How is it possible that Walt Whitman high school has a score of 4 on greatschools.org??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ok, I just want to point out that on the thread about diversity and why some of us choose a more diverse school for our kids, many folks commented that the reason they disdain diverse schools had to do with the "environment for their kids" and the "involvement of the parents". Now I'm to understand that kids in a W school are actually encouraged by both parents and teachers to blow off tests? It's kind of crazy, the double standard. If parents are less involved because they have trouble with English or work two jobs, that's bad, but if they encourage blowing off educational standards in a sort of devil may care, mischief making way, then it's fine and it's an outrage that their scores would be dropped. Hmm.

+1 I agree. When a majority minority school has low test scores, it is obviously due of "a culture of not caring about education." When an overwhelmingly white school has low test scores, it is because the kids are too smart and enlightened to bother with something so mundane as a standardized test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I see that Wootton is an 8. Is it really that good? Are the kids entitled or more down to earth? (Generally speaking, of course. I know any school will have all sorts).

Wootton has the highest % of Asian American students of all the HS in MCPS. It's a pressure cooker, and has low FARMS rate and not much diversity to speak of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see that Wootton is an 8. Is it really that good? Are the kids entitled or more down to earth? (Generally speaking, of course. I know any school will have all sorts).

Wootton has the highest % of Asian American students of all the HS in MCPS. It's a pressure cooker, and has low FARMS rate and not much diversity to speak of.

No that's not correct. Wooten has 37% Asian, 6% Hispanic, 7% Black, and 46% white. If that's not diversity, I don't know what is. True it has low FARMS (5%), but higher than Whitman (which reports less than 5% FARMS).

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04234.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The students at Whitman did blow off the PARC test and choose to not try at all. My DC goes there and said that the general atmosphere was kids bubbling in random answers, writing random essays and listening to music during the test. But this is not only the students fault! The teachers actively encouraged them to not take it seriously! My child's English teacher told them it doesn't matter and they don't have to really try because they don't have to actually pass. The teacher was laughing about how the school board used the word "sit" as in they only need to "sit" through the tests, not pass them. Other teachers made similar comments and basically implied that students should not try their hardest. Say what you will about what that says about the school but don't put the whole blame on the students. Regardless, this year the atmosphere was very different because the tests actually counted. Whitman's scores will probably go way up as will their Great Schools rating.

Someone posted something similar on the earlier thread about Whitman's scores, about it being on the staff.

And in another thread about the principal at Churchill, I mentioned how I always thought that some of the staff at Whitman just kind of slid by based on the student's performance. This kind of reinforces that.

In the bigger picture of things, especially those of us that live in the area, we know that Great Schools rating have to be taken with a grain of salt and know that it's pretty unlikely that Whitman is how some people might picture a school with a rating of 4.

But I do know some people that moved here from out of the area for temporary contract work and used the Great Schools ratings as one of the determining factors on where to live and send their kids to school. And at the time, they were familiar with Whitman and was one of the schools they considered if they chose Montgomery County.

And while some people in the community may not care, there are others that apparent do. Which is probably why the principal had to release the letter about the school's performance in PARCC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see that Wootton is an 8. Is it really that good? Are the kids entitled or more down to earth? (Generally speaking, of course. I know any school will have all sorts).

Wootton has the highest % of Asian American students of all the HS in MCPS. It's a pressure cooker, and has low FARMS rate and not much diversity to speak of.

No that's not correct. Wooten has 37% Asian, 6% Hispanic, 7% Black, and 46% white. If that's not diversity, I don't know what is. True it has low FARMS (5%), but higher than Whitman (which reports less than 5% FARMS).

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04234.pdf

Less then 10 percent is practically nothing. Sherwood has more diversity then that:
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04503.pdf

And people on this board always talks about how it's not diverse.

Don't know firsthand but heard that at least some people from Wootton might be "out of touch with reality" in some ways. ie I think some people call is the slums of Potomac or something like that. It might not have the same stigma as some of the other W schools in the area but have heard some people complain about it.

But as previous poster said, it's probably a mixed bag and there is a representation of all types at all schools. (in terms of personalities, how nice people are, etc.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Less then 10 percent is practically nothing. Sherwood has more diversity then that:
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04503.pdf

And people on this board always talks about how it's not diverse.

Don't know firsthand but heard that at least some people from Wootton might be "out of touch with reality" in some ways. ie I think some people call is the slums of Potomac or something like that. It might not have the same stigma as some of the other W schools in the area but have heard some people complain about it.

But as previous poster said, it's probably a mixed bag and there is a representation of all types at all schools. (in terms of personalities, how nice people are, etc.)

Less than 10 percent what?

[Anonymous]

My DCs go to one of the Whitman feeder schools and I have been surprised how low some of their PARCC scores have been at their school. I know what they are learning in math, reading and writing and I have been impressed with the level of teaching and material. I'm wondering if they are not teaching to the test? I'm not sure, but something is going on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see that Wootton is an 8. Is it really that good? Are the kids entitled or more down to earth? (Generally speaking, of course. I know any school will have all sorts).

