Question for parents of black children in Montgomery County.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Nonetheless, a betting person trying to make assumptions about FARMS based on race would be best off assuming the Black child is the one and they'd be right half the time. It's sad, but I don't think this is a result of MCPS, but rather broader society as well as demographics. I don't think this is entirely on MCPS's shoulders to fix.

In some ways, being classified as FARMS is a good thing -- it means those children are receiving free breakfast and lunch at school, and that can help to address issues at home.

If you're making decisions based on the assumption that black children are on FARMS, you will be wrong half the time.

Don't make that assumption.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I read a lot of anti-Asian American sentiment on here, too. I'm Asian American. And there are several African American families who live on my block. One thing I have learned from DCUM -- take it with a grain of salt. It is not reflective of real life.

Definitely take it with a grain of salt. The anti-Asian sentiment is about a race-blind admission process to magnet programs which some claim is biased despite Asians being awarded 3X the number of seats of any other cohort. Although it's hard to take that seriously, there have been numerous racial incidents at the segregated schools, aka "The W's". Your best bet is to visit schools in person and try to form an opinion based on first-hand knowledge.

Oh shut up with your "segregated" BS.

I'm black & am highly offended that you would throw the word segregated around so lightly, especially when making ridiculous blanket statements.

I have relatives who were forced to attend ACTUAL segregated schools & then were the first to attend integrated schools where nobody wanted them there EVER. So please, do yourself a favor and stop with the ignorant, thoughtless comments.

OP, I'm black and my children go to Walter Johnson, which is a (gasp!) W school & they both love it there.

Contrary to what the PP says, there is a thriving community of diversification at WJ (and I don't care what your statistics show, I see these kids with my own two eyes... there a nice mix of all POC).

WJ is a very welcoming community, any criticisms that you read come from parents who don't actually have kids at WJ & have probably never been to the school.

Whatever your child is into you can find it at WJ, whether it be sports, clubs, social awareness causes, environmental awareness causes, you name it & your kids can find their tribe.
If they don't have it yet, students are free to start new clubs as well.

Wasn't there just an article in the post about kids wearing blackface and using the N-word at these schools? This sort of thing only happens at the segregated schools.

[Anonymous]

OP,

The truth is that bullying and racism exist in all private and public schools. As a mixed race foreigner who lived in multiple countries, I have always had to adjust because I have never been part of the established majority in any given country.

Pick great schools, period. Bethesda has the best schools. Seriously, MCPS are not created equal. I know, because we moved around and I compared schools. I also have friends in various school clusters with whom I compare schools.

The rest is about raising your kids to brush off micro-aggressions and self-advocate when they encounter overt racism. You will support and accompany them on that path.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP,

The truth is that bullying and racism exist in all private and public schools. As a mixed race foreigner who lived in multiple countries, I have always had to adjust because I have never been part of the established majority in any given country.

Pick great schools, period. Bethesda has the best schools. Seriously, MCPS are not created equal. I know, because we moved around and I compared schools. I also have friends in various school clusters with whom I compare schools.

The rest is about raising your kids to brush off micro-aggressions and self-advocate when they encounter overt racism. You will support and accompany them on that path.

IMO, as a non white person, I would not choose a school that has very little minority children. By PP's own admission, PP had to adjust because PP was always in the minority. That couldn't be helped in the foreign countries that PP probably lived in. But here in MoCo? There is so much diversity even in good schools, why would you purposefully choose a school that had little diversity, and low representation of your kid's background such that your kid would be forced to "adjust"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP,

The truth is that bullying and racism exist in all private and public schools. As a mixed race foreigner who lived in multiple countries, I have always had to adjust because I have never been part of the established majority in any given country.

Pick great schools, period. Bethesda has the best schools. Seriously, MCPS are not created equal. I know, because we moved around and I compared schools. I also have friends in various school clusters with whom I compare schools.

The rest is about raising your kids to brush off micro-aggressions and self-advocate when they encounter overt racism. You will support and accompany them on that path.

What makes the schools in Bethesda the best schools? Do they have the best facilities? Do they have the best teachers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Racial bias is very prevalent in our experience at one of the diverse schools in MCPS. When you have a school where the black kids are more often than not poor and not doing well in school teachers start stereotyping all black kids. It seems to be worse for boys than girls. Its small things like having lower expectations or assuming the worst about a kid.

The bigger problem is socially when the classes start splitting up into CES, compacted math, magnets, AP classes. The white kids fill up those classes and your kid is back to being one of the few black kids in the class even though you are in a diverse school. You don't want your kid hanging out with kids who are failing, skipping school and getting in trouble but it is not good that your kid has to reject being around the other black kids. The school within a school model in MCPS may attract more white people into certain neighborhoods but it doesn't provide a good environment for black kids. I suspect hispanic parents feel the same.

