Anonymous wrote:BCC has always been a tough school and I don't get why its so popular. It has a huge mix of kids and because of it its always had a huge number of issues.

A huge mix? It's majority white and only 10% FARMS.

Anonymous wrote:I’m not surprised Churchill is 16. Their principal is checked out.

It is so frustrating that the principal is still there. Churchill could be so much better with a principal that actually was involved in the school.

BCC has always been a tough school and I don't get why its so popular. It has a huge mix of kids and because of it its always had a huge number of issues.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is morale low at BCC relative to other MCPS HS?

Annoying offspring of annoying parents?

That's you. I'm talking about BCC here.

Staff morale is strongly related to the strength of the administration team. A strong principal with a well organized team who sets a coordinated direction and supports their staff will have high morale, even in a school that is deemed "challenging" and requires a lot of above and beyond effort from staff. A principal with poor leadership skills, a disorganized admin team, no goals, and who doesn't support staff can create an environment of isolated or back-stabbing teachers and make it unpleasant to come to school each day, even if the school is a "better" school. After a leadership change, it can take a couple of years for there to be a change of either increasing or decreasing morale.

Anonymous wrote:Why is morale low at BCC relative to other MCPS HS?

Annoying offspring of annoying parents?

I worked at one of the very low ranking schools. The large FARMs population was a source of stress, but not despair. I felt I was fighting for poor kids and I was willing to give them everything I had. Their hope energized me. However, my principal was a horrible person with craven cronies and minions.There was a culture of fear and futility that the admin fostered because it could be used to keep teachers in line. It was the closest I’ve ever come to burnout. Leaving saved my sanity. I transferred to a school where morale is generally good.

I’m not surprised Churchill is 16. Their principal is checked out.

Anonymous wrote:Interesting index. Also interesting: BCC is number 22 on the list and Einstein, much derided on DCUM, is 6.

Which Mathews attributes rightly to the fantastic principal James Fernandez.

It's an interesting first ranking, but:

1. As the article says, "school climate" is only one of many factors that indicate whether a school is great or not.

2. Some schools definitely had a participation issue, which nullifies the data for those schools. Giving this ranking notoriety will ensure that more teachers fill out the survey next year, so this should be a temporary problem.

And yes, Walter Johnson and Whitman are way up there and BCC is not? I look forward to next year's rankings to see whether that's confirmed or not!

I wish middle schools were listed like this!

Why is morale low at BCC relative to other MCPS HS?

our teachers apparently complain about their commute and want more perks, so I can only imagine what they are scoring. they also don't want any PTA or parent feedback so score that low, historically.

Interesting index. Also interesting: BCC is number 22 on the list and Einstein, much derided on DCUM, is 6.

From Jay Mathews: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/how-you-rate-your-school-becomes-important-under-new-law/2017/11/19/8fa0187a-cb24-11e7-8321-481fd63f174d_story.html?utm_term=.3da42230f5ff

I do think having particularly satisfied (or unsatisfied) teachers affects student learning. Do read the article, but a big takeaway is that morale is not correlated with school test scores or wealth.