Wootton has the highest % of Asian American students of all the HS in MCPS. It's a pressure cooker, and has low FARMS rate and not much diversity to speak of.

No that's not correct. Wooten has 37% Asian, 6% Hispanic, 7% Black, and 46% white. If that's not diversity, I don't know what is. True it has low FARMS (5%), but higher than Whitman (which reports less than 5% FARMS).

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04234.pdf

You have reading comprehension skills and don't know what diversity means. Please note the bolded. Name one other HS in MCPS that has a higher % of Asian students. That was the point. 37% Asian is very high for this county considering Asians only makeup of something like 12% of the total population here.

And 6% Hispanic and 7% Black does not make a school diverse.

Look at the stats for RM. That is what a diverse school looks like.

Asian - 26%
Black - 16.5
Hispanic 23.3
White about 30

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DCs go to one of the Whitman feeder schools and I have been surprised how low some of their PARCC scores have been at their school. I know what they are learning in math, reading and writing and I have been impressed with the level of teaching and material. I'm wondering if they are not teaching to the test? I'm not sure, but something is going on.

All of the MCPS elementary schools have the same curriculum, PP.

[Anonymous]

So Whitman is the same as Wheaton and Northwood. Sounds about right. Goes to show intelligence isn't tied to being white, snobby, and arrogant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Less then 10 percent is practically nothing. Sherwood has more diversity then that:
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04503.pdf

And people on this board always talks about how it's not diverse.

Don't know firsthand but heard that at least some people from Wootton might be "out of touch with reality" in some ways. ie I think some people call is the slums of Potomac or something like that. It might not have the same stigma as some of the other W schools in the area but have heard some people complain about it.

But as previous poster said, it's probably a mixed bag and there is a representation of all types at all schools. (in terms of personalities, how nice people are, etc.)

Less than 10 percent what?

Ten percent of the student population.

Being made up of mainly two races doesn't make a school diverse. Similar how schools that are minority majority are not diverse as well.

There have been several threads about what diversity is already. But to me, a diverse school is where there is a decent representation of every student group. Such as Julius West:
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/03211.pdf

Using the middle school to not pick up the IB students who might live out of the school zone in Richard Montgomery. But I think a makeup of that is diverse.

Once you go over 30% in any student group, it starts to look like they are a good portion of the school. I think Wootton was about 30% Asians at the time when it picked up the name Wonton.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
You have reading comprehension skills and don't know what diversity means. Please note the bolded. Name one other HS in MCPS that has a higher % of Asian students. That was the point. 37% Asian is very high for this county considering Asians only makeup of something like 12% of the total population here.

And 6% Hispanic and 7% Black does not make a school diverse.

Look at the stats for RM. That is what a diverse school looks like.

Asian - 26%
Black - 16.5
Hispanic 23.3
White about 30

That's reductive. "Diversity" does not mean "percent of Hispanic and black students". It means diversity. Wootton HS is a diverse school (except socioeconomically). And this is true even though there are high schools in MCPS that are more diverse. Just like affluent people are affluent, even though there are people who have more money.

Now, if you wanted to argue that Wootton is not representative of MCPS as a whole, you'd be on much more solid ground.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Ten percent of the student population.

Being made up of mainly two races doesn't make a school diverse. Similar how schools that are minority majority are not diverse as well.

There have been several threads about what diversity is already. But to me, a diverse school is where there is a decent representation of every student group. Such as Julius West:
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/03211.pdf

Using the middle school to not pick up the IB students who might live out of the school zone in Richard Montgomery. But I think a makeup of that is diverse.

Once you go over 30% in any student group, it starts to look like they are a good portion of the school. I think Wootton was about 30% Asians at the time when it picked up the name Wonton.

"Asian" is not a race. It's the adjective referring to the continent Asia, which is a big and diverse (sorry) continent. Also, Wootton actually is majority minority. "Asian" is a minority.

The "Wootton is not diverse" argument basically goes like this -- "There are a lot of white people, and there are a lot of Asian people who are basically white people, and there aren't any poor people, so Wootton is not diverse." That's silly.

For what it's worth, I don't live in wealthy/white Potomac/Bethesda, and I wouldn't want to live in Potomac even if I could afford it, which I can't. So I don't have a dog in this fight.

[Anonymous]

When the census collects data, one of the categories is Asian:
https://www.census.gov/topics/population/race/about.html

If you agree with it or not is one thing. But this is what a lot of designations are based off of.

The issue/question wasn't so much if Wootton is diverse or not. But previous poster's comment was
"No that's not correct. Wooten has 37% Asian, 6% Hispanic, 7% Black, and 46% white. If that's not diversity, I don't know what is. "

So the previous comments show that there are other schools that show what diversity is.

[Anonymous]

Why don't we go and state the politically incorrect but very true fact that when white families look at greatschools, they do it to see the racial profile of the student body, not for test scores? They might be ok that has Asian student body, but run away as soon as there is AA and Hispanic population approaching 15-20%. Hence property prices are higher in white areas. no matter the school academic performance. Nothing to do with academics.