So are you willing to give up quality of education for diversity?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Liberal elite "diversity" = Indian and black kids with MD and corporate lawyer parents. Such phonies.

Or even better, some free lunch kids at a public school that your children never actually see or associate with because they're all "normal track" and your tiger cubs are all protected from them in honors and AP track courses.

Because it's only diversity when the brown and black kids are poor?

Here are the demographics of my kid's high school: 18% Asian, 28% black/African-American, 28% Hispanic, 22% white, 27% currently qualify for FARMS, 51% currently qualify or in the past have qualified for FARMS. And perhaps you will be surprised to hear that there are FARMS kids in honors and AP classes, but you shouldn't be. Do I count as a member of the "liberal elite"?

Diversity vs. quality of education is a false choice. In this part of the country, these days, if you're not experiencing diversity in school, you're not getting a good quality of education. None of us are doing our kids any favors by only sending them to school with other kids like them.

Who said only brown and black kids are poor? Examine you motives.

And how do you know how many of the 27% of FARMS kids at your school are in AP classes?

Nobody said that only brown and black kids are poor. The top PP said that brown and black kids whose parents are doctors and lawyers don't count as diversity.

I don't have any idea how many of the 573 kids currently qualifying for FARMS are in AP classes. Why would I? I do know that there are kids who qualify for FARMS in AP classes, because I know kids who qualify for FARMS who are in AP classes. And, actually, I also know that 40% of graduating seniors scored a 3 or higher on at least one AP class, and 50% of kids either qualify for FARMS now or did so in the past.

But, if you want to go on assuming that everybody who talks about diversity is a hypocrite, then go ahead, I guess. I hope you don't do it when your kids are listening, though. They might get the wrong idea about you, or about reality, one or the other.

[Anonymous]

It always struck me as particularly obnoxious that schools with sizeable Asian populations don't count as racially or ethnically diverse. Asians include people from East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. That's plenty of ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and religious diversity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
And, actually, I also know that 40% of graduating seniors scored a 3 or higher on at least one AP class, and 50% of kids either qualify for FARMS now or did so in the past.

College Board annual data shows most FARMS kids skip and bomb AP exams, if they're even in them in the first place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It always struck me as particularly obnoxious that schools with sizeable Asian populations don't count as racially or ethnically diverse. Asians include people from East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. That's plenty of ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and religious diversity.

i am sure that looks diverse to people from asia but to the rest of is, it doesn't. this would be like saying that a school where 100% of kids are russian is diverse because there are belorussians and kazakhs and tatars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't care about racial diversity but did choose to live in an area zoned for a HS with more economic diversity vs. one that has virtually no FARMs kids and skews to very high income. I went to that kind of nearly-all upper income HS and the culture was toxic -- all about appearances, materialism, bullying those who didn't fit the right look, lots of drug use, entitled kids and parents. I managed to isolate myself somewhat from all of it by being in a small honors program within the HS but it definitely gives a skewed perception of the real world.

My kids have been at schools for ES, MS and HS with 30-40% FARMs rates and I've been happy with the quality of the education at all the schools and the quality of the school culture. The schools happen to be racially diverse too but that wasn't the goal.

Yep. It's unclear to me why any parent would want this kind of environment for their kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't care about racial diversity but did choose to live in an area zoned for a HS with more economic diversity vs. one that has virtually no FARMs kids and skews to very high income. I went to that kind of nearly-all upper income HS and the culture was toxic -- all about appearances, materialism, bullying those who didn't fit the right look, lots of drug use, entitled kids and parents. I managed to isolate myself somewhat from all of it by being in a small honors program within the HS but it definitely gives a skewed perception of the real world.

My kids have been at schools for ES, MS and HS with 30-40% FARMs rates and I've been happy with the quality of the education at all the schools and the quality of the school culture. The schools happen to be racially diverse too but that wasn't the goal.

Yep. It's unclear to me why any parent would want this kind of environment for their kids.

+1

[Anonymous]

We went through this debate.

Kind of ironically it was the spouse that went to a "snobby" high school that wanted to consider some place more diverse and the spouse that went to a "bad" school that wanted somewhere that fed into one of the snobby schools.

The one that insisted on living in an area with a school with a good reputation brought up this article about Kennedy in Montgomery County:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1999/12/11/kennedys-melting-pot-reaches-boiling-point/1bfcfbf4-0668-4875-947f-518e3620b809/?utm_term=.dd820cd207c5

Which if I recall correctly, talks about how Kennedy shifted over to a minority majority population, about how some people who wanted to stay for the diversity but then felt that the education was lacking, etc. And I might have it confused with something else (it's been a while since I read it) but think there were some issues about segregation of students in a special program and also the racial lines when one particular group tried to take charge of some things and the other group didn't want to follow. So I think is an example about how diversity didn't work too well. (just summing up the article and am not necessarily saying that it's my point of view)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We went through this debate.

Kind of ironically it was the spouse that went to a "snobby" high school that wanted to consider some place more diverse and the spouse that went to a "bad" school that wanted somewhere that fed into one of the snobby schools.

