Which mcps high school has declined the most?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Agreed. We need to stop associating school success with test scores. There is more to being a good school than just test scores and college acceptance rates. Being in a diverse school, for instance, can teach a child more than what can be tested on or read in any book. Many of us place more of a value on this type of life learning than arbitrary test scores.

What a bunch of bullshit. First many of the "diverse" schools are completely segregated inside the school. Try the all white Blair caps program or the desperation to make sure your kid gets into a waterer down CES lest they be left behind in the general population yard. Hypocrisy at its best.

Its tiresome that some posters want to claim that graduating from high school, being prepared for college, and being able to PASS a basic grade level ELA and math class is not important to rationalize sending their kids to a crappy school. These are really bottom of the barrel measures. If you can't make these measures, the school is in trouble and it is not a good learning environment for anyone.

People should be up in arms about the failure rates within MCPS. They shouldn't be trying to hide them or rationalize them away -unless these are MCPS people posting. They should be screaming for the heads of MCPS staff who are failing the kids. They should be screaming for more school interventions or putting schools like Einstein on a probation watch until things improve. Nope -lets instead pretend that academics and learning do not matter. Its simply about existing for a few years.

This +1 million

I have a kid at a Title 1 school and I am mostly struck by the incredibly low expectations. Low expectations for behavior. Low expectations for academics. Especially when compared to my friends/relatives at wealthier schools. That is an issue.

MCPs needs to focus more on demonstrating that all the kids are progressing and that the time they are spending in school is actually productive.

I'm sorry to hear that was your experience. My kid just finished at a Title I school, and it was the total opposite. From the principal to the teachers and paraeducators, I noted consistently high expectations.

I think it really depends on the Title I school, the engagement and expectations of the teachers, and the attitudes of the students toward smart kids.

We switched from Kemp Mill ES to Montgomery Knolls/Pine Crest, which are all Title I schools. Our oldest had K-3 at KMES, then got into the CES at Pine Crest. He was desperate to get away from KMES, where the student culture is to bully the smart kids. Our younger DS was allowed to switch to MKES (the lower elementary match to PCES) on a COSA to get away from KMES's dual language, rather than the usual Glen Haven COSA offering, because his brother was changing schools.

KMES has continued to decline in every possible way. When our youngest finished kindergarten, he was a semester behind in reading, but we were told not to worry because that's normal for that school.

When we moved to MKES for 1st grade, his reading level immediately placed him in focus reading support, and by the end of the first quarter, he was a semester ahead in reading. At MKES, to compare regular programs, not comparing to a CES, my youngest had fantastic support and instruction for grades 1-2, and will be in the regular program at PCES in the fall (he hopes to get into the CES, now being more than a year ahead in reading, as well as excelling in math). At MKES, being smart and enjoying reading and math are encouraged among the students, and little girls have told my youngest that they like him because he's so smart, and he has lots of friends who like to read and learn together, which is a far cry from the constant bullying my oldest had from boys and girls for being smart at KMES.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Agreed. We need to stop associating school success with test scores. There is more to being a good school than just test scores and college acceptance rates. Being in a diverse school, for instance, can teach a child more than what can be tested on or read in any book. Many of us place more of a value on this type of life learning than arbitrary test scores.

What a bunch of bullshit. First many of the "diverse" schools are completely segregated inside the school. Try the all white Blair caps program or the desperation to make sure your kid gets into a waterer down CES lest they be left behind in the general population yard. Hypocrisy at its best.

Its tiresome that some posters want to claim that graduating from high school, being prepared for college, and being able to PASS a basic grade level ELA and math class is not important to rationalize sending their kids to a crappy school. These are really bottom of the barrel measures. If you can't make these measures, the school is in trouble and it is not a good learning environment for anyone.

People should be up in arms about the failure rates within MCPS. They shouldn't be trying to hide them or rationalize them away -unless these are MCPS people posting. They should be screaming for the heads of MCPS staff who are failing the kids. They should be screaming for more school interventions or putting schools like Einstein on a probation watch until things improve. Nope -lets instead pretend that academics and learning do not matter. Its simply about existing for a few years.

This +1 million

I have a kid at a Title 1 school and I am mostly struck by the incredibly low expectations. Low expectations for behavior. Low expectations for academics. Especially when compared to my friends/relatives at wealthier schools. That is an issue.

MCPs needs to focus more on demonstrating that all the kids are progressing and that the time they are spending in school is actually productive.

I'm sorry to hear that was your experience. My kid just finished at a Title I school, and it was the total opposite. From the principal to the teachers and paraeducators, I noted consistently high expectations.

I think it really depends on the Title I school, the engagement and expectations of the teachers, and the attitudes of the students toward smart kids.

