Diversity in Takoma Park

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are looking at DC/MD areas to purchase a home and with a good school system for my son. Several people have suggested Takoma Park and rave about the ES there. One thing that I have noticed is that there isn't much racial diversity within certain SES except transracial adoptions. I have been to many birthday parties, shop the Co-Op, friends, do the halloween thing, belong to the listserve, etc. Much of the diversity seems to be from the apartments and perimeter neighborhoods feeding into the area. Has anyone else noticed this, experienced this, and what are your thoughts on it. It's so hard to access a situation like this since the data from the schools don't tell a true picture.

Ha- this feels like an SNL skit in the making.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are looking at DC/MD areas to purchase a home and with a good school system for my son. Several people have suggested Takoma Park and rave about the ES there. One thing that I have noticed is that there isn't much racial diversity within certain SES except transracial adoptions. I have been to many birthday parties, shop the Co-Op, friends, do the halloween thing, belong to the listserve, etc. Much of the diversity seems to be from the apartments and perimeter neighborhoods feeding into the area. Has anyone else noticed this, experienced this, and what are your thoughts on it. It's so hard to access a situation like this since the data from the schools don't tell a true picture.

Ha- this feels like an SNL skit in the making.

Yeah, but that doesn't mean it's not kinda true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are looking at DC/MD areas to purchase a home and with a good school system for my son. Several people have suggested Takoma Park and rave about the ES there. One thing that I have noticed is that there isn't much racial diversity within certain SES except transracial adoptions. I have been to many birthday parties, shop the Co-Op, friends, do the halloween thing, belong to the listserve, etc. Much of the diversity seems to be from the apartments and perimeter neighborhoods feeding into the area. Has anyone else noticed this, experienced this, and what are your thoughts on it. It's so hard to access a situation like this since the data from the schools don't tell a true picture.

Ha- this feels like an SNL skit in the making.

Yeah, but that doesn't mean it's not kinda true.

I don't think its true. Are we saying there are no wealthy families of color? Not true at all. Perhaps in that particularly elem school - but in this area as a whole - there are wealthy families of all colors and ethnicities.

[Anonymous]

TP resident here - there are a lot of bi racial couples too. In our small preschool community I can think of 5 families with parents of different racial backgrounds off the top of my head . Visiting the farmers market and local playgrounds I see tons more.

[Anonymous]

In almost every HS in MoCo the FARM kids are 80% + B/HI.

This is not true in BCC and RM which is more like 60%.

I agree that it is a problem for a school to misrepresent the poor population as being B/HI.

There are many, many rich families in this area that are B/HI.

But when kids spend most their life in an environment that says to them day in and day out that B/HI kids are poor it is hard to overcome.

Your other option is to go to a rich school where there is so little FARM that a message that B/HI kids are poor is not inadvertently sent to your kids ... You can make your life diverse in other ways, church, sports, volunteering, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are looking at DC/MD areas to purchase a home and with a good school system for my son. Several people have suggested Takoma Park and rave about the ES there. One thing that I have noticed is that there isn't much racial diversity within certain SES except transracial adoptions. I have been to many birthday parties, shop the Co-Op, friends, do the halloween thing, belong to the listserve, etc. Much of the diversity seems to be from the apartments and perimeter neighborhoods feeding into the area. Has anyone else noticed this, experienced this, and what are your thoughts on it. It's so hard to access a situation like this since the data from the schools don't tell a true picture.

Ha- this feels like an SNL skit in the making.

Yeah, but that doesn't mean it's not kinda true.

I don't think its true. Are we saying there are no wealthy families of color? Not true at all. Perhaps in that particularly elem school - but in this area as a whole - there are wealthy families of all colors and ethnicities.

Yes, this conversation is about Takoma Park specifically. And yes, much of the color in TP comes by way of adoption. There are also lots of multi=ethnic families. I don't know too many families in TP where neither parent is white though.

[Anonymous]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takoma_Park,_Maryland#Demographics

[Anonymous]

10:18 here. I live east of New Hampshire and our entire neighborhood is zoned to TPES. Yes, there are parts of TP zoned to Rolling Terrace (which offers Spanish immersion, and so counts many students from OOB), but not the neighborhood east of New Hampshire. If you are house shopping, you should be using the School Locator found on the MCPS website for any house you are seriously considering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Much of the diversity seems to be from the apartments and perimeter neighborhoods feeding into the area.

These diverse populations that you refer to as "feeding into the area" are actually OF the area: they are Takoma Park residents.

Yes, they live in Takoma Park but there is much discussion about certain areas being zoned out of TPES. I am specifically talking about the area across New Hampshire Avenue.

These kids were zoned out of Sligo Creek Elementary several years ago specifically so that Chris Barclay could ensure that all TP kids go to Takoma Park schools. There's no way there's another boundary study coming so close on the heels of the last one.

[Anonymous]

Not all Takoma Park kids go to Takoma Park schools. There are a couple of streets that go to East Silver Spring Elementary.

[Anonymous]

Who the heck is Chris Barclay?

[Anonymous]

He's a TP resident on the Board of Education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are looking at DC/MD areas to purchase a home and with a good school system for my son. Several people have suggested Takoma Park and rave about the ES there. One thing that I have noticed is that there isn't much racial diversity within certain SES except transracial adoptions. I have been to many birthday parties, shop the Co-Op, friends, do the halloween thing, belong to the listserve, etc. Much of the diversity seems to be from the apartments and perimeter neighborhoods feeding into the area. Has anyone else noticed this, experienced this, and what are your thoughts on it. It's so hard to access a situation like this since the data from the schools don't tell a true picture.

Unless you are a flaming liberal stay out of Takoma. It's one of these phony "nuclear free zone" communities.

[Anonymous]

Its one thing to have a diverse school population, another to have diversity in the classroom. Since TP MS (where ESS and Piney Branch students continue) hosts a math/science magnet with seats reserved for the local population, my guess is the "advanced" classes are less than diverse. You should visit the elementary and middle schools to observe. You can also look at MSA scores and see how all sub-groups are performing.

Suggest you also visit Silver Spring International, the middle school which Rolling Terrace students attend. Highly diverse population, more so than Takoma Middle. Immersion students continuing from Sligo Creek and RT provide a high-performing core and the school has a whole-school IB program. Not necessarily better or worse, but different.