Parents of Black Children, Please Let Me Know Your Thoughts

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the poster that moved to Potomac from silver spring for better schools. Why are they better?

They are NOT better in terms of curriculum (same curriculum for a given class across all schools) or mostly in terms of teachers (same teacher pool, pay, etc. across the county though some teachers may have a slight preference for W schools). Depending on home school, they may offer more APs and you're generally surrounded by a set of kids who push themselves hard academically. This last point leads to higher average test scores overall.

Teachers are hit or miss and the good ones aren't always at the "best" schools. The big differences is that most of the kids are from families that have struggles but not financial, and there are other issues with families with money and the access to AP classes and IEP's/504's. For college admission, being at a Silver Spring school may give your child more college acceptances as less competition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can’t believe you are worried about this. MCPS is one of the most diverse school systems in the country.

Have you seen what the proficiencies in ELA and Math are for Black students in MCPS? They're not good. OP has plenty of reason to worry.

Unfortunately I think this is mostly tied to income. Wealthy Black students do just as well as wealthy white students.

Uh, no they don’t. I don’t know what data you’re looking at but it’s not MCPS’s.

Non-FARMS Black kids don’t match the academic proficiencies of non-FARMS white kids. This was outlined in MCPS Antiracism audit. You should read it.

This doesn’t mean that the inverse is true - that high income Blacks don’t score the same as high income whites and Asians. They do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can’t believe you are worried about this. MCPS is one of the most diverse school systems in the country.

Have you seen what the proficiencies in ELA and Math are for Black students in MCPS? They're not good. OP has plenty of reason to worry.

Unfortunately I think this is mostly tied to income. Wealthy Black students do just as well as wealthy white students.

Uh, no they don’t. I don’t know what data you’re looking at but it’s not MCPS’s.

Non-FARMS Black kids don’t match the academic proficiencies of non-FARMS white kids. This was outlined in MCPS Antiracism audit. You should read it.

This doesn’t mean that the inverse is true - that high income Blacks don’t score the same as high income whites and Asians. They do.

Which data set are you referencing, please?

[Anonymous]

Also, if Asians (Chinese) are the majority at the school, keep in mind they can be very insular, meaning they only socialize with one another. That can make a Black child feel very isolated, i.e. , they may not be invited to play dates and birthday parties, etc. And even though Asians are enrolled in ELA programs at high numbers in the 20878 zip code, they will still think they are superior to your child. For example, in a lot of the debates about the re-zoning of Wootton to include more Black and Brown kids, it is predominantly Asians (with limited English proficiency) who are pushing the narrative that this is going to bring down Wootton’s reputation. Additionally, the Asian community has filed a very weak civil rights complaint under this Trump administration over the boundary study. Also, note the same community is who sued to overturn affirmative action.

I give you this info so you know exactly what you are walking into. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

We made diversity of schools a key factor in our move and I’ve not been upset about that one day. In fact it has proven to be the correct decision. Curb appeal is craftable with landscaping and paint. I wouldn’t trade that for my kids being able to see themselves in their school and what that brings to a community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do you see performance stats by race?

You can look at performance stats by race across the system and by school on Maryland's Report Card website: https://reportcard.msde.maryland.gov/

They baked those stats though. Doesn't really tell what the scores are. Like they literally adjusted for the racial makeup of the schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do you see performance stats by race?

You can look at performance stats by race across the system and by school on Maryland's Report Card website: https://reportcard.msde.maryland.gov/

They baked those stats though. Doesn't really tell what the scores are. Like they literally adjusted for the racial makeup of the schools.

I hope you noticed that OP only asked for parents of Black kids to respond with their opinion. That’s for a reason - because often we cannot have these conversations without people butting in with their irrelevant opinions about OUR experiences. Are you the parent of a Black child? What you’re discussing is off topic - OP didn’t ask about test scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are looking at two houses in Montgomery County - 20878 area code and would like to put in an offer soon. Love both houses equally but one has better curb appeal and a bit more square footage. However, for the slightly more appealing house, when looking at demographic stats for the zoned elementary school, it has very few Black students enrolled. For the other house, the stats for Black students are much higher - more than double the other school. At both schools, however, the highest demographic is Asian, followed by White/Caucasian.

