MCPS and Starr will probably need to change boundaries

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are also parts of BCC near silver spring that should be part of DCC.

Why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are also parts of BCC near silver spring that should be part of DCC.

Why?

To balance demographics, which is one tool used to reduce the achievement gap.

[Anonymous]

The parts of BCC near Silver Spring are there to balance BCC.

[Anonymous]

BCC is the easiest target at this point for rezoning, as it borders schools in the DCC. lol!

http://www.bethesdanow.com/2014/07/14/in-talking-achievement-gap-county-officials-touch-on-prickly-school-boundary-issue/
In Talking Achievement Gap, County Officials Touch On Prickly School Boundary Issue

Creating another consortia would force the system to rezone, too.

Even WJ could be absorbed into the DCC.

No one is safe! the horror!

[Anonymous]

How about a Rockville Consortium? RM, Wooten, Magruder and Rockville.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What specific boundary changes do you think will help?

Take a school like Kennedy which is low performing but high poverty. The school is next to a solidly middle class neighborhood ranging off Randolph Rd toward White Oak. But kids from that neighborhood rarely go to Kennedy. I'd take it out of the DCC so that area kids can't escape to Northwood or Blair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BCC is the easiest target at this point for rezoning, as it borders schools in the DCC. lol!

http://www.bethesdanow.com/2014/07/14/in-talking-achievement-gap-county-officials-touch-on-prickly-school-boundary-issue/
In Talking Achievement Gap, County Officials Touch On Prickly School Boundary Issue

Creating another consortia would force the system to rezone, too.

Even WJ could be absorbed into the DCC.

No one is safe! the horror!

"Kauffman went on to argue that the integration of the county’s school system is also an affordable housing issue. He then put the responsibility for affordable housing squarely on the County Council by questioning if the Council required enough affordable housing in the 2010 White Flint Sector Plan."

Absolutely. More affordable housing in Chevy Chase, Bethesda, and Potomac would help a lot. So would stricter requirements about developers' impact fees as contributions to the school-building/renovation/expansion budget. Those are County Council issues, not MCPS issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What specific boundary changes do you think will help?

Take a school like Kennedy which is low performing but high poverty. The school is next to a solidly middle class neighborhood ranging off Randolph Rd toward White Oak. But kids from that neighborhood rarely go to Kennedy. I'd take it out of the DCC so that area kids can't escape to Northwood or Blair.

This is the problem with adding more schools to the consortia. It just gives more options for families to escape poor performing schools instead of working to improve them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How about a Rockville Consortium? RM, Wooten, Magruder and Rockville.

totally makes sense


By creating a "consortia system," there's more control over balancing demographics. Gender counts, too. At one point, Blake, which is part of the NEC, was heavily female. It still has more females but the division isn't as great, I believe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BCC is the easiest target at this point for rezoning, as it borders schools in the DCC. lol!

http://www.bethesdanow.com/2014/07/14/in-talking-achievement-gap-county-officials-touch-on-prickly-school-boundary-issue/
In Talking Achievement Gap, County Officials Touch On Prickly School Boundary Issue

Creating another consortia would force the system to rezone, too.

Even WJ could be absorbed into the DCC.

No one is safe! the horror!

"Kauffman went on to argue that the integration of the county’s school system is also an affordable housing issue. He then put the responsibility for affordable housing squarely on the County Council by questioning if the Council required enough affordable housing in the 2010 White Flint Sector Plan."

Absolutely. More affordable housing in Chevy Chase, Bethesda, and Potomac would help a lot. So would stricter requirements about developers' impact fees as contributions to the school-building/renovation/expansion budget. Those are County Council issues, not MCPS issues.

I don't disagree. But until then, the only way to get around this imbalance is through the development of consortia schools. But at this point, putting the DCC together doesn't exactly change things - same for the NEC. Kids from the W schools would have to be zoned for DCC, for example, in order to balance things out. And guess what? People would go private and the area's image would "tarnish."

