Educational Inequities in MCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve proposed this before, that the busing of students should go both ways: academically talented students bused to the magnets which are in low SES schools, and set up arts magnets in high SES schools (and bus low SES students to these high SES schools).

Busing can only work if it is voluntary, if they make busing mandatory it will crush the school system just like it did in any school district that forced busing in the 1970s and 80s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve proposed this before, that the busing of students should go both ways: academically talented students bused to the magnets which are in low SES schools, and set up arts magnets in high SES schools (and bus low SES students to these high SES schools).

Busing can only work if it is voluntary, if they make busing mandatory it will crush the school system just like it did in any school district that forced busing in the 1970s and 80s.

35.79% of high school students are chronically absent in MCPS in 2022-2023.

When you bus them to schools farther away, will they suddenly show up for school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thinking outside the box here:

I’m a product of one of the high FARMS schools from the 1980’s during a unique time in MCPS history. I was part of the pilot program for honors and later AP classes. I was in a group of 30 students from 7th-12th grade. Of my cohort from this experiment, many of us were the first generation of our families to go to college. Many of us not only earned Bachelor’s degrees, we also earned Graduate degrees.

Looking back, what were the things that helped:

1) small class sizes - in a small class, everyone was expected to participate and the teacher was available to answer questions and provide feedback

2) encouragement for students to attend office hours and create study groups - I had the same group of students for core subject areas so we really bonded and supported one another as the curriculum got harder

3) free SAT prep by AP English teacher and AP Calculus teacher during lunch - I’m not sure if they gave us the help altruistictically or if they were compensated but after school many of us had jobs or extracurricular activities so lunch sessions were ideal. My parents wouldn’t been able to afford a private SAT class.

4) high expectations to remain in the program - we had to achieve high achievement test scores to be in the program and had to get As and Bs to continue.

5) internal drive - my parents couldn’t help me with most of my homework past 7th grade. I think the biggest factor was my own drive to succeed. I wanted a better life and better job opportunities than my parents. I understood (like my cohorts) that education was the key to a better life.

6) when you have a classroom where students are focused on learning, there are no discipline problems - our classes was a school within a school. For core classes, it was the same 20-25 students. The rest of the school was like general population where chaos ruled. I actually had to drop an elective once because of the teacher screaming and kids misbehaving to the point it was too stressful. It’s hard to learn in chaos.

How did you end up in this pilot program? Was your name randomly selected or were you chosen / referred to the program by a teacher who saw your potential? The problem with alot of your points is that many of those things have and are being tried in certain schools but they're not working. It could be that the program worked well for motivated students but not so well for all students.

When I was in elementary school, all students took the California Achievement Test. Those students who were the top performers per subject area were invited to enroll in classes. My scores (along with most of my cohorts) were high enough to place In honors English, math, science, and social studies.

Currently, any student who wants to take an Honors or AP class in MCPS can - even if they haven’t demonstrated the prerequisite skills for the course. This throw everyone into honors approach has caused many middle and high school classes to have over 30 students per class with a huge divergence in skill levels without a low teacher to student ratio to meet student needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LMAO what moron wrote this:

"In theory, Montgomery County should spend the same amount of around 17 thousand dollars per student. However, in practice, the high-performing expectation of the county leads to funding that sways in the favor of high-performing schools."

Lower performing schools do get more resources, lower student teacher ratios, all of that. If there were numbers showing that wealthy schools get more, it would be plastered everywhere. I hate that people oversimplify this issue with lies.

(I saw this as someone who is fine spending more where needs are greater. But don't misrepresent the actual facts!)

So is this why only the wealthy Potomac schools offer accelerated math in ES?

Tell me more about this- what grade does accelerated math start at these ESs??

It's well established* on DCUM that WPES starts algebra 1 in 5th grade.

(*by a crank or two)

[Anonymous]

What ideas and experiments are the school board elected officials involved in to help solve this problem?

[Anonymous]

I think MoCo does too much to support lower income MoCo schools.

Nassau County NY an equally rich County has many top in the country award winning schools, Great Neck, Rockville Centre, Garden City, Manhasset, Syosset, Jericho

But some really really bad schools, Hempstead, Freeport, Roosevelt

Some average schools Oceanside, Baldwin, Long Beach.

But zero talk of so called W school issue. Why each town the schools are funded by school taxes as part of real estate. The best schools have high school taxes, crappy schools often have low school taxes. The good schools residents are not forced to send money to the crappy school areas.

MoCo bottom line Potomac, Bethesda pay
way more taxes to fund schools. Poorer areas pay way less taxes to find their schools.

MoCo steals from the W schools to fund the other free riding schools already. It should stop.

Potomac and Bethesda should leave MoCo school system

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think MoCo does too much to support lower income MoCo schools.

Nassau County NY an equally rich County has many top in the country award winning schools, Great Neck, Rockville Centre, Garden City, Manhasset, Syosset, Jericho

But some really really bad schools, Hempstead, Freeport, Roosevelt

Some average schools Oceanside, Baldwin, Long Beach.

But zero talk of so called W school issue. Why each town the schools are funded by school taxes as part of real estate. The best schools have high school taxes, crappy schools often have low school taxes. The good schools residents are not forced to send money to the crappy school areas.

MoCo bottom line Potomac, Bethesda pay
way more taxes to fund schools. Poorer areas pay way less taxes to find their schools.

MoCo steals from the W schools to fund the other free riding schools already. It should stop.

Potomac and Bethesda should leave MoCo school system

I'm going to presume you're the poster who constantly posts about wanting to break up MoCo run our school districts by townships like they do in NJ. Stop it. It's not going to happen.

