PP stated that there are schools throughout the county with poor ratings that provide quality education. It would be interesting to get some examples even with their own definition of 'quality education'. BTW, WJ doesn't count as the school has good ranking. I am not trying to be difficult. I would love to hear some with examples (ES, MS, HS) where a school has poor ranking on some of the major ranking sites but is actually quite good and numbers don't tell the whole story. |
Loiederman MS - incredible program, great principal, and dedicated teachers with a strong cohort of highly achieving/highly able students. |
You seriously don't already know this is true and need examples? Silver Spring schools tend to top out around 6/10 on Great Schools (with only a tiny handful of exceptions, most of those with magnets) and yet lots of them are fantastic. Do you not think any of the Silver Spring schools are any good? |
NP - The numbers don't tell the whole story at *any* school, "good" or "bad" or in-between. Thinking otherwise is naive. |
+1 Math/ELA proficiency rates for White kids at Wheaton HS: 75%/81% Math/ELA proficiency rates for White kids at Churchill HS: 71%/70% |
DP. Do they all offer reasonably similar academic opportunities to those offered to students attending Whitman? |
DP The average number of AP courses in US high schools is 10. Whitman offered 35 AP courses in Spring 2025. Overall, the wealthiest schools in MCPS offer an average of 33 AP courses. Blair, in Silver Spring, offers 34 AP classes, and is not a wealthy school but benefits from its magnet programs. Most other MCPS high schools offer at least 20 AP courses, which is double the US average. However, Seneca Valley, Watkins Mill and Kennedy offer only 10, 12 and 11 AP courses, respectively. Part of this is that these are IB schools, but there are other MCPS IB schools that still offer more than double the AP courses (e.g. BCC has an IB program as well as 27 AP courses) https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/OLO/Resources/Files/2026_Reports/OLOReport%202026-2.pdf |
Just because they are listed, doesn't mean they actually have them. They got this listed from the course guide, but just because its listed doesn't mean its actually offered. |
No one is saying that going to Whitman is exactly the same as going to every other high school. But if people really think that all the 9/10 Bethesda and Potomac elementary schools are head and shoulders above all the 5/10 Silver Spring schools because Great Schools says so, and the reason for the disparities in rankings and test scores has nothing to do with demographics and is all about the teachers at the richer schools being way better, you're deeply misguided. |
The schools could offer one section of each AP class but the principals refuse to allocate the staff. |
Not so, it's based on enrolled students in spring 2025. |
This. |
Don't twist "reasonably similar" (a standard to which MCPS should be held if they at all wish to claim to adhere to their equity principles) into "exactly the same" (a standard that may be impossible on multiple fronts. Reactionary justifications of that sort were used to support "separate but equal," too. Also, the question was about the offerings/ opportunities, not the rankings or test scores. |
What’s wrong with that? I mean everyone cares about their property values |
I am sure if it was your kid not getting their needs met you would be “whining” just as much |