DCC residents - what are your plans for high school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are parents concerned about Kennedy? The journalism track looks interesting from a recent open house, but we don't know anything about the school. Some kids have heard "horror stories" but I don't know what that means. Are these concerns from a long time ago? Or do they still exist?

Given the demographics of DCUM it is possible that everyone's "concerns" stem from the fact that Kennedy is the least white school in the county. I could be wrong though.

Einstein doesn't have many more white people; it still has higher test scores and a much better reputation. The problem with Kennedy is the test scores. I'm sure that there are some very bright, hard-working students there, but there just doesn't seem to be a large cohort. Even white and Asian kids have low average AP and IB scores at Kennedy. Please look at this document:

http://montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/reports/2018/2017%20AP%20IB%20Course%20Enrollment%20and%20Exam%20Participation%20Performance.pdf

If MCPS wants to turn Kennedy around (and Watkins Mill, which also has low test scores), it would need to add a competitive magnet there. Just as Wheaton is attracting kids who might not be competitive enough for Blair SMAC, maybe there could be a humanities magnet at Kennedy that would be less competitive than CAP?

PS - the previous document has 2017 AP and IB scores for the entire county, broken down by school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are parents concerned about Kennedy? The journalism track looks interesting from a recent open house, but we don't know anything about the school. Some kids have heard "horror stories" but I don't know what that means. Are these concerns from a long time ago? Or do they still exist?

Given the demographics of DCUM it is possible that everyone's "concerns" stem from the fact that Kennedy is the least white school in the county. I could be wrong though.

Einstein doesn't have many more white people; it still has higher test scores and a much better reputation. The problem with Kennedy is the test scores. I'm sure that there are some very bright, hard-working students there, but there just doesn't seem to be a large cohort. Even white and Asian kids have low average AP and IB scores at Kennedy. Please look at this document:

http://montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/reports/2018/2017%20AP%20IB%20Course%20Enrollment%20and%20Exam%20Participation%20Performance.pdf

If MCPS wants to turn Kennedy around (and Watkins Mill, which also has low test scores), it would need to add a competitive magnet there. Just as Wheaton is attracting kids who might not be competitive enough for Blair SMAC, maybe there could be a humanities magnet at Kennedy that would be less competitive than CAP?

I stand corrected. Einstein is 29% white and Asian, whereas Kennedy is 12% white and Asian. Please do not think that I am racist; in this case, white and Asian can merely be a stand-in for privilege. Kennedy also has a much higher rate of students who have ever received FARMS: 81%. Einstein's rate of ever receiving FARMS is 68.1%. If Kennedy could somehow attract more students who come from privileged backgrounds, its test scores would go up.

Einstein is a truly diverse school. 50% Hispanic, 18%Black, 19% White, 10%Asian. It's like the United Nations!

PS - the previous document has 2017 AP and IB scores for the entire county, broken down by school.

[Anonymous]

10:26 again

A big concern for Kennedy: last year, only 26 students took the Calculus AB exam. 73% earned a 1! How can MCPS administrators let this happen! They need to recruit Jaime Escalante or something!
http://montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/reports/2018/2017%20AP%20IB%20Course%20Enrollment%20and%20Exam%20Participation%20Performance.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:10:26 again

A big concern for Kennedy: last year, only 26 students took the Calculus AB exam. 73% earned a 1! How can MCPS administrators let this happen! They need to recruit Jaime Escalante or something!
http://montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/reports/2018/2017%20AP%20IB%20Course%20Enrollment%20and%20Exam%20Participation%20Performance.pdf

from page 28 of the document: It looks like 3 people earned a 3 on AP Calculus AB, and this is the best that they got. I added up the percentages and no one got a 4 or a 5.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:10:26 again

A big concern for Kennedy: last year, only 26 students took the Calculus AB exam. 73% earned a 1! How can MCPS administrators let this happen! They need to recruit Jaime Escalante or something!
http://montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/reports/2018/2017%20AP%20IB%20Course%20Enrollment%20and%20Exam%20Participation%20Performance.pdf

from page 28 of the document: It looks like 3 people earned a 3 on AP Calculus AB, and this is the best that they got. I added up the percentages and no one got a 4 or a 5.

There were no Calculus BC scores reported.

[Anonymous]

DCC parents look at school performance scores the same way every other parent looks at them. The same focus on school performance that drives people to move to schools in the west and up county rather than the DCC plays out within the DCC too.

Blair ranks higher than Einstein but if you moved the magnet into Einstein then Einstein would rank higher than Blair. Even though non-magnet Blair kids aren't doing any better than Einstein kids, Blair families would revolt if they were rezoned into Einstein or Wheaton. Einstein scores much higher than Kennedy. Einstein families would revolt if they were rezoned into Kennedy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCC parents look at school performance scores the same way every other parent looks at them. The same focus on school performance that drives people to move to schools in the west and up county rather than the DCC plays out within the DCC too.

Blair ranks higher than Einstein but if you moved the magnet into Einstein then Einstein would rank higher than Blair. Even though non-magnet Blair kids aren't doing any better than Einstein kids, Blair families would revolt if they were rezoned into Einstein or Wheaton. Einstein scores much higher than Kennedy. Einstein families would revolt if they were rezoned into Kennedy.

