kids anyway. Your post doesn’t even make sense.

Anonymous wrote:Send your kid to private so they can only be with rich white kids. I'm not worrying about it. All I care is they have the opportunity to take honors and AP in high school. I couldn't care less about middle school.

Yes, finding out that HS placement is not attached to MS placement was a bit of a shock. I guess I expected MS placement to matter more, given the hysterics surrounding it.

Send your kid to private so they can only be with rich white kids. I'm not worrying about it. All I care is they have the opportunity to take honors and AP in high school. I couldn't care less about middle school.