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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am not sure I understand the argument regarding desegregation.  It has always been my understanding that desegregation was implemented in part because of huge differentials in the amount of resources and the quality of education.  Minority communities generally did not receive the same quality of education.  That is not the situation in MCPS.  The schools have the same funding, the same curriculum, the teachers have the same credentials etc.  So the only reason to move kids all over the county in terrible traffic is to change the racial composition of schools?  To what end?
I think SES is probably the most important factor in explaining student achievement.
The mean SAT score for students qualifying for FARMs was 1361.  The FARMs rate for MCPS 2016 graduates is 24%
There are 10 high schools that produce noticeably better results for their FARMs students (10% higher than 1361 or 1429/2400)
Blair 1415 (30% of graduates are FARMs)
Clarksburg 1432 (28% FARMs)
WJ 1463 (7% FARMS)
RM 1491 (13.7%)
Poolesville 1891 (8% FARMs)
Quince Orchard 1486 (24% FARMs)
Watkin Mills 1458 (47% FARMs)
Whitman 1529 (not sure how many took the test but Whitman's FARMs rate is less than 5%)
Wootton 1598 (5%)

BCC which has been transporting kids into their high school from Silver Spring for years did poorly: 1274

I am not exactly sure what to make of these numbers but it does look like the 3 schools that performed the best (above 1500) were the ones that had FARMs rates below 10%.  So, just moving kids to a higher performing school might not have the desired effect if the school ends up with a noticeably higher FARMs rate after the desegregation.  
I think the county has been looking for solutions in all the wrong places:
*getting rid of tracking (teachers now have to juggle groups of students at different levels which ends up being unfair to all groups)
*getting rid of exams for high school courses or padding grades in the case of the infamous Algebra exam a couple of years ago
*lowering standards for admission to magnet programs

If we are serious about the achievement gap and want to do something meaningful why not try to ensure that the gap is closed by the end of kindergarten by funding universal preschool.  I would support that and I would support funding for even smaller class sizes for schools with high FARMs rates (I know these are smaller already).  
The school also has to do more community outreach to encourage parents to partner more effectively with the schools.  Parents have to be encouraged to show up for BTS night, to check homework, to show up for parent teacher conferences, to check edline.  Perhaps expanding the Parent Academy 
workshop program and making sure there are plenty of Spanish workshops offered and expanding the George Thomas Learning Academy programs.  These types of efforts will strengthen the communities in low performing school clusters and help students.

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[u]The thought that community outreach to promote parent involvement is enough is a little Polyanna.  It's hard to be an involved parent when you are working 2 low wage jobs to keep a roof over your head.  MontCo doesn't seem to have a huge segment of true urban problems like rampant drug dealing/ addiction and accompanying violence, but it has a bunch of hard working low wage employees living on the edge.  Telling them to check Johnny's homework or sign up for ABC mouse isn't going to work.[/u][i][/quote]

No of course it isn't enough.  I support really ramping up the amount of resources that low SES kids receive from ages 3-7 (universal preschool and a massive deployment of resources in kindergarten).   What I am saying is that the school system cannot succeed in closing the achievement gap without significant help from families and there might be ways to facilitate that.  There are some (or maybe it is the same poster who says something similar on numerous threads on this forum) who argue for redistricting and busing kids from low performing schools to high performing schools.  I don't see how families who (according to you) are too busy working to "check Johnny's homework" are going to find the time to get their kids ready for school perhaps an hour earlier than they do now and get them to a centralized bus stop that will drive them across county.  Busing takes a lot of family commitment and involvement.  If they can do that, they can surely find the time to help their children succeed in their home school.[/quote]

How about we start with providing services to the SN kids?  Many of our kids have gone without services as sadly, its cheaper for us to pay privately than hire an advocate and attorney and fight MCPS for years to get basics like speech and OT.    Part of what you are saying is parenting.  Low income have head start.  Many others choose not to send their kids to preschool and our preschools are not like head start and do not prepare kids to go to school.  Parents want play based so kids are coming in with less skills due to lazy parents and preschools.[/quote]

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