WJ v. BCC

[Anonymous]

We love WJ!!! My kids have are having a great experience right now. I have heard great things about music, chorus, forensics, IEP support, some sports. My interactions with the administration and staff have been great. They have a good booster club that supports all clubs, not just sports. I also like the principal and have never heard any complaints about her. There are many smart kids (probably with parents working at NIH)

Within our small little world, I do know some BCC parents and kids from non-school activities. Many are nice, but I do know a handful with out-of-control kids whose parents just seem absent. I am sure most BCC families are great, but there is a bit of snobby entitlement among some of the families I know. I don't really see this at WJ, although it is true that I don't hang out with every WJ or BCC family. This is just my little view of the world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We love WJ!!! My kids have are having a great experience right now. I have heard great things about music, chorus, forensics, IEP support, some sports. My interactions with the administration and staff have been great. They have a good booster club that supports all clubs, not just sports. I also like the principal and have never heard any complaints about her. There are many smart kids (probably with parents working at NIH)

Within our small little world, I do know some BCC parents and kids from non-school activities. Many are nice, but I do know a handful with out-of-control kids whose parents just seem absent. I am sure most BCC families are great, but there is a bit of snobby entitlement among some of the families I know. I don't really see this at WJ, although it is true that I don't hang out with every WJ or BCC family. This is just my little view of the world.

Trust me, it's there at WJ. It was there when I went back in the '90s, and it certainly hasn't gotten any better. I still loved my time there and think it's probably the least snobby of the W schools, but you'd better believe it exists at WJ.

[Anonymous]

I'm the "we moved to Kensington for the Einstein IB" parent. We moved here from New York and did a lot of research.

Husband and i both work on the Hill and commute together (45 min in car, leaving at 7am). Our kids are really into foreign languages -- we did international travel every year as a family and also language camps -- so we knew we wanted an IB program. Looked at Einstein, Richard Montgomery, BCC. Pretty much all great teachers and motivated kids in these classes. Kensington had the best location/real estate prices/friendly neighborhoods (last one subjective as we walked and talked to folks while browsing houses).

We will probably move in a few years when last child has finished undergrad, but for now this is our kids' *home* and we are staying put. After that -- probably Florida or South Carolina for retirement.

[Anonymous]

I'd definitely pick WJ these days. BCC has gone way downhill since it's heyday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Einstein isn't as affluent as BCC, but there's a strong college-bound track where many kids do incredibly well especially when you look past simple averages and dig deeper. Also, I suspect real estate in that area will do well with Woodward being a couple years out.

+100

[Anonymous]

BCC for the win.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Einstein is an awesome school. Compare it to BCC on any metric: SAT scores - check, School placement - check, suspension rate- check, drugs - check, housing prices - check, restaurants nearby - check, safety in the halls/beefing - check, special ed - check, APs offered - check, pregnancy - check, teacher engagement - check, math championship - check, WIFI/BYOD policy - check, BBall - check, field quality - check, facial hair policy - check, notable alumni - check, Model UN/Congress - check, speed of receiving report cards - check, student parking - check, shorts on Fridays- check, close to the slopes - check

I love this place!!!!

compare the scores but then compare how many kids take the tests. wen only the top students take the test it is not a real reflection of the entire student body. Einstein is a fine school but the bottom half of it is really bad.

Actually, isn't that a good thing as colleges are only going to take so many kids from each high school so that gives your child a greater chance of going to the college of their choice. It also isn't as competitive in some sports - i.e. only team kids make it on the teams, etc. Its really income based. Higher income schools have parents who can pay for supports and private tutoring. If MCPS put more supports in place with the struggling kids, some may do much better given their parents cannot or will not be able to provide the extra's that other parents can. Drugs and alcohol are at every school and if anything more at the W schools as kids have more money and access.

That’s not true. It’s not like colleges take X number of kids from each school. They often never choose any kids from many schools, while choosing multiple kids each year from certain private and public schools because they know that those students are well prepared.

