New boundary study for Churchill, Clarksburg, Damascus, Gaithersburg, RM, Northwest, Poolesville, QO, SV, WM, Wootton

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If MCPS has good schools with top-notch education programs, FARMS won't matter one way or the other. Parents that care about education will relocate to the county for their children's educational opportunities.

It seems MCPS has given up trying to provide top-notch programs. Now their only strategy is to shift around poor people in the hopes of watering down issues at their home schools.

However, the assumption that poor=problem is one MCPS CO is making up themselves. Instead the CO should step up and go sit daily at the schools with problems and instead of at Hungerford. And they should sit there, at that school, until it's problems have been fixed.

This is nonsense. Even in MCPS, there's a direct correlation between test scores and poverty. Schools with the least poverty have the highest averages. Even schools where many kids do as well as anywhere have a lower average because they shoulder more poverty. You can try to pretend it doesn't matter but it really does.

Exactly! Kids do worse at schools with concentrated poverty. The county needs to do a better job of spreading this more evenly to ensure all schools can offer a good education to those who want that.

There is no good way to do this beyond busing and rich families aren't going to agree to bussing nor do "poor" families. It really doesn't work well socially either. The county needs to put more resources into the lower preforming schools.

We are building and staffing new schools to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. This will be a huge benefit to overcrowded, underperforming schools that are stretched thin. That's a great thing. Leave high performing schools alone. Lift the bottom up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If MCPS has good schools with top-notch education programs, FARMS won't matter one way or the other. Parents that care about education will relocate to the county for their children's educational opportunities.

It seems MCPS has given up trying to provide top-notch programs. Now their only strategy is to shift around poor people in the hopes of watering down issues at their home schools.

However, the assumption that poor=problem is one MCPS CO is making up themselves. Instead the CO should step up and go sit daily at the schools with problems and instead of at Hungerford. And they should sit there, at that school, until it's problems have been fixed.

This is nonsense. Even in MCPS, there's a direct correlation between test scores and poverty. Schools with the least poverty have the highest averages. Even schools where many kids do as well as anywhere have a lower average because they shoulder more poverty. You can try to pretend it doesn't matter but it really does.

Exactly! Kids do worse at schools with concentrated poverty. The county needs to do a better job of spreading this more evenly to ensure all schools can offer a good education to those who want that.

There is no good way to do this beyond busing and rich families aren't going to agree to bussing nor do "poor" families. It really doesn't work well socially either. The county needs to put more resources into the lower preforming schools.

And said resources will come from where? And be funded by?

Did you forget we live in a country that favors low taxes, high expectations, and power for the wealthy.

If WE THE PEOPLE would pay attention to what is going on in our communities and ask the pertinent questions of elected officials and vote them in/out based on the interest of the common good things would be better.

Favor low taxes, are you kidding me? This is the county that tax burden is much higher than neighboring counties and rest of the states

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If MCPS has good schools with top-notch education programs, FARMS won't matter one way or the other. Parents that care about education will relocate to the county for their children's educational opportunities.

It seems MCPS has given up trying to provide top-notch programs. Now their only strategy is to shift around poor people in the hopes of watering down issues at their home schools.

However, the assumption that poor=problem is one MCPS CO is making up themselves. Instead the CO should step up and go sit daily at the schools with problems and instead of at Hungerford. And they should sit there, at that school, until it's problems have been fixed.

This is nonsense. Even in MCPS, there's a direct correlation between test scores and poverty. Schools with the least poverty have the highest averages. Even schools where many kids do as well as anywhere have a lower average because they shoulder more poverty. You can try to pretend it doesn't matter but it really does.

Exactly! Kids do worse at schools with concentrated poverty. The county needs to do a better job of spreading this more evenly to ensure all schools can offer a good education to those who want that.

There is no good way to do this beyond busing and rich families aren't going to agree to bussing nor do "poor" families. It really doesn't work well socially either. The county needs to put more resources into the lower preforming schools.

