Title 1 and Focus Schools

[Anonymous]

Why are so many MCPS parents against these schools?

[Anonymous]

Because they have a high majority of low income kids. Dcum parents want their kids around high achievers.
We live in eastern moco and my child went to Burtonsville Elem. It’s a focus school. One of the federal policies for focus and title 1 schools is small class sizes in K-2nd. My kid had 13 kids in her K class and 15 in her 1st and 2nd grades. She had amazing teachers who really cared, I went in once a week and volunteered so saw the classroom/kids regularly.
The school had very low teacher turnover and a responsive Principal.
What it didn’t have were lots of after school options because those cost money.
So many wealthier parents see these schools as “ not good” based on comments from other people and send their kids to private which makes the cycle continue. I have no regrets.

[Anonymous]

I think some parents choose these options, and some parent prefer to avoid them.

The argument for choosing them is smaller class sizes, more resources, and exposure to a variety of folks from a variety of backgrounds.

The argument against choosing them is that the additional resources don't benefit every child in the school, that the overall level of instruction may be lower to accommodate kids coming in as MLLs or without solid pre-K experience, and that generational trauma can lead to behavioural challenges in upper elementary.

[Anonymous]

Parents tend to choose neighborhoods exclusively based on rankings, which are based on test scores, which are usually associated with the richest kids.

[Anonymous]

They are schools specially designated as needing extra support because they are educationally unhealthy for various reasons (poverty, safety, and lacking educational support at home), but the extra funding and programs aren't nearly enough to make them healthy, currently.

No one is "against" the schools, but they don't want their own kids in an educationally unhealthy environment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because they have a high majority of low income kids. Dcum parents want their kids around high achievers.
We live in eastern moco and my child went to Burtonsville Elem. It’s a focus school. One of the federal policies for focus and title 1 schools is small class sizes in K-2nd. My kid had 13 kids in her K class and 15 in her 1st and 2nd grades. She had amazing teachers who really cared, I went in once a week and volunteered so saw the classroom/kids regularly.
The school had very low teacher turnover and a responsive Principal.
What it didn’t have were lots of after school options because those cost money.
So many wealthier parents see these schools as “ not good” based on comments from other people and send their kids to private which makes the cycle continue. I have no regrets.

This is our experience at a focus school in Rockville. Classes of 13 to 17 in grades k through 3 while my niece in Bethesda has 25+. It does seem like the Bethesda school has more parent involvement in terms of outside activities fwiw but I don't know that lack of general parental involvement has impacted my child's experience other than maybe fewer 'extra' events. There's still been field trips, math night, speakers, book fair, festivals, etc and I've had opportunities to volunteer.

[Anonymous]

I had the same concerns when we started out at our school that is a focus school. We weren't sure what it would be like. There is a focus on special ed at our school. I can say that we are very happy at the school. We like the smaller class sizes and the teachers are great. I think the possible differing factor at our school is that we have a good mix of demographics with wealthy and not wealthy at the school. We have a very active PTA with great after school programs (my son did an engineering program) and activities/events with lots of parent volunteers including myself. I see all the kids of different backgrounds together, have fun and grow together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think some parents choose these options, and some parent prefer to avoid them.

The argument for choosing them is smaller class sizes, more resources, and exposure to a variety of folks from a variety of backgrounds.

The argument against choosing them is that the additional resources don't benefit every child in the school, that the overall level of instruction may be lower to accommodate kids coming in as MLLs or without solid pre-K experience, and that generational trauma can lead to behavioural challenges in upper elementary.

+1 this
There are families that choose to buy a nicer house in a focus school/Title 1 neighborhood. They could afford a "better" school cluster but want the diversity and/or smaller class sizes. Others may have been primarily motivated by having a bigger house but also feel there are benefits to sending kids to a school with more Black and Latino students.

There are also many families like mine that can't really afford a "better" school cluster without sacrificing other important preferences (e.g. commute, neighborhood). We love our gocus ES, would want it even if we had more money, though admittedly it is relatively low poverty compared to other focus schools. We are worried about MS but my impression is MS is not great anywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because they have a high majority of low income kids. Dcum parents want their kids around high achievers.
We live in eastern moco and my child went to Burtonsville Elem. It’s a focus school. One of the federal policies for focus and title 1 schools is small class sizes in K-2nd. My kid had 13 kids in her K class and 15 in her 1st and 2nd grades. She had amazing teachers who really cared, I went in once a week and volunteered so saw the classroom/kids regularly.
The school had very low teacher turnover and a responsive Principal.
What it didn’t have were lots of after school options because those cost money.
So many wealthier parents see these schools as “ not good” based on comments from other people and send their kids to private which makes the cycle continue. I have no regrets.