[Anonymous]

BCC has tour dates scheduled OP, if you are interested. The next one is January 8th.

http://www.bccptsa.net/bcctours

[Anonymous]

We are upper/middle class as are most of our friends. Our kids are or were at Einstein. All our kids did great, as expected, and are at college and grad school, as expected. What in hell is that troll above talking about?

Is there a way to get trolls off the forum?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are upper/middle class as are most of our friends. Our kids are or were at Einstein. All our kids did great, as expected, and are at college and grad school, as expected. What in hell is that troll above talking about?

Is there a way to get trolls off the forum?

You’re oblivious, Einstein is about 2/3 poor according to (at a glance) with 65.6% of kids either receiving FARMs or having got it in the past. Everyone acknowledges that concentrations of poverty are a problem so I am not sure how Einstein parents act like it isn’t there. I guess they do a good job putting the middle class white kids in a bubble where they are sheltered form the the rest of the school. Then the parents get to act like the bottom of the county graduation rates and test scores aren’t the few middle class white kids at the school so they don’t matter. Your kid made it out so I guess the facts that

1200 of 1800 kids at the school hover around the poverty line.
1/5 wont graduate
Almost 4/5 who do finish don’t qualify for the Maryland university system
Test scores among the worst in the county all don’t matter

It is all here, your anecdotal rose colored BS isn’t reflective of the school
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04789.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are upper/middle class as are most of our friends. Our kids are or were at Einstein. All our kids did great, as expected, and are at college and grad school, as expected. What in hell is that troll above talking about?

Is there a way to get trolls off the forum?

You’re oblivious, Einstein is about 2/3 poor according to (at a glance) with 65.6% of kids either receiving FARMs or having got it in the past. Everyone acknowledges that concentrations of poverty are a problem so I am not sure how Einstein parents act like it isn’t there. I guess they do a good job putting the middle class white kids in a bubble where they are sheltered form the the rest of the school. Then the parents get to act like the bottom of the county graduation rates and test scores aren’t the few middle class white kids at the school so they don’t matter. Your kid made it out so I guess the facts that

1200 of 1800 kids at the school hover around the poverty line.
1/5 wont graduate
Almost 4/5 who do finish don’t qualify for the Maryland university system
Test scores among the worst in the county all don’t matter

It is all here, your anecdotal rose colored BS isn’t reflective of the school
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04789.pdf

Hell even a few kids at Ballou go to college, I guess that is a great high school too?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are upper/middle class as are most of our friends. Our kids are or were at Einstein. All our kids did great, as expected, and are at college and grad school, as expected. What in hell is that troll above talking about?

Is there a way to get trolls off the forum?

You’re oblivious, Einstein is about 2/3 poor according to (at a glance) with 65.6% of kids either receiving FARMs or having got it in the past. Everyone acknowledges that concentrations of poverty are a problem so I am not sure how Einstein parents act like it isn’t there. I guess they do a good job putting the middle class white kids in a bubble where they are sheltered form the the rest of the school. Then the parents get to act like the bottom of the county graduation rates and test scores aren’t the few middle class white kids at the school so they don’t matter. Your kid made it out so I guess the facts that

1200 of 1800 kids at the school hover around the poverty line.
1/5 wont graduate
Almost 4/5 who do finish don’t qualify for the Maryland university system
Test scores among the worst in the county all don’t matter

It is all here, your anecdotal rose colored BS isn’t reflective of the school
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04789.pdf

It's cute how you think your ability to cite stats you looked up online is somehow more significant than the actual life experiences of families who live in the community and attend the school. Yes, there are families living in poverty; nobody is disputing that. But there are great teachers, administrators, and programs there too, and lots of kids are thriving there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are upper/middle class as are most of our friends. Our kids are or were at Einstein. All our kids did great, as expected, and are at college and grad school, as expected. What in hell is that troll above talking about?

Is there a way to get trolls off the forum?

