Where do you consider MCPS high schools on a scale of good-bad

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

BCC is 15% Black and Blair is 24% Black. Nearly all of the Black students at BCC live in Silver Spring and would be assigned to Blair if they lived literally in the next apartment building over. So why is it that those Black kids at BCC are doing significantly better than kids one block away?

Even this is not true. There are no buildings zoned to BCC which are next to buildings zoned to Blair. You are probably referring to the Summit Hills apartments at the eastern end of the BCC zone. Some of their buildings are zoned for BCC, and others are zoned for Einstein. None are zoned for Blair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So let me get this right, according to you, the black kids at BCC are all poor and live in apartment buildings? They aren't the kids of lawyers, business people, and feds - many of the people who are relatively affluent who live in Silver Spring but still go to BCC (that really gets stuck in your craw, doesn't it?). The black kids at BCC - you're trying to tell me - are the same socio-economic background as the black kids who live on Maple Avenue and on the eastern side of University Blvd and in the apartment buildings on Piney Branch and Flower Avenue? Get the hell out with your nonsense racism. News Flash: Black kids can be the kids of the same types of successful professionals who are white and go to Rosemary Hills - BCC.

Imagine that just because the black kids at BCC are black, doesn't mean they are poor. And so, their parents have the time, resources, and perhaps education, to fully support their children's academics.

Not all of the kids at Blair who are black are poor - to the contrary. But the streets I flagged below include some economically disadvantaged neighborhoods where kids may not have the resources to do well academically - or may be working after school to help pay for family expenses. It's not an apple to apple comparison any more than comparing a wealthy white kid from Potomac is to comparing a white child who lives in a poorer neighborhood in the county.

Lastly, why are you so invested in tearing down Blair? It's crazy how many posters resent Blair's success. Get a grip.

Clearly his their didn't get in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So let me get this right, according to you, the black kids at BCC are all poor and live in apartment buildings? They aren't the kids of lawyers, business people, and feds - many of the people who are relatively affluent who live in Silver Spring but still go to BCC (that really gets stuck in your craw, doesn't it?). The black kids at BCC - you're trying to tell me - are the same socio-economic background as the black kids who live on Maple Avenue and on the eastern side of University Blvd and in the apartment buildings on Piney Branch and Flower Avenue? Get the hell out with your nonsense racism. News Flash: Black kids can be the kids of the same types of successful professionals who are white and go to Rosemary Hills - BCC.

Imagine that just because the black kids at BCC are black, doesn't mean they are poor. And so, their parents have the time, resources, and perhaps education, to fully support their children's academics.

Not all of the kids at Blair who are black are poor - to the contrary. But the streets I flagged below include some economically disadvantaged neighborhoods where kids may not have the resources to do well academically - or may be working after school to help pay for family expenses. It's not an apple to apple comparison any more than comparing a wealthy white kid from Potomac is to comparing a white child who lives in a poorer neighborhood in the county.

Lastly, why are you so invested in tearing down Blair? It's crazy how many posters resent Blair's success. Get a grip.

Clearly his their didn't get in.

Clearly their kid didn't get in. (Hate when I replace the wrong word!)

[Anonymous]

This thread!!

1. West county snobs who are defensive their kids aren't in magnets.
2. East county hippies who are defensive their kids are in magnets.
3. Some annoyed Asian moms who just want good test scores.
4. All of the groups tying themselves into knots to explain that it isn't racism that makes them frightened of poor children. They want to say it's the gangs, but they're too frightened that will sound racist.

Seriously, after having experienced high Ses moco schools and low ses Moco schools, you couldn't pay me to send my kids to a W or Blair. It's just so toxic.

[Anonymous]

I also think we'd be better served if we stopped talking about race as the "reason" for anything at all. Because it is not.

There are intersections of class and ses and culture that contribute to educational outcome. But race is very imprecise as a benchmark. For one, the reason this country has a booming population of Hispanics has more to do with identifying as Hispanic. You still won't convince me that someone with a Spanish-speaking grandparent in Rockville has anything in common, besides a language, with a family who came from Guatemala yesterday. Nor does an Eritrean family have anything innate in common with an African American family who's lived here for 300 years.

Except for what we all have in common, which is the desire for our children to be educated safely and within our community.

What we should also have in common IS that community, and the realization that it takes all kinds of people doing all kinds of jobs to make one. Other cities can mange this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread!!

1. West county snobs who are defensive their kids aren't in magnets.
2. East county hippies who are defensive their kids are in magnets.
3. Some annoyed Asian moms who just want good test scores.
4. All of the groups tying themselves into knots to explain that it isn't racism that makes them frightened of poor children. They want to say it's the gangs, but they're too frightened that will sound racist.

Seriously, after having experienced high Ses moco schools and low ses Moco schools, you couldn't pay me to send my kids to a W or Blair. It's just so toxic.

Then why are east county progressives calling for busing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I remember reading the post a while back that showed Blair's SAT average was 50 points higher for the largest common cohort to it and any W in order to isolate for demographic differences and gauge the school's actual value. Some people argued but the magnet responsible which was ridiculous because it's a small program in a large school that's also mostly Asian. These silly posts that are based on outdated notions from 30 years ago are mostly laughable.
I believe these were the SAT scores for the largest cohort common to each of these high-schools

Blair 1326
Walter Johnson 1275
Wootton 1262
Churchill 1257

The data was published by the county here.
https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/reports/2017/1771102HS%20Princ_SAT%20Partic_Perf%20Class%20of%202017.pdf

This makes a lot more sense than just dumping raw data.

