Best high schools for African American students?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know how you define well. There are A LOT of safety/security and cultural issues with the high schools in Silver Spring.

If I had to rank best to worst for black students, I'd say in the DCC:
- Blair
- Wheaton
- Einstein
- Northwood
- Kennedy

NEC:
- Blake
- Springbrook
- Paint Branch

Paint Branch is the most majority black high school population in MCPS but the academic outcomes and behavioral issues are OFF THE CHARTS. MCPS has a lot of work to do to improve the learning experience for black students. They've failed black kids pretty significantly.

Dog whistle alert.

I don’t hear it. What are cultural issues supposed to mean in the context of schooling?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Moving to Montgomery County from Southern Maryland. My daughter is a rising kindergarten and I’m interested in a school cluster that has a significant amount of African American students, but also ones that do extremely well and are well supported. I prefer the Silver Spring area since that’s where my job is, but I’m open to other parts of the county.

Blair, Blake, Einstein, Paint Branch... just to name a few.
Also, Silver Spring has the best outcomes for Black students.

Data for this? What a strange thing to say. I also don’t think it is correct.

To be specific, Silver Spring is among the best places in the country to raise Black boys, and research has shown that outcomes for Black men are the most impactful for families. The long paper link is below, and you can do a CTL-F for Silver Spring.

http://www.equality-of-opportunity.org/assets/documents/race_paper.pdf

(This is for 25%ile parent income. Best places for 75%ile parent income are not in DC area.)

Downtown Silver Spring, Woodside Park, Woodside Forest

College Park, Prince Georges' County

New Carrolton, Prince Georges' County

Greenbelt, Prince Georges' County

I think they mean there’s a science and tech school I think at Roosevelt High that all these kids go to and it gets heavy matriculation into top universities

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Just pointing out for those who may not have noticed: OP's child is a rising kindergartener.

While that is true, I want to move to cluster that she can go to from K-12. I want this to be a one time move.

I understand. If you're considering any of the Downcounty Consortium (DCC) schools, be advised that there will be a boundary study soon, which may redraw the middle and high school boundaries. Elementary boundaries are not included. The NEC does not have any imminent boundary studies.

Yes, I'd be especially aware of property close to Woodward or any of the adjacent schools like Wheaton, WJ, Einstein and BCC.

Sure, but also the lines between Blair and Northwood and Kennedy are likely to change too to help with Blair's overcrowding.

I would also expect that to the South between BCC and Blair since BCC is so closer to many in the part of Silver Spring just east of the park.

If you mean just east of Rock Creek Park, that part is already zoned to BCC.

Some are some aren't.... There are many in that area assigned to Einstein or Blair but physically closer to BCC.

Einstein's boundary only goes to the eastern half of the Summit Hills apartment buildings. The western half are assigned to BCC. And no, no one assigned to Blair is physically closer to BCC than Blair.

What are all these acronyms anyone? Bcc?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just pointing out for those who may not have noticed: OP's child is a rising kindergartener.

While that is true, I want to move to cluster that she can go to from K-12. I want this to be a one time move.

I understand. If you're considering any of the Downcounty Consortium (DCC) schools, be advised that there will be a boundary study soon, which may redraw the middle and high school boundaries. Elementary boundaries are not included. The NEC does not have any imminent boundary studies.

Yes, I'd be especially aware of property close to Woodward or any of the adjacent schools like Wheaton, WJ, Einstein and BCC.

Sure, but also the lines between Blair and Northwood and Kennedy are likely to change too to help with Blair's overcrowding.

I would also expect that to the South between BCC and Blair since BCC is so closer to many in the part of Silver Spring just east of the park.

If you mean just east of Rock Creek Park, that part is already zoned to BCC.

Some are some aren't.... There are many in that area assigned to Einstein or Blair but physically closer to BCC.

Einstein's boundary only goes to the eastern half of the Summit Hills apartment buildings. The western half are assigned to BCC. And no, no one assigned to Blair is physically closer to BCC than Blair.

What are all these acronyms anyone? Bcc?

Bethesda Chevy Chase high school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bethesda. You will not find a "significant" number of AA students but you will find the best schools / teachers and that benefits all kids.