I agree the small class sizes are great. The only drawback is when they can’t adhere to the class sizes for whatever reason. The 2nd grade cohort at our ES is huge- all the classes have been over 20 kids ever year since kindergarten. And that was with adding an extra class each year, they really needed to add two but no space I guess. Whereas the 1st grade classes this year were under 15 (one had 12). So I think that has been a challenge when you have more needier students but still have large classes.

[Anonymous]

They have a great focus if you're behind grade level or ESOL. They have a lot of extra supports for both. They don't have much to offer if you're on grade level or above.

We like the diversity (particularly economic diversity) but I don't think it's been best academically for our kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They have a great focus if you're behind grade level or ESOL. They have a lot of extra supports for both. They don't have much to offer if you're on grade level or above.

We like the diversity (particularly economic diversity) but I don't think it's been best academically for our kids.

Some of this is principal dependent. My child in a Focus school had access to enriched instruction before qualifying for the CES, but only because the individual principal was willing to bend MCPS rules and cohort the kids above grade level kids.

[Anonymous]

Because the designation reflects underperformance or greater potential for underperformance. That, on its face, makes Title 1 schools unattractive to many.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They have a great focus if you're behind grade level or ESOL. They have a lot of extra supports for both. They don't have much to offer if you're on grade level or above.

We like the diversity (particularly economic diversity) but I don't think it's been best academically for our kids.

Some of this is principal dependent. My child in a Focus school had access to enriched instruction before qualifying for the CES, but only because the individual principal was willing to bend MCPS rules and cohort the kids above grade level kids.

I don’t think they have to bend any rules to provide enrichment. Aren’t enrichment opportunities part of the curriculum? I know that my kids received enrichment in second and third grade through pull outs (cohorted) or push ins. School is title I by the way. Also, an active PTA can help get after-school programming at any school. I’ve noticed we have sports, coding, drawing, etc from various vendors, plus some clubs and classes that are free.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because they have a high majority of low income kids. Dcum parents want their kids around high achievers.
We live in eastern moco and my child went to Burtonsville Elem. It’s a focus school. One of the federal policies for focus and title 1 schools is small class sizes in K-2nd. My kid had 13 kids in her K class and 15 in her 1st and 2nd grades. She had amazing teachers who really cared, I went in once a week and volunteered so saw the classroom/kids regularly.
The school had very low teacher turnover and a responsive Principal.
What it didn’t have were lots of after school options because those cost money.
So many wealthier parents see these schools as “ not good” based on comments from other people and send their kids to private which makes the cycle continue. I have no regrets.

I agree the small class sizes are great. The only drawback is when they can’t adhere to the class sizes for whatever reason. The 2nd grade cohort at our ES is huge- all the classes have been over 20 kids ever year since kindergarten. And that was with adding an extra class each year, they really needed to add two but no space I guess. Whereas the 1st grade classes this year were under 15 (one had 12). So I think that has been a challenge when you have more needier students but still have large classes.

The big-classes-for-the-cohort-who-started-K-in-2021 is an issue at our (focus) school too. IMO it's a matter of the principal prioritizing the convenience of adults over that group of kids. They have a certain number of staff positions and classrooms for the whole school and they get to choose how many classes there are for each grade. I mean, I get it that it's complicated and annoying on a staffing level to go from 5 teachers in a grade one year to 7 the next and then back to 5 (or 4 to 6 to 4, or whatever), and then to do the same thing the following year with a different grade. But it's not fair to shortchange the same group of kids every year by putting them in classes that are consistently 4-7 kids larger than other cohorts had/will have at that grade level. I wish there was something we could do about it...

[Anonymous]

Parents aren’t against Title 1/Focus schools. The schools get extra resources because it’s perceived they need them. Ideally that benefits all the students at that school.

But you do understand that other schools without the Title 1/Focus designation are not getting those resources like extra staffing and smaller class sizes?