What are the Ws?

[Anonymous]

What are the Ws? Does it include BCC?
And is BCC a good high school? Like, good high school experience?

Thanks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are the Ws? Does it include BCC?
And is BCC a good high school? Like, good high school experience?

Thanks

This is a very vague question so let me sum up every other thread on BCC. It has significantly more racial and social-economic diversity than the other W school, but also has a large wealthy population like the other W schools. Everything that statistically follows from this is reflected at BCC.

Teachers are like every other school in MCPS. Some excellent, some fine.

They also experience the same struggles as every other school in MCPS like truancy, an “everybody passes” approach, etc.

I think one of the best things about BCC, its downtown, urban, metro accessible location, is also the thing that causes the most unique challenges for the school.

This past year it had a series of unfortunate events which were outside of the schools control which a subset of individuals believe the school is somehow responsible for (like an out of state bomb threat against the school where the police managed the response, or fights off school property). If you are looking for reasons to like BCC there are many. If you are looking for reasons to hate BCC, you can find those too.

[Anonymous]

Of couse BCC is not a W. Where is there a W in the name? Wheaton, on the other hand, now THAT's a W.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are the Ws? Does it include BCC?
And is BCC a good high school? Like, good high school experience?

Thanks

Search this forum. You may get different threads on thhe topic.
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1090398.page

[Anonymous]

The Ws are traditionally the MCPS high schools near-ish Bethesda that have higher SES and perform well.

They are:
- Walt Whitman
- Winston Churchill
- Walter Johnson
- Wootton
- maybe Woodward will be one when it opens because it's in the middle of all of these, but who knows

These are the schools where a huge proportion of the class has an outstanding GPA, the graduation rates are high, the family investment in education is high, and the extracurriculars about. Most are primarily populated by White and Asian students. Most will go on to "a good college."

BCC is also a good school and pulls from a higher SES demographic. But it has "uniquely urban" problems that the above schools do not, so it's not really a W. We send our kid to one of the above but I wouldn't hesitate to send my kid to BCC and when we were looking for houses a few years ago when they were in MS we looked in the BCC pyramid.

[Anonymous]

What posters always forget are Wheaton HS and Watkins Woodward HS when it opens will be another W. Don't forget the B schools: Blair, Branch, B-CC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the Ws? Does it include BCC?
And is BCC a good high school? Like, good high school experience?

Thanks

This is a very vague question so let me sum up every other thread on BCC. It has significantly more racial and social-economic diversity than the other W school, but also has a large wealthy population like the other W schools. Everything that statistically follows from this is reflected at BCC.

Teachers are like every other school in MCPS. Some excellent, some fine.

They also experience the same struggles as every other school in MCPS like truancy, an “everybody passes” approach, etc.

I think one of the best things about BCC, its downtown, urban, metro accessible location, is also the thing that causes the most unique challenges for the school.

This past year it had a series of unfortunate events which were outside of the schools control which a subset of individuals believe the school is somehow responsible for (like an out of state bomb threat against the school where the police managed the response, or fights off school property). If you are looking for reasons to like BCC there are many. If you are looking for reasons to hate BCC, you can find those too.

BCC is not nor will ever be a W.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Ws are traditionally the MCPS high schools near-ish Bethesda that have higher SES and perform well.

They are:
- Walt Whitman
- Winston Churchill
- Walter Johnson
- Wootton
- maybe Woodward will be one when it opens because it's in the middle of all of these, but who knows

These are the schools where a huge proportion of the class has an outstanding GPA, the graduation rates are high, the family investment in education is high, and the extracurriculars about. Most are primarily populated by White and Asian students. Most will go on to "a good college."

BCC is also a good school and pulls from a higher SES demographic. But it has "uniquely urban" problems that the above schools do not, so it's not really a W. We send our kid to one of the above but I wouldn't hesitate to send my kid to BCC and when we were looking for houses a few years ago when they were in MS we looked in the BCC pyramid.

MCPS has a median FARMS rate of roughly 35% whereas the W's are <5% and not diverse, The W's just have fewer low-income kids dragging down their standardized test average. This is not the same as high-performing. Most every MCPS school has a high-performing cohort.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are the Ws? Does it include BCC?
And is BCC a good high school? Like, good high school experience?

Thanks

According to MCPS, the Ws are

Washington Grove ES
Waters Landing ES
Watkins Mill ES
Wayside ES
Weller Road ES
Westbrook ES
Westover ES
Wheaton Woods ES
Whetstone ES
Wilson Wims ES
Wood Acres ES
Woodfield ES
Woodlin ES
Wyngate ES
Hallie Wells MS
Julius West MS
Westland MS
White Oak MS
Earle B. Wood MS
Watkins Mill HS
Wheaton HS
Walt Whitman HS
Thomas Wootton HS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What posters always forget are Wheaton HS and Watkins Woodward HS when it opens will be another W. Don't forget the B schools: Blair, Branch, B-CC

Johnson and Churchill are not W schools either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Ws are traditionally the MCPS high schools near-ish Bethesda that have higher SES and perform well.

They are:
- Walt Whitman
- Winston Churchill
- Walter Johnson
- Wootton
- maybe Woodward will be one when it opens because it's in the middle of all of these, but who knows

These are the schools where a huge proportion of the class has an outstanding GPA, the graduation rates are high, the family investment in education is high, and the extracurriculars about. Most are primarily populated by White and Asian students. Most will go on to "a good college."

BCC is also a good school and pulls from a higher SES demographic. But it has "uniquely urban" problems that the above schools do not, so it's not really a W. We send our kid to one of the above but I wouldn't hesitate to send my kid to BCC and when we were looking for houses a few years ago when they were in MS we looked in the BCC pyramid.

MCPS has a median FARMS rate of roughly 35% whereas the W's are <5% and not diverse, The W's just have fewer low-income kids dragging down their standardized test average. This is not the same as high-performing. Most every MCPS school has a high-performing cohort.

For sure and for kids who are in those demographics where their families value education and have means, they are pretty much going to do well regardless of where they do. But Ws have overall a much higher-performing student body. Look at the high school counsellor info letters they give to colleges with GPA distribution and AP info.

[Anonymous]

Bcc is an honorary W school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What posters always forget are Wheaton HS and Watkins Woodward HS when it opens will be another W. Don't forget the B schools: Blair, Branch, B-CC

Johnson and Churchill are not W schools either.

Walter Johnson and Winston Churchill?

[Anonymous]

Walt, Walter, Win, Woo, and Woody

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What posters always forget are Wheaton HS and Watkins Woodward HS when it opens will be another W. Don't forget the B schools: Blair, Branch, B-CC

Johnson and Churchill are not W schools either.

Walter Johnson and Winston Churchill?

If you want to alphabetize by first names, then Thomas Wootton is not a W school, and Charles Woodward will also not be a W school. But Wheaton and Watkins Mill still are W schools.