GreatSchools makes segregation easy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do people really check the school rating before they buy a house? Commute and safety are the main concerns. Student performance is correlated with parents' involvement. Smart and hardworking kids will do well regardless attending a school in Bethesda or Takoma Park.

Yes there are many people who restrict their home searches to 8, 9, 10 schools. They then complain that this area is too expensive!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do people really check the school rating before they buy a house? Commute and safety are the main concerns. Student performance is correlated with parents' involvement. Smart and hardworking kids will do well regardless attending a school in Bethesda or Takoma Park.

Yes I checked ratings, demographics, and reviews. We were looking for a diverse school with decent ratings. No we aren't in a W school cluster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do people really check the school rating before they buy a house? Commute and safety are the main concerns. Student performance is correlated with parents' involvement. Smart and hardworking kids will do well regardless attending a school in Bethesda or Takoma Park.

Who doesn't? I checked even when I bought my condo at 22. You'd have an awful time selling and your property value might decrease if your schools are <4.

And no, smart and hardworking kids might not succeed at a failing school. I went to a terrible, failing school. I saw smart kids pulled down by their peers, told to skip school and be teased for getting A's. That's why it's so hard to escape ghettos.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do people really check the school rating before they buy a house? Commute and safety are the main concerns. Student performance is correlated with parents' involvement. Smart and hardworking kids will do well regardless attending a school in Bethesda or Takoma Park.

I totally agree with your sentiment here, but I live in a wonderful neighborhood in Alexandria that is lively, artistic and extremely family friendly. But whenever a someone asks about it on DCUM the consensus is 'great neighborhood, but terrible schools.' The people who say these things have no idea what they're talking about (most people who's kids actually go to these schools are quite happy there), and it deters families who would be very happy and a great addition to our community. These posters often site the GreatSchools rating as the 'holy grail' of indicators, which is not indicative of the whole picture and a lazy way to judge neighborhoods.

[Anonymous]

I agree. But, disagree with generalized blanket statements that it implies ( White/Asian smart, non W/API dumb)

I also used Great Schools when buying our home as my DD went to a previous GS 3 school. All minority, she was the top student who moved up a grade for Reading and Math. We moved to a GS 9 school and in CM she has a partner at the top and lots of similar peers. And they have Literature circles so she is always challenged with peers.

Signed, an African-American Mom

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do people really check the school rating before they buy a house? Commute and safety are the main concerns. Student performance is correlated with parents' involvement. Smart and hardworking kids will do well regardless attending a school in Bethesda or Takoma Park.

Commute and safety were of interest, but I had Zillow send me notifications for houses on sale only in areas with schools rated above 8.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree. But, disagree with generalized blanket statements that it implies ( White/Asian smart, non W/API dumb)

I also used Great Schools when buying our home as my DD went to a previous GS 3 school. All minority, she was the top student who moved up a grade for Reading and Math. We moved to a GS 9 school and in CM she has a partner at the top and lots of similar peers. And they have Literature circles so she is always challenged with peers.

Signed, an African-American Mom

I actually think your point shows how GS's new methodology is flawed. It figures "equity" scores by comparing test scores by race and not by SES, which is really what matters and really where the achievement gap is.

For example, Bethesda Elementary's GS rating overall is a 9 - their test score rating is a 9, academic progress rating is a 6, and equity rating is a 10 (because kids of all races score equally on standardized tests, since they are all of high SES).

In contrast, a school like Flora Singer in Silver Spring scores an overall GS rating of 6 - with a test score rating of 7, the same academic progress score of 6 as Bethesda Elementary and an equity rating of 3 because of the disparity in scores among races, which in this case is most likely an SES issue - the Hispanic students there (who tend to be of lower SES than the white students at that school) have a test score rating of 3, while white students there have a test score rating of 10)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree. But, disagree with generalized blanket statements that it implies ( White/Asian smart, non W/API dumb)

I also used Great Schools when buying our home as my DD went to a previous GS 3 school. All minority, she was the top student who moved up a grade for Reading and Math. We moved to a GS 9 school and in CM she has a partner at the top and lots of similar peers. And they have Literature circles so she is always challenged with peers.

Signed, an African-American Mom

Lies! You’re not a black woman, if you were, you wouldn’t identify yourself as African American. Nice try!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're implying non whites and non Asians are dumber

Statistically, in MD schooling, it's true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're implying non whites and non Asians are dumber

Statistically, in MD schooling, it's true.

Only if you think that school standardized test scores are a good measure of intelligence. I don't think so. Do you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Now it used to be that if you asked around to find out which schools were the whitest, you would get some nasty accusations of racism. Not anymore! Check out GreatSchools, where ratings are nearly 100% correlated with race. The higher the number, the more white kids. The lower the number, the more black and Hispanic kids. It's that easy! And you can still tell your friends "We don't care what color the kids are. We just want the best schools." Everybody wins!


(Yes, of course I'm sarcastic. Not everybody wins. In fact, nearly all neighborhoods lose with such a targeted tool for white-flight. In the meantime, nobody learns anything about each school's principal, class size, facilities, discipline policy, philosophy, class offerings, etc. Just test scores. They're all that matters now. Am I bitter? You bet. People will say I'm just mad my school's rating dropped. Yes I am. This goddamn GreatSchools formula turns the fantastic kids at my local school into a liability -- little anchors weighing down property values. This is wrong.)

Most people prefer racially homogenous schools, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Now it used to be that if you asked around to find out which schools were the whitest, you would get some nasty accusations of racism. Not anymore! Check out GreatSchools, where ratings are nearly 100% correlated with race. The higher the number, the more white kids. The lower the number, the more black and Hispanic kids. It's that easy! And you can still tell your friends "We don't care what color the kids are. We just want the best schools." Everybody wins!


(Yes, of course I'm sarcastic. Not everybody wins. In fact, nearly all neighborhoods lose with such a targeted tool for white-flight. In the meantime, nobody learns anything about each school's principal, class size, facilities, discipline policy, philosophy, class offerings, etc. Just test scores. They're all that matters now. Am I bitter? You bet. People will say I'm just mad my school's rating dropped. Yes I am. This goddamn GreatSchools formula turns the fantastic kids at my local school into a liability -- little anchors weighing down property values. This is wrong.)

Another place that people have been able to get this information prior to greatschools was from the schools websites. The districts in this area at least all provide a breakdown of test scores on race and ethnicity, FARMS, and ESL for each school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree. But, disagree with generalized blanket statements that it implies ( White/Asian smart, non W/API dumb)

I also used Great Schools when buying our home as my DD went to a previous GS 3 school. All minority, she was the top student who moved up a grade for Reading and Math. We moved to a GS 9 school and in CM she has a partner at the top and lots of similar peers. And they have Literature circles so she is always challenged with peers.

Signed, an African-American Mom

Lies! You’re not a black woman, if you were, you wouldn’t identify yourself as African American. Nice try!

She did thatfor your sake, whitey.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree. But, disagree with generalized blanket statements that it implies ( White/Asian smart, non W/API dumb)

I also used Great Schools when buying our home as my DD went to a previous GS 3 school. All minority, she was the top student who moved up a grade for Reading and Math. We moved to a GS 9 school and in CM she has a partner at the top and lots of similar peers. And they have Literature circles so she is always challenged with peers.

Signed, an African-American Mom

Lies! You’re not a black woman, if you were, you wouldn’t identify yourself as African American. Nice try!

She did thatfor your sake, whitey.

I’m black, but thanks for playing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most people prefer racially homogenous schools, though.

That is not true. I would like each class to reflect the diversity in society.