Is it real? Churchill vs Wootton vs Gaithersburg and QC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s not just about property values. It’s about self segregation.

It's also about taxes. On average MCPS is subpar, there are way more average and way below average schools in the county. I pay taxes. Considerable amounts of taxes. Why should my kids not get a good education.

We need to bust these good schools up, until they figure out how to distribute educational opportunities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my kids have long since graduated, but my answer would be atmosphere (although I only know the atmosphere at G-burg)

I had one kid at Poolesville (magnet), the other at G-burg (home school) and it was like night and day walking those schools at lunch time. At Poolesville the kids sit in the halls doing homework together or idly chit-chatting. At G-burg it was all out chaos, kids running, yelling and throwing balls in the hallways.

So being HS’ers? As others have said it’s the vision of idyllic atmosphere that usually has nothing to do with reality or if kids are succeeding in the classroom.

Well, my child at G-burg succeeded in the classroom (got As) but learned very little. She needed to retake Algebra at MC (for no credit) even though she got an A in precalc at G-burg. I was not happy at all with her education at G-burg, mostly because "the teachers spent more time yelling at those who interrupt, than on teaching" (my child's words when I questioned how she got A's but didn't learn anything).

Wow, an A in precalc and had to retake Algebra. I am really thinking this is the same at my kid's school. Math is not his strong subject but he gets A's. And we are in the same region.

[Anonymous]

I’ll bite. For me, it’s about what I consider a better school based on a peer group of kids who are motivated and have strong home support… so FARMS rate matters to me.

I prefer to avoid Wootton because of the super intense Asian-led competitive culture that I don’t think is healthy for (any) kids. I’m sure my kids would get an equivalent education there, I don’t think Churchill is academically superior or has smarter or better kids.

And of course we care about our property values. Our house is a large investment for us and a decline in property value is not nothing.

We moved from DC to MCPS for the schools and miss DC. Our property and state taxes are significantly higher here so if the schools change, we will likely move back to DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ll bite. For me, it’s about what I consider a better school based on a peer group of kids who are motivated and have strong home support… so FARMS rate matters to me.

I prefer to avoid Wootton because of the super intense Asian-led competitive culture that I don’t think is healthy for (any) kids. I’m sure my kids would get an equivalent education there, I don’t think Churchill is academically superior or has smarter or better kids.

And of course we care about our property values. Our house is a large investment for us and a decline in property value is not nothing.

We moved from DC to MCPS for the schools and miss DC. Our property and state taxes are significantly higher here so if the schools change, we will likely move back to DC.

Thanks for a honest answer instead of hiding behind friends and communities. Rarely folks give stright answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my kids have long since graduated, but my answer would be atmosphere (although I only know the atmosphere at G-burg)

I had one kid at Poolesville (magnet), the other at G-burg (home school) and it was like night and day walking those schools at lunch time. At Poolesville the kids sit in the halls doing homework together or idly chit-chatting. At G-burg it was all out chaos, kids running, yelling and throwing balls in the hallways.

So being HS’ers? As others have said it’s the vision of idyllic atmosphere that usually has nothing to do with reality or if kids are succeeding in the classroom.

Well, my child at G-burg succeeded in the classroom (got As) but learned very little. She needed to retake Algebra at MC (for no credit) even though she got an A in precalc at G-burg. I was not happy at all with her education at G-burg, mostly because "the teachers spent more time yelling at those who interrupt, than on teaching" (my child's words when I questioned how she got A's but didn't learn anything).

Wow, an A in precalc and had to retake Algebra. I am really thinking this is the same at my kid's school. Math is not his strong subject but he gets A's. And we are in the same region.

yup...I wish I had known it at the time, but when your kid brings home As, you think all is well. It wasn't until she literally failed the SAT that I realized all was not well. I objected when they wanted her in Calc as a senior since she had As, and I asked how she could get As and fail the SAT, shoulder shrug. They wouldn't put her back in a class where she already got an A. She ended up taking quantitative math or whatever it was called, her last year. She actually enjoyed that class. By then we had decided she was going to MC out of HS to catch up and eventually graduated magna cum laud from UMD.

