PoC in Walt Whitman High School

[Anonymous]

Will be moving out of state to Bethesda for work near NIH. Have two high school age children. A future coworker expressed some concern that my children may feel like they don't fit in with their classmates/neighborhood . Should I be concerned as well?

[Anonymous]

They’ll fit in as long as they have $$$$. Lots of ethnic diversity; zero economic diversity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They’ll fit in as long as they have $$$$. Lots of ethnic diversity; zero economic diversity.

Less racial diversity. That might be more relevant to OP than ethnic diversity. Try BCC. More diversity all around.

[Anonymous]

commute from hoard county and live there. Montgomery County has had it's day and it is never going back to the good ol days,

[Anonymous]

You can see the racial make up of all MCPS schools. For NIH check BCC or WJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:commute from hoard county and live there. Montgomery County has had it's day and it is never going back to the good ol days,

Just stop

OP ignore the idiot

[Anonymous]

As a multiethnic foreigner, I can assure you, OP, that ethnic and national diversity is NOT a problem. Also, economic diversity is not a problem either! There are kids who show up to school driving brand new Jeeps and Teslas, and others, like my kids, who take the bus and if they drove, would have a 12 year old Mazda or nothing at all. Everyone finds their friend group. It's the silver lining of large publics - there's always someone who likes what you like.

NIH is closest to Walter Johnson HS: it's overcrowded but an excellent school! Bethesda-Chevy Chase HS is in downtown Bethesda and slightly less rigorous (fewer APs, but IB program). Walt Whitman HS is as good if not better than WJ, but further away from NIH to the west (a little more homogeneous rich white kids than WJ and BCC).

[Anonymous]

^ I have a senior at WJ in a special program, a younger kid inbounds for BCC, and we know kids at all these three high schools.

[Anonymous]

I’m not sure what sort of information you’re seeking here — since not all POC have the same experiences, concerns, challenges and comfort levels in a given social environment. It’s difficult, from the information you’ve provided, to tell whether or not you should be “concerned”. If you’re not trolling, it’s hard to imagine that if you’re a POC, and you’re genuinely concerned, you’ll get genuinely useful information framing your question in this way.

[Anonymous]

Whitman has so few Black students that they don't even identify the number in MCPS official reports based on privacy concerns (same is true at Kennedy, Paint Branch, and Springbrook with respect to the number of White students and at Kennedy and Northwood with respect to the number of Asian students).

[Anonymous]

should this be in the school forum?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a multiethnic foreigner, I can assure you, OP, that ethnic and national diversity is NOT a problem. Also, economic diversity is not a problem either! There are kids who show up to school driving brand new Jeeps and Teslas, and others, like my kids, who take the bus and if they drove, would have a 12 year old Mazda or nothing at all. Everyone finds their friend group. It's the silver lining of large publics - there's always someone who likes what you like.

NIH is closest to Walter Johnson HS: it's overcrowded but an excellent school! Bethesda-Chevy Chase HS is in downtown Bethesda and slightly less rigorous (fewer APs, but IB program). Walt Whitman HS is as good if not better than WJ, but further away from NIH to the west (a little more homogeneous rich white kids than WJ and BCC).

ethnic diversity is not the same as racial diversity.

-non white person

Also, what makes you say BCC is less "rigorous"? By what measure is it "less rigorous"?

We don't live in BCC cluster but I'm curious what measure you are using to define "rigorous"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a multiethnic foreigner, I can assure you, OP, that ethnic and national diversity is NOT a problem. Also, economic diversity is not a problem either! There are kids who show up to school driving brand new Jeeps and Teslas, and others, like my kids, who take the bus and if they drove, would have a 12 year old Mazda or nothing at all. Everyone finds their friend group. It's the silver lining of large publics - there's always someone who likes what you like.

NIH is closest to Walter Johnson HS: it's overcrowded but an excellent school! Bethesda-Chevy Chase HS is in downtown Bethesda and slightly less rigorous (fewer APs, but IB program). Walt Whitman HS is as good if not better than WJ, but further away from NIH to the west (a little more homogeneous rich white kids than WJ and BCC).

ethnic diversity is not the same as racial diversity.

-non white person

Also, what makes you say BCC is less "rigorous"? By what measure is it "less rigorous"?

We don't live in BCC cluster but I'm curious what measure you are using to define "rigorous"?

To me ethnic is just a better word for racial because it encompasses a greater number of possibilities, PP. There are multiple ethnic origins and cultures inside broad categories of skin colors, and I'm allergic to the uniquely American habit of just defining people by black/white: it completely ignores all the finer points of cultural and regional identity.

