MCPS BOE petition re: making student demographics the primary factor in redistricting decisions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good luck telling an Asian Tiger Mom who just bought a two million dollar home in Walt Whitman HS that her kids has to go to school in the ghetto.

coolio, all the MoCo real estate can tank to the lower common denominator AND all the HS's can tank to the lowest quartile of student performance. success! Just like the Los Angeles Public schools, cannibalized themselves in less than 12 years from top district to bottom district.

Really? Never heard this. Will try to google for info.

Like the sarcasm, this has been a case study in Schools of Ed for years. How to tank your public school district.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.economist.com/special-report/2011/04/20/a-lesson-in-mediocrity#ampf=undefined

Https://news.stanford.edu/news/2004/january21/schools-121.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good luck telling an Asian Tiger Mom who just bought a two million dollar home in Walt Whitman HS that her kids has to go to school in the ghetto.

Public schools are a public good, not an exclusive privilege, so she has no legal standing to complain.

So if silver spring can’t escape the throngs of bad students then no one should? Why not just let the schools look like the neighborhoods they pull from, biding kids won’t make the area any nicer

There’s no “should” about it. Legally speaking, she has a right to a public school provided by MCPS. Nothing else.

[Anonymous]

Moco as a county is going the wrong direction, fast.
MCPS as a school district, is as well, even faster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Moco as a county is going the wrong direction, fast.
MCPS as a school district, is as well, even faster.

I disagree. The school system has an obligation to educate its students. Over 40% of students entering K are Hispanic. Test scores make it clear we are failing these students. This has to be a real priority even if you don't like it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:so instead of the east/west county barbell, MCPS thinks bu$$$ing everyone around and creating barbells within each upper school is the holy grail of Big County public education.

meanwhile, MCPS K-8 curriculum is a joke, it's FARMs and ESOL scores for grades 6-12 are <50% proficient, and central office keeps jacking up the costs of everything.

Nobody is talking about busing everyone around except you and the Chicken Little OP.

+1

how do you get a kid from wheaton to churchill without a 75+ minute bus ride?

Is there an actual plan to bus kids from wheaton to churchill?? No.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Moco as a county is going the wrong direction, fast.
MCPS as a school district, is as well, even faster.

I disagree. The school system has an obligation to educate its students. Over 40% of students entering K are Hispanic. Test scores make it clear we are failing these students. This has to be a real priority even if you don't like it.

Yes, unskilled, uneducated immigrants and families will not help any school district anywhere.

Can't do it as a large county system, right now MCPS is failing and shafting all segments except magnet students. The FARMS, the URMs, the ESOL, the poorly performing students, and middle performing students, and the strongly performing students. If it weren't for parent involvement and accountability the numbers would be even worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Moco as a county is going the wrong direction, fast.
MCPS as a school district, is as well, even faster.

I disagree. The school system has an obligation to educate its students. Over 40% of students entering K are Hispanic. Test scores make it clear we are failing these students. This has to be a real priority even if you don't like it.

Yes, unskilled, uneducated immigrants and families will not help any school district anywhere.

Can't do it as a large county system, right now MCPS is failing and shafting all segments except magnet students. The FARMS, the URMs, the ESOL, the poorly performing students, and middle performing students, and the strongly performing students. If it weren't for parent involvement and accountability the numbers would be even worse.

School districts exist to serve their students, not the other way around.

[Anonymous]

Some parents seem to think MCPS exists to prop up their property values, or that MCPS is in some kind of competition with the county school systems in Howard, Fairfax, Loudoun, wherever.

MCPS exists solely to serve the actual students in its borders. That is it’s mandate and how it defines its success. Not property values or how many families are allegedly “fleeing.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:so instead of the east/west county barbell, MCPS thinks bu$$$ing everyone around and creating barbells within each upper school is the holy grail of Big County public education.

meanwhile, MCPS K-8 curriculum is a joke, it's FARMs and ESOL scores for grades 6-12 are <50% proficient, and central office keeps jacking up the costs of everything.

Nobody is talking about busing everyone around except you and the Chicken Little OP.

+1

how do you get a kid from wheaton to churchill without a 75+ minute bus ride?

Is there an actual plan to bus kids from wheaton to churchill?? No.

There's also no plan to bus kids from Churchill to Wheaton.

[Anonymous]

I missed this. What are the plans for wootton/Lakewood area?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I missed this. What are the plans for wootton/Lakewood area?

There are no plans for Lakewood ES.

Here is the plan for Wootton HS:

Thomas S. Wootton High School

Capital Project: Based on the Montgomery County Council
Office of Legislative Oversight (OLO) study of the revitalization/expansion
program released in July 2015, this program is
under review in order to develop a multi-variable approach
to determine the priority order of large-scale renovations of
facilities, possibly including programmatic and capacity considerations.
Recommendations regarding possible changes to
this program will be released once the review is complete.