The smartest white kids means it’s the best school? I cannot imagine anything more racist and classist than that, considering 90% of Blair kids are from rich liberal families in Takoma Park. I know a few of them myself.

Yup. To me, the best schools are the schools where Black and Hispanic students perform the best. So the top 4 are Poolesville, Whitman, Churchill and BCC. Black and Hispanic students at Blair perform worse than Northwest, Sherwood and Watkins Mill which says a lot about Blair. That’s a lot of inequality in one school and it’s hard to understand how white kids are getting taught so well while Black and Brown kids are not.

DP.
Can anyone can please enlighten me, why is it that, all of a sudden, 'Black' and 'Hispainic' are capitalized (when referring to race) and 'white' is not? See it a lot in posts here.
I call racism.

It's virtue signaling by woke white progressives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I remember reading the post a while back that showed Blair's SAT average was 50 points higher for the largest common cohort to it and any W in order to isolate for demographic differences and gauge the school's actual value. Some people argued but the magnet responsible which was ridiculous because it's a small program in a large school that's also mostly Asian. These silly posts that are based on outdated notions from 30 years ago are mostly laughable.
I believe these were the SAT scores for the largest cohort common to each of these high-schools

Blair 1326
Walter Johnson 1275
Wootton 1262
Churchill 1257

The data was published by the county here.
https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/reports/2017/1771102HS%20Princ_SAT%20Partic_Perf%20Class%20of%202017.pdf

This makes a lot more sense than just dumping raw data.

The smartest white kids means it’s the best school? I cannot imagine anything more racist and classist than that, considering 90% of Blair kids are from rich liberal families in Takoma Park. I know a few of them myself.

Yup. To me, the best schools are the schools where Black and Hispanic students perform the best. So the top 4 are Poolesville, Whitman, Churchill and BCC. Black and Hispanic students at Blair perform worse than Northwest, Sherwood and Watkins Mill which says a lot about Blair. That’s a lot of inequality in one school and it’s hard to understand how white kids are getting taught so well while Black and Brown kids are not.

DP.
Can anyone can please enlighten me, why is it that, all of a sudden, 'Black' and 'Hispainic' are capitalized (when referring to race) and 'white' is not? See it a lot in posts here.
I call racism.

Because DCUM is just random people posting stuff. It doesn't follow a style guide. APA recommends capitalizing all three terms.

https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/bias-free-language/racial-ethnic-minorities

The New York Times style guide does not capitalize white.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/05/insider/capitalized-black.html

Unfortunately the NYT became woke a few years ago so we can no longer look to them as the bastion of reason they used to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Really? There are plenty of hard working, earnest teachers and staff across MCPS, even at the schools on the lower end of DCUM ranking lists.


Yes, there are. However, the analysis had to do with how effective a school program was overall - not how hard the teachers worked. There are many situations, to include the parents of the students, that affect the numbers. The point is that if you know this, you can do something about it (if you wanted to). If a child is written off as not meeting college standards, for whatever reason, then it may be time to add more data. Maybe there were students who scored poorly on the SAT's, but never intended to go to college anyway. For example, a student may be in a bad home situation, or perhaps works with relatives in a family business, or some other reason.

For example, I've seen post after post over the years how some are advocating to ship off the children to other schools to make another school's numbers look better. Does that really do the child any good? If you want to prepare a child for life, can you offer a German-style Gymnasium program (e.g. trade school) instead?

There are many roads to and levels of success. The question is - has MCPS taken this into consideration and ensured a child has the best possible chance in Life? If so, then it's something to celebrate. If not, and the money they received is used to only make decision-makers look good, that's a problem.

I've seen where MCPS will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on studies for equity's sake. Why not a study on the children who score low on the SAT (ex. below 1000)? If it's been published, I know I haven't seen it. Perhaps by better understanding the problems involved, it will be possible to find better solutions?

These high SES schools simply have parents that spend lavishly on extracurricular academic enrichment, tutors, and years of test prep. Pure and simple. Entitlement to a plethora of extracurricular academic enrichment, academic remediation, excessive test prep, and an epidemic of accommodation privelages for high school work and college board tests.

You have some very strange views. Please seek help.

[Anonymous]

These high SES schools simply have parents that spend lavishly on extracurricular academic enrichment, tutors, and years of test prep. Pure and simple. Entitlement to a plethora of extracurricular academic enrichment, academic remediation, excessive test prep, and an epidemic of accommodation privelages for high school work and college board tests.

Bingo!

[Anonymous]

The accommodations for high school courses boost the grade inflation (highest in the State) at these high SES schools and augment the inflated scores on ACT and College Board tests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread!!

1. West county snobs who are defensive their kids aren't in magnets.
2. East county hippies who are defensive their kids are in magnets.
3. Some annoyed Asian moms who just want good test scores.
4. All of the groups tying themselves into knots to explain that it isn't racism that makes them frightened of poor children. They want to say it's the gangs, but they're too frightened that will sound racist.

Seriously, after having experienced high Ses moco schools and low ses Moco schools, you couldn't pay me to send my kids to a W or Blair. It's just so toxic.

Then why are east county progressives calling for busing?

They aren't. That's just you.

[Anonymous]

...and despite all the advantages of SES high schools and their accommodations these folk are the ones driving the suicide and opioid crisis in this country ... the last decade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:...and despite all the advantages of SES high schools and their accommodations these folk are the ones driving the suicide and opioid crisis in this country ... the last decade.

source?

[Anonymous]

Anecdotes: what increasingly comes through a busy ER the last 10 years!