I am confused. Do you imply that for acadamically able AA students it is better for them to be in a school has less other AA students? Or do you think itis better for MCPS stopping offering advanced classes so everyone will be on the same page?

I think in general, for a acadamically able student, it is better to be in a school with less low performing students. Whether the former or the latter belong to a certain race group, does not change the validity of that statement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP,

The truth is that bullying and racism exist in all private and public schools. As a mixed race foreigner who lived in multiple countries, I have always had to adjust because I have never been part of the established majority in any given country.

Pick great schools, period. Bethesda has the best schools. Seriously, MCPS are not created equal. I know, because we moved around and I compared schools. I also have friends in various school clusters with whom I compare schools.

The rest is about raising your kids to brush off micro-aggressions and self-advocate when they encounter overt racism. You will support and accompany them on that path.

IMO, as a non white person, I would not choose a school that has very little minority children. By PP's own admission, PP had to adjust because PP was always in the minority. That couldn't be helped in the foreign countries that PP probably lived in. But here in MoCo? There is so much diversity even in good schools, why would you purposefully choose a school that had little diversity, and low representation of your kid's background such that your kid would be forced to "adjust"?

Well, I didn't want to get into it, but some posters have already said it: schools with many black students still have a bias against them because many such students are poor and do not perform well in school. So if you don't want to be stereotyped as poor, under-achieving black student, please don't make the mistake of seeing diversity as a draw in these schools. If you can afford it, it's better to go to a school in a wealthier area, where there will be fewer black students, but where poverty and under-achievement, which in people's minds go hand-in-hand, will not be automatically assumed of you. My kids spent some years in Bethesda Elementary, for instance: there were extremely few blacks students, but they were top of their class and went on to magnets.

I am very serious about this, PP. "Diversity" is a concept that is not well understood by most people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP,

The truth is that bullying and racism exist in all private and public schools. As a mixed race foreigner who lived in multiple countries, I have always had to adjust because I have never been part of the established majority in any given country.

Pick great schools, period. Bethesda has the best schools. Seriously, MCPS are not created equal. I know, because we moved around and I compared schools. I also have friends in various school clusters with whom I compare schools.

The rest is about raising your kids to brush off micro-aggressions and self-advocate when they encounter overt racism. You will support and accompany them on that path.

What makes the schools in Bethesda the best schools? Do they have the best facilities? Do they have the best teachers?

"best" is either by what people "think", or on stats that can be measured.

Choose whichever standard you believe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP,

The truth is that bullying and racism exist in all private and public schools. As a mixed race foreigner who lived in multiple countries, I have always had to adjust because I have never been part of the established majority in any given country.

Pick great schools, period. Bethesda has the best schools. Seriously, MCPS are not created equal. I know, because we moved around and I compared schools. I also have friends in various school clusters with whom I compare schools.

The rest is about raising your kids to brush off micro-aggressions and self-advocate when they encounter overt racism. You will support and accompany them on that path.

What makes the schools in Bethesda the best schools? Do they have the best facilities? Do they have the best teachers?

Quite frankly: they have teachers and Principals who know that the wealthy and educated parents want academic rigor and are prepared to pressure them for it.

It all boils down to INCOME, people, and that should be obvious. Wealthy areas have parents who as a group, care deeply about education as a means to success. Therefore, they will meet, call, and email staff about the curriculum, the amount and quality of homework, school-provided enrichment, PTA-funded enrichment, math competitions, after-school clubs of all types, etc. They will tutor their children in the core subjects, and enroll them in academic activities after school. They will pay for music lessons, chess clubs, robotics, programming, which all contribute to better critical thinking skills. The teachers at school have more time to take care of some students with issues, because there are fewer of them, and can also elevate the class standard because less remedial work is necessary as a whole.

It adds up and in total, it makes for higher quality learning experience.

I said Bethesda, but I also want to include some parts of Potomac and North Bethesda, where a larger Asian population lives, and where schools are also competitive. There is also Chevy Chase, which is wealthy and educated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:TPES/PBES in 20912 and ESS in 20910 are your safest bet for school and neighborhood in the DCC. There are also a few language immersion ES. If your kids are gifted, they will have middle and high school magnet options.

Both my kids had the experience of being the only AA kids or one of two in certain classes. Until HS, that was my older DD’s sole experience. My younger DD rotates her classes with another kid from a middle class AA family, 1-2 kids from African immigrant families, or the handful of black kids adopted by white parents.

This is great advice. These schools feed to Takoma Park Middle, and then Blair HS, two schools that defy a lot of the norms around students mixing across racial and economic groups.

