What does the term “good schools” mean to you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That was a very honest answer. When I hear the term and people name the schools they want to be a part of, I see that they want to be amongst a certain income group and many time even with a certain race.

Yes, this is honest. Good schools have mostly kids that aren't going to contaminate your kids with their poverty values, lack of interest in education, drugs and violence. Also, good schools help kids to network with other kids that will be well connected in the future for business and jobs. These kind of schools have better teachers because the parents are helicoptering in full force and will force the bad teachers out.

That's not what the Churchill parents say on DCUM. Either about teachers, or about drugs.

What do they say?

Terrible teachers, lots of drugs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Terrible teachers, lots of drugs.

^^^is what I read on DCUM. I have no idea whether any of it's true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
A neighborhood where parents care about their children's education and have the money to invest in it.

There's no secret. It's not the school itself, they all follow the same program and have the same teachers. It's the community that changes the nature of the school.

The end.

They all follow the same curriculum, but they certainly do not all have the same teachers, or administrators. When a school is staffed with dedicated and well-supported teachers with high morale and low turnover, it can make all the difference. Agree about the community too. To get a feel for all of this, talk to other parents in the neighborhood, attend school events, go to a PTA meeting,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That was a very honest answer. When I hear the term and people name the schools they want to be a part of, I see that they want to be amongst a certain income group and many time even with a certain race.

Yes, this is honest. Good schools have mostly kids that aren't going to contaminate your kids with their poverty values, lack of interest in education, drugs and violence. Also, good schools help kids to network with other kids that will be well connected in the future for business and jobs. These kind of schools have better teachers because the parents are helicoptering in full force and will force the bad teachers out.

That's not what the Churchill parents say on DCUM. Either about teachers, or about drugs.

Drugs are rarely the worst thing that happens with drugs. The disproportionate policing and being around poor desperate people on drugs are the dangers. When you are rich drugs are called partying and drug dealers are cool and hip. When you get caught when rich it’s a problem, when you get caught while poor you’re the problem.

Think of it this way, a rich lady greeting you at the door with a glass of champagne is a pretty cool thing to happen, right? A homeless man in front of your door offering you a sip out his bottle of olde English isn’t such a good thing.

How many people at a school like Blair have or will ever be homeless at some point? Now how many do you at Churchill? See the difference?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
A neighborhood where parents care about their children's education and have the money to invest in it.

There's no secret. It's not the school itself, they all follow the same program and have the same teachers. It's the community that changes the nature of the school.

The end.

I have met very few parents who don't care about their children's education.

Right, but I think the second part of PP's answer is critical. Everyone wants what's best for their kids, but unfortunately if they don't have the money to invest in their kid's educations, the outcomes won't necessarily be all that great. You need both.

This is crap. We have these things called free public schools and libraries. I grew up poor, with teen parents and lots of other kids did too. No music lessons or outside sports, but I was rode my bike to the library every Saturday and checked out a pile of books. Ended up at Stanford and then two grad degrees. Don't demean poor people by placing no expectations on them. Kids need to do their homework and ask teachers for help and they will do fine, regardless of their parents. And yes, there are lots of parents who didn't take school seriously themselves and see no reason for their child to do so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m still trying to figure this out. For me it goes beyond the test score listed on great schools. What else makes up a good school? We are house shopping and see some with lower scores but the community loves the school, while others say they don’t want anything to do with the school because of the score. I live in Howard County.

great question. to MCPS it means "good average test scores".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Low amounts is disenfranchised kids from unstable homes who don’t have the resources or support to keep up. Great kids will do great most kids but average kids get distracted easily. It might not be fair to the unwashed masses but honestly not many people are interested in fair when it comes to their children or the propagation of privilege.

Fair is a myth dreamt up by people off the podium.

WTF!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Low amounts is disenfranchised kids from unstable homes who don’t have the resources or support to keep up. Great kids will do great most kids but average kids get distracted easily. It might not be fair to the unwashed masses but honestly not many people are interested in fair when it comes to their children or the propagation of privilege.

Fair is a myth dreamt up by people off the podium.

WTF!!!

This podium. https://www.archives.gov/files/press/exhibits/dream-speech.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
A neighborhood where parents care about their children's education and have the money to invest in it.

There's no secret. It's not the school itself, they all follow the same program and have the same teachers. It's the community that changes the nature of the school.

The end.

I have met very few parents who don't care about their children's education.

Right, but I think the second part of PP's answer is critical. Everyone wants what's best for their kids, but unfortunately if they don't have the money to invest in their kid's educations, the outcomes won't necessarily be all that great. You need both.

This is crap. We have these things called free public schools and libraries. I grew up poor, with teen parents and lots of other kids did too. No music lessons or outside sports, but I was rode my bike to the library every Saturday and checked out a pile of books. Ended up at Stanford and then two grad degrees. Don't demean poor people by placing no expectations on them. Kids need to do their homework and ask teachers for help and they will do fine, regardless of their parents. And yes, there are lots of parents who didn't take school seriously themselves and see no reason for their child to do so.

+1.

[Anonymous]

Decisive and strong principal,
Excellent teachers,
Good curriculum,
Motivated students,
Involved parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Decisive and strong principal,
Excellent teachers,
Good curriculum,
Motivated students,
Involved parents.

We have all these things in our Gaithersburg ES. It has a GS rating of a 5.

[Anonymous]

What I've found interesting is that a "good school" can vary by children in the same household. Our local school was great for our daughter but our son struggled with the administration and was not supported in ways that would have helped.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That was a very honest answer. When I hear the term and people name the schools they want to be a part of, I see that they want to be amongst a certain income group and many time even with a certain race.

Yes, this is honest. Good schools have mostly kids that aren't going to contaminate your kids with their poverty values, lack of interest in education, drugs and violence. Also, good schools help kids to network with other kids that will be well connected in the future for business and jobs. These kind of schools have better teachers because the parents are helicoptering in full force and will force the bad teachers out.

That's not what the Churchill parents say on DCUM. Either about teachers, or about drugs.

Drugs are rarely the worst thing that happens with drugs. The disproportionate policing and being around poor desperate people on drugs are the dangers. When you are rich drugs are called partying and drug dealers are cool and hip. When you get caught when rich it’s a problem, when you get caught while poor you’re the problem.

Think of it this way, a rich lady greeting you at the door with a glass of champagne is a pretty cool thing to happen, right? A homeless man in front of your door offering you a sip out his bottle of olde English isn’t such a good thing.

How many people at a school like Blair have or will ever be homeless at some point? Now how many do you at Churchill? See the difference?

Lol it is true

[Anonymous]

The school system matters, too. I have heard wonderful things about Howard County. It's budget is a more manageable $700-800 million. MCPS's operating budget is over $2 billion, I think. It's not hard to understand how it's become a more bloated, more inefficient bureaucracy.

[Anonymous]

The school system matters, too. I have heard wonderful things about Howard County. It's budget is a more manageable $700-800 million. MCPS's operating budget is over $2 billion, I think. It's not hard to understand how it's become a more bloated, more inefficient bureaucracy.

This is really important. School systems that are smaller are so much better! Large school systems take on a monopolistic culture. They exist to serve themselves not the students. A lot of the shady crap that MCPS pulls both educationally and financially just isn't possible in a smaller system.

In MCPS lower scores usually correlate with crime being in the schools. I would never trust a Silver Spring poster on this board recommending one of the schools where the police are there several times every month! In Howard if the scores aren't the top ones but there isn't the same crime going on then I would ask more parents about it and consider the school.