Anybody listening to NPR?

[Anonymous]

I think any student who is income eligible should be able to attend a school with a low farms rate. This would help low income, motivated families get their kids into a schools where high achievement is expected for all.

The county also needs to get class sizes down in schools where poverty is concentrated. It will mean larger class sizes elsewhere. Wealthier people have a choice, maybe some will move to a school with smaller class sizes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think any student who is income eligible should be able to attend a school with a low farms rate. This would help low income, motivated families get their kids into a schools where high achievement is expected for all.

The county also needs to get class sizes down in schools where poverty is concentrated. It will mean larger class sizes elsewhere. Wealthier people have a choice, maybe some will move to a school with smaller class sizes.

Transportation? Over crowding? The county already has smaller classes in Title 1 and focus schools. Class sizes in other schools l so are already huge . My dd has 29 in first grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think any student who is income eligible should be able to attend a school with a low farms rate. This would help low income, motivated families get their kids into a schools where high achievement is expected for all.

The county also needs to get class sizes down in schools where poverty is concentrated. It will mean larger class sizes elsewhere. Wealthier people have a choice, maybe some will move to a school with smaller class sizes.

And the other families can just...?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think any student who is income eligible should be able to attend a school with a low farms rate. This would help low income, motivated families get their kids into a schools where high achievement is expected for all.

The county also needs to get class sizes down in schools where poverty is concentrated. It will mean larger class sizes elsewhere. Wealthier people have a choice, maybe some will move to a school with smaller class sizes.

"Where high achievement is expected for all" That is a nice concept but when the population starts to include lots of new immigrants with unstable living conditions/food and language struggles, will Whitman be able to achieve the same success as their current student population. It has nothing to do with the intelligence of the kids or the quality of the instruction.

[Anonymous]

It would be interesting to know if there are solutions that have worked elsewhere - are there other large school districts w/significant diversity in SES as well as race/ethnicity that have successfully addressed the issues of achievement gaps and/or segregation?

As far as I can tell, there are no easy answers. Busing lower income communities long distances doesn't necessarily improve outcomes (in the heated debate over the 2nd BCC MS a few years ago, MCPS opted NOT to balance diversity precisely because longer distances create additional hardships for lower SES families.) Breaking up neighborhood schools doesn't necessarily improve outcomes. NYC has tried various approaches to school choice but there are studies that show they've only increased segregation.

I don't know what the answer is, but we should all avoid falling into the trap that there is an easy fix.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Already stated in the PP. And isn't that obvious? Any other rules that you think would work better than this (other than merit based schools)? Schools with racial quota? Remember, we are talking about rules, that is something that can be followed with very little personal choices from the administrators. Things like "we should make the school diverse" are not rules. They are slogans.

No, it's not obvious. That's why I'm asking.

So do you have any other obvious rules can be used instead? Again, RULES, not something that different school administrators can easily do differently by just following the "spirit".
If not, it becomes obvious that we should just keep using the current rules.

Under the current rules, right here in MCPS, plenty of students already do not go to their "neighborhood schools".

Please elaborate - other than merit based schools/programs.
Exceptions always exist - as long as there are good reasons and as long as they are limited to "exceptions" (that is, statistically insignificant, which is clearly not something useful to achieve "diversity").

The NEC and DCC were specifically designed to move kids out of their neighborhood schools.

This. We need to expand consortiums across the county. By placing special and sought after programs in high schools across the county (not just down county), integration will naturally occur. Of course it won't solve it entirely but it will improve for sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why can’t she change schools? Are majority black schools overcrowded? They won’t take her?

Why shouls she change school? The y should bus mire black students into Whitman to support her and shut off the racists in the school if it was true.

Why should only black students be bused into Whitman? Black students should not have to suffer a double burden of discrimination AND implementing the remedy to their own discrimination, i.e. busing.

We had this discssion already in the BCC cluster in the late 70s, which is why the system of elementary pairings was created. Students were bused from majority white elementaries (CCES, NCCES and BES) to the nearest majority black elementary (RHPS) and then RHPS students were buses back in upper elementary grades.

Sadly, IMO, this pattern was undermined by the selection of location for the new MS.

