What are W schools?

[Anonymous]

Omg, people. The original question has been answered. Do we have to have another catty post attacking various county schools. There are lots of good schools. They also have some differences. People make different choices and have different preferences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Blair people also can't reconcile the fact that Poolesville continually is ranked higher in composite school rankings. I'll get called "that Poolesville booster" for this comment. And yet, the rankings speak for themselves.

Half of Poolesville's 1,200 students are there because they tested in. And Poolesville is a majority-white (barely), very-low-poverty (6% of students receive FARMs) school. Of course its average test scores/school rankings are higher than Blair's. Is that what you mean by the rankings speaking for themselves?

-upcounty parent

What I mean is that it's a high-performing school--for all the reasons you pointed out, and that apply to virtually all high-performing schools. My point is Blair and W parents flat-out deny it's high-performing. They don't caveat it the way you did; they just deny its high test scores altogether because they can't handle the fact that upcounty might have a school that outperforms downcounty schools.

[Anonymous]

All these people describing the W schools don

[Anonymous]

Don't actually attend them. That says something....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
LOL I'm a W parent and no one here looks down on QO, just too far out for DH and I to want to live there. If you don't mind the longer commute to DC then its fine. QO is like a border-line W, the people on here referring badly to non-Ws are talking about Gaithersburg, Watkins Mill, Seneca Valley, Northwest, Wheaton, etc. not QO or Poolesville.

Lol, only in DCUM is Northwest a bad school. I don't know who started this ridiculous rumor on here but here are the facts: GS rated 7 (higher than RM or Blair), 95% graduation rate, 91% for FARM kids (one of the highest grad rates in the county, if not the highest for both farm and non- farm). Stats are pretty much the same as QO with the exception that QO has more white kids (45% vs 29%) and slighly lower FARM rates at 23% vs 28%. This is honestly a blatant example of how here we consider white = better.

Northwest (bad! gangs!) vs. Quince Orchard (good! school spirit!) is really the proof that on DCUM, the higher the white population, the "better" the school. Really the ONLY meaningful difference between Northwest and Quince Orchard is that Quince Orchard has a higher percentage of white kids.

Well no. There have been a lot of incidents at Northwest, and no one choosing Northwest as their first choice for a school(no one wants to live in germantown but its all they can afford). QO is pretty well-regarded, but not the same level as WJ or Churchill.

You are so ignorant it’s actually comical.

Yes, Germantown is for the poors!!! I mean, that's where people with only a 600K to 700K (gasp) housing budget can move to. Obviously those people would've loved to live in the DCC or Wooton clusters but sadly could only afford a house that goes to Northwest. Poor things. Now they're stuck with an 8 GS rated school.If they only had a bit more, they could've been in Silver Spring.

Darnestown ES and Diamond ES go to Northwest. Neither are even in Germantown. Poster two above is clueless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
LOL I'm a W parent and no one here looks down on QO, just too far out for DH and I to want to live there. If you don't mind the longer commute to DC then its fine. QO is like a border-line W, the people on here referring badly to non-Ws are talking about Gaithersburg, Watkins Mill, Seneca Valley, Northwest, Wheaton, etc. not QO or Poolesville.

Lol, only in DCUM is Northwest a bad school. I don't know who started this ridiculous rumor on here but here are the facts: GS rated 7 (higher than RM or Blair), 95% graduation rate, 91% for FARM kids (one of the highest grad rates in the county, if not the highest for both farm and non- farm). Stats are pretty much the same as QO with the exception that QO has more white kids (45% vs 29%) and slighly lower FARM rates at 23% vs 28%. This is honestly a blatant example of how here we consider white = better.

Northwest (bad! gangs!) vs. Quince Orchard (good! school spirit!) is really the proof that on DCUM, the higher the white population, the "better" the school. Really the ONLY meaningful difference between Northwest and Quince Orchard is that Quince Orchard has a higher percentage of white kids.

Well no. There have been a lot of incidents at Northwest, and no one choosing Northwest as their first choice for a school(no one wants to live in germantown but its all they can afford). QO is pretty well-regarded, but not the same level as WJ or Churchill.

You are so ignorant it’s actually comical.

Yes, Germantown is for the poors!!! I mean, that's where people with only a 600K to 700K (gasp) housing budget can move to. Obviously those people would've loved to live in the DCC or Wooton clusters but sadly could only afford a house that goes to Northwest. Poor things. Now they're stuck with an 8 GS rated school.If they only had a bit more, they could've been in Silver Spring.

Darnestown ES and Diamond ES go to Northwest. Neither are even in Germantown. Poster two above is clueless.

Well, it's like the people who claim QO isn't in Gaithersburg because it draws from Gaithersburg and North Potomac (although it has a Gaithersburg address and is clearly within the city limits). These posters clearly don't live upcounty and have no idea what it's actually like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Omg, people. The original question has been answered. Do we have to have another catty post attacking various county schools. There are lots of good schools. They also have some differences. People make different choices and have different preferences.

