Thursday, November 06, 2014

“HISD Magnet Schools More Selective than Harvard” Reads Title of Article by ABC Operative That is Both Inscrutable and Incompetent

By Nicholas Stix

Thanks to A Texas Reader, who writes,
Round Eye, you no smart.

I work hard.

Make all A.

Most of what today passes for journalism today is horrid, but education, crime, and sports reporting all deserve particular condemnation, and for the usual reasons. The reality is twisted by diversity, and the reporters have sworn an oath to be as dishonest as possible on all matters regarding diversity.

Everything is about race;
You must lie about race; therefore,
You must lie about everything.

“Magnet” schools are officially selective schools that were introduced in urban areas whose education bosses had, in collaboration with racist black and Hispanic families, destroyed the public schools, in order to keep some lower-middle and working-class white and Asian parents from sending their kids to private schools, or homeschooling them. The purpose is to hold onto all of the tax money the public schools would otherwise lose. Public schools get paid by their respective states a head fee for every student they claim attended school each day.

As racial socialists and their Republican capos gut the public school system, and private schools run on connections, wealth, and bribes, the ever fewer pockets of public schools not completely destroyed take on the scarcity school politics of the private sector. Thus, as the wealthy have for over a generation used consultants and bribes to get their kids into the most expensive private school for kindergarten, now parents who are bright and care about their kids, yet who are anything but rich are doing the same thing (except for paying the expensive tuition) to get their kids into the dwindling number of schools that have not yet been destroyed by feral, racist black and Hispanic kids.

If Houston is anything like New York City, the magnet school in question is not half as academically demanding as the story claims. It, too, has been academically degraded by the admission, through rigged affirmative action, of unqualified black, Hispanic, and Asian kids who drag down the academic level of the most rigorous classes. However, the function of such schools is no longer to give kids the best possible education, It is akin to the role of Catholic schools, where parents pay money they really don’t have, in order to have their kids attend a school where they aren’t in danger of daily being robbed, raped, and/or maimed by racist black and Hispanic thugs.

And even that minimum is being destroyed, as New York City’s Board of Ed/Department of Education/Whatever began, already under billionaire Mike Bloomberg, to force “special ed” kids (black thugs) into institutions that are officially magnet schools.

I say this as the father of a boy who has been attending academically degraded “magnet schools” in New York City for the past three years-and-change.

I could have gotten him into an allegedly highly selective, meritocratic school, but that would have required that he spend up to five hours a day commuting on city buses and subways with the very racist, feral blacks and Hispanics that I have devoted my life to protecting him from, and which is why I still take him (even though he now towers over me) to school every day, on foot, by city bus, or on rare occasion, by taxicab.

ABC operative Karla Barguiarena writes, “Students are randomly chosen via lottery.” A lottery is completely random, as Barguiarena noted. But a selective school works the opposite way. Which is it; random or selective? And if it’s random, the consultants Barguiarena discussed are completely worthless.

She also writes of “magnet neighborhood school[s],” when the alternative is the magnet vs. the neighborhood school. No copy editor appears to have gone over Barguiarena’s manuscript. Thus, her article is worse than no article at all. She doesn’t explain to readers why the magnet schools exist, what the official admissions criteria are, or how the admissions mechanism actually works, and she completely confuses and confounds them with contradictory talk of random lotteries, high-priced consultants, and gamesmanship. Even if she were an ignoramus, simple logical analysis should have told her that her article couldn’t be true. Then again, she’s an education report—she doesn’t care about the truth.

 
Fong wanted her son Jacob to attend Mark Twain Elementary's magnet program because she saw it as a better option than her zoned school, and so did other parents she was talking to. "We were talking about how stressed we were and we couldn't believe that …
 

HISD magnet schools more selective than Harvard
By Karla Barguiarena
ABC/KTRK

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Did you know that it's easier to get into Harvard than it is HISD's top magnet schools? That is according to a local academic consulting firm.

If you want your kids to try and make the switch, this is the week to explore HISD's Magnet Program. The online application is now available, and parents can tour some of the district's best schools.

If you'd like for your child to be immersed in a foreign language, you can enroll them at the Mandarin Chinese Immersion School. Your kids can earn an associate's degree while at Jones Futures Academy. But it won't be easy to get them in. You'll have to apply to HISD's magnet school program, along with thousands of other parents.

Wendy Fong did it not too long ago.

"I was really concerned that we wouldn't get into a magnet school," Fong said.

Fong wanted her son Jacob to attend Mark Twain Elementary's magnet program because she saw it as a better option than her zoned school, and so did other parents she was talking to.

"We were talking about how stressed we were and we couldn't believe that we were just trying to get him into kindergarten," she said.

That's because these days-getting him into a magnet kindergarten is tougher than you think.

Shelby Joe owns an academic consulting firm. He and his team crunched the numbers and came up with a list of the top 10 magnet programs in HISD.

"It's easier to get into Harvard than it is to get into the top five, top 10 HISD magnet schools," Joe said.

Twain elementary ranked as the most coveted school. Of the 748 kids that applied last year, only 13 got in. Johnston Middle School received 1273 applications but accepted less than one-third (391)! Carnegie Vanguard High School saw
1,447 applications and only accepted 175.

Why are there so few spots? Magnet programs have become so popular and tend do [sic] better academically that parents are now more inclined to send their kids to the magnet neighborhood school.

[Aside from the ungrammatical character of Karla Barguiarena’s sentence, schools don’t do better academically, students do. And there are no “magnet neighborhood school[s]”; the alternative is the magnet vs. the neighborhood school. Where was the copy editor?!]

"If you want to go to the top 10, the top 15 schools just understand from the beginning that you have less than a 10 percent chance of getting in," Joe said.

Students are randomly chosen via lottery. [A lottery is completely random, as Barguiarena just noted. A selective school works the opposite way. Which is it; random or selective? And if it’s random, consultants are completely worthless.] To improve your chances , [sic] Joe suggests applying to as many schools as possible. HISD sets the limit at 10. Also, include less coveted schools in your list. Be mindful of deadlines-this year all applications need to be submitted online by Dec. 19.

Fong's son didn't get in to their top choices, but finally found a home at the Mandarin Chinese Immersion School.

"It was just a huge sigh of relief. it [sic] was like yes we don't have to worry about this anymore," Fong said.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Mandarin Chinese. Back in the 1950's and 1960's it was Russian. The wave of the future and we needed so many more Russian speakers.

OH, and the Russian students were so much smarter than the American kids. Just like now they say the Chinese students are so much better than the American kids.

Same-o Same-o GI.