Reply to Achievement gap continues to grow between high- and low-income schools

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP, I feel your pain.  We are in an area of Silver Spring with a crappy elementary school (it wasn't too bad when we bought our home 10 years ago but since then the number of FARMS has skyrocketed and, unfortunately, it's seems to have had an inverse relationship to school performance).

Anyway, my husband and I really struggle with what to do.  We cannot afford a home in a nicer area of Silver Spring, we certainly cannot afford a private school or to move to Bethesda, Chevy Chase, etc.  We're stuck.  It certainly feels like MoCo is not only the county of haves and have nots (which I think it's always been, to some extent) but that the school system for those of us in my neck of the woods is broken.

I also agree with the PP that if there was some degree of tracking, I wouldn't worry.  But a neighbor tells me that his 3rd grader is in a class with students who don't speak any English and spends his days doing busy work because the teacher is consumed with teaching to the 65% of her class that is still learning the language.

I love Silver Spring and I love this area of Maryland, but I'm looking for a job that will allow me to primarily telework so DH and I can move out of MoCo.  We can't afford the nicer neighborhoods that feed into the decent schools.  So depressing.  [/quote]

And I feel your pain....  Silver Spring is such a cool place and realizing that the schools just weren't an option - even when I was being as open-minded as possible - was depressing.  We moved out of MoCo and it was the right choice for us.  I think the whole discussion about the achievement gap sort of misses the point sometimes.  Our schools needed more resources, they needed more parent involvement, they needed more programs tailored to address the language barriers, they needed more infrastructure to make the schools more attractive to everyone in the community.  Who cares if the test scores are high enough?  A look at what's happening "on the ground" shows that more basic issues need to be addressed before we even start talking about test performance.  [/quote]

The more illegal immigrants that come to MOCO, the worse it will get.  More resources go to ESOL and FARMS than ever.  This is money in the school budget set aside JUST to get them to speak English and get fed.  That is a lot of money taking away from the classrooms.  Has your school been losing paraeducators in the class?  Ours has and it is because we now have 3 ESOL teachers to the 1 we had when my 14yr old was there.  Parent involvement?  Are you kidding.  They don't even speak English, would never show up for a PTA meeting and don't volunteer their time at anything.  The schools are plummeting and the state/county welcomes them but can not afford them.  It is a huge problem that people seem to not want to speak of because it is not politically correct.  Our county is #2 in the COUNTRY for increased illegal immigration.  It will only get worse.  In 2009 it was estimated that $966 million was spent on educating illegal aliens in the state of MD.  An additional $250 million for ESL.  Since MOCO has 70% of the state's illegal immigrants you can see how this eats up the budget a little.  And that was 5yrs ago.  And you do realize they actually don't pay taxes so they don't contribute to the American education system in anyway.  But..... it is not nice to say anything like this so let's keep trying to figure out a plan that works while they keep coming. [/quote]

Wow and wow. Anyone with preK kids thinking about moving to montgomery county should read the above and do their own research into this very significant problem, which is only growing, not slowing. [/quote]

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