Would you live in Takoma Park, MD with young family?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cherry picking data to make a point isn't helpful. Looking at the OVERALL performance across grades for both schools over the last few years the results are within a few percentage points for various demographic groups.

The facts being cited are for one class in one year and out of line with all other data. This is cherry picking at its finest to suit a false narrative.

It's the most recent data, and people are free to click through the various demographic and grade filters. It's too cumbersome to post that many links, and people may be more interested slicing it different ways.

[Anonymous]

Go to the community center playground behind PBES and the cop station and watch the droves of kids congregate and smoke weed with smashed beer bottles all over the place while little kids play on the playground. If you're lucky there will be a fight or something else. Would I raise my family in TP, no.

Signed
A mom who moved away after having her babies there

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went over to the Great Schools website to compare how PBES and ESSES stack up for myself, and frankly I don't see a significant difference with regard to how minority students perform on standardized tests. In general, it seems no matter which Montgomery County school you attend demographic groups perform similarly. This supports the earlier notion that this reflects larger societal problems that exist beyond the walls of any one school.

Don't look at GS. Look at the Maryland School Report Card at last year's PARCC results.
http://reportcard.msde.maryland.gov/ParccResults.aspx?PV=71:5:15:0756:3:N:10:13:2:1:4:1:1:2:3


http://reportcard.msde.maryland.gov/ParccResults.aspx?PV=71:4:15:0749:3:N:12:13:1:1:4:1:1:2:3
Poke around with the demographic filters on the site, and you will see some stark differences. For example, at ESS overall, 42.3% of 4th graders met expectations on the PARCC English test. Broken down demographically, 45.5% of white students met expectations, 41.5% of black students did, and 33 percent of Hispanic students did. Compare that to Piney Branch where overall 43.3% of 4th graders met expectations, but 68.2% of white students did, while only 27.9% of Hispanic and 22.2% of black students did. In fifth grade English, 53% of ESS students met expectations and 56.8% of PBES 5th graders met expectations. But at ESS, 58.8% of black students met expectations, compared to 50% of white students. The black students outperformed the white students. At PBES, only 38.2% of black students met expectations on 5th grade English, compared to 75.4% of white students, and 33.3% of hispanic students.
fifth grade math, at PBES 33.9% of students met expectations overall. - 52% of white students, 20.6% of black students and less that 5% of hispanic students. At ESS, 30.3% of 5th graders mete expectations overall 30% of white students and 29.4% of black students and 29.4% of Hispanic students.
The differences are not as stark in every grade, but there is clearly something concerning happening.

I really really don't want this to become about PBES vs. ESS, or PBES vs. RT.

All are fine schools, with strengths and weaknesses, and are not entirely apples-to-apples comparisons in some ways as well.

PBES has its own HGC and gets the "gifted" out of bounds kids from the TPES program.

RT has the language immersion, which is a double edged sword in that it selects for motivated middle class families but some research indicates it could temporarily depress English Language Arts test scores. It also almost certainly has the most recently arrived Emerging Bilingual (ESOL) kids of perhaps any school in the DCC.

ESS has a learning disabilities magnet, but appears to also have some extra programming for high performing kids, at least according to programs that my friends' kids are being offered that aren't offered at other schools.

So, it's not all apples-to-apples and all of the schools have positives and negatives. All are perfectly fine choices, so I don't want this to turn into yet another chance to piss on lower income schools with a lot of kids of color.

No, I think the point of the PP's information was that the white children are doing fine at both schools, but the black students are doing much worse at PBES. As a parent of color I find it a little disturbing, but I'm not sure what to really make of it. I think there is a higher black immigrant population at PBES that might be affecting the scores, but we just don't have enough information to say for sure[b].

Actually, we do have the information, and it is the reverse of what you guessed.
According to the schools' at a glance reports, of the black students at ESS, 34% are FARMS and 15.9% are ESOL. At Piney Branch, 18.6% of black students are FARMS and only 7% are ESOL.

links please!

You couldn't go to the county website and find it yourself?
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/02749.pdf Piney Branch
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/02756.pdf - East Silver Spring

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Go to the community center playground behind PBES and the cop station and watch the droves of kids congregate and smoke weed with smashed beer bottles all over the place while little kids play on the playground. If you're lucky there will be a fight or something else. Would I raise my family in TP, no.

Signed
A mom who moved away after having her babies there

In what universe???????

I have charged my car in that parking lot all times of day and night and I've never smelled pot, or seen anyone drinking beer. There are some kids playing basketball, but it seems a really friendly, laid back crowd and no I don't mean stoned.

You might just be one of those neurotic class seeking women who needs the confidence of palladium windows in a bad va subdivision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Go to the community center playground behind PBES and the cop station and watch the droves of kids congregate and smoke weed with smashed beer bottles all over the place while little kids play on the playground. If you're lucky there will be a fight or something else. Would I raise my family in TP, no.