To your other question, yes, with years of comparing notes between my friends and I (whose kids go to these three schools), we've come to the conclusion that teacher quality for core classes is higher at WJ and WW. Some core teachers at BCC are apparently terrible, and this materially impacts the students' content mastery and grades. Conversely, I've never heard of a terrible core class teacher at WJ and WW. There are also way more AP offerings at WJ and WW. BCC has the IB programme, which is great for some kids, but the concern is that US college admissions officers might not correctly weigh IB exam scores compared to AP scores. The IB is a European invention, and over there, getting a perfect score is rare. That philosophy has been transferred to IB exam scoring. Whereas if you don't get a 5/5 on an AP exam, you missed something. So I'm not sure the IB scores are as valued as AP scores, if you see what I mean. Students taking the full IB diploma are also locked into a list of courses, instead of being able to select their AP courses a la carte.

Now there's also the question of "big fish, little pond" vs "little fish, big pond" regarding college admissions: admissions officers consider applicant's course choices relative to what their school offers. The large range of advanced courses offered at WJ and WW would tend to push kids to take as many as possible, to prove they've taken advantage of the available selection. This makes for a high-pressure environment. But since there are fewer at BCC, students cannot be faulted for taking AP Calc BC AND multi-variable calculus, since most years the latter is not even offered, due to lack of demand (you could also ask yourself why demand is lower than at the other two schools).

But the bottom line is that they're all SOLID schools, where OP's kids will get a great education. I'm just parsing details because I know some of us here like that sort of thing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:commute from hoard county and live there. Montgomery County has had it's day and it is never going back to the good ol days,

+1. MoCo on a clear downtrend. Go for NoVa.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a multiethnic foreigner, I can assure you, OP, that ethnic and national diversity is NOT a problem. Also, economic diversity is not a problem either! There are kids who show up to school driving brand new Jeeps and Teslas, and others, like my kids, who take the bus and if they drove, would have a 12 year old Mazda or nothing at all. Everyone finds their friend group. It's the silver lining of large publics - there's always someone who likes what you like.

NIH is closest to Walter Johnson HS: it's overcrowded but an excellent school! Bethesda-Chevy Chase HS is in downtown Bethesda and slightly less rigorous (fewer APs, but IB program). Walt Whitman HS is as good if not better than WJ, but further away from NIH to the west (a little more homogeneous rich white kids than WJ and BCC).

ethnic diversity is not the same as racial diversity.

-non white person

Also, what makes you say BCC is less "rigorous"? By what measure is it "less rigorous"?

We don't live in BCC cluster but I'm curious what measure you are using to define "rigorous"?

To me ethnic is just a better word for racial because it encompasses a greater number of possibilities, PP. There are multiple ethnic origins and cultures inside broad categories of skin colors, and I'm allergic to the uniquely American habit of just defining people by black/white: it completely ignores all the finer points of cultural and regional identity.

To your other question, yes, with years of comparing notes between my friends and I (whose kids go to these three schools), we've come to the conclusion that teacher quality for core classes is higher at WJ and WW. Some core teachers at BCC are apparently terrible, and this materially impacts the students' content mastery and grades. Conversely, I've never heard of a terrible core class teacher at WJ and WW. There are also way more AP offerings at WJ and WW. BCC has the IB programme, which is great for some kids, but the concern is that US college admissions officers might not correctly weigh IB exam scores compared to AP scores. The IB is a European invention, and over there, getting a perfect score is rare. That philosophy has been transferred to IB exam scoring. Whereas if you don't get a 5/5 on an AP exam, you missed something. So I'm not sure the IB scores are as valued as AP scores, if you see what I mean. Students taking the full IB diploma are also locked into a list of courses, instead of being able to select their AP courses a la carte.

Now there's also the question of "big fish, little pond" vs "little fish, big pond" regarding college admissions: admissions officers consider applicant's course choices relative to what their school offers. The large range of advanced courses offered at WJ and WW would tend to push kids to take as many as possible, to prove they've taken advantage of the available selection. This makes for a high-pressure environment. But since there are fewer at BCC, students cannot be faulted for taking AP Calc BC AND multi-variable calculus, since most years the latter is not even offered, due to lack of demand (you could also ask yourself why demand is lower than at the other two schools).

But the bottom line is that they're all SOLID schools, where OP's kids will get a great education. I'm just parsing details because I know some of us here like that sort of thing

If you're into parsing details as you claim to be, I would hope you are more careful with your understanding of the process. We can agree they're all solid schools. However, the IB vs. AP exam score dilemma that you presented is misinformed. Colleges accept students in the fall and winter. AP/IB exams are in late spring. College admissions officers are not weighing any AP/IB exam scores. They are weighing semester grades and rigor of course load, as you say. Exam scores are submitted to registrars over the summer, and not receiving freshman credit one way or the other for whatever reason has no effect on prior admission decisions.

You can instead make the claim that US college admissions officers may not be familiar with "IB Math Analysis" versus "AP Calculus" on the transcript but even that is a weak argument nowadays as any world-class university worth it's salt is very well aware of IB program offerings and eagerly welcomes top international students to join their school. IB is no longer a European enigma as so many here claim it to be.