MCPS schools are segregated

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bethesda Elementary is a good case example for why forced integration will most likely not change the achievement gap. For those who don't know, BES is in downtown Bethesda, in the middle of "affluenza," with a 7.6% FARMS rate. In the most recent report card, 70.3% of the overall student body was proficient in mathematics. The African-American percent proficient was 23.1% and the Latino was 55.3%. Asian was 89.7%. Look at any similar down-county school and you'll see these cross-tabs repeated. These are kids surrounded by children of high achievers, and yet, it doesn't seem to be helping. What else can a school do to close the "achievement gap"? Blindfold the asian kids? Send social workers home with the Hispanic and Af-Am kids to change the learning environment? These are structural, systemic problems that probably won't go away by remixing school populations. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.

There was a lot of talk about the futility of "forced integration" in the 1950s and 1960s, too - by people who wanted to preserve and maintain segregation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pretend there’s some amazing charter that goes in somewhere (non-W School cluster) in the county. Then some developer decides to build new houses on some blighted commercial property next to the charter school. Are people going to buy those? Yes. Will property values of other homes close to that charter also improve? Yes.

Little by little, diversity of income comes to that part of the county. Once charter has served its purpose there, move it.

I don't think that you know much about land use in Montgomery County.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pretend there’s some amazing charter that goes in somewhere (non-W School cluster) in the county. Then some developer decides to build new houses on some blighted commercial property next to the charter school. Are people going to buy those? Yes. Will property values of other homes close to that charter also improve? Yes.

Little by little, diversity of income comes to that part of the county. Once charter has served its purpose there, move it.

I don't think that you know much about land use in Montgomery County.

I think I do. It’s time to build nice stuff on the East side of the county and rejuvenate Georgia Avenue. Give the developers something exciting and innovative to latch onto, like charters.

[Anonymous]

How do you fix the problem of non-citizens that don’t speak English failing in English speaking schools? Send rich kids to the same school. The ESOL kids will learn by osmosis from the rich! That’s how it works right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pretend there’s some amazing charter that goes in somewhere (non-W School cluster) in the county. Then some developer decides to build new houses on some blighted commercial property next to the charter school. Are people going to buy those? Yes. Will property values of other homes close to that charter also improve? Yes.

Little by little, diversity of income comes to that part of the county. Once charter has served its purpose there, move it.

I don't think that you know much about land use in Montgomery County.

I think I do. It’s time to build nice stuff on the East side of the county and rejuvenate Georgia Avenue. Give the developers something exciting and innovative to latch onto, like charters.

That would be great, especially in the pits of Burtonsville. But let's build more useless, dangerous bike lanes instead!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do you fix the problem of non-citizens that don’t speak English failing in English speaking schools? Send rich kids to the same school. The ESOL kids will learn by osmosis from the rich! That’s how it works right?

That's how it works in Bethesda ES. And Farmland ES, too.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure if this has been addressed anywhere on this thread or on others, but why doesn't the county rezone certain areas and open it for development of low-income housing in the higher income areas like Bethesda and Potomac? I've heard rumors of this as an option before. For example building a low income community on the land where the closed East Gate pool is located in Potomac. I've also heard of this being explored for some of the under-utilized office parks near Montgomery Mall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do you fix the problem of non-citizens that don’t speak English failing in English speaking schools? Send rich kids to the same school. The ESOL kids will learn by osmosis from the rich! That’s how it works right?

That's how it works in Bethesda ES. And Farmland ES, too.

Are we talking about sending a group of wealthy students to poor performing districts or sending a group of poor students to wealthy districts? The difference is, one school had no additional resources and is straining under all the ESOL needs while the other has plenty of resources available. Just sending some wealthy students to a poor school won’t do anything for that school but those students will certainly outperform the current students and take all the honors and AP slots which is detrimental to the currently zoned students. Again, look at that manassas high school link.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure if this has been addressed anywhere on this thread or on others, but why doesn't the county rezone certain areas and open it for development of low-income housing in the higher income areas like Bethesda and Potomac? I've heard rumors of this as an option before. For example building a low income community on the land where the closed East Gate pool is located in Potomac. I've also heard of this being explored for some of the under-utilized office parks near Montgomery Mall.

