Achievement gap continues to grow between high- and low-income schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I too think this is unfortunate, but my child so far has gotten a great education at his non magnet DCC high school. Not many issues with fights or disruptive kids in class.

Great peer group, zero bulling issues, mostly great teachers, and if the next two years go well my kid will graduate with an IB diploma.

Kennedy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I too think this is unfortunate, but my child so far has gotten a great education at his non magnet DCC high school. Not many issues with fights or disruptive kids in class.

Great peer group, zero bulling issues, mostly great teachers, and if the next two years go well my kid will graduate with an IB diploma.

Kennedy?

Einstein most likely

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I grew up in a very mixed town, where doctors' kids attended the same (one) HS as the kids of Greek immigrants who owned the shoe repair shop. There are a variety of housing options throughout the town, which has two middle schools and one HS. Everyone, working class and professionals, support the schools together.

This county is too big.

How would splitting the county make the schools more economically integrated?

The one major thing going for MCPS here is that the rich people and the poor people are all in the same school system. Not the same schools, but at least the same school systems. As a PP said, it's very common for the rich people to have their own private public school system, that the poor people don't get to go to.

[Anonymous]

If mcps is pooling and then redistributing resources, then won't the money eventually just flood Nec and DCC schools to meet the needs of high need population and deprive the private publics out west of something. I mean PTA fundraising can do only so much! I think DCC and NEC may never catch up with the Ws but mcps is more focused on their upliftment right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I grew up in a very mixed town, where doctors' kids attended the same (one) HS as the kids of Greek immigrants who owned the shoe repair shop. There are a variety of housing options throughout the town, which has two middle schools and one HS. Everyone, working class and professionals, support the schools together.

This county is too big.

How would splitting the county make the schools more economically integrated?

The one major thing going for MCPS here is that the rich people and the poor people are all in the same school system. Not the same schools, but at least the same school systems. As a PP said, it's very common for the rich people to have their own private public school system, that the poor people don't get to go to.

We are not really all in the same school system. Make no mistake, MCPS is very much a system of haves and have-nots. If this were not so, we would not see all these people on this forum dissing eastern MoCo schools and lauding W schools.

I am one of the PPs who noted that in a small town-based school system, economic diversity is very achievable and indeed, was my experience. My dad was a lawyer and I went to high school with doctors' kids, first-generation immigrant kids, kids whose mom worked in the school cafeteria. All in ONE high school.

If the county split, and if there were more mixed housing available throughout the resulting smaller counties, mixing poor and rich would be feasible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If mcps is pooling and then redistributing resources, then won't the money eventually just flood Nec and DCC schools to meet the needs of high need population and deprive the private publics out west of something. I mean PTA fundraising can do only so much! I think DCC and NEC may never catch up with the Ws but mcps is more focused on their upliftment right now.

MCPS has been focused on closing the gap for decades. It has gotten worse, not better. Worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If mcps is pooling and then redistributing resources, then won't the money eventually just flood Nec and DCC schools to meet the needs of high need population and deprive the private publics out west of something. I mean PTA fundraising can do only so much! I think DCC and NEC may never catch up with the Ws but mcps is more focused on their upliftment right now.

MCPS has been focused on closing the gap for decades. It has gotten worse, not better. Worse.

And the illegal immigrant population keeps increasing. See the pattern?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I grew up in a very mixed town, where doctors' kids attended the same (one) HS as the kids of Greek immigrants who owned the shoe repair shop. There are a variety of housing options throughout the town, which has two middle schools and one HS. Everyone, working class and professionals, support the schools together.

This county is too big.

How would splitting the county make the schools more economically integrated?

The one major thing going for MCPS here is that the rich people and the poor people are all in the same school system. Not the same schools, but at least the same school systems. As a PP said, it's very common for the rich people to have their own private public school system, that the poor people don't get to go to.

We are not really all in the same school system. Make no mistake, MCPS is very much a system of haves and have-nots. If this were not so, we would not see all these people on this forum dissing eastern MoCo schools and lauding W schools.

I am one of the PPs who noted that in a small town-based school system, economic diversity is very achievable and indeed, was my experience. My dad was a lawyer and I went to high school with doctors' kids, first-generation immigrant kids, kids whose mom worked in the school cafeteria. All in ONE high school.

If the county split, and if there were more mixed housing available throughout the resulting smaller counties, mixing poor and rich would be feasible.

