Black parent -- does school ranking matter?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Go private.

You got that right! Trying to find excellent public schools for black children in this area is torture. Sometimes private is the better and only option.

[Anonymous]

Trying to find excellent public schools for black children in this area is torture.

Why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:School ranking and the percentage of FARM students matter to me. I want to make sure that my children are around like minded peers (students who value education) from similar families (high SES) regardless of race.

I hate to tell you this but everyone with a high income does not have your 'like mind' and everyone getting a free lunch is not uneducated. The COL here dictates that what is considered the average income most other places, qualifies you for FARMS here!
We have what may be considered a high FARMS rate at Flora Singer, but I would not trade our super involved and committed and multicultural, multi level incomes for all the high six figure, I went Havahd communities anywhere. At our school, the MD's mix with the medical billing assistants and the lawyersix with the day laborers. That kind of character education combined with the excellent academics cannot be beat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School ranking and the percentage of FARM students matter to me. I want to make sure that my children are around like minded peers (students who value education) from similar families (high SES) regardless of race.

I hate to tell you this but everyone with a high income does not have your 'like mind' and everyone getting a free lunch is not uneducated. The COL here dictates that what is considered the average income most other places, qualifies you for FARMS here!
We have what may be considered a high FARMS rate at Flora Singer, but I would not trade our super involved and committed and multicultural, multi level incomes for all the high six figure, I went Havahd communities anywhere. At our school, the MD's mix with the medical billing assistants and the lawyersix with the day laborers. That kind of character education combined with the excellent academics cannot be beat.

And yes we are black upper middle class people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School ranking and the percentage of FARM students matter to me. I want to make sure that my children are around like minded peers (students who value education) from similar families (high SES) regardless of race.

I hate to tell you this but everyone with a high income does not have your 'like mind' and everyone getting a free lunch is not uneducated. The COL here dictates that what is considered the average income most other places, qualifies you for FARMS here!
We have what may be considered a high FARMS rate at Flora Singer, but I would not trade our super involved and committed and multicultural, multi level incomes for all the high six figure, I went Havahd communities anywhere. At our school, the MD's mix with the medical billing assistants and the lawyersix with the day laborers. That kind of character education combined with the excellent academics cannot be beat.

And yes we are black upper middle class people.

BRAVO! Good for you! Not everyone wants their children to become sacrificial lambs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School ranking and the percentage of FARM students matter to me. I want to make sure that my children are around like minded peers (students who value education) from similar families (high SES) regardless of race.

I hate to tell you this but everyone with a high income does not have your 'like mind' and everyone getting a free lunch is not uneducated. The COL here dictates that what is considered the average income most other places, qualifies you for FARMS here!
We have what may be considered a high FARMS rate at Flora Singer, but I would not trade our super involved and committed and multicultural, multi level incomes for all the high six figure, I went Havahd communities anywhere. At our school, the MD's mix with the medical billing assistants and the lawyersix with the day laborers. That kind of character education combined with the excellent academics cannot be beat.

And yes we are black upper middle class people.

BRAVO! Good for you! Not everyone wants their children to become sacrificial lambs.

BRAVO for not being ashamed of your stupidity TROLL!!

[Anonymous]

Greatschools isn't the be all and end all, but they do break down test scores by ethnicity, so you can get a sense of how black students do at a school compared to the school overall.

For example, 2 of the schools you mentioned - Yorktown & Langley:

Yorktown is an 8 overall, but a 2 for black students.
http://www.greatschools.org/virginia/arlington/135-Yorktown-High-School/?tab=ratings

Langley is a 9 overall, but an 8 for black students.
http://www.greatschools.org/virginia/mclean/529-Langley-High-School/?tab=ratings

When looking at schools, it was important for me that there wasn't a large gap between the test scores of the ethnic group my kid is in and the test scores of the student population overall.

