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[quote=Anonymous]
[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I can back about 25 years for Montgomery County history. The "W school" name came about when the Washingtonian and other magazines used to publish the top schools. This followed the US News and World report rankings. This is before you had zillow and other sites easily providing rankings. The pattern of the top schools having a W in their names created the nick name W school. The "W schools" referred to Churchill. Whitman, WJ and Wootton. WJ and Wootton were originally "provisional members" of the club due to their high test scores. I suspect that if either's scores ever dropped they would have been booted out quickly. Churchill and Whitman had prestige beyond just their ratings, college placements, notable alumni, and desirable areas. Back then MCPS was 60+% white as opposed to 30% white so there were plenty of other white majority white schools in MCPS that just didn't score as well on the various tests.

The 4 W schools have consistently stayed in the top even as MCPS has fallen over all in rankings. Whitman fell out one year because students boycotted PARCC and another year Whitman didn't bother to submit scores. Whitman continued to reign as the most desirable school in the system based on prestige etc. In recent years , Poolesville has consistently been ranked the #1 school in MD and dominates all the charts. Poolesville must lack a PR department though because you never hear anything about its top performance.

In actual W school areas you don't hear anyone using this name or giving a hoot. People moving in now just look at the scores which stand on their own. You only hear the term W school from people who do not live in the W school areas. [/quote]
BCC was ranked #1 in the US by TIME or US News back in the early 70s and was held in much higher regard than the W's. [/quote]

Really? I lived in the BCC area in the 70s and had I not gone to private school my parents would have used my grandparents address in order for me to attend Whitman because BCC wasn't seen to be a good option.[/quote]

[b]In 1960, the school was rated "Best School in America" by Time magazine.[/b]
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethesda-Chevy_Chase_High_School
[/quote]

It still is a great school, with many prominent alums who return to the school. It draws from downtown, walkable Bethesda,Chevy Chase and parts of Silver Spring. [/quote]

Definitely! The teachers and curriculum are standard across schools. There are minor demographic differences that are reflected in bulk averages but any school of 2K kids has a sufficient range of peer cohorts where any kid can find their niche and do well.[/quote]

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