DCC residents - what are your plans for high school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:10:26 again

A big concern for Kennedy: last year, only 26 students took the Calculus AB exam. 73% earned a 1! How can MCPS administrators let this happen! They need to recruit Jaime Escalante or something!
http://montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/reports/2018/2017%20AP%20IB%20Course%20Enrollment%20and%20Exam%20Participation%20Performance.pdf

from page 28 of the document: It looks like 3 people earned a 3 on AP Calculus AB, and this is the best that they got. I added up the percentages and no one got a 4 or a 5.

Plus most of those were taxpayer funded test-takers. no skin in the game, free test to take, poor performance. but at least MCPS gets to say XYZ % took an AP test!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are parents concerned about Kennedy? The journalism track looks interesting from a recent open house, but we don't know anything about the school. Some kids have heard "horror stories" but I don't know what that means. Are these concerns from a long time ago? Or do they still exist?

Given the demographics of DCUM it is possible that everyone's "concerns" stem from the fact that Kennedy is the least white school in the county. I could be wrong though.

Einstein doesn't have many more white people; it still has higher test scores and a much better reputation. The problem with Kennedy is the test scores. I'm sure that there are some very bright, hard-working students there, but there just doesn't seem to be a large cohort. Even white and Asian kids have low average AP and IB scores at Kennedy. Please look at this document:

http://montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/reports/2018/2017%20AP%20IB%20Course%20Enrollment%20and%20Exam%20Participation%20Performance.pdf

If MCPS wants to turn Kennedy around (and Watkins Mill, which also has low test scores), it would need to add a competitive magnet there. Just as Wheaton is attracting kids who might not be competitive enough for Blair SMAC, maybe there could be a humanities magnet at Kennedy that would be less competitive than CAP?

PS - the previous document has 2017 AP and IB scores for the entire county, broken down by school.

I don't follow. Kennedy has poor test scores. The secret to "turning poor test scores around" is to put a 200 kid selective magnet program and bus in high achievers? How does that turn around the Kennedy school base of poor performers? Where even is Kennedy, Watkind Mill and Wheaton? I came from SE DC and don't know these places.

[Anonymous]

It's called osmosis. Put in a high IQ class of kids and the kids surrounding them have their IQs increase.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCC parents look at school performance scores the same way every other parent looks at them. The same focus on school performance that drives people to move to schools in the west and up county rather than the DCC plays out within the DCC too.

Blair ranks higher than Einstein but if you moved the magnet into Einstein then Einstein would rank higher than Blair. Even though non-magnet Blair kids aren't doing any better than Einstein kids, Blair families would revolt if they were rezoned into Einstein or Wheaton. Einstein scores much higher than Kennedy. Einstein families would revolt if they were rezoned into Kennedy.

Why you W parents are so obsessed with Blair?
Yes you're a W parent.

W parents are obsessed with Blair because they realize that using simple averages like GS only serves to identify which high-schools draw a higher percentage of rich kids. A better, refined analysis looks at the granular data. When you isolate for race which is proxy a for socioeconomic status there is not much of a disparity between the performance of kids of the same backgrounds across these schools. For example, when you compare average SAT scores for MCPS schools for a larger demographic (greater than 5%), the great schools narrative begins to fall apart and it becomes clear they're not all that different.

Blair 1326
Walter Johnson 1275
Wooton 1262
Churchill 1257
Wheaton 1173
Einstein 1148

Great analysis!

[Anonymous]

So now SAT scores are the litmus test of the county providing a strong education to my kids? Sheesh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCC parents look at school performance scores the same way every other parent looks at them. The same focus on school performance that drives people to move to schools in the west and up county rather than the DCC plays out within the DCC too.

Blair ranks higher than Einstein but if you moved the magnet into Einstein then Einstein would rank higher than Blair. Even though non-magnet Blair kids aren't doing any better than Einstein kids, Blair families would revolt if they were rezoned into Einstein or Wheaton. Einstein scores much higher than Kennedy. Einstein families would revolt if they were rezoned into Kennedy.