We switched from Kemp Mill ES to Montgomery Knolls/Pine Crest, which are all Title I schools. Our oldest had K-3 at KMES, then got into the CES at Pine Crest. He was desperate to get away from KMES, where the student culture is to bully the smart kids. Our younger DS was allowed to switch to MKES (the lower elementary match to PCES) on a COSA to get away from KMES's dual language, rather than the usual Glen Haven COSA offering, because his brother was changing schools.

KMES has continued to decline in every possible way. When our youngest finished kindergarten, he was a semester behind in reading, but we were told not to worry because that's normal for that school.

When we moved to MKES for 1st grade, his reading level immediately placed him in focus reading support, and by the end of the first quarter, he was a semester ahead in reading. At MKES, to compare regular programs, not comparing to a CES, my youngest had fantastic support and instruction for grades 1-2, and will be in the regular program at PCES in the fall (he hopes to get into the CES, now being more than a year ahead in reading, as well as excelling in math). At MKES, being smart and enjoying reading and math are encouraged among the students, and little girls have told my youngest that they like him because he's so smart, and he has lots of friends who like to read and learn together, which is a far cry from the constant bullying my oldest had from boys and girls for being smart at KMES.

Kemp Mill is Title I, but Montgomery Knolls and Pine Crest are not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Agreed. We need to stop associating school success with test scores. There is more to being a good school than just test scores and college acceptance rates. Being in a diverse school, for instance, can teach a child more than what can be tested on or read in any book. Many of us place more of a value on this type of life learning than arbitrary test scores.

What a bunch of bullshit. First many of the "diverse" schools are completely segregated inside the school. Try the all white Blair caps program or the desperation to make sure your kid gets into a waterer down CES lest they be left behind in the general population yard. Hypocrisy at its best.

Its tiresome that some posters want to claim that graduating from high school, being prepared for college, and being able to PASS a basic grade level ELA and math class is not important to rationalize sending their kids to a crappy school. These are really bottom of the barrel measures. If you can't make these measures, the school is in trouble and it is not a good learning environment for anyone.

People should be up in arms about the failure rates within MCPS. They shouldn't be trying to hide them or rationalize them away -unless these are MCPS people posting. They should be screaming for the heads of MCPS staff who are failing the kids. They should be screaming for more school interventions or putting schools like Einstein on a probation watch until things improve. Nope -lets instead pretend that academics and learning do not matter. Its simply about existing for a few years.

This +1 million

I have a kid at a Title 1 school and I am mostly struck by the incredibly low expectations. Low expectations for behavior. Low expectations for academics. Especially when compared to my friends/relatives at wealthier schools. That is an issue.

MCPs needs to focus more on demonstrating that all the kids are progressing and that the time they are spending in school is actually productive.

I'm sorry to hear that was your experience. My kid just finished at a Title I school, and it was the total opposite. From the principal to the teachers and paraeducators, I noted consistently high expectations.

I think it really depends on the Title I school, the engagement and expectations of the teachers, and the attitudes of the students toward smart kids.

We switched from Kemp Mill ES to Montgomery Knolls/Pine Crest, which are all Title I schools. Our oldest had K-3 at KMES, then got into the CES at Pine Crest. He was desperate to get away from KMES, where the student culture is to bully the smart kids. Our younger DS was allowed to switch to MKES (the lower elementary match to PCES) on a COSA to get away from KMES's dual language, rather than the usual Glen Haven COSA offering, because his brother was changing schools.

KMES has continued to decline in every possible way. When our youngest finished kindergarten, he was a semester behind in reading, but we were told not to worry because that's normal for that school.

When we moved to MKES for 1st grade, his reading level immediately placed him in focus reading support, and by the end of the first quarter, he was a semester ahead in reading. At MKES, to compare regular programs, not comparing to a CES, my youngest had fantastic support and instruction for grades 1-2, and will be in the regular program at PCES in the fall (he hopes to get into the CES, now being more than a year ahead in reading, as well as excelling in math). At MKES, being smart and enjoying reading and math are encouraged among the students, and little girls have told my youngest that they like him because he's so smart, and he has lots of friends who like to read and learn together, which is a far cry from the constant bullying my oldest had from boys and girls for being smart at KMES.

Kemp Mill is Title I, but Montgomery Knolls and Pine Crest are not.

You'd think somebody who'd had children at all 3 schools would know that.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/dtecps/title1/schools.aspx

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The largest academic decline has been in the east and poorer areas of up county. For all the hyping that goes on, academically Einstein, Northwood, Blair, Kennedy, and Wheaton have plunged. Out of the good schools, Whitman has lost its top academic spot consistently to Churchill. Wootton and Poolesville for the several years. Whitman's desirability and reputation are still better but score wise it is lower. Seneca Valley, and Magruder have dropped. Northwest has not dropped, its scores are actually pretty good and equal to QO but it has a bad reputation in comparison to QO.

