Ashburton Elementary - GreatSchools Rating
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Anonymous
Are you still a parent at Ashburton or just whining for the previous principal? That was also 5 years ago, are you still not over it? Do you have evidence that he actually pushed out an existing principal, or did someone in front office make that decision? Facts please. Mr. Mullenholz is managing the largest elementary school in Montgomery county. From my vantage point, he does an excellent job with running a school at a massive scale. OP, what you should be asking yourself in a private vs public decision is whether you want your child to be in a school this large. It certainly runs very efficiently considering its size. Your child will have many options for friends. It’s a decently diverse school for Bethesda. Not snobby, but you’ll have to find your crowd bc it’s a large school. Your classroom mix could be very different each year. You’ll want to know if moco curriculum for math, science and reading is a fit for your kid. Everyone in moco is learning Eurkeka Math. Look that up and do the research on the method. Great school ratings are meaningless. The school experience will always be subjective and very specific to your child. The vast majority of upper class children are served fine by MoCO and the elementary experience from a curriculum perspective isn’t going to be different from school to school. Is Wyngate a better school? It’s right down the street and has better ratings? They all go to the same middle school which will be massive btw. So better to get used to being in a large school? I’m disturbed by some of the reactions to the anti-racist education program that Ashburton is leading, but not surprised. Unfortunate the program can’t be delivered more directly to the parents, bc that’s where it’s badly needed. Have an open mind. Your kid will turn out ok because most likely he/she is white. |
Anonymous
Pretty sure each section has a question mark you can hover over that tells you where the data comes from. Virtually all the data they get comes from the NCES and Maryland Report Card Website, and those are reliable sources. Greatschools is probably the best school rating website. It’s 20000x better than Niche and US News, which use arbitrary criteria to rank their schools. It’s much better than schooldigger, which doesn’t factor equity into its rankings. GS ratings are 100% based on standardized test scores, AP participation and passing rates (for high schools), academic progress from year to year (for elementary and middle schools), how well schools are closing the academic achievement gap/how well their students from disadvantaged backgrounds do in all the previously mentioned factors. IMO, that is 100% what school ratings should be. No rating system is perfect because people look for different things in a school, but great schools is by far the most interactive and the most all inclusive of all the rating websites (though it’s still not perfect). If you go to Ashburton’s page, you can very clearly see that the equity section has the lowest score, 5/10. When you look into the equity section, you can see that all different student groups (white, Black, and Hispanic) are performing well above the state average for their demographics EXCEPT for Asian students, whose test scores are falling way below the state average for Asian students. That’s drooling their equity rating down. Another thing that is causing the equity rating to be low is that there is still a huge gap between white and Black/Hispanic students’ test scores even if Black/Hispanic students are performing above the state average. |
Anonymous
Did you watch the video? |
Anonymous
| All the high schools in Anne Arundel County dropped down by a number recently because someone put in that there is a <1% AP participation rate at ALL their high schools recently. That error still hasn’t been corrected by them. You can tell it’s off because it will say 40% of students are taking an AP math class just below 🙄 |
Anonymous
| Wow, so many “liberals” are so bothered by anti-racism training. |
Anonymous
It’s the new GS equity ratings driving down the score, punishing schools with more diverse (income, English language fluency), hence the sharp drop over 1-2 years. A few other schools with more diverse swings in income in their student populations have dropped as well (Bradley Hills went down to a 7 for example, Garrett Park is down to a 6). Other nearby schools (with higher GS scores) that they’re being measured against have near totally homogeneous student populations when it comes to family background and income. So they’re essentially rewarded (in scoring) for their lack of income diversity in their student body. |
Anonymous
Cry me a river. I can name several very diverse schools in Howard and Anne Arundel Counties that have much much higher equity ratings than Ashburton. Maybe compared to the richer schools nearby (which would probably also have the same ratings if the demographics were flipped) you’re being “punished,” but not compared to Maryland state averages for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, which is who those kids are being measured against in that section. Ashburton got a low equity score because it doesn’t serve its students from disadvantaged backgrounds well compared to the MARYLAND state average, not compared to just the other schools in rich W clusters. Everyone is always so quick to discredit rating websites that rate schools in W clusters low, but when it’s a school in a non-W cluster, everyone assumes it’s cause those kids are lazy. |
Anonymous
Ashburton first grade family here. Our child has done very well at Ashburton academically and socially. Appreciate the diverse student body, love the engaged parents and PTA. Our teacher has tried really hard to make sure our kid has continued to learn and had a sense of community even during remote learning for the last year. The school is definitely over capacity, but the teachers and administrators try their absolute best to make lemonade out of the lemons that have been handed to them by MCPS. Given the student body makeup I welcome the focus on inclusion and anti-racism. Not sure why some find it controversial, but for those that do this probably is not the right school community for them. |
Anonymous
| The equity rating doesn’t “punish” schools with more ethnic minorities. Many schools with mostly white and wealthy student bodies still have god awful equity ratings. The equity rating is meant to do the exact opposite: not make ratings a reflection of which schools are wealthier and whiter. Without that section, they’d just be looking at raw test scores without filtering for demographics first, and it would be even more of a reflection of wealth and whiteness. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
I don’t know much about Howard or Anne Arundel County schools since I don’t live anywhere near there, but I’m sure others who follow those forums do. However, since we’re on the MCPS forum: can PP name several very diverse MCPS schools with similar SES demographics to Ashburton (and Bradley Hills and Garrett Park) that currently enjoy sky-high equity ratings on GS? |
Anonymous
- Wilson Wilms Elementary in Clarksburg has a 7/10 GS Equity rating with a student body that is 27% Black and Hispanic and 9% FARMs recipients (vs 32%/12% at Ashburton): https://www.greatschools.org/maryland/clarksburg/5188-Wilson-Wims-Elementary-School/#Equity_overview - Spark M. Matsunaga Elementary in Germantown has an 8/10 equity rating and 9/10 overall rating with a student body that is 36% Black/Hispanic and 20% FARMs recipients: https://www.greatschools.org/maryland/germantown/2039-Spark-M.-Matsunaga-Elementary-School/#Race_ethnicity*Test_scores*Math - Bells Mill Elementary in Rockville has a 10/10 Equity rating with 20% of its students being Black or Hispanic and 10% being FARMs recipients: https://www.greatschools.org/maryland/rockville/858-Bells-Mill-Elementary-School/ - Westover Elementary in Silver Spring has a 9/10 equity rating with 60% of its students being Black and Hispanic and 27% receiving FARMs: https://www.greatschools.org/maryland/silver-spring/979-Westover-Elementary-School/#Equity_overview Oh, and there’s plenty of more. GS is not “punishing” Ashburton for having more ethnic minorities, Ashburton is punishing itself by not serving its students from disadvantaged backgrounds as well. So funny how W school families will accuse the ratings of being racially biased when it’s their school but not when it’s a non-W elementary school with twice the amount of students from disadvantaged backgrounds that somehow manage to shame Ashburton when it comes to equity. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
Define anti-racism training. |