Which W / BCC school is least difficult to not be very wealthy

[Anonymous]

OP,

Here are the At a Glance links, so you can look at demographics and whatever other data you are interested in.

B-CC
https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04406.pdf

Wootton
https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04234.pdf

Whitman
https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04427.pdf

WJ
https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04424.pdf

Churchill
https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04602.pdf


My kid graduated from WJ a few years ago and we were very happy with the academic, club, sport, and social offerings. Very large school (2nd in size only to Blair that has the large county magnet) with something for everyone in my opinion. While we drive nice cars, our kid was one who did not rush out for a driver's license and was content riding the bus, so no fancy car in the school lot! No private counselors or supplements (that is truly a myth on these boards--none of my $$$ neighbors are paying tutoring). We did fine with the free Kahn Academy when needed for AP exam study. Attends a public university and definitely no family connection internships.

WJ's current boundary map is large, covering Bethesda from Greentree, through N.Bethsda/Rockville, and east toward Garrett Park and Kensington-Parkwood. Expect these boundaries to change with the re-opening of Woodward HS.
https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04424map.pdf

You will note the B-CC encompasses not only downtown Bethesda and Chevy Chase, but parts of Kensington and Silver Spring as well. https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04406map.pdf

Good luck in your search!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP the silver spring schools are rubbish. please don't move there because you feel poor compared to some families in Bethesda.

We were not rich and our kids did fine at Whitman. Go for the academically strongest place you can find. Whitman, BCC, Churchill. The second 2 of these will be more diverse, if that matters to you.

How can you know that the SS schools are rubbish? I don't have a dog in this fight, but am considering a MoCo move, and I had the impression that Blair, at least (which is TKPK not SS, I guess) had offerings and outcomes as good as the W/BCC schools.

DP. Here is the Blair sheet, see what you think.

https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04757.pdf

[Anonymous]

Transplant_1 wrote:OP here. I'd appreciate serious conversations on this thread.

Thank you 9:13 and 9:28 for your thoughts. Yes, am posting to try to break though the assumptions. So I appreciate your thoughts.

Do you -- or others -- have a sense of BCC and Whitman? They are the two wealthier areas (at least based on home prices. I know BCC has an area in its zone that is not, but kids life in sub-cultures/sub-groups so still trying to figure out what the experience would be like for us.)

My kid attends Whitman. We live in a small house in a nice neighborhood and drive 15/20-year-old cars. No tutors, no college counselors, no fancy internships, no big vacations. DH is a fed and I work at a nonprofit. We do pay a lot for extracurriculars for our only kid. I’d estimate that our HHI is in the bottom third of our neighborhood and maybe bottom quarter of our kid’s school. It’s no big deal recognizing that others have more. We’re comfortable and happy. Love Whitman.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP the silver spring schools are rubbish. please don't move there because you feel poor compared to some families in Bethesda.

We were not rich and our kids did fine at Whitman. Go for the academically strongest place you can find. Whitman, BCC, Churchill. The second 2 of these will be more diverse, if that matters to you.

How can you know that the SS schools are rubbish? I don't have a dog in this fight, but am considering a MoCo move, and I had the impression that Blair, at least (which is TKPK not SS, I guess) had offerings and outcomes as good as the W/BCC schools.

DP. Here is the Blair sheet, see what you think.

https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04757.pdf

Blair is really silver spring and its outcomes are propped up by the magnet and cap programs. The rest of the school is like Eastern middle (zoned for Blair) but with older kids doing older things. The reason those programs were put there is Blair was the poorest most diverse school in MoCo at the time. It was and is a carrot to get white kids ehemmm good students to self integrate in an attempt to stave off middle class (white) flight that was crippling DC and in the eastern inner suburbs at the time. There are other schools that need it more now that proximity has stabilized TP and DTSS prices for lower income white collar, no family money types priced out of better areas.

All the parents who take locality pride for some bussed in Chevy Chase Asian kid going to an ivy despite their own avg GS13 quality C student offspring is just the type of perception bounce a school like Kennedy and the DCC Lottery could use that would make real changes to system for the better.

So many parents who bought into areas with lots of FARMS push for what seems to be retaliatory sending of poor kids to rich areas when the most realistic plan is sending the rich kids to the poor schools. It worked for Blair but that seems to be forgotten and in typical middle class outrage it becomes about hoarding resources and off loading problems. If you view most posts on DCUM they almost always are about hoarding resources and offloading problems with a thin veneer of self proclaimed righteousness

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP the silver spring schools are rubbish. please don't move there because you feel poor compared to some families in Bethesda.