Isn't that how it works?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BCC is the easiest target at this point for rezoning, as it borders schools in the DCC. lol!

http://www.bethesdanow.com/2014/07/14/in-talking-achievement-gap-county-officials-touch-on-prickly-school-boundary-issue/
In Talking Achievement Gap, County Officials Touch On Prickly School Boundary Issue

Creating another consortia would force the system to rezone, too.

Even WJ could be absorbed into the DCC.

No one is safe! the horror!

"Kauffman went on to argue that the integration of the county’s school system is also an affordable housing issue. He then put the responsibility for affordable housing squarely on the County Council by questioning if the Council required enough affordable housing in the 2010 White Flint Sector Plan."

Absolutely. More affordable housing in Chevy Chase, Bethesda, and Potomac would help a lot. So would stricter requirements about developers' impact fees as contributions to the school-building/renovation/expansion budget. Those are County Council issues, not MCPS issues.

But the impact of that type of change will take much longer to be felt in the school system, whereas just moving the lines and shuffling things could be implemented, with immediate effect, pretty quickly. That doesn't mean there shouldn't be better housing policy, but the fact that affordable housing is the ultimate solution doesn't mean the system shouldn't take smaller yet still meaningful steps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What specific boundary changes do you think will help?

Take a school like Kennedy which is low performing but high poverty. The school is next to a solidly middle class neighborhood ranging off Randolph Rd toward White Oak. But kids from that neighborhood rarely go to Kennedy. I'd take it out of the DCC so that area kids can't escape to Northwood or Blair.

This is the problem with adding more schools to the consortia. It just gives more options for families to escape poor performing schools instead of working to improve them.

What makes the schools poor performing? The schools or the kids going to them? If you swapped the kids going to Whitman w/ those going to Wheaton suddenly Wheaton would be the "good" school. Spreading out the high performing kids will make the schools look more similar on paper but I doubt it will change the performance of many of the kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What specific boundary changes do you think will help?

Take a school like Kennedy which is low performing but high poverty. The school is next to a solidly middle class neighborhood ranging off Randolph Rd toward White Oak. But kids from that neighborhood rarely go to Kennedy. I'd take it out of the DCC so that area kids can't escape to Northwood or Blair.

This is the problem with adding more schools to the consortia. It just gives more options for families to escape poor performing schools instead of working to improve them.

What makes the schools poor performing? The schools or the kids going to them? If you swapped the kids going to Whitman w/ those going to Wheaton suddenly Wheaton would be the "good" school. Spreading out the high performing kids will make the schools look more similar on paper but I doubt it will change the performance of many of the kids.

But if some of the kids who go to Wheaton instead went to Whitman, those kids would do better, and the current Whitman kids wouldn't do worse. High-poverty schools are bad for everybody. The question is how to reduce the concentration of poverty.

[Anonymous]

I just don't see how the consortia really accomplishes integration. In the DCC, I'm not seeing middle class families zoned for Blair, Einstein or Northwood choosing to send their kids to Kennedy or Wheaton. If anything, the DCC hurts a school like Northwood, with many higher SES families opting out for other options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BCC is the easiest target at this point for rezoning, as it borders schools in the DCC. lol!

http://www.bethesdanow.com/2014/07/14/in-talking-achievement-gap-county-officials-touch-on-prickly-school-boundary-issue/
In Talking Achievement Gap, County Officials Touch On Prickly School Boundary Issue

Creating another consortia would force the system to rezone, too.

Even WJ could be absorbed into the DCC.

No one is safe! the horror!

"Kauffman went on to argue that the integration of the county’s school system is also an affordable housing issue. He then put the responsibility for affordable housing squarely on the County Council by questioning if the Council required enough affordable housing in the 2010 White Flint Sector Plan."

Absolutely. More affordable housing in Chevy Chase, Bethesda, and Potomac would help a lot. So would stricter requirements about developers' impact fees as contributions to the school-building/renovation/expansion budget. Those are County Council issues, not MCPS issues.

I agree. Ultimately, it is all about housing. There is no affordable housing in e.g. Potomac and Bethesda, and so lower-income families are clustered in the eastern part of the county. This is not an accident and could be addressed via county housing policy. It is a choice for the county not to do so.