[Anonymous]

I posted earlier that my DC attends a DC private. I personally don't think every private is the answer. Just like a good public school with a significant amount of black students doing well can be great. There are some privates schools that have large numbers of the black students performing well below their white peers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I guess my question is whether it is worth investing in a home in a district like Langley or whatever versus living some place less expensive and investing those resources to supplement our children's educational experience since the outcomes are uniformly unacceptable for our student population, regardless of location. I know we can't rely on our schools to do everything, but I guess my question is whether it's better to just assume the worst and take things over at home/supplemental experiences/activities approach.

Excuse my ignorance, but why does it matter that you are black? It seems to me this is the same question that runs through the minds of all parents. What is different?

Not to hijack OP's thread but I think the difference is that the stakes are higher for black students (even high SES). Even those of us who are successful don't have generations of family members with strong academic records or that have worked in white collar jobs, or have a set history of financial stability. Outside of core family stability, education is really the only true pathway for progress in our communities.

I live in DC and struggled with this question that OP is asking. When my family moved to DC in 2005 I noticed that AA's of a higher SES resoundingly rejected, even the higher performing DCPS schools, especially for HS - many sent their kids to private. This has changed somewhat over the years, but I think the idea of sending a child to a mediocre school was out of the question. Families don't want to take a chance. The other thing I noticed were families with black boys left in elementary - quickly - in some cases because of bias by teachers and administrators. In my case we decided to stick with public, but we reevaluated every year. What really worked for us was making sure our DD's were with a strong cohort of friends, from all backgrounds and races, that valued education. If you go with a school that does not have a strong record of achievement that could be difficult to overcome in the middle and high school years. The key is you want to make sure your kids are prepared to take advantage of the offerings that MCPS provides. I also think that as kids get older it is difficult to supplement appropriately. I don't know how school funding works in MCPS but I can tell you that in DC, there is a vast difference in the extracurricular offerings at our middle school and those across town. Our kids only do one activity outside of school because the middle and high school offer so much.

Good Luck to you!

Did you really and truly say the bolded? Do you truly believe that? I am almost 50 years old and I know lots of multi-generationally college educated black folk. Please do not spread falsehoods. That "many of us" comment was way off base.
Back to the OP's question. We are in a very diverse school in MCPS. We love the diversity color, language, nationality. We did not want our children to somewhere that they were the only brown/black ones in the classroom. We are college educated and so our parents and grandparents. We honestly pay little attention to stats in terms of outcomes for black kids. We know what is expected of our kids, what we will do and picked a school that had overall sucessfull outcomes. We are extremely happy thus far.

Yes I did say the bolded. So good for you that you know lots of multi-generational college educated black people. It's not that common, dear. Bless your heart that you think it is.

[Anonymous]

My opinion FWIW (not AA or Latina) is that when you do look at schools also look at schools that have a diverse representation on the teaching staff and administration esp. if you have boys. You don't want to be in a school environment where all the teachers are white women and all the support and custodial staff is AA.

If you decide not to go the expense house route, I'd invest some of the non expense money in foreign travel.

[Anonymous]

I have been researching with the same concern. We have started our oldest in private and they have siblings coming behind them once old enough. We are in PG. We adore the private so far and it is a community of very successful upper middle class peers and their children...many who are also AA. The students are testing highly and are moving on to many of the big name privates in this area. The school has high standards and so do the parents. It has been the best choice for us. By the time our oldest is in 5th, we plan to move so that a good public middle and high school will be an option. We are looking in VA and like you the overall great schools ranking don't mean much to me. I look at how AA children are performing. Virginia's school website breaks this data down and makes it easy to eliminate many schools from consideration. I looked at where do they have at least 5% of the pop. that look like my kid and I look at the AA test scores. Marshall and West Springfield "won". Woodson with an honorable mention but had almost half the AA population of the other two. Those clusters are where we plan to focus our search when we move....until the. We are very pleased with private school....and might continue to be all the way through 12th. We are either going to pay 3 to 3.5 times more for our next home in these districts and hope these schools will be the best fit or stay put and spend the money on private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My opinion FWIW (not AA or Latina) is that when you do look at schools also look at schools that have a diverse representation on the teaching staff and administration esp. if you have boys. You don't want to be in a school environment where all the teachers are white women and all the support and custodial staff is AA.