That's mostly speculation. There are about out of boundary magnet kids per grade at Blair of which maybe 30 something belong to that cohort. This is a small number of students whose impact on the overall average just wasn't that significant, but sure if it makes you feel better to believe nonsense, be my guest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCC parents look at school performance scores the same way every other parent looks at them. The same focus on school performance that drives people to move to schools in the west and up county rather than the DCC plays out within the DCC too.

Blair ranks higher than Einstein but if you moved the magnet into Einstein then Einstein would rank higher than Blair. Even though non-magnet Blair kids aren't doing any better than Einstein kids, Blair families would revolt if they were rezoned into Einstein or Wheaton. Einstein scores much higher than Kennedy. Einstein families would revolt if they were rezoned into Kennedy.

We are zoned for Einstein but it's some years away. We bought our home before we were even pregnant. At that time, I started asking questions about the schools, with -most interest in area pre-schools and elementary. As years passed and we had the kids and are now in elementary, I'm definitely investigating middle more, and to some extent high school. If we found out we were being rezoned to Wheaton or Kennedy I probably would freak out given I have done no research on those schools, don't have babysitters from those schools, friends with kids in those schools, neighbors and friends who are starting to report out direct experience. So in that sense yes.

Ultimately I'm not obsessed with scores. I want my kids to have a cohort of kids who push and encourage them. We definitely have that in elementary school. All signs point to that in middle and high. So if that changed I would want to ensure the same thing - what areas are rezoned, what do the boundaries look like, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCC parents look at school performance scores the same way every other parent looks at them. The same focus on school performance that drives people to move to schools in the west and up county rather than the DCC plays out within the DCC too.

Blair ranks higher than Einstein but if you moved the magnet into Einstein then Einstein would rank higher than Blair. Even though non-magnet Blair kids aren't doing any better than Einstein kids, Blair families would revolt if they were rezoned into Einstein or Wheaton. Einstein scores much higher than Kennedy. Einstein families would revolt if they were rezoned into Kennedy.

We are zoned for Einstein but it's some years away. We bought our home before we were even pregnant. At that time, I started asking questions about the schools, with -most interest in area pre-schools and elementary. As years passed and we had the kids and are now in elementary, I'm definitely investigating middle more, and to some extent high school. If we found out we were being rezoned to Wheaton or Kennedy I probably would freak out given I have done no research on those schools, don't have babysitters from those schools, friends with kids in those schools, neighbors and friends who are starting to report out direct experience. So in that sense yes.

Ultimately I'm not obsessed with scores. I want my kids to have a cohort of kids who push and encourage them. We definitely have that in elementary school. All signs point to that in middle and high. So if that changed I would want to ensure the same thing - what areas are rezoned, what do the boundaries look like, etc.

I agree with you, and anyone who is interested can also see from the data that MCPS schools outside of minor demographic differences are remarkably the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCC parents look at school performance scores the same way every other parent looks at them. The same focus on school performance that drives people to move to schools in the west and up county rather than the DCC plays out within the DCC too.

Blair ranks higher than Einstein but if you moved the magnet into Einstein then Einstein would rank higher than Blair. Even though non-magnet Blair kids aren't doing any better than Einstein kids, Blair families would revolt if they were rezoned into Einstein or Wheaton. Einstein scores much higher than Kennedy. Einstein families would revolt if they were rezoned into Kennedy.

We are zoned for Einstein but it's some years away. We bought our home before we were even pregnant. At that time, I started asking questions about the schools, with -most interest in area pre-schools and elementary. As years passed and we had the kids and are now in elementary, I'm definitely investigating middle more, and to some extent high school. If we found out we were being rezoned to Wheaton or Kennedy I probably would freak out given I have done no research on those schools, don't have babysitters from those schools, friends with kids in those schools, neighbors and friends who are starting to report out direct experience. So in that sense yes.

Ultimately I'm not obsessed with scores. I want my kids to have a cohort of kids who push and encourage them. We definitely have that in elementary school. All signs point to that in middle and high. So if that changed I would want to ensure the same thing - what areas are rezoned, what do the boundaries look like, etc.

I agree with you, and anyone who is interested can also see from the data that MCPS schools outside of minor demographic differences are remarkably the same.

But if no one is getting a 4 or a 5 in AP Calculus in the entire school, what is the reason for that? How does this affect the day-to-day life of a classroom?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCC parents look at school performance scores the same way every other parent looks at them. The same focus on school performance that drives people to move to schools in the west and up county rather than the DCC plays out within the DCC too.

Blair ranks higher than Einstein but if you moved the magnet into Einstein then Einstein would rank higher than Blair. Even though non-magnet Blair kids aren't doing any better than Einstein kids, Blair families would revolt if they were rezoned into Einstein or Wheaton. Einstein scores much higher than Kennedy. Einstein families would revolt if they were rezoned into Kennedy.