The one that insisted on living in an area with a school with a good reputation brought up this article about Kennedy in Montgomery County:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1999/12/11/kennedys-melting-pot-reaches-boiling-point/1bfcfbf4-0668-4875-947f-518e3620b809/?utm_term=.dd820cd207c5

Which if I recall correctly, talks about how Kennedy shifted over to a minority majority population, about how some people who wanted to stay for the diversity but then felt that the education was lacking, etc. And I might have it confused with something else (it's been a while since I read it) but think there were some issues about segregation of students in a special program and also the racial lines when one particular group tried to take charge of some things and the other group didn't want to follow. So I think is an example about how diversity didn't work too well. (just summing up the article and am not necessarily saying that it's my point of view)

that's a valuable lesson, too. reality beats bubbles any time.

[Anonymous]

The reality is Kennedy was a good school. The housing stock around Kennedy was nice and still is. The Glenmont apartments always housed a mix of minoritied but you had a
Decent enough mix at Kennedy to have a decent school.

But around the mid 90s low an behold the metro came to glenmont and with it came the ghetto and now the apartments and surround area is undesirable. (Note: if you don't have kids it still has nice homes and a fairly safe place to live).

But back to Kenney and in the real world. Those who get the best education at the best schools have a track record of earning the best incomes so we don't have to live in "the ghetto". So we move to the best location.

Why would I ever send my kids to a Kennedy to be with more
Low income kids when I can send them to one of the top high schools in Potomac? Less diversity? Sure. Better education, you bet, better opportunities for success, yep. Better earning potential, yep. That's life, that's reality, and the most important thing is developing future earning power for a successful life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The reality is Kennedy was a good school. The housing stock around Kennedy was nice and still is. The Glenmont apartments always housed a mix of minoritied but you had a
Decent enough mix at Kennedy to have a decent school.

But around the mid 90s low an behold the metro came to glenmont and with it came the ghetto and now the apartments and surround area is undesirable. (Note: if you don't have kids it still has nice homes and a fairly safe place to live).

But back to Kenney and in the real world. Those who get the best education at the best schools have a track record of earning the best incomes so we don't have to live in "the ghetto". So we move to the best location.

Why would I ever send my kids to a Kennedy to be with more
Low income kids when I can send them to one of the top high schools in Potomac? Less diversity? Sure. Better education, you bet, better opportunities for success, yep. Better earning potential, yep. That's life, that's reality, and the most important thing is developing future earning power for a successful life.

because I'm not a fucking racist scared of poor or brown people

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It always struck me as particularly obnoxious that schools with sizeable Asian populations don't count as racially or ethnically diverse. Asians include people from East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. That's plenty of ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and religious diversity.

i am sure that looks diverse to people from asia but to the rest of is, it doesn't. this would be like saying that a school where 100% of kids are russian is diverse because there are belorussians and kazakhs and tatars.

No, it wouldn't be. Asia is the world's biggest and most populous continent. "Asian" doesn't mean "Chinese", even though people on DCUM do often use the word that way.

(What's more, most of the kids in MCPS aren't Asian, as in from Asia, they're Asian-American, born in the US. (Or just plain American, depending.))

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
And, actually, I also know that 40% of graduating seniors scored a 3 or higher on at least one AP class, and 50% of kids either qualify for FARMS now or did so in the past.

College Board annual data shows most FARMS kids skip and bomb AP exams, if they're even in them in the first place.

Math is hard, eh?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It always struck me as particularly obnoxious that schools with sizeable Asian populations don't count as racially or ethnically diverse. Asians include people from East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. That's plenty of ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and religious diversity.

i am sure that looks diverse to people from asia but to the rest of is, it doesn't. this would be like saying that a school where 100% of kids are russian is diverse because there are belorussians and kazakhs and tatars.

No, it wouldn't be. Asia is the world's biggest and most populous continent. "Asian" doesn't mean "Chinese", even though people on DCUM do often use the word that way.

(What's more, most of the kids in MCPS aren't Asian, as in from Asia, they're Asian-American, born in the US. (Or just plain American, depending.))

Divisions within Asia are not interesting to Americans, sorry. I am a first generation immigrant and I couldn't care less about have every region with it Asia properly represented.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It may not be popular or PC or what ever the hell is in vouge right now, but I would never knowingly place my child in a low performing school for the sake of social diversity. I know a family that has done this and it, shall we say, is not going well.

my brother's child goes to a school where 60% of parents work at google. yes, the school is very "high performing". is that the kind of school that you would send your kids to?

Guaranteed it is incredibly ethnically diverse.

So what? Are you suggesting that a school where most parents work at the same company (an one that is notably aggressive about its philosophy, to boot) is diverse in any meaningful way?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The reality is Kennedy was a good school. The housing stock around Kennedy was nice and still is. The Glenmont apartments always housed a mix of minoritied but you had a
Decent enough mix at Kennedy to have a decent school.

But around the mid 90s low an behold the metro came to glenmont and with it came the ghetto and now the apartments and surround area is undesirable. (Note: if you don't have kids it still has nice homes and a fairly safe place to live).

But back to Kenney and in the real world. Those who get the best education at the best schools have a track record of earning the best incomes so we don't have to live in "the ghetto". So we move to the best location.

Why would I ever send my kids to a Kennedy to be with more
Low income kids when I can send them to one of the top high schools in Potomac? Less diversity? Sure. Better education, you bet, better opportunities for success, yep. Better earning potential, yep. That's life, that's reality, and the most important thing is developing future earning power for a successful life.

because I'm not a fucking racist scared of poor or brown people

You totally missed pp's point. Wanting the best for your kids will never be wrong. people get into this mindset that they have to just settle for bad schools because its the right thing to do or something. It doesn't make you a better person and it doesn't do any favors for your kids. Get a grip.