Capital Project: Projections indicate that enrollment will
exceed capacity by the end of the six-year planning period.
Expenditures are programmed in the six-year period to open
a new high school on the Crown Farm site to address overutilization
in the mid-county region. Although an FY 2019
appropriation for planning was recommended by the Board of
Education to begin the architectural design for this new school,
the County Council delayed the funds by one year to begin in
FY 2020. Once the planning is complete, a recommendation
will be included in the next full CIP regarding the phasing
and completion date for the opening of this new high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I missed this. What are the plans for wootton/Lakewood area?

There are no plans for Lakewood ES.

Here is the plan for Wootton HS:

Thomas S. Wootton High School

Capital Project: Based on the Montgomery County Council
Office of Legislative Oversight (OLO) study of the revitalization/expansion
program released in July 2015, this program is
under review in order to develop a multi-variable approach
to determine the priority order of large-scale renovations of
facilities, possibly including programmatic and capacity considerations.
Recommendations regarding possible changes to
this program will be released once the review is complete.

Capital Project: Projections indicate that enrollment will
exceed capacity by the end of the six-year planning period.
Expenditures are programmed in the six-year period to open
a new high school on the Crown Farm site to address overutilization
in the mid-county region. Although an FY 2019
appropriation for planning was recommended by the Board of
Education to begin the architectural design for this new school,
the County Council delayed the funds by one year to begin in
FY 2020. Once the planning is complete, a recommendation
will be included in the next full CIP regarding the phasing
and completion date for the opening of this new high school.

Thanks, however how will that effect families near Wootton hs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Moco as a county is going the wrong direction, fast.
MCPS as a school district, is as well, even faster.

I disagree. The school system has an obligation to educate its students. Over 40% of students entering K are Hispanic. Test scores make it clear we are failing these students. This has to be a real priority even if you don't like it.

I grew up low income. If a low income child has low test scores, it's not all because MCPS's isn't doing its job. They can't be miracle workers. Are there things they can do to help these kids reach their potential? Absolutely, but for the most part, not so great test scores of this group isn't necessarily because MCPS is failing to do its job. IMO, MCPS has done a lot for low income kids, more than many other school districts. At some point, the parents have to take on that ownership to make sure their kids are doing what they need to do. It's not easy. Not only did I grow up low income, but my parents also didn't speak any English, and back then, we didn't have school newsletters/announcements printed in 10 different languages, which I think is a great idea and wished we had this when I was growing up.

That adage comes to mind.. you can lead the horse to water, but you can't force it to drink it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I missed this. What are the plans for wootton/Lakewood area?

There are no plans for Lakewood ES.

Here is the plan for Wootton HS:

Thomas S. Wootton High School

Capital Project: Based on the Montgomery County Council
Office of Legislative Oversight (OLO) study of the revitalization/expansion
program released in July 2015, this program is
under review in order to develop a multi-variable approach
to determine the priority order of large-scale renovations of
facilities, possibly including programmatic and capacity considerations.
Recommendations regarding possible changes to
this program will be released once the review is complete.

Capital Project: Projections indicate that enrollment will
exceed capacity by the end of the six-year planning period.
Expenditures are programmed in the six-year period to open
a new high school on the Crown Farm site to address overutilization
in the mid-county region. Although an FY 2019
appropriation for planning was recommended by the Board of
Education to begin the architectural design for this new school,
the County Council delayed the funds by one year to begin in
FY 2020. Once the planning is complete, a recommendation
will be included in the next full CIP regarding the phasing
and completion date for the opening of this new high school.

Thanks, however how will that effect families near Wootton hs?

DP... my guess is that some areas will be zoned for Crown HS.

[Anonymous]

Lets say that MCPS chops up all the schools and creates bizarre boundaries bussing people living closer in to areas further out and vice versa to achieve their balance. What happens when 3 years later everyone has moved to be in better boundaries? I honestly think that the pro-chop it up crowd is hoping for a real estate windfall the same way the anti-chop it crowd is hoping it doesn't happen. I 100% doubt that anyone posting on this board actually gives two hoots about poor kids.

Lets play out an example. Lets say you get to bus get one ES out of one of the Ws up to Kennedy or Gaithersburg and one of the SS or Gaithersburg schools down into the Ws. Do you think that the real estate in the cheaper areas up north will stay affordable and low income? Of course not, it will go up and you will be back to a non-FARMS school. Do you think that the people living down south that now have to send their kids to a low ranked school will embrace this idea and happily put their kids on the bus while all their neighbors are going to a better school? Of course not, they will move -losing money and the people who buy in will get a bargain but do private school.

Its not as if there are not economic models from failed attempts to do this in other school systems. Its economically very predictable. MCPS will not get the outcome it wants, the schools will not retain a 65/35 FARMS balance and they'll just take down the entire county.

It really doesn't matter whether you personally believe this is right or wrong its 101 economic behavior. If the county was responsible they would hire a credible economist (not an educator) to create simulations of what the effects of these decisions would have on the county, whether it would ever yield the desired outcome and what the overall impact would be from doing this.