BCC cluster and Churchill have more diversity than Whitman's area but all those schools are v strong.

No.

St. John’s College HS in DC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Near Silver Spring, I'd go for Wheaton. Wheaton is one of the top three in MCPS.

A lot of DCUMS will steer you to Blair ("Blair envy" is a myth perpetuated from when Blair was a top school 10-15 years ago). Nowadays it's not that good a school. Check the school profile and you'll see what I mean.

If you were not set on Silver Spring, a school that African Americans excel in is Poolsville (currently the top school in MCPS).

Good luck!

Except that is not a majority African Americans school.

Does Poolesville even have any AA students?

Yes, it does and they perform very well. My daughter is in SMCS and has never earned anything but A’s. There are other similar AA students such as her. It Poolesville is far. We live in Comus so not too far from there but it is way out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Near Silver Spring, I'd go for Wheaton. Wheaton is one of the top three in MCPS.

A lot of DCUMS will steer you to Blair ("Blair envy" is a myth perpetuated from when Blair was a top school 10-15 years ago). Nowadays it's not that good a school. Check the school profile and you'll see what I mean.

If you were not set on Silver Spring, a school that African Americans excel in is Poolsville (currently the top school in MCPS).

Good luck!

Except that is not a majority African Americans school.

Does Poolesville even have any AA students?

Yes, it does and they perform very well. My daughter is in SMCS and has never earned anything but A’s. There are other similar AA students such as her. It Poolesville is far. We live in Comus so not too far from there but it is way out there.

Yes, it has among the lowest AA enrollment of any school in mcps far below the county average.

[Anonymous]

Check out the Walter Johnson cluster.

[Anonymous]

Another vote for Blake- I work there and love it! Many of our high fliers are African American. Good prices on real estate and even though it’s in “Colesville “ technically, it’s really Silver Spring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another vote for Blake- I work there and love it! Many of our high fliers are African American. Good prices on real estate and even though it’s in “Colesville “ technically, it’s really Silver Spring.

OP here, I was looking in this area as well as Burtonsville. Thank you all for the recommendations.

[Anonymous]

I think the topic is a bit a vague. If you are asking about the best high schools that are predominantly AA or Black this may be a different question than where your child can be most successful. I also like to promote Poolesville over HS. It is a small school. So race/class/SES can be less important than personality. Less competition in terms of numbers for teams. Lots of clubs. Very positive atmosphere with high expectations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the topic is a bit a vague. If you are asking about the best high schools that are predominantly AA or Black this may be a different question than where your child can be most successful. I also like to promote Poolesville over HS. It is a small school. So race/class/SES can be less important than personality. Less competition in terms of numbers for teams. Lots of clubs. Very positive atmosphere with high expectations.

Not sure of your point, especially your assertion that "personality" being more important than race/class/SES (strange thing to say), but I do think Poolesville is a great school. While there aren't a ton of AA kids nearly all are top students in the top magnets - the science and math one and the global ecology one - so it's a place where if you happen to be AA the probability that you're a top student is really high. It's a very diverse school overall but the local kids are mostly white.

[Anonymous]

This is a hard set of criteria to meet. If you are looking for large numbers of AA students, PG county is your best bet. Especially talk to parents about private schools in that county as, I believe, some of the public schools are not rated well. Also look at PG’s language immersion programs in the public schools. In all counties those programs tend to get more resources.

As far as Montgomery county look at the top rated high schools and try to get into those neighborhood clusters. In DCC you’ll find a good number of Black and brown students. However, if this matters to you, a significant number of Black students will be from families that recently immigrated to the U.S. If you want Black families that have been in the states for generations, PG is your best bet.

[Anonymous]

There are very, very few AA students at Whitman, which is one of the highest overall performing high schools in Moco and those AA students who do attend are often living in a group home, relocated to Bethesda from places like Baltimore, for their own safety.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bethesda. You will not find a "significant" number of AA students but you will find the best schools / teachers and that benefits all kids.

BCC cluster and Churchill have more diversity than Whitman's area but all those schools are v strong.

No.

St. John’s College HS in DC

Not great with science and math. Also, something to consider, you get another month of school per year in public schools than at SJCHS or other catholic schools.