Silver Springs schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe it is this nitpicking and inability to deal with reality that has blessed the NEC and DCC with the lousy schools. It is obvious, that many of you are happy with a DCC and NEC education. Tell the County Council you are happy and let those who want a better education in the DCC and NEC have their say as well.

Why do you assume it is nitpicking? There are plenty of problems in MCPS. There are also plenty of entitled parents -- possibly even in the NEC and DCC -- who believe that MCPS should do what they want MCPS to do, because they want MCPS to do it.

(And I'm pretty sure that the results you're citing for the NEC and DCC are not caused by nitpicking and an inability to deal with reality, but rather with economic residential segregation plus increasing poverty rates in Montgomery County.)

Is it possible that economic and residential segregation is caused by parents who want a good education for their children running away from DCC schools? Send your children to a DCC school and try to advocate for a better education and tell me you aren't made to feel unwelcome. People in the area a re happy with the education they get and those who aren't move away.

Just accept the reality that the segregation is a choice by the families involved.

[Anonymous]

10:53 you are too reasonable to be in this thread.

There are plenty of parents who move from the DCC area to Bethesda/Potomac only for schools. And there are plenty who stay.

What this report shows (and you really need to read it and the exhibits) isn't that Student A (in this case an intelligent middle to upper SES white kid) performs differently at each school - in fact Student A performs identically at each school. It is that the disparity between Student A and Students B-F fair much differently. And only certain schools have a statistically significant population of minority and lower-income students (or both.)

What isn't measured here are outcomes or intangible educational goals (i.e. diversity.) Outcomes in the case of HS mainly means college admissions. I haven't studied, but anecdotally Student A at Blair or Whitman is basically even - there is not difference in college admission outcome. An ivy level kid is an ivy-level kid, a state school kid os a state school kid, and so on. Outcomes for lower SES an minority vary widely. And in the case of DCC schools may not include college.

So will segregation continue? Sure. But so will diversification. MoCo is increasingly getting different shades, and that is reflected in all but 2-3 high schools in the county. To me the real test ins't today, but in 10-15 years when Olney, Rockville, Clarksburg - basically the remaining affordable parts of the county - become majority-minority, how will that impact the entire school system. And can MoCo figure out a way to serve the Student B-F population while keeping the Student A population among the highest performing in the nation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:10:53 you are too reasonable to be in this thread.

There are plenty of parents who move from the DCC area to Bethesda/Potomac only for schools. And there are plenty who stay.

What this report shows (and you really need to read it and the exhibits) isn't that Student A (in this case an intelligent middle to upper SES white kid) performs differently at each school - in fact Student A performs identically at each school. It is that the disparity between Student A and Students B-F fair much differently. And only certain schools have a statistically significant population of minority and lower-income students (or both.)

What isn't measured here are outcomes or intangible educational goals (i.e. diversity.) Outcomes in the case of HS mainly means college admissions. I haven't studied, but anecdotally Student A at Blair or Whitman is basically even - there is not difference in college admission outcome. An ivy level kid is an ivy-level kid, a state school kid os a state school kid, and so on. Outcomes for lower SES an minority vary widely. And in the case of DCC schools may not include college.

So will segregation continue? Sure. But so will diversification. MoCo is increasingly getting different shades, and that is reflected in all but 2-3 high schools in the county. To me the real test ins't today, but in 10-15 years when Olney, Rockville, Clarksburg - basically the remaining affordable parts of the county - become majority-minority, how will that impact the entire school system. And can MoCo figure out a way to serve the Student B-F population while keeping the Student A population among the highest performing in the nation.

10:53 here and thank you.

To use your anology, student A may not get the challenge they need at a DCC school. Therefore, student A's family is likely to pick up and move to Wooton where the student will do equally well but be challenged by the classroom instruction.

[Anonymous]

Here's what MCPS says about its best high schools: http://news.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/staff-bulletin/mcps-high-schools-among-the-nations-best/

Remember, this is their newsletter to staff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:10:53 you are too reasonable to be in this thread.

There are plenty of parents who move from the DCC area to Bethesda/Potomac only for schools. And there are plenty who stay.

What this report shows (and you really need to read it and the exhibits) isn't that Student A (in this case an intelligent middle to upper SES white kid) performs differently at each school - in fact Student A performs identically at each school. It is that the disparity between Student A and Students B-F fair much differently. And only certain schools have a statistically significant population of minority and lower-income students (or both.)

What isn't measured here are outcomes or intangible educational goals (i.e. diversity.) Outcomes in the case of HS mainly means college admissions. I haven't studied, but anecdotally Student A at Blair or Whitman is basically even - there is not difference in college admission outcome. An ivy level kid is an ivy-level kid, a state school kid os a state school kid, and so on. Outcomes for lower SES an minority vary widely. And in the case of DCC schools may not include college.

So will segregation continue? Sure. But so will diversification. MoCo is increasingly getting different shades, and that is reflected in all but 2-3 high schools in the county. To me the real test ins't today, but in 10-15 years when Olney, Rockville, Clarksburg - basically the remaining affordable parts of the county - become majority-minority, how will that impact the entire school system. And can MoCo figure out a way to serve the Student B-F population while keeping the Student A population among the highest performing in the nation.

10:53 here and thank you.

To use your anology, student A may not get the challenge they need at a DCC school. Therefore, student A's family is likely to pick up and move to Wooton where the student will do equally well but be challenged by the classroom instruction.