Unfortunately I think all you can do is ignore them - don’t feed the trolls. They sow discontent and bad feelings within our community and if they are real people they are obnoxious. But in these kinds of relatively unmoderated fora, you just have to ignore them and not respond to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are upper/middle class as are most of our friends. Our kids are or were at Einstein. All our kids did great, as expected, and are at college and grad school, as expected. What in hell is that troll above talking about?

Is there a way to get trolls off the forum?

You’re oblivious, Einstein is about 2/3 poor according to (at a glance) with 65.6% of kids either receiving FARMs or having got it in the past. Everyone acknowledges that concentrations of poverty are a problem so I am not sure how Einstein parents act like it isn’t there. I guess they do a good job putting the middle class white kids in a bubble where they are sheltered form the the rest of the school. Then the parents get to act like the bottom of the county graduation rates and test scores aren’t the few middle class white kids at the school so they don’t matter. Your kid made it out so I guess the facts that

1200 of 1800 kids at the school hover around the poverty line.
1/5 wont graduate
Almost 4/5 who do finish don’t qualify for the Maryland university system
Test scores among the worst in the county all don’t matter

It is all here, your anecdotal rose colored BS isn’t reflective of the school
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04789.pdf

It's cute how you think your ability to cite stats you looked up online is somehow more significant than the actual life experiences of families who live in the community and attend the school. Yes, there are families living in poverty; nobody is disputing that. But there are great teachers, administrators, and programs there too, and lots of kids are thriving there.

I am not the PP and have no dog in this fight, but it seems you are being totally irrational here.

Data pointing to huge problem for majority of kids in one high school is a hard cold fact. Opinions of families living in HS are simply opinions. In any world, facts are far more significant than opinion. Now if you can argue that facts are not indeed facts then it will be different situation.

--------

I don't know anything about Einstein to add much here, but I suspect problem is not the school. If you simply swap all kids between Whitman and Einstein without changing teachers, I am sure that collective results will be swapped as well. It's SES level which makes the most difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are upper/middle class as are most of our friends. Our kids are or were at Einstein. All our kids did great, as expected, and are at college and grad school, as expected. What in hell is that troll above talking about?

Is there a way to get trolls off the forum?

You’re oblivious, Einstein is about 2/3 poor according to (at a glance) with 65.6% of kids either receiving FARMs or having got it in the past. Everyone acknowledges that concentrations of poverty are a problem so I am not sure how Einstein parents act like it isn’t there. I guess they do a good job putting the middle class white kids in a bubble where they are sheltered form the the rest of the school. Then the parents get to act like the bottom of the county graduation rates and test scores aren’t the few middle class white kids at the school so they don’t matter. Your kid made it out so I guess the facts that

1200 of 1800 kids at the school hover around the poverty line.
1/5 wont graduate
Almost 4/5 who do finish don’t qualify for the Maryland university system
Test scores among the worst in the county all don’t matter

It is all here, your anecdotal rose colored BS isn’t reflective of the school
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04789.pdf

It's cute how you think your ability to cite stats you looked up online is somehow more significant than the actual life experiences of families who live in the community and attend the school. Yes, there are families living in poverty; nobody is disputing that. But there are great teachers, administrators, and programs there too, and lots of kids are thriving there.

I am not the PP and have no dog in this fight, but it seems you are being totally irrational here.

Data pointing to huge problem for majority of kids in one high school is a hard cold fact. Opinions of families living in HS are simply opinions. In any world, facts are far more significant than opinion. Now if you can argue that facts are not indeed facts then it will be different situation.

--------

I don't know anything about Einstein to add much here, but I suspect problem is not the school. If you simply swap all kids between Whitman and Einstein without changing teachers, I am sure that collective results will be swapped as well. It's SES level which makes the most difference.

I never said facts don't matter. I acknowledged the truth about the poverty in the school. It's just that the at-a-glance reports don't give the whole picture. People describing real life experiences are not simply stating opinions; they are factually providing information about the school that can't be gleaned from the reports. That is usually what people asking questions about schools are seeking.