Signed
A mom who moved away after having her babies there

What? I have been at that park 3x after school this week and literally just yesterday I was smiling through the basketball court fence at the organized, inclusive, incredibly diverse game of kids playing knockout.

Yes, the park (near skatepark) has had issues, as have ALL public parks at night and in summer. Youths are a risky, asshole-ish bunch on the whole. But TkPk is exactly the kind of place I want to raise my child, with appropriate supervision, and with grounding in the real world.

I do hope you enjoy your gated community in Potomac, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Go to the community center playground behind PBES and the cop station and watch the droves of kids congregate and smoke weed with smashed beer bottles all over the place while little kids play on the playground. If you're lucky there will be a fight or something else. Would I raise my family in TP, no.

Signed
A mom who moved away after having her babies there

What? I have been at that park 3x after school this week and literally just yesterday I was smiling through the basketball court fence at the organized, inclusive, incredibly diverse game of kids playing knockout.

Yes, the park (near skatepark) has had issues, as have ALL public parks at night and in summer. Youths are a risky, asshole-ish bunch on the whole. But TkPk is exactly the kind of place I want to raise my child, with appropriate supervision, and with grounding in the real world.

I do hope you enjoy your gated community in Potomac, though.

+100 I'm an East Silver Spring parent, and agree 100% with PP. Takoma Park (and Silver Spring) are exactly where I am choosing to raise my family because it is the kind of place where kids gather to play together. I'm at the PBES playground often for soccer practice and have not noticed any of the issues described above. Even if there were some teens smoking pot in the evening, though, I'm not at all convinced that this is a "problem" endemic to Takoma Park.

[Anonymous]

We bought a home 2 years ago to in DTSS on Takoma Park border and couldn't be happier. We walk to the library, grocery stores, farmer's market, bars, restaurants, and a decent brewery. My advice to anyone considering a move to DTSS/Takoma is to check out a couple local events (for example the Takoma Park Folk Festival this weekend or Silver Spring Thanksgiving parade) and also walk around the neighborhood once or twice in the evening. You'll probably see a mix of young and old people and all kinds of different looking families. Youll also see a few rundown looking houses and businesses and some young people sitting on the streets without much to do. If you enjoy the events and vibe, this is probably a great neighborhood for you too. If you feel unsafe, you'll probably be happier somewhere else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Saw this a while back and felt it provided some great background on TKPK.

DCUM has a certain spin on things which is helpful but should be taken with a grain of salt. Here's some mainstream press on TKPK to offset the usual h8rs.

WaPo: Takoma Park liberals at the core of (Obama’s) White House
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/takoma-par...ry.html?utm_term=.a73fac394fae

NYT: Takoma Park, MD.: A Diverse Washington, DC Suburb
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/25/realestate/tako...erse-washington-dc-suburb.html

Thrillest: Coolest Suburbs in America’s 35 Biggest Metro Areas
https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/best-subur...t-suburb-in-35-american-cities

Thx for the good info!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regardless, it's a safe bet that PBES will be an 8 by next year and a 9 by 2019.

Or a 7...6. 8 seems to be a blip not a historical average.

I suspect it will go up, actually. GS scores are based on test scores, and PBES will soon be keeping all of their HGC kids instead of giving those kids (and their test scores) to Pine Crest and Oak View. Now, whether that score increase will actually mean anything for kids not in the HGC classroom?

..
Seems likely!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Go to the community center playground behind PBES and the cop station and watch the droves of kids congregate and smoke weed with smashed beer bottles all over the place while little kids play on the playground. If you're lucky there will be a fight or something else. Would I raise my family in TP, no.

Signed
A mom who moved away after having her babies there

What? I have been at that park 3x after school this week and literally just yesterday I was smiling through the basketball court fence at the organized, inclusive, incredibly diverse game of kids playing knockout.

Yes, the park (near skatepark) has had issues, as have ALL public parks at night and in summer. Youths are a risky, asshole-ish bunch on the whole. But TkPk is exactly the kind of place I want to raise my child, with appropriate supervision, and with grounding in the real world.

I do hope you enjoy your gated community in Potomac, though.

+100 I'm an East Silver Spring parent, and agree 100% with PP. Takoma Park (and Silver Spring) are exactly where I am choosing to raise my family because it is the kind of place where kids gather to play together. I'm at the PBES playground often for soccer practice and have not noticed any of the issues described above. Even if there were some teens smoking pot in the evening, though, I'm not at all convinced that this is a "problem" endemic to Takoma Park.

The Takoma Youth Soccer is one of the many other great things about this community. My kids also play soccer there too.