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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Looked at Poolesville HS, since it is supposed to have three test-in magnet programs, and one non-magnet program for local students who do not qualify  for the Science, Humanities and GE programs.

It is a rural community with lower numbers of Hispanic population than Gaithersburg.  There are more White rural students.  Interesting to see the performance of White students in ELA.  Majority of Asians are either bussed to the school or are high achieving and their families moved to poolesville for the magnet HS.  Special Ed students typically are in non-magnet programs, though there are some twice gifted students in the magnet programs as well. Most Hispanic students are those who are in magnet programs and are high achieving.

PERCENT PROFICIENT
--	----	----	----	--                 MATH	--	--        ELA
Asian--	----	----	----	----	--97.6 %	--	--	92.9 %	
Black or African American--	----	    70 %	--	--	52.2 %	
Hispanic/Latino of any race	--	--  75 %	--	--	72.7 %	
White--	----	----	----	--	81.9 %	--	--	[b]54 %[/b]	
Two or more races--	----	--	88.9 %	--	--	65 %	
Special Education--	----	--	37.5 %	--	--	22.2 %	
All Students--	----	----	--	85.4 %	--	--	66.3 %	
[/quote]
Interesting to see hispanics outscoring whites in ELA.  And once again, Asian American students outscores everyone.[/quote]

Statistics are BS.

Hispanics make up 7.7% of the population at PHS.
total pop - 1183

91 kids (many who are in the magnet b/c it's 75% magnet) vs. 600 white students . . .

[/quote]
But it's not BS when applied to low performing schools?[/quote]

These stats do not show the real story. This is a high performing school because of selected high performing kids who are from by  and large educated and at least middle class families.  In such a population, it is easy to put in place a rigorous advanced curriculum and great teachers who enjoy teaching to these students. The social issues that other schools have is lacking here - very rare to hear of discipline problems in this population.  As mentioned above the Hispanics are also those who are high performing and make up only 7.7 % of the population.  However, what is very telling and interesting is that many of the local White students may not come from families where the parents are highly educated or affluent. As a result, even though they are in a magnet school, and the magnet courses of all the three houses are open for them,  they are unable to avail of this opportunity because they are lagging behind significantly in academics.  These White students are failing to achieve in the same way the Hispanics and Blacks are failing to succeed. There is a glaring case of achievement gap among these students that has nothing to do with race but for these White students it has everything to do with family education level, wealth, family culture - their SES.

We are so tuned to think of Hispanic  students doing poorly in English because of the language barriers of their parents. It is equally interesting to see this population of White students who are English speakers doing poorly in English.

The point that I am trying to make is that PHS is a unique case that can be used to show that MCPS is not being able to help students at HS levels if they have significant educational deficits in their family structure and SES, even if they are given the best environment, teachers, curriculum, peer group, and support in HS.Significant cultural and social norms around valuing education and intervention to become experts rather than proficient in acadmics that is ingrained in Asian-American community in US is lacking in these students and this deficiency needs to be addressed at the pre-ES, ES and MS level by MCPS - regardless of a student's race or language fluency.  Instead what MCPS tries to do is dumb down the curriculum, in effect hurting the bright students from lower SES homes.

It can also be used to show MCPS failure to make their early intervention efforts meaningful. All the headstarts and summer schooling is not making a dent by the time these kids are in MS and HS.  This is a serious cause for concern because while the early intervention is essential to bridge the gap, MCPS has failed time and again to make it effective. They always end up lowering standards and doing away with clear quantitative data points like final exams etc.

At the same time, the magnet students are thriving and are able to take on the most rigorous curriculum because they are supported at school and home. They are coming from homes with very EDUCATED MOTHERS and FATHERS.  How can MCPS replicate the advantage of highly educated parents for these students at ES and MS levels?

By the time these students are in MS they are pretty much on the path of academic success or stupendous academic failure.  MCPS needs to do a lot more at the ES and MS levels and not put a ceiling on any child who is advanced.  Why should they not put a ceiling on advanced students or magnet programs? Mainly because without these programs only the poor students of all races will suffer. The high achieving communities will continue to accelerate and enrich their children, especially now that they feel that they are being discriminated against in spite of they and their children doing everything right in terms of dedication, hard work, discipline and the focus that they bring to academics.

Of course, since we have the same old corrupt BOE members in power, I do not see how anyone can stop this decline of MCPS. [/quote]

Um. Your gentle pity for our poor rural youth is misplaced. PHS feeder elementary and middle schools are all ranked 4 and 5s. The local kids are generally mid to high SES and the schools all have a very low FARMS rate. There are [b]tons of lawyers and scientists living up here[/b]. Most households are [b]professional, educated, and dual income[/b]. The difference in stats is because you are seeing what the current ELA education in MCPS produces for average kids. In the case of PHS, the lovely, bright, minority magnet kids who join our community from Germantown and Gaithersburg have higher scores because they are special, smarter kids, not because they are more SES advantaged. Also, parents here tend to want their kids to play outside or do sports and music after school and don’t tend to send their kids to academic prep classes unless their child is struggling to keep up with peers. So, in a way, you can very clearly see the EXACT effects of MCPS curriculum in the local PHS kids... if it is subpar results, it is NOT because a bunch of kids are poor and neglected at home. It is because a bunch of perfectly advantaged children with professional parents who largely trust the public school system are exposed to a chronically subpar ELA curriculum.[/quote]

Yes, those who are higher SES and moved to Poolesville  for the HS are doing well.  So if we remove the magnet kids from the equation altogether - what do we have?  Without the magnet kids, the general population resembles that of a W school, correct? Well, these "non-magnet" students are still doing worse than the W school kids.  Yes, MCPS curriculum sucks.  But without the magnet kids, as per your assertion, Poolesville should perform like Whitman, being as they too are "[i]a bunch of perfectly advantaged children with professional parents who largely trust the public school system are exposed to a chronically subpar ELA curriculum"[/i].

In other words, newly transplanted residents are trying to insist that rural poor Whites do not exist in Poolesville and surrounding areas.  Sorry, they exist and they do poorly.  Some of this is due to MCPS and some of this due to the family. In the end, low SES is a great equalizer for academic failure across races.

[/quote]

Of course rural poor whites exist in the upcounty. But John Poole Middle School has about 10% FARMS. Low SES is simply not the driving force for low scores up here. And Whitman is not comparable. That is a fabulously rich community that, from all accounts on DCUM, does do a lot of extracurricular academic prep. So those kids are doing well DESPITE the MCPS curriculum. Most PHS kids are not struggling with typical low SES obstacles. They have stable homes with supportive parents and decent resources and, it should be noted, little culture for prep. The schools are generally calm with few behavioral disruptions. If kids in PHS are doing poorly, it is most likely the curriculum.[/quote]

You need to get over your fixation with prep.  Here's a DCUM account that doesn't support your theory:  [b]our friends with kids at Whitman do no extracurricular prep, and their kids are doing just fine academically under the MCPS curricular and enjoy their varsity sports[/b].  [/quote]

That is true for plenty of kids in PHS, too, but sorry... I didn’t mean to go on about it. I don’t actually have a problem with prep but I do think PHS is a good way to see what the MCPS curriculum provides without many external forces driving scores up or down.[/quote]

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