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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The whole thing sounds like a giant social experiment. One that will cost a lot, and not just in dollars   We keep hearing how this will benefit low-income students, and close the opportunity gap. They've been trying things to close the opportunity gap for decades, and nothing has worked. While I do support programs to help close the opportunity gap, I believe our Title One schools and Focus schools, already have extra money different school, smaller class size and extra programs, what will it do for everyone else?  Will it help them to rise, or bring them down?  Show me the data please![/quote]

I hope MCPS will take in to account the loss of Title 1 benefits..If they manage to re-arrange the boundaries so there are fewer title one schools, is the county better off.  The needing population has not changed but we lost federal $$.  This was one of the issues in the RM cluster with re-zoning Twinbrook.  Hi Twinbrook family, we are going to move your neighborhood to a different school with better test scores.  It is only 15 minutes longer on the bus and the class size is typically 28 kids.  MCPS is looking out for you!
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I don’t think Title 1 funding for the district will be affected.  “Title 1 schools” actually means schools that have a high enough FARMs rate that federal Title 1 funds may be used for school-wide programs rather than being required to be used for targeted programs that specifically aid children in impoverished families.  The federal threshold is much lower than the MCPS threshold.  The class size policies are how MCPS chooses to use Title 1 funds but they could choose to use them differently or I think they could still use them to reduce class sizes at schools with FOCUS-level FARMs rates.[/quote]

If they change all the boundaries to diversify the schools I assume the poverty rate at many of the Title 1 schools will go down...the federal dollars will be lost and those same kids who now go to different schools will no longer benefit...while their poverty related struggles have not changed. [/quote]

Not PP, but the person above you is right and you are wrong. MCPS receives a certain amount of money based on how many kids in the DISTRICT receive free and reduced meals. Then MCPS decides how to allocate those funds. The district has chosen to allocate them in two tiers - Title I and Focus.

Let's try this using numbers. Right now the FARMS rate at Joann Leleck is 90%. That's at TItle I school by MCPS standards. The FARMS rate at Piney Branch ES is 31% . That is a Focus School by MCPS standards. MCPS has decided that the "neediest" 10-12 schools would get the biggest chunk of the Title I federal funds, and then the next tier of schools that still have pretty high FARMS rates will also get a cut of the federal money.

However, even if you could get the poverty rate at Leleck down to 75% through redistricting, it would STILL be a Title I school by MCPS standards. Even if those 15% of kids moved to Piney Branch (which they would not because those are not contiguous), the funds would follow them.

Basically, the short version is that MCPS will still be receiving federal funds because they are allocated by district. If MCPS decided to spread those funds around differently after redistricting to have fewer "Title I" and more "Focus" schools, the amount of money is the same. 
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