Whitman district and race

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:According to the enrollment sheet on MCPS -

Whitman is 75% white, 4.4% AA, 13% Asian, and 6% Hispanic.

The proficiency rates for AA at Whitman is startling and something I would be truly concerned about if I were an AA parent putting my child at Whitman. Full disclosure, I am a Caucasian parent who purposefully chose not to look for houses in Whitman cluster because of bad press about race relations and this type of disparity that Whitman and it's MS feeder has received over the past few years. We bought a house in WJ Cluster - 62% white, 14% Asian, 13% Hispanic and 9% AA. [b]The proficiency disparities are not nearly as startling between AA and Caucasian or Hispanic or Asian.[/b] I don't know why the disparity is so stark at Whitman vs. say, WJ, but it would be a concern for me.

To find this type of info - go to the MCPS web page

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schoolodex/schooloverview.aspx?s=04424

I am a minority Whitman grad, and for the reasons that you noted, we are looking in the WJ district.

How is that diverse? 9% AA versus 62% white?

The poster you quote wasn't claiming diversity--his/her point was about the race relations and disparities in proficiency rates. That said, this is still more diverse than 4.4% AA versus 75% white, no?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP Here, We were looking in B-Cc district for 3 years, and finally decided unfortunately, the B-CC district is too expensive for us =). Ironic, no, that we're paying less to live in a nearly all-white neighborhood!

Being very familiar with both districts, I very curious how you find the housing costs to be lower in the Whitman district vs. B-CC. For one thing, parts of Silver Spring are districted for B-CC and the housing in those neighborhoods is WAY lower than anything I'm aware of in the Whitman district.

[Anonymous]

The cost of an upscale 4 bedroom is lower in Whitman DIstrict. Basically, what is $1.2 Million in B-CC District is 800-900K in Whitman district. But yes, there is a LOT more $500-$800,000 housing stock in 3 bedrooms in Rosemary Hills district.

[Anonymous]

The part of Silver Spring that feeds into BCC is pretty small. The part of SS that is affordable and also feeds into BCC is even smaller -- there are plenty of $1M+ houses in SS that feed into BCC.

In contrast, the Whitman district has several neighborhoods that are affordable, in the sense that the upper middle class can afford them. This isn't to say that the Whitman district doesn't have some pretty expensive houses, just that there are a few more moderately-price neighborhoods than in the BCC part of Silver Spring.

This real estate info is 2-3 years old, from when we looked. But given the disparity in housing sizes in the SS market, probably it hasn't changed much. We were looking at $800K - 900K, again a few years ago.

[Anonymous]

Interesting PP, so where did you land? Whitman?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:According to the enrollment sheet on MCPS -

Whitman is 75% white, 4.4% AA, 13% Asian, and 6% Hispanic.

The proficiency rates for AA at Whitman is startling and something I would be truly concerned about if I were an AA parent putting my child at Whitman. Full disclosure, I am a Caucasian parent who purposefully chose not to look for houses in Whitman cluster because of bad press about race relations and this type of disparity that Whitman and it's MS feeder has received over the past few years. We bought a house in WJ Cluster - 62% white, 14% Asian, 13% Hispanic and 9% AA. [b]The proficiency disparities are not nearly as startling between AA and Caucasian or Hispanic or Asian.[/b] I don't know why the disparity is so stark at Whitman vs. say, WJ, but it would be a concern for me.

To find this type of info - go to the MCPS web page

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schoolodex/schooloverview.aspx?s=04424

I am a minority Whitman grad, and for the reasons that you noted, we are looking in the WJ district.

How is that diverse? 9% AA versus 62% white?

The poster you quote wasn't claiming diversity--his/her point was about the race relations and disparities in proficiency rates. That said, this is still more diverse than 4.4% AA versus 75% white, no?

I do believe there are true disparities.

So I suppose I'm really questioning diversity at all levels - socioeconomic (FARMs), for example. Even more telling is the FARMs breakdown. What percentage of minorities at these schools fit the FARMs profile? If AAs, for example, make up 9% of the school and half of the AAs are labeled FARMS, while only a few whites are labeled as such, how diverse can a school really be? (and by diversity I mean - Do we value differences and truly believe that all students can succeed?)

And then you can break down the numbers even more by examining attendance records, exam scores, overall GPA, and HSA scores. Of the 9% of AAs at the school, how many of these students have a GPA of 3.0 or higher? Then compare that number to GPAs of white students. again - telling

So Schools at a Glance, although filled with data, can offer a person only so much information. It's superficial in nature. When you dig down deep, you can begin to see the inequity.

[Anonymous]

OP here re: disparity, I absolutely agree that there is inequity at both WJ and Whitman, just that WJ had less inequity from the information that I could find while still having a very good reputation.

[Anonymous]

to school with kids who don't look like my kids achieves 99% of the goal of a diversify education. perhaps private schools are different but it means nothing to my family.