RM, Wootton and Poolesville are really the only example of schools that are better today than they were 20 years ago.


It's truly amazing how much overlap there is between DCUM's perception of school quality, on the one hand, and the demographic makeup of the school's student body, on the other. Astonishing. What could the explanation for that possibly be?

Scores are scores. Plus RM has a diverse demographic. It rose over the years. Whitman's demographic hasn't changed at all and its scores have dropped. It was white when it was on top and its white now and not on top. Wootton used to be all white and now has a large Asian populations. Wootton was the lowest ranking W school when it was all white and now is at the top with Churchill. Its a gain but not a huge one. The DCC schools were never really good when they were more white they are just worse now.

Whitman has the highest sat avg county wide. Just sayin

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Agreed. We need to stop associating school success with test scores. There is more to being a good school than just test scores and college acceptance rates. Being in a diverse school, for instance, can teach a child more than what can be tested on or read in any book. Many of us place more of a value on this type of life learning than arbitrary test scores.

What a bunch of bullshit. First many of the "diverse" schools are completely segregated inside the school. Try the all white Blair caps program or the desperation to make sure your kid gets into a waterer down CES lest they be left behind in the general population yard. Hypocrisy at its best.

Its tiresome that some posters want to claim that graduating from high school, being prepared for college, and being able to PASS a basic grade level ELA and math class is not important to rationalize sending their kids to a crappy school. These are really bottom of the barrel measures. If you can't make these measures, the school is in trouble and it is not a good learning environment for anyone.

People should be up in arms about the failure rates within MCPS. They shouldn't be trying to hide them or rationalize them away -unless these are MCPS people posting. They should be screaming for the heads of MCPS staff who are failing the kids. They should be screaming for more school interventions or putting schools like Einstein on a probation watch until things improve. Nope -lets instead pretend that academics and learning do not matter. Its simply about existing for a few years.

This- only people losing the race talk about “what really matters”. Sour grapes, who wanted a high achieving cohort when you have diversity

[Anonymous]

ALL OF THEM OP!! Are you asking this because you really don’t know??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The largest academic decline has been in the east and poorer areas of up county. For all the hyping that goes on, academically Einstein, Northwood, Blair, Kennedy, and Wheaton have plunged. Out of the good schools, Whitman has lost its top academic spot consistently to Churchill. Wootton and Poolesville for the several years. Whitman's desirability and reputation are still better but score wise it is lower. Seneca Valley, and Magruder have dropped. Northwest has not dropped, its scores are actually pretty good and equal to QO but it has a bad reputation in comparison to QO.

RM, Wootton and Poolesville are really the only example of schools that are better today than they were 20 years ago.


It's truly amazing how much overlap there is between DCUM's perception of school quality, on the one hand, and the demographic makeup of the school's student body, on the other. Astonishing. What could the explanation for that possibly be?

Scores are scores. Plus RM has a diverse demographic. It rose over the years. Whitman's demographic hasn't changed at all and its scores have dropped. It was white when it was on top and its white now and not on top. Wootton used to be all white and now has a large Asian populations. Wootton was the lowest ranking W school when it was all white and now is at the top with Churchill. Its a gain but not a huge one. The DCC schools were never really good when they were more white they are just worse now.

Whitman has the highest sat avg county wide. Just sayin

That's weird it was given a 4 by Great Schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In 1970 BCC was selected by Newsweek as the best high-school in America. Today it's something like a GS 6 based on its test scores.

I would have gone to BCC in the 70s had I not gone to private school and I don't recall it having a particularly good reputation then. Honestly my parents didn't even consider it an option. It's miles better now.

Same. My parents moved out of the BCC district in the 70's b/c of it's reputation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The largest academic decline has been in the east and poorer areas of up county. For all the hyping that goes on, academically Einstein, Northwood, Blair, Kennedy, and Wheaton have plunged. Out of the good schools, Whitman has lost its top academic spot consistently to Churchill. Wootton and Poolesville for the several years. Whitman's desirability and reputation are still better but score wise it is lower. Seneca Valley, and Magruder have dropped. Northwest has not dropped, its scores are actually pretty good and equal to QO but it has a bad reputation in comparison to QO.

RM, Wootton and Poolesville are really the only example of schools that are better today than they were 20 years ago.

It's truly amazing how much overlap there is between DCUM's perception of school quality, on the one hand, and the demographic makeup of the school's student body, on the other. Astonishing. What could the explanation for that possibly be?

Agreed. We need to stop associating school success with test scores. There is more to being a good school than just test scores and college acceptance rates. Being in a diverse school, for instance, can teach a child more than what can be tested on or read in any book. Many of us place more of a value on this type of life learning than arbitrary test scores.