This is true, but I even in the better schools a huge percentage of the challenge has to be done outside the classroom anyway. Some kids are going to be slackers anywhere, and some will self-challenge. That's partly why there are as many CEOs from state schools as Ivys - the "better" school is never an indication of career or life success. Is it true that a kid who is on the bubble may be able to get more of a challenge at Whitman than Einstein? Sure, of course.

We need to keep in mind too that getting the best teachers at each school is a multi-dimensional process in and of itself. It has to do with school admin, opportunities, parent involvement, teacher challenge, and seniority issues. Student body is pretty far down that list. So Blair gets recent Phd math teachers, but probably not the top echelon English Lit teachers. RM (and any of the schools with IB programs) draws a more international focus. But year by year things change in this regard too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:10:53 you are too reasonable to be in this thread.

There are plenty of parents who move from the DCC area to Bethesda/Potomac only for schools. And there are plenty who stay.

What this report shows (and you really need to read it and the exhibits) isn't that Student A (in this case an intelligent middle to upper SES white kid) performs differently at each school - in fact Student A performs identically at each school. It is that the disparity between Student A and Students B-F fair much differently. And only certain schools have a statistically significant population of minority and lower-income students (or both.)

What isn't measured here are outcomes or intangible educational goals (i.e. diversity.) Outcomes in the case of HS mainly means college admissions. I haven't studied, but anecdotally Student A at Blair or Whitman is basically even - there is not difference in college admission outcome. An ivy level kid is an ivy-level kid, a state school kid os a state school kid, and so on. Outcomes for lower SES an minority vary widely. And in the case of DCC schools may not include college.

So will segregation continue? Sure. But so will diversification. MoCo is increasingly getting different shades, and that is reflected in all but 2-3 high schools in the county. To me the real test ins't today, but in 10-15 years when Olney, Rockville, Clarksburg - basically the remaining affordable parts of the county - become majority-minority, how will that impact the entire school system. And can MoCo figure out a way to serve the Student B-F population while keeping the Student A population among the highest performing in the nation.

10:53 here and thank you.

To use your anology, student A may not get the challenge they need at a DCC school. Therefore, student A's family is likely to pick up and move to Wooton where the student will do equally well but be challenged by the classroom instruction.

This is true, but I even in the better schools a huge percentage of the challenge has to be done outside the classroom anyway. Some kids are going to be slackers anywhere, and some will self-challenge. That's partly why there are as many CEOs from state schools as Ivys - the "better" school is never an indication of career or life success. Is it true that a kid who is on the bubble may be able to get more of a challenge at Whitman than Einstein? Sure, of course.

We need to keep in mind too that getting the best teachers at each school is a multi-dimensional process in and of itself. It has to do with school admin, opportunities, parent involvement, teacher challenge, and seniority issues. Student body is pretty far down that list. So Blair gets recent Phd math teachers, but probably not the top echelon English Lit teachers. RM (and any of the schools with IB programs) draws a more international focus. But year by year things change in this regard too.

Sadly, many teachers are avoiding schools in the area because of the administration at schools and the lack of student commitment to learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sadly, many teachers are avoiding schools in the area because of the administration at schools and the lack of student commitment to learning.

How do you know this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sadly, many teachers are avoiding schools in the area because of the administration at schools and the lack of student commitment to learning.

How do you know this?

Yeah, where exactly are they going instead? PG? DC? Not everyone can score a job in Bethesda.

[Anonymous]

I think most of this thread is the same person posting time and time again. It's a sock puppet feast!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's what MCPS says about its best high schools: http://news.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/staff-bulletin/mcps-high-schools-among-the-nations-best/

Remember, this is their newsletter to staff.

We have our issues, but after working in systems OUTSIDE of MD, Mo Co offers more than most.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We left Silver Spring because of the schools and because of the culture within MCPS to talk down to concerned parents and community members and completely disregard our feedback. I think we would have been more willing to give the schools a chance if we felt the administration actually wanted what was best for our schools and communities. Instead we got complete disengagement from Starr, a meaningless string of numbers offered to justify terrible decisions and that could only serve to diminish the quality of education for our kids. I think characterizing it as White flight obscures the real problem, which is that educated parents of any race who have the financial resources know they can do better and are not willing to invest the time and effort to improve the schools if it is a process that MCPS is not interested in facilitating.

Thank you for giving voice to a message I have unsuccessfully tried to convey to the administration at the HS my DC attends.

Yes, there are clearly educated minorities with a high HHI. However, this argument doesn't fly b/c they AREN'T in the majority. You still have a struggling underclass of minorities living in poor areas.

Stop ignoring the problem.

And do you REALLY think an administration in a school with high FARMs and possibly high ESOL will listen to you? You're not an expert. Try working with a low-achieving population in a large school with over 120 teachers and tell ME if you could - as an administrator - dip in and out of classrooms, scripting (yes - word for work) observations - later to be analyzed according to the PGS standards.

And you're doing this btw. referrals.

Please - everyone is an expert.

[Anonymous]

17:24 is right
High HHI educated "minorities" ate like unicorns
Thanks for pointing that put a******

[Anonymous]

This is as much about classism as it is about racism, maybe even more about classism. There's a let them eat cake mentality when it comes to the DCC - that middle class / working class people should just deal with bad schools because they aren't entitled to better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is as much about classism as it is about racism, maybe even more about classism. There's a let them eat cake mentality when it comes to the DCC - that middle class / working class people should just deal with bad schools because they aren't entitled to better.

ALL OF THE ABOVE!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is as much about classism as it is about racism, maybe even more about classism. There's a let them eat cake mentality when it comes to the DCC - that middle class / working class people should just deal with bad schools because they aren't entitled to better.

Who is having this mentality?