Wootton HS Modernization or redistricting? What have you heard?

[Anonymous]

10:49...SHHH! Don't let the secret out...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i am in the Wootton cluster. I have a crappy house that I overpaid about 100,000 for to be in the Wootton cluster, we had to be in the Wotton cluster, because my husband graduated from Churchill and could not fathom that our children will go anywhere but one of the W schools. Now I have friends who graduated from RM and all had very positive experiences and went on to do very well in life. I also have friends who graduated from the low performing high schools in MC like Kennedy and magruder and also went on to do extremely well in life. I personally graduated from a rural VA high school where all AP classes were thru distance education, and the majority of my classmates came from poor families. I ended up with a free ride at UMD then professional school. My husband also ended up in UMD (also honors) but was not able to secure any scholarships. So honestly, I am not convinced that going to a W cluster school will secure my kids future.

So true, I know people who went to WM and Gaithersburg, and have done real well for themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i am in the Wootton cluster. I have a crappy house that I overpaid about 100,000 for to be in the Wootton cluster, we had to be in the Wotton cluster, because my husband graduated from Churchill and could not fathom that our children will go anywhere but one of the W schools. Now I have friends who graduated from RM and all had very positive experiences and went on to do very well in life. I also have friends who graduated from the low performing high schools in MC like Kennedy and magruder and also went on to do extremely well in life. I personally graduated from a rural VA high school where all AP classes were thru distance education, and the majority of my classmates came from poor families. I ended up with a free ride at UMD then professional school. My husband also ended up in UMD (also honors) but was not able to secure any scholarships. So honestly, I am not convinced that going to a W cluster school will secure my kids future.

There are kids that can do well at any school at any time. But the reality is there are better schools and teachers in certain areas and people pay the premium for it. You may complain about your "overpayment" but as long as you don't get redistrict, your house will increase in value more than most school districts, including RM. Look at the Fallsgrove's initial prices and what they go for now. Ouch!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You may complain about your "overpayment" but as long as you don't get redistrict, your house will increase in value more than most school districts, including RM. Look at the Fallsgrove's initial prices and what they go for now. Ouch!

I don't follow this. Fallsgrove is zoned for RM, and the current prices are substantially higher than the initial sales prices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

There are kids that can do well at any school at any time. But the reality is there are better schools and teachers in certain areas and people pay the premium for it. You may complain about your "overpayment" but as long as you don't get redistrict, your house will increase in value more than most school districts, including RM. Look at the Fallsgrove's initial prices and what they go for now. Ouch!

What evidence do you have that the teachers are better at the W schools?

[Anonymous]

^^i'd like to see that evidence, too. the only factor that could explain any difference in outcome is ses

[Anonymous]

Right the only direct correlation of student success is parent income and education. Yes the W schools have better scores but that in no way indicates they are providing better educations. Weaker score schools may be doing a fantastic job with great teachers and the extra resources they get to really help needy kids who would be much worse off without them. My mom taught in a very wealthy town in NE. The town lost good teachers to lower paying "poorer" towns to get away from the atmosphere of power parents and snowflakes.

[Anonymous]

In statistics they call it sample selection bias. If higher ses parents with at least a bachelors degree live in an area zoned for a particular school, and other parents of that ilk choose to move their too, it is more likely that that school will have higher scores. This isn't necessarily the result of better instruction. At any rate, no changes at W. Breathe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Right the only direct correlation of student success is parent income and education. Yes the W schools have better scores but that in no way indicates they are providing better educations. Weaker score schools may be doing a fantastic job with great teachers and the extra resources they get to really help needy kids who would be much worse off without them. My mom taught in a very wealthy town in NE. The town lost good teachers to lower paying "poorer" towns to get away from the atmosphere of power parents and snowflakes.

Snowflakes is racist, no??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right the only direct correlation of student success is parent income and education. Yes the W schools have better scores but that in no way indicates they are providing better educations. Weaker score schools may be doing a fantastic job with great teachers and the extra resources they get to really help needy kids who would be much worse off without them. My mom taught in a very wealthy town in NE. The town lost good teachers to lower paying "poorer" towns to get away from the atmosphere of power parents and snowflakes.

Snowflakes is racist, no??

I don't think that snowflakes is racist. It refers to the "every snowflake is unique" idea. (Which apparently isn't true.)

I do think it's a tired expression that people often use as a substitute for thinking, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

There are kids that can do well at any school at any time. But the reality is there are better schools and teachers in certain areas and people pay the premium for it. You may complain about your "overpayment" but as long as you don't get redistrict, your house will increase in value more than most school districts, including RM. Look at the Fallsgrove's initial prices and what they go for now. Ouch!

What evidence do you have that the teachers are better at the W schools?

Not the PP, but I know that at our W school there is very low teacher turnover and getting a teaching job there is considered a plum job. We have mostly experienced teachers that started in other schools in the county. Of course there are fabulous teachers at all schools, and some seek the challenge of working with less privileged kids, so I can't say for sure that all the schools don't have equally good teachers. Would be interesting to look at though.

[Anonymous]

So with this reasoning if I send my kid to a school with many economically disadvantaged students with low parent involvement, my kid should be able to perform very well academically, because the competition is not strong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So with this reasoning if I send my kid to a school with many economically disadvantaged students with low parent involvement, my kid should be able to perform very well academically, because the competition is not strong.

No. With this reasoning, if you are high-SES, and you ssend your kid to a school with lots of kids with high-SES parents, your kid will probably do fine, and if you send your kid to a school with fewer kids with high-SES parents, your kid will probably do fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So with this reasoning if I send my kid to a school with many economically disadvantaged students with low parent involvement, my kid should be able to perform very well academically, because the competition is not strong.

But then he or she will get to college and fail.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So with this reasoning if I send my kid to a school with many economically disadvantaged students with low parent involvement, my kid should be able to perform very well academically, because the competition is not strong.

But then he or she will get to college and fail.

That's not true....I went to Kennedy and we had a huge variety of students from different backgrounds and with different abilities. There was a core group of students who did really well - most likely due to our parents' education and background. We had each other as competition but very little competition from a large portion of the school. Yet we all managed to be successful in college and graduate school. Many doctors, Ph.D's, lawyers... Like previous poster said about selection bias - this was because of our parents' characteristics, not the schools'.