The NYT did a great article a few years ago about income mobility for Black boys/men, and Silver Spring was one of the only places in the country where poor Black boys do well. Now, not all Black boys are poor, obviously, but identifying a neighborhood/school where poor Black boys do well is going to help identify a neighborhood where any Black child (or any child at all) will do well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Quite frankly: they have teachers and Principals who know that the wealthy and educated parents want academic rigor and are prepared to pressure them for it.

It all boils down to INCOME, people, and that should be obvious. Wealthy areas have parents who as a group, care deeply about education as a means to success. Therefore, they will meet, call, and email staff about the curriculum, the amount and quality of homework, school-provided enrichment, PTA-funded enrichment, math competitions, after-school clubs of all types, etc. They will tutor their children in the core subjects, and enroll them in academic activities after school. They will pay for music lessons, chess clubs, robotics, programming, which all contribute to better critical thinking skills. The teachers at school have more time to take care of some students with issues, because there are fewer of them, and can also elevate the class standard because less remedial work is necessary as a whole.

It adds up and in total, it makes for higher quality learning experience.

I said Bethesda, but I also want to include some parts of Potomac and North Bethesda, where a larger Asian population lives, and where schools are also competitive. There is also Chevy Chase, which is wealthy and educated.

Oh, we're back to the "unlike people with less money, people with lots of money care deeply about their children's education" thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP,

The truth is that bullying and racism exist in all private and public schools. As a mixed race foreigner who lived in multiple countries, I have always had to adjust because I have never been part of the established majority in any given country.

Pick great schools, period. Bethesda has the best schools. Seriously, MCPS are not created equal. I know, because we moved around and I compared schools. I also have friends in various school clusters with whom I compare schools.

The rest is about raising your kids to brush off micro-aggressions and self-advocate when they encounter overt racism. You will support and accompany them on that path.

What makes the schools in Bethesda the best schools? Do they have the best facilities? Do they have the best teachers?

"best" is either by what people "think", or on stats that can be measured.

Choose whichever standard you believe.

Great! What are the stats on facility quality and teacher quality in the schools in Bethesda?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Quite frankly: they have teachers and Principals who know that the wealthy and educated parents want academic rigor and are prepared to pressure them for it.

It all boils down to INCOME, people, and that should be obvious. Wealthy areas have parents who as a group, care deeply about education as a means to success. Therefore, they will meet, call, and email staff about the curriculum, the amount and quality of homework, school-provided enrichment, PTA-funded enrichment, math competitions, after-school clubs of all types, etc. They will tutor their children in the core subjects, and enroll them in academic activities after school. They will pay for music lessons, chess clubs, robotics, programming, which all contribute to better critical thinking skills. The teachers at school have more time to take care of some students with issues, because there are fewer of them, and can also elevate the class standard because less remedial work is necessary as a whole.

It adds up and in total, it makes for higher quality learning experience.

I said Bethesda, but I also want to include some parts of Potomac and North Bethesda, where a larger Asian population lives, and where schools are also competitive. There is also Chevy Chase, which is wealthy and educated.

Oh, we're back to the "unlike people with less money, people with lots of money care deeply about their children's education" thing.

You forgot the part about how it's okay to discriminate against people who don't have a lot of money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP,

The truth is that bullying and racism exist in all private and public schools. As a mixed race foreigner who lived in multiple countries, I have always had to adjust because I have never been part of the established majority in any given country.

Pick great schools, period. Bethesda has the best schools. Seriously, MCPS are not created equal. I know, because we moved around and I compared schools. I also have friends in various school clusters with whom I compare schools.

The rest is about raising your kids to brush off micro-aggressions and self-advocate when they encounter overt racism. You will support and accompany them on that path.

What makes the schools in Bethesda the best schools? Do they have the best facilities? Do they have the best teachers?

"best" is either by what people "think", or on stats that can be measured.

Choose whichever standard you believe.

Great! What are the stats on facility quality and teacher quality in the schools in Bethesda?

facility? I don't know. Teacher quality? I don't know of tests that teachers take routinely for their "quality". But I do know tests students take routinely, and their scores reflect some quality of the school.

Of course, it is your choice. If you don't care about student scores from schools, just say it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP,

The truth is that bullying and racism exist in all private and public schools. As a mixed race foreigner who lived in multiple countries, I have always had to adjust because I have never been part of the established majority in any given country.

Pick great schools, period. Bethesda has the best schools. Seriously, MCPS are not created equal. I know, because we moved around and I compared schools. I also have friends in various school clusters with whom I compare schools.

The rest is about raising your kids to brush off micro-aggressions and self-advocate when they encounter overt racism. You will support and accompany them on that path.

This is exactly why the cohort criteria is a great thing.