If you decide not to go the expense house route, I'd invest some of the non expense money in foreign travel.

PP here...I agree faculty and staff makeup are also very important. How can we decipher that online?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have been researching with the same concern. We have started our oldest in private and they have siblings coming behind them once old enough. We are in PG. We adore the private so far and it is a community of very successful upper middle class peers and their children...many who are also AA. The students are testing highly and are moving on to many of the big name privates in this area. The school has high standards and so do the parents. It has been the best choice for us. By the time our oldest is in 5th, we plan to move so that a good public middle and high school will be an option. We are looking in VA and like you the overall great schools ranking don't mean much to me. I look at how AA children are performing. Virginia's school website breaks this data down and makes it easy to eliminate many schools from consideration. I looked at where do they have at least 5% of the pop. that look like my kid and I look at the AA test scores. Marshall and West Springfield "won". Woodson with an honorable mention but had almost half the AA population of the other two. Those clusters are where we plan to focus our search when we move....until the. We are very pleased with private school....and might continue to be all the way through 12th. We are either going to pay 3 to 3.5 times more for our next home in these districts and hope these schools will be the best fit or stay put and spend the money on private.

Where do you work? Have you looked into Montgomery or Howard Counties (maybe too far)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My opinion FWIW (not AA or Latina) is that when you do look at schools also look at schools that have a diverse representation on the teaching staff and administration esp. if you have boys. You don't want to be in a school environment where all the teachers are white women and all the support and custodial staff is AA.

If you decide not to go the expense house route, I'd invest some of the non expense money in foreign travel.

That's hard to find. We aren't AA but Latinos (and look stereotypically what people think Latinos look like- brown skin, dark hair and eyes). My husband (who was dressed in a polo shirt and khaki pants) went to pick up our son from his public school that is almost all white/Asian. A kid looked at him and asked him if he was the school custodian because they were out of paper in the bathroom. It is sad that all the teachers are white and the custodian and cafeteria workers are AA or Latinos. It is hard not to be sensitive. When he won a math award at an assembly another mom turned to me and said, "oh wow, did they really just call your son's name?" and then realized it sounded offensive and tried to apologize by saying, "oh, yeah, um, I guess he is smart." I think some teachers have had low expectations at the beginning of they year. His kindergarten teacher told me she was so surprised he could read fluently and didn't realize it until after Halloween. I really think she wouldn't say that to an Asian parent. So I picked a school with a top ranking, but now I am not so sure it was the best choice. We are looking into private schools for middle school and/or high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My opinion FWIW (not AA or Latina) is that when you do look at schools also look at schools that have a diverse representation on the teaching staff and administration esp. if you have boys. You don't want to be in a school environment where all the teachers are white women and all the support and custodial staff is AA.

If you decide not to go the expense house route, I'd invest some of the non expense money in foreign travel.

That's hard to find. We aren't AA but Latinos (and look stereotypically what people think Latinos look like- brown skin, dark hair and eyes). My husband (who was dressed in a polo shirt and khaki pants) went to pick up our son from his public school that is almost all white/Asian. A kid looked at him and asked him if he was the school custodian because they were out of paper in the bathroom. It is sad that all the teachers are white and the custodian and cafeteria workers are AA or Latinos. It is hard not to be sensitive. When he won a math award at an assembly another mom turned to me and said, "oh wow, did they really just call your son's name?" and then realized it sounded offensive and tried to apologize by saying, "oh, yeah, um, I guess he is smart." I think some teachers have had low expectations at the beginning of they year. His kindergarten teacher told me she was so surprised he could read fluently and didn't realize it until after Halloween. I really think she wouldn't say that to an Asian parent. So I picked a school with a top ranking, but now I am not so sure it was the best choice. We are looking into private schools for middle school and/or high school.

I'm so sorry that you and your family had to experience this. Unfortunately, this is a big problem with the public schools in this area in regards to AA and Latino students. Even in the predominately, minority schools it's even worst. So, it's a no win situation all around. The culture of low expectations is what push some of us minority parents to private schools.