We are building and staffing new schools to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. This will be a huge benefit to overcrowded, underperforming schools that are stretched thin. That's a great thing. Leave high performing schools alone. Lift the bottom up.

But top-down works so much better....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If MCPS has good schools with top-notch education programs, FARMS won't matter one way or the other. Parents that care about education will relocate to the county for their children's educational opportunities.

It seems MCPS has given up trying to provide top-notch programs. Now their only strategy is to shift around poor people in the hopes of watering down issues at their home schools.

However, the assumption that poor=problem is one MCPS CO is making up themselves. Instead the CO should step up and go sit daily at the schools with problems and instead of at Hungerford. And they should sit there, at that school, until it's problems have been fixed.

This is nonsense. Even in MCPS, there's a direct correlation between test scores and poverty. Schools with the least poverty have the highest averages. Even schools where many kids do as well as anywhere have a lower average because they shoulder more poverty. You can try to pretend it doesn't matter but it really does.

This is nonsense. Even in MCPS, you can pretend that FARMS can be solved by the school, but not really.

The "direct correlation between test scores and poverty" is pretty straight-forward. Parents who are educated tend to educate at home and seek out schools with high academic standards. Parents who are not educated, on average, earn less income. A child without academic support at home is less likely to academically succeed. The compensating factor would be to offer free tutoring (which MCPS did). The question is how many FARMS students even took advantage of the program? You can lead a horse to water..

Pretend all you want, but the school can't change a child's parents.

Some of it is also genetics. Those with higher incomes often have higher IQ's they pass onto their kids/

Brilliantly executed troll! Bravo!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If MCPS has good schools with top-notch education programs, FARMS won't matter one way or the other. Parents that care about education will relocate to the county for their children's educational opportunities.

It seems MCPS has given up trying to provide top-notch programs. Now their only strategy is to shift around poor people in the hopes of watering down issues at their home schools.

However, the assumption that poor=problem is one MCPS CO is making up themselves. Instead the CO should step up and go sit daily at the schools with problems and instead of at Hungerford. And they should sit there, at that school, until it's problems have been fixed.

This is nonsense. Even in MCPS, there's a direct correlation between test scores and poverty. Schools with the least poverty have the highest averages. Even schools where many kids do as well as anywhere have a lower average because they shoulder more poverty. You can try to pretend it doesn't matter but it really does.

Exactly! Kids do worse at schools with concentrated poverty. The county needs to do a better job of spreading this more evenly to ensure all schools can offer a good education to those who want that.

There is no good way to do this beyond busing and rich families aren't going to agree to bussing nor do "poor" families. It really doesn't work well socially either. The county needs to put more resources into the lower preforming schools.

We are building and staffing new schools to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. This will be a huge benefit to overcrowded, underperforming schools that are stretched thin. That's a great thing. Leave high performing schools alone. Lift the bottom up.

But top-down works so much better....

"Trickle down" you mean!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If MCPS has good schools with top-notch education programs, FARMS won't matter one way or the other. Parents that care about education will relocate to the county for their children's educational opportunities.

It seems MCPS has given up trying to provide top-notch programs. Now their only strategy is to shift around poor people in the hopes of watering down issues at their home schools.

However, the assumption that poor=problem is one MCPS CO is making up themselves. Instead the CO should step up and go sit daily at the schools with problems and instead of at Hungerford. And they should sit there, at that school, until it's problems have been fixed.

This is nonsense. Even in MCPS, there's a direct correlation between test scores and poverty. Schools with the least poverty have the highest averages. Even schools where many kids do as well as anywhere have a lower average because they shoulder more poverty. You can try to pretend it doesn't matter but it really does.

Exactly! Kids do worse at schools with concentrated poverty. The county needs to do a better job of spreading this more evenly to ensure all schools can offer a good education to those who want that.

There is no good way to do this beyond busing and rich families aren't going to agree to bussing nor do "poor" families. It really doesn't work well socially either. The county needs to put more resources into the lower preforming schools.

We are building and staffing new schools to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. This will be a huge benefit to overcrowded, underperforming schools that are stretched thin. That's a great thing. Leave high performing schools alone. Lift the bottom up.