We are zoned for Einstein but it's some years away. We bought our home before we were even pregnant. At that time, I started asking questions about the schools, with -most interest in area pre-schools and elementary. As years passed and we had the kids and are now in elementary, I'm definitely investigating middle more, and to some extent high school. If we found out we were being rezoned to Wheaton or Kennedy I probably would freak out given I have done no research on those schools, don't have babysitters from those schools, friends with kids in those schools, neighbors and friends who are starting to report out direct experience. So in that sense yes.

Ultimately I'm not obsessed with scores. I want my kids to have a cohort of kids who push and encourage them. We definitely have that in elementary school. All signs point to that in middle and high. So if that changed I would want to ensure the same thing - what areas are rezoned, what do the boundaries look like, etc.

I agree with you, and anyone who is interested can also see from the data that MCPS schools outside of minor demographic differences are remarkably the same.

But if no one is getting a 4 or a 5 in AP Calculus in the entire school, what is the reason for that? How does this affect the day-to-day life of a classroom?

Is this just a hypothetical? If not, please link sources.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCC parents look at school performance scores the same way every other parent looks at them. The same focus on school performance that drives people to move to schools in the west and up county rather than the DCC plays out within the DCC too.

Blair ranks higher than Einstein but if you moved the magnet into Einstein then Einstein would rank higher than Blair. Even though non-magnet Blair kids aren't doing any better than Einstein kids, Blair families would revolt if they were rezoned into Einstein or Wheaton. Einstein scores much higher than Kennedy. Einstein families would revolt if they were rezoned into Kennedy.

We are zoned for Einstein but it's some years away. We bought our home before we were even pregnant. At that time, I started asking questions about the schools, with -most interest in area pre-schools and elementary. As years passed and we had the kids and are now in elementary, I'm definitely investigating middle more, and to some extent high school. If we found out we were being rezoned to Wheaton or Kennedy I probably would freak out given I have done no research on those schools, don't have babysitters from those schools, friends with kids in those schools, neighbors and friends who are starting to report out direct experience. So in that sense yes.

Ultimately I'm not obsessed with scores. I want my kids to have a cohort of kids who push and encourage them. We definitely have that in elementary school. All signs point to that in middle and high. So if that changed I would want to ensure the same thing - what areas are rezoned, what do the boundaries look like, etc.

I agree with you, and anyone who is interested can also see from the data that MCPS schools outside of minor demographic differences are remarkably the same.

But if no one is getting a 4 or a 5 in AP Calculus in the entire school, what is the reason for that? How does this affect the day-to-day life of a classroom?

Is this just a hypothetical? If not, please link sources.

Not hypothetical. The pass rate for AP Calculus AB was atrocious at Kennedy last year. See p. 28 of this MCPS document. http://montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/reports/2018/2017%20AP%20IB%20Course%20Enrollment%20and%20Exam%20Participation%20Performance.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCC parents look at school performance scores the same way every other parent looks at them. The same focus on school performance that drives people to move to schools in the west and up county rather than the DCC plays out within the DCC too.

Blair ranks higher than Einstein but if you moved the magnet into Einstein then Einstein would rank higher than Blair. Even though non-magnet Blair kids aren't doing any better than Einstein kids, Blair families would revolt if they were rezoned into Einstein or Wheaton. Einstein scores much higher than Kennedy. Einstein families would revolt if they were rezoned into Kennedy.

Why you W parents are so obsessed with Blair?
Yes you're a W parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCC parents look at school performance scores the same way every other parent looks at them. The same focus on school performance that drives people to move to schools in the west and up county rather than the DCC plays out within the DCC too.

Blair ranks higher than Einstein but if you moved the magnet into Einstein then Einstein would rank higher than Blair. Even though non-magnet Blair kids aren't doing any better than Einstein kids, Blair families would revolt if they were rezoned into Einstein or Wheaton. Einstein scores much higher than Kennedy. Einstein families would revolt if they were rezoned into Kennedy.

Why you W parents are so obsessed with Blair?
Yes you're a W parent.

W parents are obsessed with Blair because they realize that using simple averages like GS only serves to identify which high-schools draw a higher percentage of rich kids. A better, refined analysis looks at the granular data. When you isolate for race which is proxy a for socioeconomic status there is not much of a disparity between the performance of kids of the same backgrounds across these schools. For example, when you compare average SAT scores for MCPS schools for a larger demographic (greater than 5%), the great schools narrative begins to fall apart and it becomes clear they're not all that different.

Blair 1326
Walter Johnson 1275
Wooton 1262
Churchill 1257
Wheaton 1173
Einstein 1148

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCC parents look at school performance scores the same way every other parent looks at them. The same focus on school performance that drives people to move to schools in the west and up county rather than the DCC plays out within the DCC too.

Blair ranks higher than Einstein but if you moved the magnet into Einstein then Einstein would rank higher than Blair. Even though non-magnet Blair kids aren't doing any better than Einstein kids, Blair families would revolt if they were rezoned into Einstein or Wheaton. Einstein scores much higher than Kennedy. Einstein families would revolt if they were rezoned into Kennedy.

Why you W parents are so obsessed with Blair?
Yes you're a W parent.

I know! It's a bit weird.

- Blair Parent