We were not rich and our kids did fine at Whitman. Go for the academically strongest place you can find. Whitman, BCC, Churchill. The second 2 of these will be more diverse, if that matters to you.

How can you know that the SS schools are rubbish? I don't have a dog in this fight, but am considering a MoCo move, and I had the impression that Blair, at least (which is TKPK not SS, I guess) had offerings and outcomes as good as the W/BCC schools.

Blair's college outcomes are a lot better than any W according to the data published by Bethesda Beat.

Also, there was that document that leaked a few years ago that showed the average SAT scores by demographic cohort for each HS was very interesting.

Wouldn't that just reflect that Blair has a competitive magnet program whereas the other schools do not?

And the Ws have their share of rich students. Maybe….. they’re all good?

No. There are plenty of mediocre rich kids. But magnet kids are selected for academics.

Of course, but the demographic population serving the W’s is richer (with fewer poor students), and that trends toward better academic performance. That gives them an edge. I’d be skeptical that demographically similar students at any of these schools perform that differently.

Depends on the distractions, poor kids have poor problems they can’t magically make go away with money. Those can infect an environment. Or is all the research stating that when FARM exceeds 30% that school quality and safety declines precipitously? If all the poor kids concentrated in the DCC don’t affect the middle class kids why is everyone angling so hard to ship them away?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP the silver spring schools are rubbish. please don't move there because you feel poor compared to some families in Bethesda.

We were not rich and our kids did fine at Whitman. Go for the academically strongest place you can find. Whitman, BCC, Churchill. The second 2 of these will be more diverse, if that matters to you.

How can you know that the SS schools are rubbish? I don't have a dog in this fight, but am considering a MoCo move, and I had the impression that Blair, at least (which is TKPK not SS, I guess) had offerings and outcomes as good as the W/BCC schools.

DP. Here is the Blair sheet, see what you think.

https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04757.pdf

Blair is really silver spring and its outcomes are propped up by the magnet and cap programs. The rest of the school is like Eastern middle (zoned for Blair) but with older kids doing older things. The reason those programs were put there is Blair was the poorest most diverse school in MoCo at the time. It was and is a carrot to get white kids ehemmm good students to self integrate in an attempt to stave off middle class (white) flight that was crippling DC and in the eastern inner suburbs at the time. There are other schools that need it more now that proximity has stabilized TP and DTSS prices for lower income white collar, no family money types priced out of better areas.

All the parents who take locality pride for some bussed in Chevy Chase Asian kid going to an ivy despite their own avg GS13 quality C student offspring is just the type of perception bounce a school like Kennedy and the DCC Lottery could use that would make real changes to system for the better.

So many parents who bought into areas with lots of FARMS push for what seems to be retaliatory sending of poor kids to rich areas when the most realistic plan is sending the rich kids to the poor schools. It worked for Blair but that seems to be forgotten and in typical middle class outrage it becomes about hoarding resources and off loading problems. If you view most posts on DCUM they almost always are about hoarding resources and offloading problems with a thin veneer of self proclaimed righteousness

Oh the irony

[Anonymous]

OP, Take this with a grain of salt since I went to BCC but graduated over a decade ago so I can’t speak to current culture, but can hopefully shed some light on outcomes down the line.

The school offered both the AP program and the IB Program. As a more studious child, I loaded up on those classes and for the last 2.5 years of my time there, was surrounded by other self-selected serious kids,

They mostly came from much greater wealth than my family (we were in the district thanks to income/rent controlled housing). While it meant disparities in how we spent our summers and opportunities that we had due to their connections, I never felt socially excluded or slighted. These kids usually came from a background of having highly educated parents (lawyers, doctors, etc) and valued education. Most that I keep in touch with have gone on to pursue the same careers. I think my life, despite not having what they had as a teenager, has turned out better for having connected with them at a young age.

As a child of immigrants, I greatly appreciated the diversity of the school, which is held up by rent controlled housing, some mixed districting/zoning with lower income areas, and the fact that lots of embassy staff live in the school’s zone.

As for things like flashy cars - most of my classmates back then got pretty modest cars. Their parents may have had dual lawyer income but (or maybe because of it), they weren’t handing over luxury cars to 16 year olds. Besides, the parking lot was so tiny that really few kids even got a parking permit so you could never know what people drove at all. There were of course some truly rich kids and you would know it (generational wealth, recognizable last names, children of successful entrepreneurs (ie. much more money than lawyers and doctors)), but at least in my time there, they were easily ignored if you didn’t run in the same social or educational circles. Most of these kids weren’t in the AP or IB classes. Those that I’ve casually followed from still being connected on social media haven’t done nearly as well for themselves as their parents.

