Black parent -- does school ranking matter?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Yes -- it is -- maybe you need to educate yourself.
SMH!
I know this is a troll, has to be, I pray it is.

[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.

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

For MCPS, at least, the at-a-glance sheet shows you the racial breakdown of all staff in the school.

[Anonymous]

It's cute how OP thinks poor kids will harm her childrens' chances to achieve their best. All races are welcome as long as they are of the acceptable SES

[Anonymous]

I'm OP. I honestly don't care about SES status. In fact, my concern is that regardless of SES, I saw an achievement gap that money didn't address. I am open to any idea to find a school where this doesn't exist because living in a specific pyramid doesn't cut it. Either the sample is tiny or the performance was even worse than schools with less affluent populations.

So, I came here looking for guidance. Because I can't be the only parent looking at this and shaking their heads.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's cute how OP thinks poor kids will harm her childrens' chances to achieve their best. All races are welcome as long as they are of the acceptable SES

Actually, OP was looking for high test scores, or at least test scores of AA students not hugely different from test scores for whites. OP was assuming (perhaps erroneously) that the white kids and AA kids were similar SES. Did you see the test score breakdown for Yorktown posted up thread?

But you can call it cute if you want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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)?

we both work in Virginia

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm OP. I honestly don't care about SES status. In fact, my concern is that regardless of SES, I saw an achievement gap that money didn't address. I am open to any idea to find a school where this doesn't exist because living in a specific pyramid doesn't cut it. Either the sample is tiny or the performance was even worse than schools with less affluent populations.

So, I came here looking for guidance. Because I can't be the only parent looking at this and shaking their heads.

OP, you are not the only person looking at this and shaking your head. Your concerns are valid and something that I think most AA parents take into account.

I'm an AA single mom, I come from a STEM family in terms of academic strengths and careers chosen. I lucked out and lotteried my DD into an HRCS here in the district that I'm very happy with overall -- love the learning model and curriculum; great diversity SES and culture-wise among the parents/students; great diversity among the staff; warm, welcoming involved parent community that cares a great deal about their kids and what they are learning.

All these things cover one of my big concerns, which is overall atmosphere and peer group -- I think the kids at DD's school come from environments where learning is important. Most students are not coming from environments that are challenged enough to make learning difficult, and for those that are we have SE services and the staff does an excellent job of helping families access other programs and city services. The reason I know this so well is that I have accessed some of these services during a period of unemployment.

I am not sure yet if our charter addresses my other big concern, which is challenging DD enough -- our teaching staff overall are some of the best in the city, but some teachers obviously will be a better fit than others for DD's learning style and interests. Also, she is just starting K, so the preschool years are not a time where you expect your child to be winning a Nobel peace prize . That said, it is a concern going forward and something I'll be keeping an eye on.

I know already though, that my solution will be supplementing with Khan Academy or some other online service. We could qualify for scholarships to some of the well-known privates in DC, but having experienced that myself I know that a private school education can also be a bad fit and is not a one-stop solution.

Good luck OP. Finding the school that is the right fit for your kids is a true headache, and as AA parents who want a good learning model, diversity, and for our kids to associate with other kids who look like them and value education, it's truly a long haul.

[Anonymous]

A private where the majority of students are from upper middle class AA and Hispanic families has been working well for us for K-8 for our daughter and son. High expectations all around in this nurturing environment and the children rise above all the high expectations. As many of the parents know from experience...being average is not an option...we have to be far better than average to just get equal consideration. The next dilemma will be to figure out a private option for high school.

[Anonymous]

Would you mind sharing the name of that K-8?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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)?

we both work in Virginia

Okay, so MD is definitely out. I see why you're researching schools in Virginia.

[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.

This is disheartening. What school does your child attend? If you don't want to name the school, then which school district did this occur in? It sounds like this school needs some diversity and sensitivity training.

[Anonymous]

I'm OP. The above is exactly what I am worried about. If I am going to spend the money to live in a "better" pyramid, situations like what you describe would be so upsetting. I would feel like I am wasting valuable (limited) resources. So, that is why I have embarked on asking for help. Because this sort of thing happen all the time during my and my DH's primary educational experience.

[Anonymous]

I don't really have any useful insight to share, but OP, I'm glad that you are asking this question and sorry that it is necessary to do so.

It's a very interesting discussion and as a white family we need to remember that when we stress about which schools our kids go to they have an inbuilt privilege as kids from educated white affluent homes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

OP, you are not the only person looking at this and shaking your head. Your concerns are valid and something that I think most AA parents take into account.

I'm an AA single mom, I come from a STEM family in terms of academic strengths and careers chosen. I lucked out and lotteried my DD into an HRCS here in the district that I'm very happy with overall -- love the learning model and curriculum; great diversity SES and culture-wise among the parents/students; great diversity among the staff; warm, welcoming involved parent community that cares a great deal about their kids and what they are learning.

All these things cover one of my big concerns, which is overall atmosphere and peer group -- I think the kids at DD's school come from environments where learning is important. Most students are not coming from environments that are challenged enough to make learning difficult, and for those that are we have SE services and the staff does an excellent job of helping families access other programs and city services. The reason I know this so well is that I have accessed some of these services during a period of unemployment.

I am not sure yet if our charter addresses my other big concern, which is challenging DD enough -- our teaching staff overall are some of the best in the city, but some teachers obviously will be a better fit than others for DD's learning style and interests. Also, she is just starting K, so the preschool years are not a time where you expect your child to be winning a Nobel peace prize . That said, it is a concern going forward and something I'll be keeping an eye on.

I know already though, that my solution will be supplementing with Khan Academy or some other online service. We could qualify for scholarships to some of the well-known privates in DC, but having experienced that myself I know that a private school education can also be a bad fit and is not a one-stop solution.

Good luck OP. Finding the school that is the right fit for your kids is a true headache, and as AA parents who want a good learning model, diversity, and for our kids to associate with other kids who look like them and value education, it's truly a long haul.

I could have written this. We are in the same boat. Not sure if the DC Charter is the same, but it's Inspired Teaching.

[Anonymous]

SES is a large part of this, though, at Yorktown. The boundaries are drawn such that many of the non-white children come from lower SES areas in North Arlington.