Anonymous wrote:The Town of University Park is mostly middle and upper middle class. (The neighborhood is also about 80% white http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_Park,_Maryland) The school is in the middle of the neighborhood, however, some lower income areas outside of UP and College Heights Estates are zoned to the school. There are families in UP who love the elementary school, but many send their kids to private school. It is the involvement of the parents with higher SES, who have time and resources to raise money, organize, and fund programs, that set this school apart from other PGCPS.

Maybe you should view the historical demographics of the School University Park Barely as 2,000 people in the whole entire town lol. UPES has always pulled from the majority area and has always had a solid reputation when it came to academics. How is UPES set apart from other PG county schools when there a numerous schools that actually test just as good if not better? Also once again the Majority of the students and parents are minority, over 60 percent. White students only make up 24 percent of the population at the school if the minority kids were failing the scores wouldn't be what they are now, 24 percent of a school population can't create good test scores if the other 60+ percent are failing. So those "low income" families and students must be doing something right, as they have been for DECADES. Besides UPES while a good school test scores aren't better than Perrywood, Woodmore, Glendale, or even Capitol Heights elementary all which are almost uniformly African American. Please go back to the MOCO board

Anonymous wrote:According to the 2010 census University Park itself is 78.5% White. The school's boundary areas include parts of greater Hyattsville on the other side of Adelphi Rd where their are lower SES families.
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I meant to also say that I think that the SES argument is complete crap. There are several Title one schools who have rates of 7 or higher on Great Schools.

According to the 2010 census University Park itself is 78.5% White. The school's boundary areas include parts of greater Hyattsville on the other side of Adelphi Rd where their are lower SES families.
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PP again. What I am getting at is that the demographics of the school on both the student and staff level do not reflect the demographics of the majority of households zoned for the school. Is this a factor in whether neighborhood families choose the public ES vs private? Perhaps, perhaps not. There are probably many other factors such as curriculum, class size, and religious reasons that lead families to choose private.

The Town of University Park is mostly middle and upper middle class. (The neighborhood is also about 80% white http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_Park,_Maryland) The school is in the middle of the neighborhood, however, some lower income areas outside of UP and College Heights Estates are zoned to the school. There are families in UP who love the elementary school, but many send their kids to private school. It is the involvement of the parents with higher SES, who have time and resources to raise money, organize, and fund programs, that set this school apart from other PGCPS.

Anonymous wrote:On the topic of demographics, I think what perhaps the prior poster was getting to is the fact that UP appears to be a predominantly white neighborhood yet that's not reflected in the student body (24%, think). What explains the discrepancy?

If UP is your idea of a predominately white nighborhood then I suggest you brush up on what the word predominately means. Close in bethesda is perdominantly white (86%), UP simply has some white people which to be fair does differentiate it from much of the rest of PG save for Bowie.

UP shouldn't get extra white teachers just because, it should be a reflection of the county and it's government as a whole and not of specfic enclaves.

On the topic of demographics, I think what perhaps the prior poster was getting to is the fact that UP appears to be a predominantly white neighborhood yet that's not reflected in the student body (24%, think). What explains the discrepancy?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard that the school has declined in quality. To be very frank, when you look at the demographics of the school leadership and faculty it is different than the dominate population of UP. I wonder if that has something to do with more high SES families looking elsewhere which hurts the school.

I had to reread this ... Kind of racist ... ?

And most of all factually incorrect as there is no dominate population. It's 35 percent Latino 31 percent black and 24 percent white. That poster has never been to this school

Anonymous wrote:I heard that the school has declined in quality. To be very frank, when you look at the demographics of the school leadership and faculty it is different than the dominate population of UP. I wonder if that has something to do with more high SES families looking elsewhere which hurts the school.

I had to reread this ... Kind of racist ... ?

Anonymous wrote:I heard that the school has declined in quality. To be very frank, when you look at the demographics of the school leadership and faculty it is different than the dominate population of UP. I wonder if that has something to do with more high SES families looking elsewhere which hurts the school.

I had to re read this ... Kind of racist ... ?

Anonymous wrote:I heard that the school has declined in quality. To be very frank, when you look at the demographics of the school leadership and faculty it is different than the dominate population of UP. I wonder if that has something to do with more high SES families looking elsewhere which hurts the school.

I'm confused. Are you implying that high SES white parents don't want their kids educated in a school with primarily black teachers and leadership?

+1 to the poster that suggested checking on MD State Report Card. I wouldn't worry about 1 move up/down in Great Schools, but if there's a downward trend on the report card, that would be a greater cause for concern. I didn't check, so I don't know anything about the trends of UPES, though I know parents with children there and they are all still very happy. One recently turned down a Glenarden placement in order to keep her daughter at UPES.

I heard that the school has declined in quality. To be very frank, when you look at the demographics of the school leadership and faculty it is different than the dominate population of UP. I wonder if that has something to do with more high SES families looking elsewhere which hurts the school.

Thanks for the feedback! For those with children attending University Park Elementary School, what are some of the negatives or things that you hope improve or change soon? (Many great things have been said so just asking about the other side, now, to get a well-rounded picture.) Thanks!

Great schools ranking can go up and down. Also md in general test scores dropped because of the new testing that was implemented last year. I wouldn't worry to much about a 1 number drop according to md state report card for 2014 upems average student proficient in math was 77-78 percent and reading was around 88 percent

Any parent or resident of University Park or PG County, gen, have any insight into reason for the downgrade?