Elementary school recs? (looking for diverse school with good test scores for Black students)
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
I think it's really hard to disaggregate races and income in some of these schools. When the only Black kids are also the only kids coming from apartment complexes, those lines get blurred. In my many years as a MCPS parent, I have seen the data that OP is looking for, but I don't know how to access it or what search terms to look for if MCPS has published it. Basically, each school does have access to a report card that shows how different groups are doing, and that report card does break down "Black and Economically Disadvantaged" and "Black and Not Economically Disadvantaged." It turns out that a lot of schools actually do okay by the kids are Black and Not Economically Disadvantaged, but I have no idea how to find that data for OP. |
Anonymous
|
I would expect basically every school to cater well to every race that is Not Economically Disadvantaged.
But what OP is looking for is a very large concentration. You'll only find that in mainly in one place in MCPS and that's the schools that feed into Blair or the DCC more broadly. At the W schools you'll find numerous Not Ecnomically Disadvantaged Black students who are at the top of their class, but the total population won't be anywhere near 20%. |
Anonymous
I second the Burtonsville area. |
Anonymous
| Possibly East Silver Spring, which feeds into TPMS and Blair, but I definitely don’t know the ins and outs of the test scores, etc. |
Anonymous
CCES and NCC both have a number of middle class and UMC black families and those students tend to do well, similarly to their peers of other races with similar economic backgrounds. But there are also a lot of black students in the FARMS category those schools and their scores do lag quite a bit. All of this is to say OP’s child would absolutely have other high achieving black peers but it would not be all or even most of the black students at the school. |
Anonymous
OP here. If you look at the granular data at the school level, you will not find that your expectation is met re: "every school to cater[ing] well to every race that is Not Economically Disadvantaged." There are a bunch of schools I have already looked at where a small percentage of the Black student population at that school is FARMs-eligible, (i.e., the vast majority of Black students at that school are not economically disadvantaged), but where average Black student test scores at that school still lag far behind average white student test scores at the same school. Basically, the difference in Black and white student test scores is partially, but not completely, explained by socio-economic factors and this is generally true nationwide, not just in MoCo, MD, or even DC area schools. [There is also a ton of education industry $$ and research dedicated to identifying and addressing all of the other factors that cause this phenomenon, but that's not the point of me posting here... I'm really just looking for a decent school for my kid a few years from now.] I also wanted to address your "very large concentration" comment, which isn't really accurate. The overall student population in MCPS is 21.8% Black (see https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/about/), so I am looking for a school where the % of Black students is, at a minimum, reflective of the overall demographic composition of the school district... if this seems like an extremely high percentage (i.e. "a large concentration") to you, it just means that you probably live [and your kid probably goes to school] in a part of MoCo where Black folks are underrepresented compared to the county as a whole and that your perception is skewed based on that. |
Anonymous
I think you're referring to this data dashboard, which has 2022 as its most recent data: https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/data/LAR-charts/Equity-Accountability-Model-Achievement.html |
Anonymous
OP here. Thanks to some helpful posters here, I have found how to access schools' at-a-glance summaries, which include the demographic breakdown of each school as well as the % of kids in each racial group who are FARMs eligible... I addressed this in another response I just wrote, but from what I am seeing (which is consistent with nationwide trends... and why is has been hard to find a decent school for my kid) the socioeconomic data does not explain the racial achievement gap the way many folks here would like it to. |
Anonymous
This is a real concern, and it makes OP's question more complicated. There are a fair number of schools (ahemBCC) with relatively large Black student populations, but those kids are disproportionately from a handful of poor/working class neighborhoods. It means that white kids often assume that every Black kid is from those neighborhoods. It might not sound that bad to some, but the constant assumptions wear on a kid. |
Anonymous
I'm the PP and yes, that's what I was talking about. I plugged in a handful of the schools suggested in this thread, and Piney Branch, North Chevy Chase, and Flora Singer all do well. With that said, note that Piney Branch and NCC both have CES programs. It means that Piney Branch keeps all of its strong test takers in-house for 4th and 5th, while the rest of the Blair feeder elementary schools lose their strongest test takers in 4th and 5th. NCC is even more skewed, as it hosts a regional CES program and therefore concentrates the best test takers from that part of the county into one ES. |
Anonymous
North Chevy Chase doesn't have a CES, Chevy Chase does. |
Anonymous
OP here and whoever wrote this comment nailed one of my primary concerns--thank you! In addition to white kids making those assumptions, white teachers will make the same assumption. Even if they do so without ill-intent, it can still change how they interact with a kid in the classroom and what they expect from that kid. (Also important to note: the type of schools we are talking about also have lower %ages of Black teachers and higher %ages of white teachers than many other schools I have looked at.) I know it shouldn't matter, but since we are talking about reality, my kid is very dark-skinned (relative to other Black kids) and, as a result, this is even more likely to happen. |
Anonymous
Please cite the exact stats to back up your assertion that Piney Branch does well. The racial achievement gap I saw when I reviewed the data was large. What am I missing? The year my kid was in the CES there, there were no black boys in that class, none. Didn’t look up NCC. |
Anonymous
You seem really nitpicky, literal and judgmental. My child goes to a school where Black students make up significantly more than 20% of the school and where white students are less than 20%. I was simply responding to the previous comments and for MCPS more than 20% is a large concentration for the district. |
Anonymous
|
Some actual data:
Piney Branch % proficient in 4th grade math and ELA, MCAP Black - 32.3% Hispanic - 19.4% White - 76.6% FARMS - 26% For North Chevy Chase (also 4th grade MCAP) Black - 25% Hispanic - 10% White - 61.5% FARMS - 9.1% Same data for Flora Singer - again percent proficient in math and ELA per 22-23 MCAP Black - 22.2% Hispanic - 23.5% White - 78% fARMS - 17.4% If the racial achievement gap indicated at the three schools is “doing well” relative to MCPS then this is shameful. |