You might say, in the long run we saved money doing 2 years of junior college first, so there's that, lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my kids have long since graduated, but my answer would be atmosphere (although I only know the atmosphere at G-burg)

I had one kid at Poolesville (magnet), the other at G-burg (home school) and it was like night and day walking those schools at lunch time. At Poolesville the kids sit in the halls doing homework together or idly chit-chatting. At G-burg it was all out chaos, kids running, yelling and throwing balls in the hallways.

So being HS’ers? As others have said it’s the vision of idyllic atmosphere that usually has nothing to do with reality or if kids are succeeding in the classroom.

Well, my child at G-burg succeeded in the classroom (got As) but learned very little. She needed to retake Algebra at MC (for no credit) even though she got an A in precalc at G-burg. I was not happy at all with her education at G-burg, mostly because "the teachers spent more time yelling at those who interrupt, than on teaching" (my child's words when I questioned how she got A's but didn't learn anything).

Wow, an A in precalc and had to retake Algebra. I am really thinking this is the same at my kid's school. Math is not his strong subject but he gets A's. And we are in the same region.

yup...I wish I had known it at the time, but when your kid brings home As, you think all is well. It wasn't until she literally failed the SAT that I realized all was not well. I objected when they wanted her in Calc as a senior since she had As, and I asked how she could get As and fail the SAT, shoulder shrug. They wouldn't put her back in a class where she already got an A. She ended up taking quantitative math or whatever it was called, her last year. She actually enjoyed that class. By then we had decided she was going to MC out of HS to catch up and eventually graduated magna cum laud from UMD.

You might say, in the long run we saved money doing 2 years of junior college first, so there's that, lol.

The level of grade inflation in MCPS is absurd. And the way MCPS is comfortable with the wide disconnect between their classroom grades and actual grade or subject-level standards is alarming.

[Anonymous]

I don't use grades to measure my kid's performance, but I relay more on MAP test results. I have a kid zoned to QO HS in region 5 who will be expected to do well in established magnet programs if there's opportunities given for region 5. It would be awesome if MCPS or BOD consider to move Wootton HS ( if permanent Crown in option H finaly selected) to region 5, and they can make their magnet programs criteria based & given more seats for home students something like that. Just give some behaved students in region 5 who want to learn a chance to excel and choose from. They have moved Quince Orchard HS from region 6 to region 5 without any family surveys, I assume that mcps or BOD have the ability to do that. Region 5 now looks kind of crappy compared to other regions with nothing stand out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ll bite. For me, it’s about what I consider a better school based on a peer group of kids who are motivated and have strong home support… so FARMS rate matters to me.

I prefer to avoid Wootton because of the super intense Asian-led competitive culture that I don’t think is healthy for (any) kids. I’m sure my kids would get an equivalent education there, I don’t think Churchill is academically superior or has smarter or better kids.

And of course we care about our property values. Our house is a large investment for us and a decline in property value is not nothing.

We moved from DC to MCPS for the schools and miss DC. Our property and state taxes are significantly higher here so if the schools change, we will likely move back to DC.

Move back. The emporer has no clothes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't use grades to measure my kid's performance, but I relay more on MAP test results. I have a kid zoned to QO HS in region 5 who will be expected to do well in established magnet programs if there's opportunities given for region 5. It would be awesome if MCPS or BOD consider to move Wootton HS ( if permanent Crown in option H finaly selected) to region 5, and they can make their magnet programs criteria based & given more seats for home students something like that. Just give some behaved students in region 5 who want to learn a chance to excel and choose from. They have moved Quince Orchard HS from region 6 to region 5 without any family surveys, I assume that mcps or BOD have the ability to do that. Region 5 now looks kind of crappy compared to other regions with nothing stand out.

Regions 2 and 5 always looked a little bit unbalanced/problematic.

