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Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)
elementary school that would welcome my biracial child?
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Anonymous
I agree - how about the commute to rockville in rush hour. I think there are other neighborhoods who can say the same closer than tp/ss. |
Anonymous
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Cashell is in Rockville, more diverse than TP and small (305 kids in Pre-K through 5th).
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Anonymous
| Also consider Farmland Elementary in Rockville/N. Bethesda (20852 Zip). Very highly regarded (9 out of 10 on Great Schools), international vibe, close to 50% minorities, ~6% FARMS. |
Anonymous
It has close to 50% minorities because it is over 30% Asian. It is less than 5% black. Great if the OP's child is Asian, not so great if the child is black. http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/02219.pdf |
Anonymous
Yawn. "OP wants diverse AA? His? Other What are schools that you felt your child was valued for who they were?" It's in Rockville. this is a great school - diverse and good commute. HS is - WJ - great school also. |
Anonymous
OP asked about other minority populations as well, and I can assure you that a biracial child would feel very welcome at Farmland. There is also a close to 10% hispanic population. Individuals are very valued at this school. Awesome teachers too. |
Anonymous
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OP asked, "African American families here? Hispanic families? others? What are schools that you felt your child was valued for who they were?"
When AA families answered, people argues with them over how they should and should not feel. And I know an AA kid at Farmland who definitely notices that he is different form the other students. |
Anonymous
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I'm not here to cause "turf wars." So I won't name the development.
But it is truly diverse. I wish I had half of their wealth! 
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Anonymous
It is socio-economics. Some of my wealthy AA pals will no longer associate with friends who aren't as educated and who aren't making enough money to live in similar neighborhoods. One pal actually said that her old high school pal is off the list b/c she's on food stamps. I can say the same for some of my Hispanic friends. I'm talking from personal experience. It may be somewhat idealistic at the elementary level before kids start to recognizes differences. However, by the time kids hit middle and high school, they begin to choose friends based on economics and culture. There is a poverty of culture, you know. So if Carla Schmidt's daddy is a lawyer living in a McMansion, Jimmy's pals will most likely be children of other wealthy parents in the same social circles. I don't understand how this is so hard to understand. My school is, sadly, "low performing." Our FARMs stats are high - but not as high as they should be b/c high school kids are too embarrassed to turn in their forms for free/reduced meals. The students with whom I work are mainly minority students on FARMs. I can tell you that they're not socializing with some of our high achievers who come from wealthy educated families. That includes their high-achieving peers who share their culture. I can't tell you how many times I've heard some of the educated Africans say that their AA peers are too "ghetto." The same is true for Asians and other cultures. It's rare for them to mix, and it takes a strong kid to cross that line. But the educated parents who have that control will also enforce rules that their children are not to mix with the others. One of my most successful students from El Salvador was often told by his father that if he ever dressed like "that" - often pointing out other Hispanic kids - or acted like that, he wouldn't pay for college. So while it's easy to blame whites for being racist (and I can't argue against that), keep in mind that racist views often stem from economics. Furthermore, although a student may be a "FARMs" kid, if education is valued at home, these students will often separate themselves from others who don't value education. I live it each day from August to June. |
Anonymous
But you are describing social dynamics in a school which has enough black and hispanic students that a broad class spectrum can be observed. Black students can choose to associate with the so-called ghetto kids or with high achievers. No individual hispanic student has to feel as if he or she is representing all hispanics. White students are not drawing conclusions about how black people act by observing a sample size of 4 % of the student body. Our kids are young, so they still are friendly with the full range of races and socio-economic classes in our diverse SS school. By high school, I would not be surprised if their friendships lean more towards kids with similar educational and SES backgrounds to ours. But they will still be able to find children of all ethnicities who are of the same SES. That is a totally different thing from saying that as long as a minority child is of an upper middle class SES, he or she will be fine in an overwhelmingly white school as long as they are all the same SES. |
Anonymous
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If all 4% of the black/hisp/whatever kids are rich - which probably happens in Potomac/Bethesda Elem. Schools then kids just assume black/hisp/whatever kids are rich too.
But when you have 90% of the kids in your school that are black/hisp/whatever are poor you figure black/hisp/whatever kids are poor. You just assume the other 10% are poor too - but never ask. ES kids are friendly and don't care if they are poor but assume they are poor. That is the problem with MoCo schools - they disproportionately represent black and hispanic kids as poor and that is not representative of the world at large. So diversity is great in some schools here but there is a pitfall - as long as parent are ready and willing to address it. And if you are black/hisp. and are not poor your child might have assumptions made about them that are not true. Which may not happen as often in Potomac/Bethesda schools because everybody is wealthy - just the level is different. |
Anonymous
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I appreciate the previous poster taking such time to explain their thinking about why it is socio-economics and not race. I'm not saying it is or it isn't. I'm just saying you should be able to discuss both. I am not arguing the points you made, but your points only prove my point. There is a reason that affluent Blacks and Hispanics take such a strong stance against their children associating with children of the same race but different SES. It is because they are the same race - and when those children go out into the world people may not see their money but they will see their color. Those families of color know what it is like to be judged solely on the color of their skin. I think that some people shy away from talking about race because they don't want anyone to think that, because you are a specific color, that you can't make the same achievements and meet the same goals. Of course that is not true. That is just like saying that because you are poor you can't learn - it is equally not true. Researchers have looked at data two different ways. First by SES and then by race and there are times that you will still see discrepancies. You don't blame the child - you blame the system.
I really do understand your friends of color - but some of their views stem from living a life of a person of color in America. Again, I'm not arguing that it is not SES. I'm just saying that lots of factors play a part in achievement data disparities. |
Anonymous
That's a fair point, but really, the people making the assumptions about SES are more the adults than the kids. I went to DCPS with lots of kids of a lower SES than I was from and it was not so much an issue. In fact, the kids with the lower SES had more expensive clothes, shoes, jewelry, etc., than I ever did because my parents refused to buy me expensive things. I'm sure on some level we as students were all aware of our relative places on the SES scale, but when it came to socializing around school, and more importantly, a sense of cultural belonging, it wasn't as relevant - if anything, being of the higher SES was a liability. But ultimately, I was able to feel a part of the mainstream school community because we were in a majority-minority environment. I would not have had that if I had gone to a majority white school, even though the kids would have been closer to my own SES. Where the assumptions about SES did manifest themselves was with the teachers/administrators. Some just had blinders on and wanted to lump all the black kids together - didn't matter how smart we were or what kind of SES we came from, if we were clothed in the outward appearances of being black - and by that I mean the way we dressed, talked, behaved in the school, they could not get past that and see us as individuals. I'll never forget how one of the college counselors was just incredulous when I told her that my family would not qualify for financial aid for college. She said her family had qualified, so surely mine would. I insisted that we would not, that my parents had already done the calculations, and she just stared at me for a while and finally said, "well, I just can't believe that!" As if she could not fathom the idea that a black family could be making more than her own. |
Anonymous
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AA family here.
DS attended Rosemary Hills ES, North Chevy Chase ES and Westland MS. All of these schools are racially and SES diverse. DD attends Stonegate Elementary in SS. Also very diverse! No probelms at any of these schools for us based on race or SES. |