Thoughts about Richard Montgomery HS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just like Blair, the magnet is super but that’s about it. Non magnet portion is like any other MCPS HS (not counting BCC and w schools).

Yup, they add the magnets to the schools that need the most boost in test scores. QO is just as good as RM without the magnet. Cheaper real estate too. Rockville is trying to improve Twinbrook, but I don't see it turning even after all the massive construction.

It isn't a bad school, but it sure is cliquey. They try to say it is diverse and it is, but they all hang out with their own at RM.

Agree with this. I am in RM cluster and all this talk of diversity is fine in theory, but practically kids segregate themselves.

If them school is really diverse, then no, they dont. At least not in elementary. My (white) DS has 2 besties - chinese and south american descent ones. Plus rest of his friends can probably form a UN session (Zimbabwe, Russia, Japan, Ireland, England, Mexico, etc)

It changes in high school. Trust me. The IB kids only hang out with each other and then most of the same with each race. Sports are possibly the only factor that changes that temporarily.

The IB kids are a fraction of the student body, and in any magnet school, magnet kids hang out with each other, even in CES.

Even in regular schools, starting from MS, kids start to hang out with other kids in their own race - provided that there is a big enough pool to choose from. i.e. if one race only has about 2% in the student population, they may not have the momentum to do that.

Maybe... (anecdotally, my DC's friends at JWMS are different a race from my DC).. but the chance of having a diverse group of friends and having diversity in a class goes up significantly if you live in a diverse cluster.

In fact, for the minorities, the chance of having a diverse group of friends decreases (with increasing diversity). In DC's MS, black students appear to mingle very well into other groups, maybe because there are very few of them (so that they do not have enough choices even if they want to hang together). That is also the case for DC when she was in ES in another state where there were very few Asians in school. But here in MoCo with the large number of Asians in her school, naturally they just choose to hang together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just like Blair, the magnet is super but that’s about it. Non magnet portion is like any other MCPS HS (not counting BCC and w schools).

Yup, they add the magnets to the schools that need the most boost in test scores. QO is just as good as RM without the magnet. Cheaper real estate too. Rockville is trying to improve Twinbrook, but I don't see it turning even after all the massive construction.

It isn't a bad school, but it sure is cliquey. They try to say it is diverse and it is, but they all hang out with their own at RM.

Agree with this. I am in RM cluster and all this talk of diversity is fine in theory, but practically kids segregate themselves.

If them school is really diverse, then no, they dont. At least not in elementary. My (white) DS has 2 besties - chinese and south american descent ones. Plus rest of his friends can probably form a UN session (Zimbabwe, Russia, Japan, Ireland, England, Mexico, etc)

It changes in high school. Trust me. The IB kids only hang out with each other and then most of the same with each race. Sports are possibly the only factor that changes that temporarily.

The IB kids are a fraction of the student body, and in any magnet school, magnet kids hang out with each other, even in CES.

Even in regular schools, starting from MS, kids start to hang out with other kids in their own race - provided that there is a big enough pool to choose from. i.e. if one race only has about 2% in the student population, they may not have the momentum to do that.

Maybe... (anecdotally, my DC's friends at JWMS are different a race from my DC).. but the chance of having a diverse group of friends and having diversity in a class goes up significantly if you live in a diverse cluster.

In fact, for the minorities, the chance of having a diverse group of friends decreases (with increasing diversity). In DC's MS, black students appear to mingle very well into other groups, maybe because there are very few of them (so that they do not have enough choices even if they want to hang together). That is also the case for DC when she was in ES in another state where there were very few Asians in school. But here in MoCo with the large number of Asians in her school, naturally they just choose to hang together.

That is true if you are the minority group in the school, but the not the majority group. Those in this majority group also stick to their own group in a school that is not diverse.

But, in a diverse school, you at least have choices, and you don't feel as much of a minority.

My cousins who are nonwhite went to an all white school. They hated it. Of course, they only had white friends. No choice. I went to a school that was majority black/hispanic. White kids there were truly the minority, and many felt like outcasts.

The thing I like about a diverse school is that you have choices --- you can choose to stay within your own race/ethnic group or not, and even if you choose to say within your group, there are enough of them that you have choices within that group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Your post in no way addresses the point of my post. Sure, some people send their kids to private. Guess what.. some folks in W clusters send their kids to private schools also.

This fact in no way addresses my point that MCPS has in the past for diversity and capacity reasons zoned neighborhoods from walkable to non walkable schools, and they will probably continue to do this in the future.

32! years! ago!

And they continue to do so.

In that case, maybe the Horizon Hill PP could cite a more recent example.

[Anonymous]

This whole conversation feels like it's taken a weird turn towards, "Let's bring back segregated schools because it's better for the black kids".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just like Blair, the magnet is super but that’s about it. Non magnet portion is like any other MCPS HS (not counting BCC and w schools).

Yup, they add the magnets to the schools that need the most boost in test scores. QO is just as good as RM without the magnet. Cheaper real estate too. Rockville is trying to improve Twinbrook, but I don't see it turning even after all the massive construction.