Those were lots of words to say - my family didn’t fit the financial mold of the average BCC family; I got a great education there; as an adult doing well in my career, I think I came out better for having gone there. And most of all - children are a reflection of the adults in their lives.

[Transplant_1]

Thank you all so much. I appreciate all the sincere observations and sharing of life experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP the silver spring schools are rubbish. please don't move there because you feel poor compared to some families in Bethesda.

We were not rich and our kids did fine at Whitman. Go for the academically strongest place you can find. Whitman, BCC, Churchill. The second 2 of these will be more diverse, if that matters to you.

How can you know that the SS schools are rubbish? I don't have a dog in this fight, but am considering a MoCo move, and I had the impression that Blair, at least (which is TKPK not SS, I guess) had offerings and outcomes as good as the W/BCC schools.

Blair's college outcomes are a lot better than any W according to the data published by Bethesda Beat.

Also, there was that document that leaked a few years ago that showed the average SAT scores by demographic cohort for each HS was very interesting.

Wouldn't that just reflect that Blair has a competitive magnet program whereas the other schools do not?

And the Ws have their share of rich students. Maybe….. they’re all good?

No. There are plenty of mediocre rich kids. But magnet kids are selected for academics.

Of course, but the demographic population serving the W’s is richer (with fewer poor students), and that trends toward better academic performance. That gives them an edge. I’d be skeptical that demographically similar students at any of these schools perform that differently.

Agree if you compare gen ed students to one another , but Blair has the magnet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Transplant_1 wrote:OP here. I'd appreciate serious conversations on this thread.

Thank you 9:13 and 9:28 for your thoughts. Yes, am posting to try to break though the assumptions. So I appreciate your thoughts.

Do you -- or others -- have a sense of BCC and Whitman? They are the two wealthier areas (at least based on home prices. I know BCC has an area in its zone that is not, but kids life in sub-cultures/sub-groups so still trying to figure out what the experience would be like for us.)

My kid attends Whitman. We live in a small house in a nice neighborhood and drive 15/20-year-old cars. No tutors, no college counselors, no fancy internships, no big vacations. DH is a fed and I work at a nonprofit. We do pay a lot for extracurriculars for our only kid. I’d estimate that our HHI is in the bottom third of our neighborhood and maybe bottom quarter of our kid’s school. It’s no big deal recognizing that others have more. We’re comfortable and happy. Love Whitman.

Hi PP, but you do realize that even those small houses go for about $ 1 mill these days, right? Or about $ 4-5K to rent. Not everyone has that kind of money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, Take this with a grain of salt since I went to BCC but graduated over a decade ago so I can’t speak to current culture, but can hopefully shed some light on outcomes down the line.

The school offered both the AP program and the IB Program. As a more studious child, I loaded up on those classes and for the last 2.5 years of my time there, was surrounded by other self-selected serious kids,

They mostly came from much greater wealth than my family (we were in the district thanks to income/rent controlled housing). While it meant disparities in how we spent our summers and opportunities that we had due to their connections, I never felt socially excluded or slighted. These kids usually came from a background of having highly educated parents (lawyers, doctors, etc) and valued education. Most that I keep in touch with have gone on to pursue the same careers. I think my life, despite not having what they had as a teenager, has turned out better for having connected with them at a young age.

As a child of immigrants, I greatly appreciated the diversity of the school, which is held up by rent controlled housing, some mixed districting/zoning with lower income areas, and the fact that lots of embassy staff live in the school’s zone.

As for things like flashy cars - most of my classmates back then got pretty modest cars. Their parents may have had dual lawyer income but (or maybe because of it), they weren’t handing over luxury cars to 16 year olds. Besides, the parking lot was so tiny that really few kids even got a parking permit so you could never know what people drove at all. There were of course some truly rich kids and you would know it (generational wealth, recognizable last names, children of successful entrepreneurs (ie. much more money than lawyers and doctors)), but at least in my time there, they were easily ignored if you didn’t run in the same social or educational circles. Most of these kids weren’t in the AP or IB classes. Those that I’ve casually followed from still being connected on social media haven’t done nearly as well for themselves as their parents.

Those were lots of words to say - my family didn’t fit the financial mold of the average BCC family; I got a great education there; as an adult doing well in my career, I think I came out better for having gone there. And most of all - children are a reflection of the adults in their lives.

This is a very thoughtful post; thank you PP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP,

Here are the At a Glance links, so you can look at demographics and whatever other data you are interested in.