So my question is - how much would these demographics concern you when looking for a school? My older kid is coming from an elementary school where the proportion of demographics was pretty even across the board, so it’s not really something we had to think about before, although I will say most of their close friend were Black. Have you found it easy for your child to socialize - i.e., play dates, etc.? Has race been an issue at all for your kid - less concerns about us as parents but more concerned for our kids (age 6 going into 2nd grade next year) and (age 4 going into kindergarten year after next).

Thank you!

Based on the zip I can assume both ES feed into the same HS. All things being equal the demographics would concern me for a DD, but not a DS. For a DD I may lean towards the ES with the higher Black enrollment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do you see performance stats by race?

You can look at performance stats by race across the system and by school on Maryland's Report Card website: https://reportcard.msde.maryland.gov/

They baked those stats though. Doesn't really tell what the scores are. Like they literally adjusted for the racial makeup of the schools.

I hope you noticed that OP only asked for parents of Black kids to respond with their opinion. That’s for a reason - because often we cannot have these conversations without people butting in with their irrelevant opinions about OUR experiences. Are you the parent of a Black child? What you’re discussing is off topic - OP didn’t ask about test scores.

Special snowflakes should create and post on their own site if they don’t want community input.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We faced this dilemma when we moved from Silver Spring to Potomac. I have three girls and we moved for better schools and I would do it again. I don't think there was much of a real racial dynamic in my oldest's (we moved during third grade) friend groups and she integrated well when moving in ES. Over time, she became self conscious because her preferred friend group was pretty girly and she became quite conscious of her hair. One girl even had a 'hair salon' birthday party. In sixth grade, one of the teachers moved her to the back of the room because others couldn't see around her hair. That kind of thing. My other two kids have different personalities and I think were much less conscious about this/it seems not to have come up much, or at least they didn't report it.

My second kid did face some racial issues in ES-- it was really just one unhappy kid who was targeting lots of people for whatever issue she could come up with so while it was racial taunts at my kid, it was other types of bullying for other kids.

Over time, though, two things happened. First, the schools became a bit more diverse moving into MS and HS. So you might look at that. If this is just an ES issue, I wouldn't think twice about it, frankly. As my kids moved into MS and especially HS, their friend group became much more Black. They still have a diverse set of friends, but there were definitely more Black kids included in their inner circle.

The other thing that happened, though, and I think it's related, is that going into MS and especially HS, race became front and center of a lot of the discourse. Like, the kids TALK about race a lot. In our society today, much more than I remember growing up, people just talk a lot more about race. And all three of them talked about being uncomfortable with those conversations in HS because they were in the minority. Things like teachers asking them (not in so many words but clearly in spirit) to represent the Black perspective. Lots of conversations in history and english classes where they felt like other kids in the class were looking at them. (Remarkably, all three of them said that kids in their US history class speculated about how much they would have brought at a slave auction. I think there must be a part of the class where they talk about shade of complexion as one of the inputs into the price of the slave and all three said that set kids in their class thinking.) One plays sports and says kids on OTHER teams have yelled slurs (which is a different thing that what you're asking) but that their own coach didn't really handle it well maybe due to inexperience-- she felt like the coach didn't protect them.

So I don't have good advice. In all, 1. I'm happy my kids went to better performing schools than they otherwise would have. 2. I think the kid's personality might matter a lot in terms of how sensitive they are to certain things. 3. As an ES parent, you're probably overly focused on ES dynamics and demographics and that's a short time and less of a big deal I think. Look at the MS and HS experiences. 4. Over time, all three of their friend groups became much more Black. Not just because the HS was more diverse than the ES but I think because the emphasis on race and other social dynamics nudged them in that direction as they grew older.

Is your kids ok... This is not OK.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do you see performance stats by race?

You can look at performance stats by race across the system and by school on Maryland's Report Card website: https://reportcard.msde.maryland.gov/

They baked those stats though. Doesn't really tell what the scores are. Like they literally adjusted for the racial makeup of the schools.

I hope you noticed that OP only asked for parents of Black kids to respond with their opinion. That’s for a reason - because often we cannot have these conversations without people butting in with their irrelevant opinions about OUR experiences. Are you the parent of a Black child? What you’re discussing is off topic - OP didn’t ask about test scores.

Special snowflakes should create and post on their own site if they don’t want community input.