It isn't a bad school, but it sure is cliquey. They try to say it is diverse and it is, but they all hang out with their own at RM.

Agree with this. I am in RM cluster and all this talk of diversity is fine in theory, but practically kids segregate themselves.

If them school is really diverse, then no, they dont. At least not in elementary. My (white) DS has 2 besties - chinese and south american descent ones. Plus rest of his friends can probably form a UN session (Zimbabwe, Russia, Japan, Ireland, England, Mexico, etc)

It changes in high school. Trust me. The IB kids only hang out with each other and then most of the same with each race. Sports are possibly the only factor that changes that temporarily.

The IB kids are a fraction of the student body, and in any magnet school, magnet kids hang out with each other, even in CES.

IB kids are 500+. Not really a small number for HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This whole conversation feels like it's taken a weird turn towards, "Let's bring back segregated schools because it's better for the black kids".

No one is saying that you twit. Diverse schools are great. But most self segregate by choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole conversation feels like it's taken a weird turn towards, "Let's bring back segregated schools because it's better for the black kids".

No one is saying that you twit. Diverse schools are great. But most self segregate by choice.

Diverse school looks great on paper for school admin, and MCPS admin. The studens will self segragate in a diverse school. When my DD was in ES, there were less than 10% of non-white kids in the school. The play dates are divided between kids with a stay home mom or working parents. Kids with non American born parents are playing together, regardless of skin color. Started in MS, since the school is bigger, it is very easy to find kids look like her, DD started to play with kids with same skin color. The advanced math classes are full of Asian kids.

[Anonymous]

We are at Beall ES and absolutely love it. It is perfect for our family. And I have heard only good things about RM from our neighbors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole conversation feels like it's taken a weird turn towards, "Let's bring back segregated schools because it's better for the black kids".

No one is saying that you twit. Diverse schools are great. But most self segregate by choice.

Diverse school looks great on paper for school admin, and MCPS admin. The studens will self segragate in a diverse school. When my DD was in ES, there were less than 10% of non-white kids in the school. The play dates are divided between kids with a stay home mom or working parents. Kids with non American born parents are playing together, regardless of skin color. Started in MS, since the school is bigger, it is very easy to find kids look like her, DD started to play with kids with same skin color. The advanced math classes are full of Asian kids.

Probably they're full of American kids with a background in Asia (aka Asian-American kids), and it's kind of weird to describe school math classes as self-segregation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just like Blair, the magnet is super but that’s about it. Non magnet portion is like any other MCPS HS (not counting BCC and w schools).

Yup, they add the magnets to the schools that need the most boost in test scores. QO is just as good as RM without the magnet. Cheaper real estate too. Rockville is trying to improve Twinbrook, but I don't see it turning even after all the massive construction.

It isn't a bad school, but it sure is cliquey. They try to say it is diverse and it is, but they all hang out with their own at RM.

Agree with this. I am in RM cluster and all this talk of diversity is fine in theory, but practically kids segregate themselves.

If them school is really diverse, then no, they dont. At least not in elementary. My (white) DS has 2 besties - chinese and south american descent ones. Plus rest of his friends can probably form a UN session (Zimbabwe, Russia, Japan, Ireland, England, Mexico, etc)

It changes in high school. Trust me. The IB kids only hang out with each other and then most of the same with each race. Sports are possibly the only factor that changes that temporarily.

The IB kids are a fraction of the student body, and in any magnet school, magnet kids hang out with each other, even in CES.

IB kids are 500+. Not really a small number for HS.

RMHS had about 2400 students in 2017, and projected over 2500 in 2018. That would make the magnet students only 20% of the population. If your kid is not in the magnet, then your kid still has the majority 80% of RM students to hang out with. There are several HSs in MCPS that are smaller than the non magnet student population of RM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Your post in no way addresses the point of my post. Sure, some people send their kids to private. Guess what.. some folks in W clusters send their kids to private schools also.

This fact in no way addresses my point that MCPS has in the past for diversity and capacity reasons zoned neighborhoods from walkable to non walkable schools, and they will probably continue to do this in the future.

32! years! ago!

And they continue to do so.

In that case, maybe the Horizon Hill PP could cite a more recent example.

How many recent rezonings were there?

http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/NorthwestHS.pdf

Brown ES is an island zoned for Northwest HS even though it's closer to QO, and Ridgeview MS is right next to it but they are zoned for Lakeland MS, which matriculates into QO.

So Brown ES goes to Lakeland MS (but Ridgeview is closer) then goes to NW (though QO) is closer.


Wheaton HS has two islands:

http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/WheatonHS.pdf

I know there are other scenarios like this. What makes you think MCPS wouldn't create weird zones like this in the future for the sake of diversity and capacity?

[Anonymous]

How many rezonings have there been that are more recent than 1987? Lots.

Lakeland MS and Wheaton HS are also not recent.

Find some recent boundary studies.