timeline for Woodward/WJ decision?
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Anonymous
Well I get why they'd be pissed. No reason to bus kids 2 or 3 exits over to the other town just to fulfill the MCPS agenda. |
Anonymous
http://gis.mcpsmd.org/Viewer.html Take a closer look at the current boundaries. There are areas closer to SV that feed Clarksburg, and areas closer to Clarksburg that feed SV. There are areas closer to QO currently feeding Northwest and Wootton. Wait until we add Crown HS into the mix. There is no way to keep up with the ongoing development and demographic shifts as neighborhoods age. Personally, I think that the time for fixed boundaries is past. Every neighborhood should have two or three possible elementary, middle, and high schools to attend. School assignment can be decided by choice process (with no default home school), which considers capacity in addition to choice. Simply allowing choice may let some of the capacity issues to resolve themselves. But it gives longer term flexibility for moving students from overcrowded schools to less crowded ones (and then back 15 years later when the neighborhood shifts.) |
Anonymous
I think this is a great idea. I've always wondered why they don't have a DCC concept anywhere else in the county. But I especially like the idea of not having a fixed school based on your neighborhood. |
Anonymous
| They must be eliminating school buses in your scenario. |
Anonymous
Your comment is a non sequitur, misinformed and misunderstood the point of the prior posts. But hey, you do you, troll. |
Anonymous
If you have the option of only 2-3 high schools per neighborhood, sure why not.. |
Anonymous
What is so great ? The idea of community schools is to create community. By everyone being bused everywhere that is lost.seeing your neighbors at school, participating in school, events together is what creates that, |
Anonymous
Kids are not getting bused on exits, this is not a town-based school system, and the reason they're angry is that they don't want their kids in schools with poor kids - i.e., they want segregated schools. But segregated schools are bad for everyone, and MCPS should do what it can to reduce segregation. |
Anonymous
Not sure we can say that NW and Clarksburg are segregated schools Those schools are one of the most diverse on the county. |
Anonymous
Hallie Wells MS: 17% FARMs Rocky Hill MS: 22% FARMs Neelsville MS: 63% FARMs Roberto Clemente MS: 33% FARMs (that's with both magnet programs) MLK MS: 48% FARMs Kingsview MS: 20% FARMs Lakelands Park MS: 23% FARMs Clarksburg HS: 27% FARMs (that includes Fox Chapel ES (58% FARMs) and Daly ES (71% FARMs)) Seneca Valley HS: 37% FARMs Northwest HS: 24% FARMs Yes, we can say that they're segregated. Or, in any case, segregated enough that the affluent parents want the poor kids to go somewhere else as much as possible. Look at the current service area maps: http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/ClarksburgHS.pdf http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/SenecaValleyHS.pdf http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/NorthwestHS.pdf And the argument the affluent parents will make in public for segregated schools will be geographic proximity and community schools. In private, I'm guessing that the main argument will be property values, followed by gangs. |
Anonymous
Please provide any evidence that busing will accomplish the goals of decreasing the achievement gap? http://www.bipps.org/busing-jefferson-county-schools-work/ https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/school-busing-civil-rights-121077 Where it does work - https://www.csmonitor.com/EqualEd/2017/0225/Where-busing-works "Families can choose to apply to magnet schools, attend their neighborhood school, or sign up for a busing program to other districts." |
Anonymous
First you explain why segregated schools are a good thing. |
Anonymous
Why is this the only reason that there is a achievement gap ? There are multiple factors such as first generation school attendance, limited English, family situations, lack of extra education supports are just a few. Please explain how busing is going to solve any if that. Spend the money on adding the supports necessary so that kids who need extra help get it not spending money on buses. There is no magic Bullet and it seems that MCPS views it as such. It is a complicated multi layered problem that needs multiple prongs of ideas and action. |
Anonymous
First you explain why segregated schools are a good thing. |
Anonymous
I'm not the PP you are questioning but I'll respond. Schools that are segregated by SES or race due to where people freely choose to live are neither good not bad. They simply exist. It is not the school system's job to actively promote or discourage where anyone chooses to live. The sole job of the school system is to provide a good education to any and all students that walk in the door. Their resources to do this include the quality of the teachers, administrators, curriculum, and programs to meet the variety needs that students will present. MCPS does have many of these programs but always falls flat in executing their ideas and programs. There is far too much waste and incompetence being hidden behind the "impossible to solve achievement gap". It appears that MCPS only defines diversity as low performing AA and Hispanic students. It ignores asian students and the many diverse ethnic groups that perform perfectly well and spends way too much time looking at white kids as some type of resource rather than students. A school system should not be concerned with white flight or finding ways to draw white people into an area. The students ARE NOT the systems' little pawns to be used as a hopeful quick fix to avoid the hard work of actually educating all the students. The research studies that show low SES students improve when placed in high performing schools also are VERY clear that there is a tipping point. This only works when the number of low performing kids joining the school is low. Once the ratio increases, any gains are lost and the studies show that average to above average students decline. Some of the studies have also been done across school boundaries where a school with a high poverty rate has low resources. This is far from the case in MCPS as the schools with high poverty receive substantially more resources. If you look at MCPS own long range planning forecast and the FARMS/race distribution across the county, it quickly becomes clear that trying to sprinkle white kids around the county to solve the achievement problems isn't going to work for anyone. By 2025, MCPS is projecting to be only 28% white following year after year decline. The asian and AA population is relatively steady and the hispanic population is growing fastest. The FARMS rate (inclusive of kids who have been on FARMS) hovers around 40%. The poverty level is higher as some transient families or very poor families not wishing to seek FARMs assistance don't submit the forms. Its no longer 1990 and MCPS is no longer a school system with a wealthy, highly educated parent population. Its gone and not coming back. So rather than waste money and focus on bussing kids around or "eyeing" high performing elementary schools to bus the kids far from home why not hire some people that know how to run a school system and address the needs of the growing hispanic community? I have heard that Texas has had some good success with full Spanish immersion schools. Many CA schools use technology more effectively to assist students, track progress and intervene when needed. Cristo Rey has phenomenal success with at risk teens. Why not really focus on making a predominantly poor and low performing school steadily improve on its own achievement? Imagine if you had a school system that didn't think educating poor AA and hispanic students was so futile that the only option was to hide them behind white kids? Imagine if you had a school system that enabled the low performing schools to turn it around and climb up the ranks without bussing in white kids. Wouldn't that be amazing? Its entirely possible but it requires hard work, creative thinking and dedication -things that are sorely missing from the MCPS central office. |