Poolesville High School tops the 2023 list of best MCPS High Schools in U.S. New and World Report rankings

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:U.S. News and World Report just released the latest edition of their annual high school rankings and Poolesville came out on top in both the MCPS list of high schools and the overall list for the state of Maryland:

MCPS list: https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/maryland/districts/montgomery-county-public-schools-104047

Maryland: https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/search?state-urlname=maryland&ranked=true

The W schools and B-CC round out the top 5, followed by Richard Montgomery, Northwest, Blake, and Blair in the top 10.

The bottom 5 MCPS high schools include Sherwood, Paint Branch, Seneca Valley, Watkins Mill, Kennedy, and Gaithersburg. Of those 5, I was most surprised by Sherwood, which I thought was at least in the middle of the pack for MCPS high schools, so I don't know how it slid down so far.

Sherwood is the white trash trailer park of the county. Sports can't make your academics look good.

I think you’d be floored if you analyzed the data.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:is Poolesville like maryland's ashburn?

No, they have a magnet program but their regular folk aren't as bad as RM and Blair.

Poolesville is in the sticks, and it has 36% Asian American students. That's why their scores are high.

Any wealthy school or school with a high % of Asian American population will have high test scores. I know people don't like to hear that, but it's true.

Same thing plays out in CA where I'm originally from. There are HS that have a 40% FARMs rate, but high Asian American population, and their scores are very high.

What percent of the students at Poolesville are magnet students? What percent of the students at Blair & RM are in the magnet. Let’s look at socio economic and racial data of each of those three schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:is Poolesville like maryland's ashburn?

No, they have a magnet program but their regular folk aren't as bad as RM and Blair.

Poolesville is in the sticks, and it has 36% Asian American students. That's why their scores are high.

Any wealthy school or school with a high % of Asian American population will have high test scores. I know people don't like to hear that, but it's true.

Same thing plays out in CA where I'm originally from. There are HS that have a 40% FARMs rate, but high Asian American population, and their scores are very high.

What percent of the students at Poolesville are magnet students? What percent of the students at Blair & RM are in the magnet. Let’s look at socio economic and racial data of each of those three schools.

I don't know about Poolesville, but RMIB is about 125 per grade, and about 25 from inbound RM cluster. Blair is about 100.

You can look up "at a glance" for those schools, as well as the feeder MS to get a sense of the demographics of the HS based on the MS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every few years a high school gets the top pick and the move the all around. NOVA is complaining about TJ being lower. No school stays up at the top for long.

RM and Blair being so low for having the top programs shows how poorly those schools are without it.

RM and Blair are in the top 10. How is that low? I guess because the other W's don't have magnet programs and still beat them?

If anything, it shows that those magnet programs really do what they're intended to do which is lift up the performance of those schools, cause I do think you're right, without them, both of those schools wouldn't be in the top 10.

It's like saying those W schools wouldn't be as good without all those rich kids.

So maybe the ratings are meaningless...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every few years a high school gets the top pick and the move the all around. NOVA is complaining about TJ being lower. No school stays up at the top for long.

RM and Blair being so low for having the top programs shows how poorly those schools are without it.

RM and Blair are in the top 10. How is that low? I guess because the other W's don't have magnet programs and still beat them?

If anything, it shows that those magnet programs really do what they're intended to do which is lift up the performance of those schools, cause I do think you're right, without them, both of those schools wouldn't be in the top 10.

It's like saying those W schools wouldn't be as good without all those rich kids.

So maybe the ratings are meaningless...

It's meaningful if you want your kids to be surrounded by a lot of high achieving kids. That's not to say that your kid will all of a sudden become high achieving by osmosis, but peer group is important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every few years a high school gets the top pick and the move the all around. NOVA is complaining about TJ being lower. No school stays up at the top for long.

RM and Blair being so low for having the top programs shows how poorly those schools are without it.

RM and Blair are in the top 10. How is that low? I guess because the other W's don't have magnet programs and still beat them?

If anything, it shows that those magnet programs really do what they're intended to do which is lift up the performance of those schools, cause I do think you're right, without them, both of those schools wouldn't be in the top 10.

It's like saying those W schools wouldn't be as good without all those rich kids.

So maybe the ratings are meaningless...

It's meaningful if you want your kids to be surrounded by a lot of high achieving kids. That's not to say that your kid will all of a sudden become high achieving by osmosis, but peer group is important.

Every high school in Montgomery County has a group of high-achieving, academically-minded kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:is Poolesville like maryland's ashburn?

No, they have a magnet program but their regular folk aren't as bad as RM and Blair.

"as bad"? LOL

I can tell you don't have kids at RM.

Wasn't RM with all the fights, gangs, and a gun brought inside to the school last year?