Why you W parents are so obsessed with Blair?
Yes you're a W parent.

W parents are obsessed with Blair because they realize that using simple averages like GS only serves to identify which high-schools draw a higher percentage of rich kids. A better, refined analysis looks at the granular data. When you isolate for race which is proxy a for socioeconomic status there is not much of a disparity between the performance of kids of the same backgrounds across these schools. For example, when you compare average SAT scores for MCPS schools for a larger demographic (greater than 5%), the great schools narrative begins to fall apart and it becomes clear they're not all that different.

Blair 1326
Walter Johnson 1275
Wooton 1262
Churchill 1257
Wheaton 1173
Einstein 1148

Great analysis!

Wait, so which demographic are these scores for?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So now SAT scores are the litmus test of the county providing a strong education to my kids? Sheesh.

Makes more sense than the percentage of kids who receive the minimum passing score on PARCC, the state's mandated common core benchmark.

[Anonymous]

page 10
http://montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/reports/2017/1771102HS%20Princ_SAT%20Partic_Perf%20Class%20of%202017.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:page 10
http://montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/reports/2017/1771102HS%20Princ_SAT%20Partic_Perf%20Class%20of%202017.pdf

you mean page 8?

[Anonymous]

Ok, so the answer is, those are the SAT scores for white students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ok, so the answer is, those are the SAT scores for white students.

Several of the schools listed aren't diverse. The only sizable cohorts present at all these schools are White or Asian.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCC parents look at school performance scores the same way every other parent looks at them. The same focus on school performance that drives people to move to schools in the west and up county rather than the DCC plays out within the DCC too.

Blair ranks higher than Einstein but if you moved the magnet into Einstein then Einstein would rank higher than Blair. Even though non-magnet Blair kids aren't doing any better than Einstein kids, Blair families would revolt if they were rezoned into Einstein or Wheaton. Einstein scores much higher than Kennedy. Einstein families would revolt if they were rezoned into Kennedy.

Why you W parents are so obsessed with Blair?
Yes you're a W parent.

W parents are obsessed with Blair because they realize that using simple averages like GS only serves to identify which high-schools draw a higher percentage of rich kids. A better, refined analysis looks at the granular data. When you isolate for race which is proxy a for socioeconomic status there is not much of a disparity between the performance of kids of the same backgrounds across these schools. For example, when you compare average SAT scores for MCPS schools for a larger demographic (greater than 5%), the great schools narrative begins to fall apart and it becomes clear they're not all that different.

Blair 1326
Walter Johnson 1275
Wooton 1262
Churchill 1257
Wheaton 1173
Einstein 1148

so what!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:10:26 again

A big concern for Kennedy: last year, only 26 students took the Calculus AB exam. 73% earned a 1! How can MCPS administrators let this happen! They need to recruit Jaime Escalante or something!
http://montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/reports/2018/2017%20AP%20IB%20Course%20Enrollment%20and%20Exam%20Participation%20Performance.pdf

from page 28 of the document: It looks like 3 people earned a 3 on AP Calculus AB, and this is the best that they got. I added up the percentages and no one got a 4 or a 5.

Plus most of those were taxpayer funded test-takers. no skin in the game, free test to take, poor performance. but at least MCPS gets to say XYZ % took an AP test!

All of them were taxpayer-funded text-takers. Because it's Montgomery County PUBLIC schools.

[Anonymous]

AP tests are $100 a pop to sit for. Farm kids have it 100% subsidized and sit for the tests, whether they are ready for them or not.
This study shows that kids are unprepared and getting 2s. The class does prep every Friday in class in former essay questions or topics in the last quarter. They shouldn’t sign up for the test if it’s a blow off.

[Anonymous]

Sorry I see bulk of the kids are getting a 1. How embarrassing. Either they don’t care, in which case don’t take the expensive test, or they don’t know much if the material and don’t know how to study.