MoCo school trends

[Anonymous]

Does school funding primarily rely on property taxes?

Is school funding equitable and sustainable in light of demographic shifts in the county?

Do we need to consider alternative funding sources going forward?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Blaming SES seems like a polite way of being racist. High SES likely has a correlation to academic success, but don't believe it's the cause.

Like the PP, I'm more inclined to believe what parents do at home has the greatest impact. As another person wrote earlier, an example of asian immigrants with few resources manage to do well by their kids.

Pouring resources into title 1 schools is going to have the greatest impact. Perhaps, the county would be better off incenting parents in low SES areas to take classes on how help them help their children succeed at home. The current approach although admirable hasn't worked and seems to be a bottomless money pit.

What?? You sound like you are actually the racist one. I'd love to see some studies on high SES AA and Hispanic kids. I bet they perform well.

Are you saying it's a racial issue because AAs and Hispanics are not smart enough?? That's crap.

It is most definitely a class/SES issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blaming SES seems like a polite way of being racist. High SES likely has a correlation to academic success, but don't believe it's the cause.

Like the PP, I'm more inclined to believe what parents do at home has the greatest impact. As another person wrote earlier, an example of asian immigrants with few resources manage to do well by their kids.

Pouring resources into title 1 schools is going to have the greatest impact. Perhaps, the county would be better off incenting parents in low SES areas to take classes on how help them help their children succeed at home. The current approach although admirable hasn't worked and seems to be a bottomless money pit.

What?? You sound like you are actually the racist one. I'd love to see some studies on high SES AA and Hispanic kids. I bet they perform well.

Are you saying it's a racial issue because AAs and Hispanics are not smart enough?? That's crap.

It is most definitely a class/SES issue.

The children of the most affluent AA parents score the same on the SAT as the children of the poorest whites.

http://www.jbhe.com/latest/index012209_p.html

"But income differences explain only part of the racial gap in SAT scores. For black and white students from families with incomes of more than $200,000 in 2008, there still remains a huge 149-point gap in SAT scores. Even more startling is the fact that in 2008 black students from families with incomes of more than $200,000 scored lower on the SAT test than did students from white families with incomes between $20,000 and $40,000."

They scored three points higher than white kids from households making less than 20K per year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blaming SES seems like a polite way of being racist. High SES likely has a correlation to academic success, but don't believe it's the cause.

Like the PP, I'm more inclined to believe what parents do at home has the greatest impact. As another person wrote earlier, an example of asian immigrants with few resources manage to do well by their kids.

Pouring resources into title 1 schools is going to have the greatest impact. Perhaps, the county would be better off incenting parents in low SES areas to take classes on how help them help their children succeed at home. The current approach although admirable hasn't worked and seems to be a bottomless money pit.

What?? You sound like you are actually the racist one. I'd love to see some studies on high SES AA and Hispanic kids. I bet they perform well.

Are you saying it's a racial issue because AAs and Hispanics are not smart enough?? That's crap.

It is most definitely a class/SES issue.

The children of the most affluent AA parents score the same on the SAT as the children of the poorest whites.

http://www.jbhe.com/latest/index012209_p.html

"But income differences explain only part of the racial gap in SAT scores. For black and white students from families with incomes of more than $200,000 in 2008, there still remains a huge 149-point gap in SAT scores. Even more startling is the fact that in 2008 black students from families with incomes of more than $200,000 scored lower on the SAT test than did students from white families with incomes between $20,000 and $40,000."

They scored three points higher than white kids from households making less than 20K per year.

Waiting for the person who jumps in and says the test is racist with it's fancy vocabulary and math problems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Although I went to FCPS, it seemed comparable to MCPS back then.

My experience as a parent today at MCPS seems far better than my experience as a student at FCPS in the 80s.

It's not to say there aren't problems or things couldn't be better, but in spite of these problems they do a better job.

My husband attended FCPS back in the 80s as well and he also believes MCPS is stronger than FCPS was back in the day. But is it strong enough, given that we are in a global world now? No. We moved the kids to private, much to our chagrin. If you want great public schools, you have to go to Massachusetts or small town NJ and NY.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Achievement gap is never going away. Just google the studies showing noone has closed it

But Blue areas like MCPS will continue to take funds away from certain schools and give it to other schools

In summary if you believe as I do hat the number one indicator of student success is what you do at home (highly correlated to SES)

Then we should all be cramming into a Title I school bonus is you get to be a big fish in a small pond for college admissions and your kid has a normal childhood unlike those stressful W places

It's not a normal childhood. We have family in Silver Spring at Blair and feeder schools. Parents are highly educated; kids smart but socially found school very hard. Title 1 sounds amorphous - but look at the peer group, especially by 4th grade & middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What we should do is strengthen the education given through MCPS so that they provide a solid education without requiring outside tutoring.

I am wondering who feels that outside tutoring is required (outside of special needs situations). I know plenty of kids in AP classes headed to or attending good colleges that never did any tutoring aside from maybe some SAT prep.

Which high schools were they at?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What we should do is strengthen the education given through MCPS so that they provide a solid education without requiring outside tutoring.

I am wondering who feels that outside tutoring is required (outside of special needs situations). I know plenty of kids in AP classes headed to or attending good colleges that never did any tutoring aside from maybe some SAT prep.

Which high schools were they at?

The AP classes are great, but if you can't read, you aren't going to be ready for AP Lit, if you can't handle algebra, you won't be able to succeed in AP Calculus.

http://news.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/staff-bulletin/9913/

http://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2015/07/montgomery-county-final-exam-failures-continue/

http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/2015/As-Expected-MCPS-Students-Struggled-on-New-Statewide-Tests/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blaming SES seems like a polite way of being racist. High SES likely has a correlation to academic success, but don't believe it's the cause.

Like the PP, I'm more inclined to believe what parents do at home has the greatest impact. As another person wrote earlier, an example of asian immigrants with few resources manage to do well by their kids.

Pouring resources into title 1 schools is going to have the greatest impact. Perhaps, the county would be better off incenting parents in low SES areas to take classes on how help them help their children succeed at home. The current approach although admirable hasn't worked and seems to be a bottomless money pit.

What?? You sound like you are actually the racist one. I'd love to see some studies on high SES AA and Hispanic kids. I bet they perform well.

Are you saying it's a racial issue because AAs and Hispanics are not smart enough?? That's crap.

It is most definitely a class/SES issue.

Is that you Donald?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is MCPS, slowly but surely, becoming like PGPS?

Never!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is MCPS, slowly but surely, becoming like PGPS?

Never!

I think it is though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is MCPS, slowly but surely, becoming like PGPS?

Never!

I think it is though.

Generally speaking, yes, except a few pockets/programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is MCPS, slowly but surely, becoming like PGPS?

Never!

Absolutely. People who have money (all races) leave for private. Even in the 'W' clusters. The huge class sizes in ES start chasing parents away early on. And then later as parents start to realize the huge holes in their kids' education.

I think MCPS has some fantastic teachers (the one thing MCPS does right is pay teachers reasonably well). But too much other stuff going on that makes it harder and harder for good teachers to do their jobs. This is really an issue all over the US, unfortunately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is MCPS, slowly but surely, becoming like PGPS?

Never!

I think it is though.

Generally speaking, yes, except a few pockets/programs.

Do you have experience in both systems? I do and there is no comparison unless you mean number of minority students.

[Anonymous]

There is room for improvement but by and large MCPS is one of the better public school systems.