They have been declining in the numbers no matter how many magnet kids they bring in each year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re districted to QOHS. 2,333 in national rankings? Eek. No way.

QO below NWHS

In MD:

NWHS #18
QO #45 - below Springbrook, Blake, Damascus, Clarksburg.

What happened to QO? They used to be on par with NWHS.

What is NWHS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re districted to QOHS. 2,333 in national rankings? Eek. No way.

QO below NWHS

In MD:

NWHS #18
QO #45 - below Springbrook, Blake, Damascus, Clarksburg.

What happened to QO? They used to be on par with NWHS.

What is NWHS?

Northwest HS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:is Poolesville like maryland's ashburn?

No, they have a magnet program but their regular folk aren't as bad as RM and Blair.

Poolesville is in the sticks, and it has 36% Asian American students. That's why their scores are high.

Any wealthy school or school with a high % of Asian American population will have high test scores. I know people don't like to hear that, but it's true.

Same thing plays out in CA where I'm originally from. There are HS that have a 40% FARMs rate, but high Asian American population, and their scores are very high.

What percent of the students at Poolesville are magnet students? What percent of the students at Blair & RM are in the magnet. Let’s look at socio economic and racial data of each of those three schools.

Most Asians are in the magnet program. Most Asians will not move/live in Poolesville. Most of the non-magnet kids are white, African American or Hispanic. .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:U.S. News and World Report just released the latest edition of their annual high school rankings and Poolesville came out on top in both the MCPS list of high schools and the overall list for the state of Maryland:

MCPS list: https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/maryland/districts/montgomery-county-public-schools-104047

Maryland: https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/search?state-urlname=maryland&ranked=true

The W schools and B-CC round out the top 5, followed by Richard Montgomery, Northwest, Blake, and Blair in the top 10.

The bottom 5 MCPS high schools include Sherwood, Paint Branch, Seneca Valley, Watkins Mill, Kennedy, and Gaithersburg. Of those 5, I was most surprised by Sherwood, which I thought was at least in the middle of the pack for MCPS high schools, so I don't know how it slid down so far.

Sherwood is the white trash trailer park of the county. Sports can't make your academics look good.

I think you’d be floored if you analyzed the data.

How so? Here is their at a glance data from the 2022-23 school year https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04503.pdf

48% white
20% FARMS
11% SpEd

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:is Poolesville like maryland's ashburn?

No, they have a magnet program but their regular folk aren't as bad as RM and Blair.

"as bad"? LOL

I can tell you don't have kids at RM.

Wasn't RM with all the fights, gangs, and a gun brought inside to the school last year?

They have been declining in the numbers no matter how many magnet kids they bring in each year

Not to mention the drug bathroom on the 3rd floor. The Facebook live hallway sex episode, and 2 teachers with underage sexual harassment charges. It’s like a soap opera. We were happy to move to private after Covid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re districted to QOHS. 2,333 in national rankings? Eek. No way.

QO below NWHS

In MD:

NWHS #18
QO #45 - below Springbrook, Blake, Damascus, Clarksburg.

What happened to QO? They used to be on par with NWHS.

Too much football

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:is Poolesville like maryland's ashburn?

No, they have a magnet program but their regular folk aren't as bad as RM and Blair.

Poolesville is in the sticks, and it has 36% Asian American students. That's why their scores are high.

Any wealthy school or school with a high % of Asian American population will have high test scores. I know people don't like to hear that, but it's true.

Same thing plays out in CA where I'm originally from. There are HS that have a 40% FARMs rate, but high Asian American population, and their scores are very high.

What percent of the students at Poolesville are magnet students? What percent of the students at Blair & RM are in the magnet. Let’s look at socio economic and racial data of each of those three schools.

Most Asians are in the magnet program. Most Asians will not move/live in Poolesville. Most of the non-magnet kids are white, African American or Hispanic. .

Where would DCUM be without stereotypes, prejudices, and general bigotry?

John Poole MS: 59% white, 13% Hispanic, 11% 2+, 10% Asian-American, 7% Black/African American.

Note: I don't live in Poolesville, I can't imagine any circumstances where I would want to live in Poolesville, but even in Poolesville it's 2023, not 1963.

[Anonymous]

My child is an African American girl at Poolesville and I think they have awful misconceptions about the school. The only thing that sucks is its building and they are moving to the new building after Spring Break. We love her school! She comes home bouncing with happiness and brimming with knowledge. Her classmates mostly get along and it is a collaborative environment not a pressure cooker. Her teachers are amazing and they truly care about my child. Most of the magnet students are Asian but it is not their fault that they value education, have a strong worth ethic and really have families that devote everything to their child's success. My child is from a racial group that typically has low expectations and a horrible stereotype but she is welcomed at this school.