Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This mostly just makes me horrified for the kids who live in other states. I mean, if MoCo is tops ...

article says "maryland" schools - not montgomery county only

Presumably MoCo and Howard are pulling up the state score, not depressing it. If the poster is unhappy with MoCo schools then, yeah, this would reflect really terribly on other states. Unless you really think every school in Maryland is uniformly excellent. If that's the case I'm kind of horrified that you would have that opinion of PG County schools, many of which are in really bad shape.

I saw this review of my local MD high school by a student. We are moving.

This school is vicious i love it!! Everybody here is so close and friendly to each other,&&everybody here is like my second family. This school has so many cool,fun,and outgoing people its amazing. The staff is great and most will help you through everything. You can tell if someone is a Kennedy student a mile off. Most of us are loud, fun, outgoing, and unfortunately people tend to cuss a lot. We just straight fun. I think the fact that most of the students here live close to each other make us seem more like a family. You will definately like it here. Like some kids living in the area that go to schools like wheaton,blake,or springbrook always start off there&come here,because they know their missing out on something.There are a ton of parties,...but the kennedy staff definatley helps us balance our social and educational lives.Its great&a lot of fun.

Anonymous wrote:This mostly just makes me horrified for the kids who live in other states. I mean, if MoCo is tops ...

article says "maryland" schools - not montgomery county only

This mostly just makes me horrified for the kids who live in other states. I mean, if MoCo is tops ...

No matter how you look at it - MD schools are a whole lot better than lots of other states.

"As for outcomes, I think parents and their wealth matter more than schools"

agree.

These education rankings are silly without knowing much about the politics behind them. If you are pro-reform, you might have different criteria than if you are pro-union. Education Week sounds like it would be more old school teacher union (although I don't know for sure), so I wouldn't be surprised that they would like a state like Maryland. On the other hand, if the criteria has a focus on things like Charter Schools, teacher evaluation through testing, etc., then Maryland would go down the chart. Remember, Michelle Rhee's grade had Maryland and Virginia getting near failing grades.

As for outcomes, I think parents and their wealth matter more than schools. If you live in a rich area full of educated people, you will have better test scores. Is that because of the schools by themselves or also because the parents read to their kids, spend money on tutors, volunteer in school, etc.

Anonymous wrote:Maryland has made education a priority and the results speak for themselves. Marylanders should be proud.

The results out here in PG County speak volumes. They seem to be saying something different than the results in MoCo or Howard County though.

Maryland has made education a priority and the results speak for themselves. Marylanders should be proud.

Tops in taxes=Tops in school spending=Tops in a study that ranks by expenditures.

Maryland thanks the people of MoCo for working and paying their taxes!

You are confusing county comparisons with state comparisons. In VA there is a huge difference between the funding levels and quality of NOVA counties and the rest of the state. MD has larger counties that are stronger and better funded such as Montgomery, Howard and even the Baltimore area.

If you are comparing locally, the clusters for Arlington, McLean/Great Falls area, Falls Church, and Fairfax are generally stronger than Montgomery County. Montgomery County is also really struggling with the 2.0 fiasco and budget cuts.

Anonymous wrote:I live in md. Stuff like that at state level means nothing when a family is evaluating a house in one particular school attendance zone.

Maybe so but your choices should be a lot better than people in South Dakota. And some of it is having the resources to continue to spend money on education. My state and county (Montgomery) taxes are high but I am glad they are focused on the schools. It's not perfect (since MD was the only state to even get a B+) but obviously no place is.

I live in md. Stuff like that at state level means nothing when a family is evaluating a house in one particular school attendance zone.

Thanks for the link.

I think this is interesting. Sometimes when I read DCUM - I get the sense that MD schools are at the bottom.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/maryland-ranks-no-1-in-education-for-fifth-year-in-a-row-virginia-ranks-fourth/2013/01/09/4f66b686-5a79-11e2-9fa9-5fbdc9530eb9_story.html?hpid=z3