I couldn't disagree more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In 1970 BCC was selected by Newsweek as the best high-school in America. Today it's something like a GS 6 based on its test scores.

I would have gone to BCC in the 70s had I not gone to private school and I don't recall it having a particularly good reputation then. Honestly my parents didn't even consider it an option. It's miles better now.

Same. My parents moved out of the BCC district in the 70's b/c of it's reputation.

Groups of kids would sit indian-style on the front lawn and smoke weed 1977-1980. That being said, some of them went on to great schools and great careers. WaPo columnist Richard Lane (Harvard) was one of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In 1970 BCC was selected by Newsweek as the best high-school in America. Today it's something like a GS 6 based on its test scores.

I would have gone to BCC in the 70s had I not gone to private school and I don't recall it having a particularly good reputation then. Honestly my parents didn't even consider it an option. It's miles better now.

Same. My parents moved out of the BCC district in the 70's b/c of it's reputation.

Groups of kids would sit indian-style on the front lawn and smoke weed 1977-1980. That being said, some of them went on to great schools and great careers. WaPo columnist Richard Lane (Harvard) was one of them.

/|\ I don't mean to imply he was one of the ones smoking pot!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Definitely not BCC, it is just as good as it always was. I would definitely say Northwest, Rockville, and Magruder both recently became pretty bad. RM, Wootton is no longer the other Potomac school anymore, just way too much of a pressure cooker/terrible environment. Blair has (imo) improved from super ghetto to somewhat ghetto.

Bless your heart.

I went to Blair when it was “super ghetto” so I guess I could use more choice words. “Ghetto” and “pressure cooker” are sure doing a lot of ~racially infused~ work here. Too Black and Latino and the schools are too ghetto, too Asian and they’re too high-pressure... they’ve got to be juuuuuust white.

To say "white" is to paint with too broad a brush - Chevy Chase, and especially Bethesda, have large Jewish populations, and Jewish families (so I'm told) place a high value on education and achievement. Not all "white" families / cultures do. When I was at Leland Jr High (RIP), there were plenty of white kids on the fast track to gas station jobs or the Marines.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In 1970 BCC was selected by Newsweek as the best high-school in America. Today it's something like a GS 6 based on its test scores.

I would have gone to BCC in the 70s had I not gone to private school and I don't recall it having a particularly good reputation then. Honestly my parents didn't even consider it an option. It's miles better now.

Same. My parents moved out of the BCC district in the 70's b/c of it's reputation.

I went in the 90's. It was not a great school then and just was about former reputation. Some of us transferred out.

You cannot always look at SAT scores. Richer parents pay for tutors and classes to improve scores and that is outside school and really nothing to do with the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Definitely not BCC, it is just as good as it always was. I would definitely say Northwest, Rockville, and Magruder both recently became pretty bad. RM, Wootton is no longer the other Potomac school anymore, just way too much of a pressure cooker/terrible environment. Blair has (imo) improved from super ghetto to somewhat ghetto.

Bless your heart.

I went to Blair when it was “super ghetto” so I guess I could use more choice words. “Ghetto” and “pressure cooker” are sure doing a lot of ~racially infused~ work here. Too Black and Latino and the schools are too ghetto, too Asian and they’re too high-pressure... they’ve got to be juuuuuust white.

To say "white" is to paint with too broad a brush - Chevy Chase, and especially Bethesda, have large Jewish populations, and Jewish families (so I'm told) place a high value on education and achievement. Not all "white" families / cultures do. When I was at Leland Jr High (RIP), there were plenty of white kids on the fast track to gas station jobs or the Marines.

Those areas were a lot of fed workers at the time and those who worked in DC. Houses were affordable back then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Definitely not BCC, it is just as good as it always was. I would definitely say Northwest, Rockville, and Magruder both recently became pretty bad. RM, Wootton is no longer the other Potomac school anymore, just way too much of a pressure cooker/terrible environment. Blair has (imo) improved from super ghetto to somewhat ghetto.

Bless your heart.

I went to Blair when it was “super ghetto” so I guess I could use more choice words. “Ghetto” and “pressure cooker” are sure doing a lot of ~racially infused~ work here. Too Black and Latino and the schools are too ghetto, too Asian and they’re too high-pressure... they’ve got to be juuuuuust white.

To say "white" is to paint with too broad a brush - Chevy Chase, and especially Bethesda, have large Jewish populations, and Jewish families (so I'm told) place a high value on education and achievement. Not all "white" families / cultures do. When I was at Leland Jr High (RIP), there were plenty of white kids on the fast track to gas station jobs or the Marines.

Excuse me. My 3.8 GPA son is proudly heading to the Marines. Following in the proud tradition of his great-grandfather (Normandy, WW2) and grandfather (DaNang, Vietnam) . Check yourself, *sshole.