Reply to New boundary study for Churchill, Clarksburg, Damascus, Gaithersburg, RM, Northwest, Poolesville, QO, SV, WM, Wootton

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Reply to "New boundary study for Churchill, Clarksburg, Damascus, Gaithersburg, RM, Northwest, Poolesville, QO, SV, WM, Wootton"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]FARMS kids do not do better when they are bused.

That said, every child deserves to have fair access to a quality education.  It looks bad when they have one school with a 1300 average SAT and one with a 950 SAT.  But the kids with a 950 SAT would still score the same even if they moved to the 1300 average SAT school and vice versa.

I am a strong believer in the school within a school mindset that allows the ones that want to learn a separate peer group for their core classes.

People want stability in their schools.  I hope the BOE doesn't go on a crusade to move kids around just because it's the "in thing to do"

[/quote]

[b]Kids from poor families actually do do better when they attend low-poverty vs. high-poverty schools[/b].

People are against change, period. But you can't have boundary changes without change.[/quote]

This. The higher the poverty rate, the lower the performance. These need to be reduced:

SVHS- 49.9%
Gaithersburg- 57.6%
Watkins Mill- 64.4%[/quote]
Seneca Valley High: 2023 Hispanic chronic absenteeism rate 51.0%:
https://reportcard.msde.maryland.gov/Graphs/#/Demographics/ChronicAbsenteeism/3/99/1/6/15/0104/2023

Gaithersburg High: 2023 Hispanic chronic absenteeism rate 55.0%:
https://reportcard.msde.maryland.gov/Graphs/#/Demographics/ChronicAbsenteeism/3/99/1/6/15/0551/2023

Watkins Mills High: 2023 Hispanic chronic absenteeism rate 58.9%:
https://reportcard.msde.maryland.gov/Graphs/#/Demographics/ChronicAbsenteeism/3/99/1/6/15/0545/2023

When you move chronically absent students to a school farther away, [b]will they suddenly show up for school[/b]?

[/quote]

No they won't, but the concern extends beyond them. In some ways, they're going to do what they want to do.  It's really more about the ripple effect throughout the entire school. When a huge portion of the student body is plagued by chronic absenteeism the impact to the school is profound. For example, using Watkins Mills numbers- 1,715 students, 616 are chronically absent. Imagine what that does to the school. Teachers now have to dedicate significant time to help the absent students catch up, which disrupts classroom dynamics and affects the experience of the kids who consistently go to school and do want to learn. There's a high number of students who are disengaged and a high number of disciplinary issues. There's probably limited clubs and programs compared to the other schools that don't have this problem because the demand is low. There's probably very little to no school spirit.  Very low parental engagement. A sense of apathy among a large number of students and staff. Higher than normal teacher turnover rates. What you end up with is a negative school culture that is not an ideal environment for learning.  This is what MCPS cares about and why demographics is a big factor in boundary studies. [/quote]

You move these kids to other schools so each school having 10-15% chronically absent is still causing issues, and more schools will have low moral. Possibly more Hispanic students will be absent due to the distance. The people who care about education will not accept their kids being bussed to poor performing schools so they will leave or go to private schools. Then none of the schools will be ideal environment for learning. It’s a lose lose situation. Seriously this is a problem that busing cannot solve. [/quote]
In fact, Hispanic organizations have surveyed Hispanic students in MCPS and found that many immigrant Hispanic students don't go to school because they were poorly educated in their home countries and could not keep up with their grade-level work. You cannot solve this problem by bussing.[/quote]

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