No one said OP didn’t want community input. She/he just doesn’t want input from people in the community who are not or have never raised a Black child attending school in MCPS. You can always adopt a Black child if you want to be included. . . 🙄🙄

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do you see performance stats by race?

You can look at performance stats by race across the system and by school on Maryland's Report Card website: https://reportcard.msde.maryland.gov/

They baked those stats though. Doesn't really tell what the scores are. Like they literally adjusted for the racial makeup of the schools.

No they did not.

I'm the white parent of biracial kids, so I'm not going to tell OP what they should do, but I'm chiming in to note that the Maryland Report Card date does not adjust for the makeup of the school. The overall "grade" that a school receives might be adjusted to account for whether they are doing better than average when it comes to educating the majority school population, but the actual MCAP scores reflected on the website, which is what PP was referencing, are straight numbers.

The data across MCPS his here: https://reportcard.msde.maryland.gov/Graphs/#/Assessments/MathPerformance/3MAT/3/6/3/1/15/XXXX/2025

You can look at Black kids versus overall population, and you can look at kids who are both Black and economically disadvantaged, but there is no easy way to compare Black economically disadvantaged with Black non-disadvantaged, which is the conversation going on above. That data is usually available at the school level but I'm not sure how to find it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do you see performance stats by race?

You can look at performance stats by race across the system and by school on Maryland's Report Card website: https://reportcard.msde.maryland.gov/

They baked those stats though. Doesn't really tell what the scores are. Like they literally adjusted for the racial makeup of the schools.

I hope you noticed that OP only asked for parents of Black kids to respond with their opinion. That’s for a reason - because often we cannot have these conversations without people butting in with their irrelevant opinions about OUR experiences. Are you the parent of a Black child? What you’re discussing is off topic - OP didn’t ask about test scores.

she wouldn’t have to ask the question if she chose Silver Spring. Many schools with high black populations. Why go where it’s mostly white? Like non-Catholics sending their kids to Catholic schools and complaining about attending mass.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We faced this dilemma when we moved from Silver Spring to Potomac. I have three girls and we moved for better schools and I would do it again. I don't think there was much of a real racial dynamic in my oldest's (we moved during third grade) friend groups and she integrated well when moving in ES. Over time, she became self conscious because her preferred friend group was pretty girly and she became quite conscious of her hair. One girl even had a 'hair salon' birthday party. In sixth grade, one of the teachers moved her to the back of the room because others couldn't see around her hair. That kind of thing. My other two kids have different personalities and I think were much less conscious about this/it seems not to have come up much, or at least they didn't report it.

My second kid did face some racial issues in ES-- it was really just one unhappy kid who was targeting lots of people for whatever issue she could come up with so while it was racial taunts at my kid, it was other types of bullying for other kids.

Over time, though, two things happened. First, the schools became a bit more diverse moving into MS and HS. So you might look at that. If this is just an ES issue, I wouldn't think twice about it, frankly. As my kids moved into MS and especially HS, their friend group became much more Black. They still have a diverse set of friends, but there were definitely more Black kids included in their inner circle.

The other thing that happened, though, and I think it's related, is that going into MS and especially HS, race became front and center of a lot of the discourse. Like, the kids TALK about race a lot. In our society today, much more than I remember growing up, people just talk a lot more about race. And all three of them talked about being uncomfortable with those conversations in HS because they were in the minority. Things like teachers asking them (not in so many words but clearly in spirit) to represent the Black perspective. Lots of conversations in history and english classes where they felt like other kids in the class were looking at them. (Remarkably, all three of them said that kids in their US history class speculated about how much they would have brought at a slave auction. I think there must be a part of the class where they talk about shade of complexion as one of the inputs into the price of the slave and all three said that set kids in their class thinking.) One plays sports and says kids on OTHER teams have yelled slurs (which is a different thing that what you're asking) but that their own coach didn't really handle it well maybe due to inexperience-- she felt like the coach didn't protect them.

So I don't have good advice. In all, 1. I'm happy my kids went to better performing schools than they otherwise would have. 2. I think the kid's personality might matter a lot in terms of how sensitive they are to certain things. 3. As an ES parent, you're probably overly focused on ES dynamics and demographics and that's a short time and less of a big deal I think. Look at the MS and HS experiences. 4. Over time, all three of their friend groups became much more Black. Not just because the HS was more diverse than the ES but I think because the emphasis on race and other social dynamics nudged them in that direction as they grew older.