I agree with the need for mixed housing. Not everyone wants or needs to live in a huge house. I'd be happy with a small apartment that fed into Churchill. Instead I am down county and in a small apartment to close the gap between FA and tuition at DD's private. Still cheaper than our second choice public after finding out we'd pay as much for an apartment in WJ's catchment as we were paying for a SFH in the DCC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not surprised, but it's still sad, especially when you're in the Downcounty Consortium and can't really afford to move elsewhere (nor do I really want to). I just want my DC to have classes where the students are more engaged and want to learn and fewer resources must diverted to fights, ESOL and just trying to get the kids to pay attention. My DC will graduate in 2 years with a decent enough education, but it probably would have been far different in a W school or another with higher SES.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/report-montgomery-gaps-grow-between-high-poverty-and-low-poverty-high-schools/2014/04/08/3820e18a-be97-11e3-bcec-b71ee10e9bc3_story.html?hpid=z2

I think the type of parent you are matters more than how much money you have. I grew up in a lower middle class neighborhood and my siblings and I all went onto college and grad school. Even if not all the kids are engaged for whatever reason, DC can still be super engaged. Besides there are very important LIFE lessons that are learned outside of the W. cluster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just read about this, and it frustrates me. I can't say I'm surprised, it goes hand in hand with an article not too long ago about how MoCo HS kids are failing their math exams, but that the problem persists, and is in fact getting worse, is upsetting. I wish I knew what the solution is.

I don't know what the solution is, either. But I know that MCPS didn't cause the problem, so MCPS alone can't solve it. Montgomery County schools are segregated (poor kids here, rich kids there) because Montgomery County is segregated. And Montgomery County is segregated because the affluent people in Montgomery County want it that way.

Um, can you tell me anywhere in the world that rich and poor live together. Do you want it to be every other house?

Actually, the rich and the poor live together in lots of places in the world. In fact, they even do it in Montgomery County, both through the Moderately Priced Dwelling Unit program and through mixed residential development (apartments, townhouses, and separate single-family houses, all in one development). Other things that would reduce segregation (and increase the amount of affordable housing in Montgomery County) would be allowing accessory apartments and duplexes in single-family neighborhoods and apartment buildings on the outskirts of single-family neighborhoods.

Do I want it to be every other house? No. For one thing, Montgomery County needs a mix of housing choices, not just houses. But the current situation of no poor kids at all at Whitman or Churchill, and almost all poor kids at Wheaton and Watkins Mill, is not only shameful, but also bad for Montgomery County. If you want your kids to be want to live here when they grow up, and be able to live here when they grow up, this is going to have to change.

There is poor and moderate income that feeds into Churchill. Townhouse communities. Moderate single family. Not every Churchill kid comes from a River Road mansion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I too think this is unfortunate, but my child so far has gotten a great education at his non magnet DCC high school. Not many issues with fights or disruptive kids in class.

Great peer group, zero bulling issues, mostly great teachers, and if the next two years go well my kid will graduate with an IB diploma.

Yes, it's Einstein. We're also having a good experience at Newport Mill Middle School.

[Anonymous]

Very hard to fix this problem now. If housing policy had been more focused on creating diversity of housing stock (socioeconomic) the problem would not be as bad as it is. BCC has more socioeconomic diversity than the W schools, and also less of a gap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I too think this is unfortunate, but my child so far has gotten a great education at his non magnet DCC high school. Not many issues with fights or disruptive kids in class.

Great peer group, zero bulling issues, mostly great teachers, and if the next two years go well my kid will graduate with an IB diploma.

IB diplomas aren't awarded until after students graduate. Your kid may graduate as an IB diploma candidate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is MCPS any different then Fairfax? How could it be worse then wealthy New England towns that run their own school systems while leaving their more urban neighbors to struggle with needier students and fewer reasources. I grew up in an area like that. No one worried about the minority gap because there were few minorities. Great unless you were on the wrong side. Even the weaker schools in MCPS have more resources because it is a large district with pooled resources.

Montgomery's population growth occurred earlier than Fairfax's, and MoCo also has more low-income housing, so MoCo has more schools that have already reached a tipping point in terms of the percentage of low-income students. But I agree with you that even the most challenged schools in either county have it far better than the schools in a stand-alone, impoverished school district in New England or Mid-Atlantic states like NJ and PA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are not really all in the same school system. Make no mistake, MCPS is very much a system of haves and have-nots. If this were not so, we would not see all these people on this forum dissing eastern MoCo schools and lauding W schools.

I am one of the PPs who noted that in a small town-based school system, economic diversity is very achievable and indeed, was my experience. My dad was a lawyer and I went to high school with doctors' kids, first-generation immigrant kids, kids whose mom worked in the school cafeteria. All in ONE high school.

If the county split, and if there were more mixed housing available throughout the resulting smaller counties, mixing poor and rich would be feasible.

If the county didn't split, and there were more mixed housing available throughout the county, mixing poor and rich would be feasible.

Or, of course, the county might split into a rich county and a poor county...

And yes, we are really all in the same school system. MCPS. One operating budget, one administration, one transportation system, one capital improvement plan, one...well, you get the idea.