Maryland is not New Jersey.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:'Additionally, transportation is a big problem due to Poolesville's location, resulting in only students with access to a car being able to attend, a luxury not many lower-income families can afford'

There is a bus...

+1
Weird accusations in the article that are simply untrue. 1) No one drives there unless you are local to the school anyway. It's too far for any family to make that trip on a twice daily basis. 2) Poolesville actually has a very robust magnet bus system that has tons of stops accessible to poorer areas of Gaithersburg and Germantown.

Guess you've never tried to bus someone from Gaithersburg or Shady Grove. Same goes for Blair.

There is no rational reason why the magnets should be in the far corners of the county. Both are better served mid-County, North and South, along 270 or 370 where they're accessible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve proposed this before, that the busing of students should go both ways: academically talented students bused to the magnets which are in low SES schools, and set up arts magnets in high SES schools (and bus low SES students to these high SES schools).

Busing can only work if it is voluntary, if they make busing mandatory it will crush the school system just like it did in any school district that forced busing in the 1970s and 80s.

35.79% of high school students are chronically absent in MCPS in 2022-2023.

When you bus them to schools farther away, will they suddenly show up for school?

Right? I don't understand the "busing" proponents- do they not understand that families turn down immersion/magnet spots every year because the logistics aren't workable? Not all parents want their kids sitting on a bus for an hour each way to school, and it makes it infinitely harder for the parents to be involved at the school.

[Anonymous]

Tell your kids to study hard and turn off the electronics. Make education a priority in your home. Excuses are for losers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LMAO what moron wrote this:

"In theory, Montgomery County should spend the same amount of around 17 thousand dollars per student. However, in practice, the high-performing expectation of the county leads to funding that sways in the favor of high-performing schools."

Lower performing schools do get more resources, lower student teacher ratios, all of that. If there were numbers showing that wealthy schools get more, it would be plastered everywhere. I hate that people oversimplify this issue with lies.

(I saw this as someone who is fine spending more where needs are greater. But don't misrepresent the actual facts!)

So is this why only the wealthy Potomac schools offer accelerated math in ES?

What? My point is that there is a very significant factual inaccuracy in the article. It says that MCPS spends more per student in wealthier areas. That would be a very serious and troubling fact if it were true. But it is completely incorrect.

I am not disagreeing that different schools have different programs. But it's not bc of simple dollars per student spent.

[Anonymous]

This is what struck me:

"Educational load is the accumulation of a student's environment and how it can impact their education. For example, lower-income students lack access to tutors and enrichment programs that wealthier students are able to take advantage of leading to worse educational outcomes. Additionally, many lower-income students may struggle to stay engaged in school. Many of them may only have one parent in their household, worry about where their next meal may come from or have to work part-time to support their families which affects their ability to learn and retain information. For all these reasons, students in lower socioeconomic conditions generally require more resources than their wealthy peers to be successful, resources that aren’t available to them in their schools resulting in drastically different educational outcomes." The article also mentions parents at the W schools showing up in droves to lobby for programs that are in the best interest of their children.

That's the truth. "High performing kids," as DCUM loves to call them, often got that way not because of natural ability or what they learned in school but because of the resources available to them outside of school. These advantages begin from day 1 and can color how students view school and their own abilities to learn, regardless of parental effort or interest. It's a matter of income, power, and influence. The author is admitting that closing the gap means directing additional public resources to lower-income students to make up for the advantages wealthier students with more educated parents have outside of school. At the heart of that statement is a truth: most students can't succeed based solely on what goes on during the school day: they need outside resources, enrichment, tutoring, and advocacy. To me, this demonstrates that schools aren't doing their jobs effectively for anyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think MoCo does too much to support lower income MoCo schools.

Nassau County NY an equally rich County has many top in the country award winning schools, Great Neck, Rockville Centre, Garden City, Manhasset, Syosset, Jericho

But some really really bad schools, Hempstead, Freeport, Roosevelt

Some average schools Oceanside, Baldwin, Long Beach.

But zero talk of so called W school issue. Why each town the schools are funded by school taxes as part of real estate. The best schools have high school taxes, crappy schools often have low school taxes. The good schools residents are not forced to send money to the crappy school areas.

MoCo bottom line Potomac, Bethesda pay
way more taxes to fund schools. Poorer areas pay way less taxes to find their schools.

MoCo steals from the W schools to fund the other free riding schools already. It should stop.

Potomac and Bethesda should leave MoCo school system

I'm going to presume you're the poster who constantly posts about wanting to break up MoCo run our school districts by townships like they do in NJ. Stop it. It's not going to happen.

Maryland is not New Jersey.

This would require the state legislature's approval which will never happen, but I guess it's their fantasy to live in an oligarchy.

[Anonymous]

That article is an assault on logic, facts, and most of all the English language. The Sentinel, and Jeffrey W, desperately need a copy editor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LMAO what moron wrote this:

"In theory, Montgomery County should spend the same amount of around 17 thousand dollars per student. However, in practice, the high-performing expectation of the county leads to funding that sways in the favor of high-performing schools."

Lower performing schools do get more resources, lower student teacher ratios, all of that. If there were numbers showing that wealthy schools get more, it would be plastered everywhere. I hate that people oversimplify this issue with lies.

(I saw this as someone who is fine spending more where needs are greater. But don't misrepresent the actual facts!)

So is this why only the wealthy Potomac schools offer accelerated math in ES?

Yes, exactly! The rich and privileged are often the squeakiest wheel.