It's just QO families are complaining about region 5 now after QO got switched into that region.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't use grades to measure my kid's performance, but I relay more on MAP test results. I have a kid zoned to QO HS in region 5 who will be expected to do well in established magnet programs if there's opportunities given for region 5. It would be awesome if MCPS or BOD consider to move Wootton HS ( if permanent Crown in option H finaly selected) to region 5, and they can make their magnet programs criteria based & given more seats for home students something like that. Just give some behaved students in region 5 who want to learn a chance to excel and choose from. They have moved Quince Orchard HS from region 6 to region 5 without any family surveys, I assume that mcps or BOD have the ability to do that. Region 5 now looks kind of crappy compared to other regions with nothing stand out.

Regions 2 and 5 always looked a little bit unbalanced/problematic.

It's just QO families are complaining about region 5 now after QO got switched into that region.

That is because now all high schools in gaithersburg lose access to poolesville established magnet. Before 6 regional program is planned, I believe all upper county high schools in Damasvus/clarksnurg/germantown/gaithersburg have equal access to poolesville magnet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not just about property values. It’s about self segregation.

It's also about taxes. On average MCPS is subpar, there are way more average and way below average schools in the county. I pay taxes. Considerable amounts of taxes. Why should my kids not get a good education.

We need to bust these good schools up, until they figure out how to distribute educational opportunities.

What a weird way of thinking. How does wrecking good schools help anyone? Focus and efforts should be on improving the other schools. Of course your kids should get a good education - they deserve it. Frankly, they deserve it regardless of how much you pay in taxes. But "busting up" a good school is not going to magically improve the education your kids get.

Parents across the county need to stop treating each other as the enemy. Everyone wants the best for their kids and all our schools should be safe and effective regardless of parent income level. Parents bashing each other for wanting the exact same thing they want (good schools) just allows MCPS to escape accountability for their mismanagement. MCPS has an enormous budget. They have the ability to hire more teachers to decrease class sizes, pay teachers better to attract good ones, restore discipline to classrooms, and price after school programming for high risk kids. But they don't do any of that. Instead, they are central office heavy and have implemented ridiculous policies that allow kids to get away with anything, pull As without actually learning anything, etc. But the blame lies with MCPS. Not with parents at Wootton or Churchill or Gaithersburg or Damascus, all of whom are actually united in wanting a good education for their kids. So I genuinely don't understand why those parents choose to fix their anger on each other as though it's galling that they should also want their children in a good and safe school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not just about property values. It’s about self segregation.

It's also about taxes. On average MCPS is subpar, there are way more average and way below average schools in the county. I pay taxes. Considerable amounts of taxes. Why should my kids not get a good education.

We need to bust these good schools up, until they figure out how to distribute educational opportunities.

What a weird way of thinking. How does wrecking good schools help anyone? Focus and efforts should be on improving the other schools. Of course your kids should get a good education - they deserve it. Frankly, they deserve it regardless of how much you pay in taxes. But "busting up" a good school is not going to magically improve the education your kids get.

Parents across the county need to stop treating each other as the enemy. Everyone wants the best for their kids and all our schools should be safe and effective regardless of parent income level. Parents bashing each other for wanting the exact same thing they want (good schools) just allows MCPS to escape accountability for their mismanagement. MCPS has an enormous budget. They have the ability to hire more teachers to decrease class sizes, pay teachers better to attract good ones, restore discipline to classrooms, and price after school programming for high risk kids. But they don't do any of that. Instead, they are central office heavy and have implemented ridiculous policies that allow kids to get away with anything, pull As without actually learning anything, etc. But the blame lies with MCPS. Not with parents at Wootton or Churchill or Gaithersburg or Damascus, all of whom are actually united in wanting a good education for their kids. So I genuinely don't understand why those parents choose to fix their anger on each other as though it's galling that they should also want their children in a good and safe school

I just feel these educational heirarchies are destructive in and of themselves. So, meet destruction with destruction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't use grades to measure my kid's performance, but I relay more on MAP test results. I have a kid zoned to QO HS in region 5 who will be expected to do well in established magnet programs if there's opportunities given for region 5. It would be awesome if MCPS or BOD consider to move Wootton HS ( if permanent Crown in option H finaly selected) to region 5, and they can make their magnet programs criteria based & given more seats for home students something like that. Just give some behaved students in region 5 who want to learn a chance to excel and choose from. They have moved Quince Orchard HS from region 6 to region 5 without any family surveys, I assume that mcps or BOD have the ability to do that. Region 5 now looks kind of crappy compared to other regions with nothing stand out.