That's the truth because, for us, the challenge of finding neighborhoods/schools is complicated by many variables. We have no good advice to offer because there're very few options for us. I assume OP is talking about African Americans when they refer to Black parents and children. If so, focusing on Black stats won't help because I believe that MCPS lumps African Americans and African immigrants or children of African immigrants together. My child attends a diverse school; however, in a class that has 8 Black boys, they are the only African American boy in the class. White parents see the class and see a good amount of Black boys. I see a class that only has one African American boy.

If a parent is concerned about their child being the only African American in a class or one of a handful in a grade, consider visiting the public school to see it for yourself, or consider private. The reality in MoCo is: there is no neighborhood with a high concentration of high-achieving African American families. We're all spread throughout the county, so it's not like we can move to a neighborhood or school cluster where we can reasonably expect that our children will not be the only or one of a few. That's why organizations like Jack and Jill are important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We faced this dilemma when we moved from Silver Spring to Potomac. I have three girls and we moved for better schools and I would do it again. I don't think there was much of a real racial dynamic in my oldest's (we moved during third grade) friend groups and she integrated well when moving in ES. Over time, she became self conscious because her preferred friend group was pretty girly and she became quite conscious of her hair. One girl even had a 'hair salon' birthday party. In sixth grade, one of the teachers moved her to the back of the room because others couldn't see around her hair. That kind of thing. My other two kids have different personalities and I think were much less conscious about this/it seems not to have come up much, or at least they didn't report it.

My second kid did face some racial issues in ES-- it was really just one unhappy kid who was targeting lots of people for whatever issue she could come up with so while it was racial taunts at my kid, it was other types of bullying for other kids.

Over time, though, two things happened. First, the schools became a bit more diverse moving into MS and HS. So you might look at that. If this is just an ES issue, I wouldn't think twice about it, frankly. As my kids moved into MS and especially HS, their friend group became much more Black. They still have a diverse set of friends, but there were definitely more Black kids included in their inner circle.

The other thing that happened, though, and I think it's related, is that going into MS and especially HS, race became front and center of a lot of the discourse. Like, the kids TALK about race a lot. In our society today, much more than I remember growing up, people just talk a lot more about race. And all three of them talked about being uncomfortable with those conversations in HS because they were in the minority. Things like teachers asking them (not in so many words but clearly in spirit) to represent the Black perspective. Lots of conversations in history and english classes where they felt like other kids in the class were looking at them. (Remarkably, all three of them said that kids in their US history class speculated about how much they would have brought at a slave auction. I think there must be a part of the class where they talk about shade of complexion as one of the inputs into the price of the slave and all three said that set kids in their class thinking.) One plays sports and says kids on OTHER teams have yelled slurs (which is a different thing that what you're asking) but that their own coach didn't really handle it well maybe due to inexperience-- she felt like the coach didn't protect them.

So I don't have good advice. In all, 1. I'm happy my kids went to better performing schools than they otherwise would have. 2. I think the kid's personality might matter a lot in terms of how sensitive they are to certain things. 3. As an ES parent, you're probably overly focused on ES dynamics and demographics and that's a short time and less of a big deal I think. Look at the MS and HS experiences. 4. Over time, all three of their friend groups became much more Black. Not just because the HS was more diverse than the ES but I think because the emphasis on race and other social dynamics nudged them in that direction as they grew older.

That's the truth because, for us, the challenge of finding neighborhoods/schools is complicated by many variables. We have no good advice to offer because there're very few options for us. I assume OP is talking about African Americans when they refer to Black parents and children. If so, focusing on Black stats won't help because I believe that MCPS lumps African Americans and African immigrants or children of African immigrants together. My child attends a diverse school; however, in a class that has 8 Black boys, they are the only African American boy in the class. White parents see the class and see a good amount of Black boys. I see a class that only has one African American boy.

If a parent is concerned about their child being the only African American in a class or one of a handful in a grade, consider visiting the public school to see it for yourself, or consider private. The reality in MoCo is: there is no neighborhood with a high concentration of high-achieving African American families. We're all spread throughout the county, so it's not like we can move to a neighborhood or school cluster where we can reasonably expect that our children will not be the only or one of a few. That's why organizations like Jack and Jill are important.

This is a good point.