But top-down works so much better....

"Trickle down" you mean!

Sure, why not? I was being sarcastic.

[Anonymous]

The scope will change. Damascus renovation just got delayed again (no surprise) so it will be done years after the Crown HS opens. Therefore, Clarksburg HS and Damascus HS are off the chart.

Anonymous wrote:Giving this one its own thread.

This morning, MCPS staff proposed combining the boundary studies for Crown and Damascus high schools into one large study with the following high schools and their feeder middle schools in scope: Churchill, Clarksburg, Damascus, Gaithersburg, Richard Montgomery, Northwest, Poolesville, Quince Orchard, Seneca Valley, Watkins Mill, and Wootton.

The boundary study process would happen during 2025, and the final boundary vote would be in March 2026.

Detailed timeline:

Spring 2024--Request for Proposal released
Summer 2024--Board approves consultant
Fall 2024--Prepare for community engagement
Early 2025-Fall/Winter 2025--Boundary study process
January 2026--Boundary Study Report released
Early February 2026--Recommendation released
Late February-March 2026--Board work sessions, public hearings and action

This study has been proposed, but not approved by the board yet. That would happen at their March 19th meeting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The scope will change. Damascus renovation just got delayed again (no surprise) so it will be done years after the Crown HS opens. Therefore, Clarksburg HS and Damascus HS are off the chart.

Anonymous wrote:Giving this one its own thread.

This morning, MCPS staff proposed combining the boundary studies for Crown and Damascus high schools into one large study with the following high schools and their feeder middle schools in scope: Churchill, Clarksburg, Damascus, Gaithersburg, Richard Montgomery, Northwest, Poolesville, Quince Orchard, Seneca Valley, Watkins Mill, and Wootton.

The boundary study process would happen during 2025, and the final boundary vote would be in March 2026.

Detailed timeline:

Spring 2024--Request for Proposal released
Summer 2024--Board approves consultant
Fall 2024--Prepare for community engagement
Early 2025-Fall/Winter 2025--Boundary study process
January 2026--Boundary Study Report released
Early February 2026--Recommendation released
Late February-March 2026--Board work sessions, public hearings and action

This study has been proposed, but not approved by the board yet. That would happen at their March 19th meeting.

The scope of the study and the projects themselves are likely to get whittled down as we move forward. The money isn't there. They did this to themselves by wasting money on nonsense over the last decade instead of prioritizing critical capital projects when funding was actually available. Now the music has stopped.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The scope will change. Damascus renovation just got delayed again (no surprise) so it will be done years after the Crown HS opens. Therefore, Clarksburg HS and Damascus HS are off the chart.

Anonymous wrote:Giving this one its own thread.

This morning, MCPS staff proposed combining the boundary studies for Crown and Damascus high schools into one large study with the following high schools and their feeder middle schools in scope: Churchill, Clarksburg, Damascus, Gaithersburg, Richard Montgomery, Northwest, Poolesville, Quince Orchard, Seneca Valley, Watkins Mill, and Wootton.

The boundary study process would happen during 2025, and the final boundary vote would be in March 2026.

Detailed timeline:

Spring 2024--Request for Proposal released
Summer 2024--Board approves consultant
Fall 2024--Prepare for community engagement
Early 2025-Fall/Winter 2025--Boundary study process
January 2026--Boundary Study Report released
Early February 2026--Recommendation released
Late February-March 2026--Board work sessions, public hearings and action

This study has been proposed, but not approved by the board yet. That would happen at their March 19th meeting.

The scope of the study and the projects themselves are likely to get whittled down as we move forward. The money isn't there. They did this to themselves by wasting money on nonsense over the last decade instead of prioritizing critical capital projects when funding was actually available. Now the music has stopped.

Note that I'm not saying the new schools will be outright cancelled, obviously, but they are probably going to be smaller than originally planned to save money. It is insane to watch these people talking about so many dumb initiatives while so many schools sit in disrepair for decades.