Diversity, Inclusion, and the Magnet Program

by Simoni Mishra, Yas’Lyn Mohammed, Anika Rai, and Michaella Sevalie for Silver Quest

The authors and this publication are not experts in this subject matter — the intent behind this piece is to spark conversation about relevant and impactful issues in the Magnet. This article does not necessarily reflect the views of all Magnet students, all Magnet staff, Montgomery Blair High School, or The Magnet Foundation.

*Italicized names represent people who chose to remain anonymous.

Female Magnet Experience

Two children walk into a toy store. The mother ushers the girl to the stuffed animal section, while the boy is pointed to the opposite end of the store: the video games. Even at a young age, the separation of children’s toys by gender norms embodies a societal phenomenon that follows children into their professional careers. Magnet math teacher Jeremy Schwartz elaborates on the effect that these norms have on the careers that students choose to pursue. “There are broad, deep, and longstanding social norms that push young girls away from engineering, math, and science,” he says.

Traditionally male activities typically emphasize computational and cognitive skills while traditionally female activities often focus on nurturing interpersonal relationships. In STEM, these gender norms subconsciously reinforce the idea that men and women are better-suited for different disciplines. Male students tend to take more computationally heavy math and physics courses whereas female students tend to take interdisciplinary life science courses. A concrete example from Blair electives is that there are only eight male students in Foundations of Immunology and only five female students in Mathematical Physics (Math Phys).

As a teacher, Schwartz also notes these patterns. “It's unfortunately common among many — though certainly not all — male students to discount, minimize, or outright ignore contributions from their female peers much more so than they do from their male peers; concurrently, female students more often than male students withdraw a question or comment in progress,” he explains.

Magnet senior Isabella Fan was one of only seven girls on the accelerated computer science track. After completing the course, she heard from a friend that certain male students used a group chat to ridicule female members during class. “Whenever any of the girls asked questions, they would be like, ‘Why is she asking [the teacher] a question? Does she not get it?’” When boys asked questions in these classes, Fan says they didn’t receive the same backlash.

Magnet senior Jennifer Li adds that she “felt very scared to talk at all in classes [as a result].”

Fan agrees: “We rarely spoke up or asked questions. And when we did, we felt this sense of shame, as if it was admitting that we were stupid.”

On the classroom level, Schwartz discusses steps that he's taken to encourage self-advocacy among less outspoken students: “Tempering the most overzealous students, inviting participation from the most withheld, and giving students some control over their smaller workgroups.”

In an effort to increase female enrollment in some of these higher-level classes and create a more inclusive culture, the Magnet administration eliminated the application process for Math Phys and freshman accelerated computer science this year. Magnet Coordinator Peter Ostrander assures that changes in the application processes will not affect the integrity of the class, stressing that “coursework will stay the same.”

Magnet senior Davina explains that her overall experience in Math Phys was positive. “The actual balance of the genders hasn't really impacted my learning in a negative way,” she says. However, she notes that the hyperfixation on resolving gender disparities has alienated her just the same, leaving her often feeling tokenized. Davina says that when she told teachers she was thinking of taking Mathematical Physics, they said, “Oh, wonderful, there’s going to be another girl in that class!”

In the fall of 1985, the Science, Mathematics, and Computer Science Magnet Program made its debut at Blair. Although it was framed as a special program catered toward highly motivated students, its creation masked race-driven intentions.

According to “Magnet Switches Blair High Image to Positive” (1985) by The Washington Post, more than 60% of Blair students identified as racial minorities before the Magnet. Due to the high number of students of color, many white students at Blair began to transfer out. This pattern of “white flight” incentivized the school system to create countywide school choice programs at buildings that — like Blair — primarily taught Black and Brown students, an attempt to desegregate schools by attracting white students via prestige.

However, as Magnet alumna Samantha Xiao Cody (Class of ‘13) explains in an article published to Medium this summer, the Magnet was created as a separate entity within the school to maintain a sense of elite academic status for white families. “Magnet programs were crucial for this careful curation of school demographics, and crucial to keeping white families happy,” the article reads.

“The first time I heard about the history of the Magnet program was in one of my classes [at Blair],” junior Lydia Melkamu, who is Black, recalls. She says that understanding the history of the Magnet was “like a switch in [her] brain… as to why there’s so little representation [in the Magnet Program]… It was a missing piece to the puzzle.”

“The program involved a little bit of psychological warfare as a Black student,” Blair alumnus and current Diversity and Inclusion Instructional Coordinator Rahman Culver says, recounting his experience as a Black Magnet student. “The program sends a lot of messaging for who STEM is for… who belongs and who doesn’t.”

As Kundai Jongwe, a Black junior, notices, “race in general shows up as an uncomfortable topic, particularly for Magnet students.” Students in the program say “[they] focus on science, [they] don’t focus on politics [or race].” However, Jongwe says she began experiencing microaggressions on her first day at Blair. “A lot of Magnet kids would say, ‘I thought you were Asian, I was not expecting you to look like that looking at your name,’” she describes.

Melkamu explains she was told she “got accepted into the program because of [her] race” by a student, taking away spots from more “deserving” candidates. Per Ostrander, this couldn’t be any further from the truth. He says that the spots being “stolen” were never anyone’s to begin with.