+1 billion

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Well, it's like the people who claim QO isn't in Gaithersburg because it draws from Gaithersburg and North Potomac (although it has a Gaithersburg address and is clearly within the city limits). These posters clearly don't live upcounty and have no idea what it's actually like.

Quince Orchard HS is NOT within the limits of the City of Gaithersburg. Yes, it's in Gaithersburg. Yes, it's very near the city limits of Gaithersburg - in fact, literally across the streets. No, it's not within the city limits.

https://maps.gaithersburgmd.gov/addressParcelInfo/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Blair people also can't reconcile the fact that Poolesville continually is ranked higher in composite school rankings. I'll get called "that Poolesville booster" for this comment. And yet, the rankings speak for themselves.

Half of Poolesville's 1,200 students are there because they tested in. And Poolesville is a majority-white (barely), very-low-poverty (6% of students receive FARMs) school. Of course its average test scores/school rankings are higher than Blair's. Is that what you mean by the rankings speaking for themselves?

-upcounty parent

The thing that many parents misunderstand is that averages tell us very little about the potential education a particular student would receive at a given school. They tell us mostly whether a school's population is affluent and demographically uniform.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What excatly are W schools? I moved here from Delaware 2 years ago and just love this school system. My daughter is in 8th grade and picked Einstein for dance and IB! However, I'm hearing so much about W schools but don't know excatly what they are I even try to search it up. Are they magnets? Or private schools?

Your daughter is gonna LOVE Einstein they have a strong dance program. Actually Einstein dance team competed against Walt Whitman (W school) dance team and beat them according to their newspaper so your daughter will get strong dance training at Einstein.

What's your source for this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Well, it's like the people who claim QO isn't in Gaithersburg because it draws from Gaithersburg and North Potomac (although it has a Gaithersburg address and is clearly within the city limits). These posters clearly don't live upcounty and have no idea what it's actually like.

Quince Orchard HS is NOT within the limits of the City of Gaithersburg. Yes, it's in Gaithersburg. Yes, it's very near the city limits of Gaithersburg - in fact, literally across the streets. No, it's not within the city limits.

https://maps.gaithersburgmd.gov/addressParcelInfo/

It has a Gaithersburg mailing address.

But the real point here is the people who make this distinction are doing so because they associate Gaithersburg with gangs and thugs, and think that a high-performing school like QO couldn't possibly be associated with such a place. These are the same people who claim Kentlands/Lakelands aren't really in Gaithersburg (which is funny because those of us who actually live in Kentlands are happy to say we live in Gaithersburg)!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

It has a Gaithersburg mailing address.

But the real point here is the people who make this distinction are doing so because they associate Gaithersburg with gangs and thugs, and think that a high-performing school like QO couldn't possibly be associated with such a place. These are the same people who claim Kentlands/Lakelands aren't really in Gaithersburg (which is funny because those of us who actually live in Kentlands are happy to say we live in Gaithersburg)!

Kentlands and Lakelands are within the Gaithersburg city limits. Quince Orchard High School is not. They're all in what I consider Gaithersburg, and they all have a Gaithersburg zip code.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

It has a Gaithersburg mailing address.

But the real point here is the people who make this distinction are doing so because they associate Gaithersburg with gangs and thugs, and think that a high-performing school like QO couldn't possibly be associated with such a place. These are the same people who claim Kentlands/Lakelands aren't really in Gaithersburg (which is funny because those of us who actually live in Kentlands are happy to say we live in Gaithersburg)!

Kentlands and Lakelands are within the Gaithersburg city limits. Quince Orchard High School is not. They're all in what I consider Gaithersburg, and they all have a Gaithersburg zip code.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And yet, Blair is never at or near the top of MCPS HS rankings, and yet Poolesville is either 1 or 2.

Hell 15% of Blair kids don't even graduate. Not bad for a high poverty, high minority school but still not somewhere parents are dying to send their kids to general population.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Blair people also can't reconcile the fact that Poolesville continually is ranked higher in composite school rankings. I'll get called "that Poolesville booster" for this comment. And yet, the rankings speak for themselves.

Half of Poolesville's 1,200 students are there because they tested in. And Poolesville is a majority-white (barely), very-low-poverty (6% of students receive FARMs) school. Of course its average test scores/school rankings are higher than Blair's. Is that what you mean by the rankings speaking for themselves?

-upcounty parent

The thing that many parents misunderstand is that averages tell us very little about the potential education a particular student would receive at a given school. They tell us mostly whether a school's population is affluent and demographically uniform.

And if it is full of underachieving students from poor households with limited prospects that do nothing but drain time and resources away.