B-CC
https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04406.pdf

Wootton
https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04234.pdf

Whitman
https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04427.pdf

WJ
https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04424.pdf

Churchill
https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04602.pdf


My kid graduated from WJ a few years ago and we were very happy with the academic, club, sport, and social offerings. Very large school (2nd in size only to Blair that has the large county magnet) with something for everyone in my opinion. While we drive nice cars, our kid was one who did not rush out for a driver's license and was content riding the bus, so no fancy car in the school lot! No private counselors or supplements (that is truly a myth on these boards--none of my $$$ neighbors are paying tutoring). We did fine with the free Kahn Academy when needed for AP exam study. Attends a public university and definitely no family connection internships.

WJ's current boundary map is large, covering Bethesda from Greentree, through N.Bethsda/Rockville, and east toward Garrett Park and Kensington-Parkwood. Expect these boundaries to change with the re-opening of Woodward HS.
https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04424map.pdf

You will note the B-CC encompasses not only downtown Bethesda and Chevy Chase, but parts of Kensington and Silver Spring as well. https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04406map.pdf

Good luck in your search!

At a glance links tell you nothing helpful. They look at bulk statistics that aren't especially meaningful if the school isn't completely homogenous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP the silver spring schools are rubbish. please don't move there because you feel poor compared to some families in Bethesda.

We were not rich and our kids did fine at Whitman. Go for the academically strongest place you can find. Whitman, BCC, Churchill. The second 2 of these will be more diverse, if that matters to you.

How can you know that the SS schools are rubbish? I don't have a dog in this fight, but am considering a MoCo move, and I had the impression that Blair, at least (which is TKPK not SS, I guess) had offerings and outcomes as good as the W/BCC schools.

DP. Here is the Blair sheet, see what you think.

https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04757.pdf

Blair is really silver spring and its outcomes are propped up by the magnet and cap programs. The rest of the school is like Eastern middle (zoned for Blair) but with older kids doing older things. The reason those programs were put there is Blair was the poorest most diverse school in MoCo at the time. It was and is a carrot to get white kids ehemmm good students to self integrate in an attempt to stave off middle class (white) flight that was crippling DC and in the eastern inner suburbs at the time. There are other schools that need it more now that proximity has stabilized TP and DTSS prices for lower income white collar, no family money types priced out of better areas.

All the parents who take locality pride for some bussed in Chevy Chase Asian kid going to an ivy despite their own avg GS13 quality C student offspring is just the type of perception bounce a school like Kennedy and the DCC Lottery could use that would make real changes to system for the better.

So many parents who bought into areas with lots of FARMS push for what seems to be retaliatory sending of poor kids to rich areas when the most realistic plan is sending the rich kids to the poor schools. It worked for Blair but that seems to be forgotten and in typical middle class outrage it becomes about hoarding resources and off loading problems. If you view most posts on DCUM they almost always are about hoarding resources and offloading problems with a thin veneer of self proclaimed righteousness

Oh the irony

That poster is terribly uninformed and completely blind with Blair envy.

[Anonymous]

OP here. This was a thoughtful thread, and appreciate those who gave their perspective from life experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Transplant_1 wrote:OP here. I'd appreciate serious conversations on this thread.

Thank you 9:13 and 9:28 for your thoughts. Yes, am posting to try to break though the assumptions. So I appreciate your thoughts.

Do you -- or others -- have a sense of BCC and Whitman? They are the two wealthier areas (at least based on home prices. I know BCC has an area in its zone that is not, but kids life in sub-cultures/sub-groups so still trying to figure out what the experience would be like for us.)

My kid attends Whitman. We live in a small house in a nice neighborhood and drive 15/20-year-old cars. No tutors, no college counselors, no fancy internships, no big vacations. DH is a fed and I work at a nonprofit. We do pay a lot for extracurriculars for our only kid. I’d estimate that our HHI is in the bottom third of our neighborhood and maybe bottom quarter of our kid’s school. It’s no big deal recognizing that others have more. We’re comfortable and happy. Love Whitman.

Hi PP, but you do realize that even those small houses go for about $ 1 mill these days, right? Or about $ 4-5K to rent. Not everyone has that kind of money.

OP wasn’t asking whether s/he could afford a home in these districts but whether the income disparity would be an issue. There is still income disparity in these expensive neighborhoods, especially among those who bought small fixer-uppers 10-15 years ago (us) and those who are buying large new-builds now (many of our neighbors). It’s all relative. My point is that it’s only an issue if you make it one.