Regions 2 and 5 always looked a little bit unbalanced/problematic.

It's just QO families are complaining about region 5 now after QO got switched into that region.

That is because now all high schools in gaithersburg lose access to poolesville established magnet. Before 6 regional program is planned, I believe all upper county high schools in Damasvus/clarksnurg/germantown/gaithersburg have equal access to poolesville magnet.

In that document that came out around August and before the Damascus and QO split, Region 5 was supposed to be Crown, Magruder, Gaithersburg, Damascus and Watkins Mill.

So they had no access to Poolesville or any of the current countywide magnet or IB programs. This was before option H was proposed to have Crown be most of the current Wootton area too.

Then region 2 is basically the Northeast Consortium, with Blake, Paint Branch, Springbrook and Sherwood. So had Sherwood added, which in a recent Reddit post, someone posted some kind of analysis where Sherwood is kind of underperforming based on prices of homes in it's zip code areas.

And in another previous thread, some QO parents said they are rightfully protesting for their school because it affects them.

And that's true.

But some of these regions are not balanced and fair and give access to the same variety of schools. I would like to think that MCPS is trying it's best to balance it out and maybe why they switched Damascus and QO. But just the way the county is economically segregated, makes it very hard to do. And it's resulting in these unbalanced regions.

[Anonymous]

btw this is the reddit thread where the poster said that Sherwood underperforms based on it's home prices or something like that:

https://np.reddit.com/r/MontgomeryCountyMD/comments/1pei6ho/buying_into_the_best_mcps_high_school_districts/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't use grades to measure my kid's performance, but I relay more on MAP test results. I have a kid zoned to QO HS in region 5 who will be expected to do well in established magnet programs if there's opportunities given for region 5. It would be awesome if MCPS or BOD consider to move Wootton HS ( if permanent Crown in option H finaly selected) to region 5, and they can make their magnet programs criteria based & given more seats for home students something like that. Just give some behaved students in region 5 who want to learn a chance to excel and choose from. They have moved Quince Orchard HS from region 6 to region 5 without any family surveys, I assume that mcps or BOD have the ability to do that. Region 5 now looks kind of crappy compared to other regions with nothing stand out.

Regions 2 and 5 always looked a little bit unbalanced/problematic.

It's just QO families are complaining about region 5 now after QO got switched into that region.

That is because now all high schools in gaithersburg lose access to poolesville established magnet. Before 6 regional program is planned, I believe all upper county high schools in Damasvus/clarksnurg/germantown/gaithersburg have equal access to poolesville magnet.

In that document that came out around August and before the Damascus and QO split, Region 5 was supposed to be Crown, Magruder, Gaithersburg, Damascus and Watkins Mill.

So they had no access to Poolesville or any of the current countywide magnet or IB programs. This was before option H was proposed to have Crown be most of the current Wootton area too.

Then region 2 is basically the Northeast Consortium, with Blake, Paint Branch, Springbrook and Sherwood. So had Sherwood added, which in a recent Reddit post, someone posted some kind of analysis where Sherwood is kind of underperforming based on prices of homes in it's zip code areas.

And in another previous thread, some QO parents said they are rightfully protesting for their school because it affects them.

And that's true.

But some of these regions are not balanced and fair and give access to the same variety of schools. I would like to think that MCPS is trying it's best to balance it out and maybe why they switched Damascus and QO. But just the way the county is economically segregated, makes it very hard to do. And it's resulting in these unbalanced regions.

Damascus should be in Region 5. We QO parents were asleep at the wheel when this started and took notice only later.

Wootton going to Region 5 if it moves to Crown would just make it more balanced. Its just the magnet kids anyways and at least this way region 5 can get a good cohort.