They should but cannot because of NIMBY school capacity rules.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pretend there’s some amazing charter that goes in somewhere (non-W School cluster) in the county. Then some developer decides to build new houses on some blighted commercial property next to the charter school. Are people going to buy those? Yes. Will property values of other homes close to that charter also improve? Yes.

Little by little, diversity of income comes to that part of the county. Once charter has served its purpose there, move it.

I don't think that you know much about land use in Montgomery County.

I think I do. It’s time to build nice stuff on the East side of the county and rejuvenate Georgia Avenue. Give the developers something exciting and innovative to latch onto, like charters.

That would be great, especially in the pits of Burtonsville. But let's build more useless, dangerous bike lanes instead!!

Well, bike lanes are nice too ...

[Anonymous]

Bike lanes, charters ... sounds like what has worked in DC. Why can’t we try out something new in MoCo?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pretend there’s some amazing charter that goes in somewhere (non-W School cluster) in the county. Then some developer decides to build new houses on some blighted commercial property next to the charter school. Are people going to buy those? Yes. Will property values of other homes close to that charter also improve? Yes.

Little by little, diversity of income comes to that part of the county. Once charter has served its purpose there, move it.

I don't think that you know much about land use in Montgomery County.

I think I do. It’s time to build nice stuff on the East side of the county and rejuvenate Georgia Avenue. Give the developers something exciting and innovative to latch onto, like charters.

That would be great, especially in the pits of Burtonsville. But let's build more useless, dangerous bike lanes instead!!

Well, bike lanes are nice too ...

Burtonsville is too far to bus to/from. There really isn’t much that can be done there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I find this to be very true. My dd's elementary school, 73% white. Her middle school 63% white. Her high school was 52% white. Both middle and elementary schools are still 9 on great schools, high school has dropped to 6 this year. DD just started college. And this is one of "less" segregated areas in MCPS. New town-homes and houses built in the last 2 years were sold for 500K and 800K respectively. I can't imagine that socioeconomic distribution is equal, not even close. DD had white and black friends, but very few Hispanic friends in HS. They are predominantly poor, according to dd and do not do well in school. I think this tells us that school groups are segregated within the school too. I am in favor of busing and desegregation in MoCo. Only good things will come out of it. Rich parents will still pay for their kids tutors and enrichment even if their kids are attending Einstein, rich white parents should have nothing to fear when it comes to desegregating schools and even busing. The backlash here is pure racism, nothing else. Even the most enlightened limousine liberals still get scared when they see a person of color near them. If you don't want your kids to end up racist, you need to expose them to diversity. Only hearing real life stories from kids "unlike" them, who are really just like them, like all of us,be it black, Hispanic, poor or rich, will make your kids open minded and realize the very real racial and economic divide in the country. If your kids stay in your lily white neighborhood they will end up racist, there is no doubt of that at all.

FYI, from talking to kids in even more diverse high schools, the groups are still self-segregating.

Duh. In the classroom and out.

And with zero differentiation the teachers have to deal with a wide wide 10 skill levels rather than 3 or 4 levels of reading, math and behavior issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/schools/mcps-segregation-exacerbates-student-achievement-disparities-report-says/

3/4 of black, Hispanic/Latino, and ESOL students are in high-poverty elementary schools
2/3 of white, Asian, and multiracial/ethnic students are in low-poverty elementary schools

I wanna live in central London, maybe Mayfair and send my kids to school there.
What can you do for me? I make $40k a year. London is segregated, only rich whites live there. They must bus us in, tell the board. Mayfair area is racist. They just give me cheap housing and schools with smart students. They are racist and segregating us all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bike lanes, charters ... sounds like what has worked in DC. Why can’t we try out something new in MoCo?

Again, charters have not outperformed traditional schools in DC.

"Washington DC charter schools did not significantly outperform public schools or even match them on the last two years of PARCC testing."

https://tultican.com/2019/09/08/dc-charter-school-performance-almost-matches-public-schools/