The problem with Whitman is that there is no sizeable minority community nearby from which to set up mutual busing. This problem can only be fixed ling term in MoCo by forcing developers to produce residential and commercial development that includes substantially mixed income-level offerings. People who care about Whitman integration should be raising a ruckus NOW about Westbard development and asking how many units at what price points residential offerings will be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It would be interesting to know if there are solutions that have worked elsewhere - are there other large school districts w/significant diversity in SES as well as race/ethnicity that have successfully addressed the issues of achievement gaps and/or segregation?

As far as I can tell, there are no easy answers. Busing lower income communities long distances doesn't necessarily improve outcomes (in the heated debate over the 2nd BCC MS a few years ago, MCPS opted NOT to balance diversity precisely because longer distances create additional hardships for lower SES families.) Breaking up neighborhood schools doesn't necessarily improve outcomes. NYC has tried various approaches to school choice but there are studies that show they've only increased segregation.

I don't know what the answer is, but we should all avoid falling into the trap that there is an easy fix.

No, as far as I know there aren't any solutions that have worked elsewhere; inside or outside of this country. I always find it amusing that folks think MCPS can fix a problem that has stumped people world wide.

[Anonymous]

We are white and really the last thing I would want is for my kids to go to Whitman. I just want my kid to have all the nice extra courses, APs, clubs, etc. that Whitman has that apparently the kids at my DCC school aren’t considered good enough for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are white and really the last thing I would want is for my kids to go to Whitman. I just want my kid to have all the nice extra courses, APs, clubs, etc. that Whitman has that apparently the kids at my DCC school aren’t considered good enough for.

Your DCC school doesn't have AP courses and clubs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are white and really the last thing I would want is for my kids to go to Whitman. I just want my kid to have all the nice extra courses, APs, clubs, etc. that Whitman has that apparently the kids at my DCC school aren’t considered good enough for.

Your DCC school doesn't have AP courses and clubs?

I have compared and no, not nearly as many as Whitman.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are white and really the last thing I would want is for my kids to go to Whitman. I just want my kid to have all the nice extra courses, APs, clubs, etc. that Whitman has that apparently the kids at my DCC school aren’t considered good enough for.

Your DCC school doesn't have AP courses and clubs?

I have compared and no, not nearly as many as Whitman.

For example, no Differential Equations, no AP Physics C, no AP Economics micro or macro. No Debate, no Model UN, no newspaper. Wouldn’t you be pissed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are white and really the last thing I would want is for my kids to go to Whitman. I just want my kid to have all the nice extra courses, APs, clubs, etc. that Whitman has that apparently the kids at my DCC school aren’t considered good enough for.

Your DCC school doesn't have AP courses and clubs?

I have compared and no, not nearly as many as Whitman.

For example, no Differential Equations, no AP Physics C, no AP Economics micro or macro. No Debate, no Model UN, no newspaper. Wouldn’t you be pissed?

I agree. I never understood why some schools offer certain clubs and courses but not all. People who say one can get the same education regardless of the school is incorrect for this reason. We're in upcounty and schools up here offer different courses as well; plus we don't even have a consortium so we're basically stuck with the neighborhood school.

[Anonymous]

Has any state tried giving generous vouchers to low-income families?

I can see how that would help reduce racial and SES segregation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are white and really the last thing I would want is for my kids to go to Whitman. I just want my kid to have all the nice extra courses, APs, clubs, etc. that Whitman has that apparently the kids at my DCC school aren’t considered good enough for.

Your DCC school doesn't have AP courses and clubs?

I have compared and no, not nearly as many as Whitman.

For example, no Differential Equations, no AP Physics C, no AP Economics micro or macro. No Debate, no Model UN, no newspaper. Wouldn’t you be pissed?

I agree. I never understood why some schools offer certain clubs and courses but not all. People who say one can get the same education regardless of the school is incorrect for this reason. We're in upcounty and schools up here offer different courses as well; plus we don't even have a consortium so we're basically stuck with the neighborhood school.

The DCC IB schools offer fewer AP courses. Kennedy has only 11 AP courses but 37 IB courses. Einstein has 23 AP and 32 IB.