Anonymous
Post 02/21/2019 19:45     Subject: Where do you consider MCPS high schools on a scale of good-bad
Anonymous wrote:
Very different schools... the main difference is the overall vibes of the school. QO is run by Kentlands, Lakelands, and Darnestown kids. NW is run by the citizens of Cinnamon woods. NW has robberies in the parking lot of their own school, this doesn't happen at QO and a riot would start if it did. Look similar on paper but completely different schools in reality. Have you seen the student bodies? NW is the next best thing if you can't afford the QO or Wootton area but definitely a level down for schools.

DP.. let me see if I understand.... the only reason QO is "better" is because it's run by richer people?

And how do you know that QO would start a riot if there were robberies in the parking lot?
Anonymous
Post 02/21/2019 19:39     Subject: Where do you consider MCPS high schools on a scale of good-bad
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:It’s funny bc svhs and NW are basically within a mile of each other on 118 (ish) yet 3 greatschool SES levels apart.

SO FAR YET SO CLOSE!


Northwest gets the kids from Darnestown and Boyds, the nicer part of Germantown. SVHS pulls from the rough neighborhoods.


I live in the "nicer" part of Germantown and if we stay where we are (we are renting), our kids will attend Northwest. From what I can tell, it is a good school. We would like to stay in the area and specifically in our current neighborhood (we are buying next year), but we are also considering neighborhoods zoned for Clarksburg and Quince Orchard.

I find it funny that so many people on this site denigrate Northwest as if it is ganglandia. Yet I see so many accolades for QO. When you look at the demographics of the school, the primary difference is that QO has a higher percentage of white students. The FARMS percentage for these schools are not far apart:

Quince Orchard: 21.3%
Northwest: 22.5%

Also, Northwest had a higher average for SAT scores for the 2017-2018 school year, 1145 to QO's 1134.

I think Seneca Valley has the potential to be a great school. Yes, it currently pulls from areas in Germantown that are densely populated (lots of apartments), but the upcoming boundary study will hopefully create 3 wonderful schools between Clarksburg and Germantown.

Here are the "At A Glance" Reports for both schools if you want to look for yourself:
Northwest: https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04246.pdf
Quince Orchard: https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04125.pdf


Very different schools... the main difference is the overall vibes of the school. QO is run by Kentlands, Lakelands, and Darnestown kids. NW is run by the citizens of Cinnamon woods. NW has robberies in the parking lot of their own school, this doesn't happen at QO and a riot would start if it did. Look similar on paper but completely different schools in reality. Have you seen the student bodies? NW is the next best thing if you can't afford the QO or Wootton area but definitely a level down for schools.
Anonymous
Post 02/21/2019 19:26     Subject: Where do you consider MCPS high schools on a scale of good-bad
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:It’s funny bc svhs and NW are basically within a mile of each other on 118 (ish) yet 3 greatschool SES levels apart.

SO FAR YET SO CLOSE!


Northwest gets the kids from Darnestown and Boyds, the nicer part of Germantown. SVHS pulls from the rough neighborhoods.


Might be different in the rankings but honestly they are the same in person. Have you been to a sporting event against either of the schools? You wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
Anonymous
Post 02/21/2019 19:13     Subject: Re:Where do you consider MCPS high schools on a scale of good-bad
I find it funny that so many people on this site denigrate Northwest as if it is ganglandia


Well, there are active gangs in some of the areas that feed NW and kids who drop out of NW to join gangs. I'm not saying that QO is academically a better or worse school than NW but the FARMS kids who go to QO and primarily come from Brown Station have not been associated with or involved in gang activity. You can't say the same for NW.

Gangs are real and they are scary. GHS, Wheaton and a few others have larger problems with active gangs. There is a Montgomery County gang task force that works with MCPS and focuses on particular schools so no the gang issue is not universal across MCPS.
Anonymous
Post 02/21/2019 19:03     Subject: Re:Where do you consider MCPS high schools on a scale of good-bad
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Interesting ranking. I'm surprised that Wheaton is at the bottom below Kennedy and Gaithersburg. I guess the Wheaton booster needs to re-evaluate her recommendations.

If their kids are doing great at Wheaton, why would they need to re-evaluate it? Didn't Wheaton recently win a science competition?

Last year, Wheaton won the MD state science bowl championship.
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/mainstory/story/572030/Science-Bowl/

And look.. there are a couple of white kids on the team.
Anonymous
Post 02/21/2019 18:45     Subject: Re:Where do you consider MCPS high schools on a scale of good-bad
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Interesting ranking. I'm surprised that Wheaton is at the bottom below Kennedy and Gaithersburg. I guess the Wheaton booster needs to re-evaluate her recommendations.

If their kids are doing great at Wheaton, why would they need to re-evaluate it? Didn't Wheaton recently win a science competition?

Last year, Wheaton won the MD state science bowl championship.
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/mainstory/story/572030/Science-Bowl/


Wheaton is much better than the DCUM types will ever give it credit. Sadly they'd prefer to focus on "good schools" like Churchill where white nationalism is alive and well.
Anonymous
Post 02/21/2019 17:06     Subject: Re:Where do you consider MCPS high schools on a scale of good-bad
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Interesting ranking. I'm surprised that Wheaton is at the bottom below Kennedy and Gaithersburg. I guess the Wheaton booster needs to re-evaluate her recommendations.

If their kids are doing great at Wheaton, why would they need to re-evaluate it? Didn't Wheaton recently win a science competition?

Last year, Wheaton won the MD state science bowl championship.
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/mainstory/story/572030/Science-Bowl/
Anonymous
Post 02/21/2019 13:54     Subject: Where do you consider MCPS high schools on a scale of good-bad
Anonymous wrote:I find the climate of racism and bullying at Churchill to be a sad indicator of a school in decline. Posts in this thread telling me how great Churchill is when there's another hate incident there every other week makes me think this thread is a joke.


Affluent schools have always mocked and ridiculed poor people, minorities and schools. Hell look at the year books form UVA and the Virginia gov. These are indicative of the current SJW climate of accountability and not a change, trend or decline. If anything I bet it happens way less now days then at a school like Churchill’s peak which was most likely in the 80s or 90s at the peak of the suburbs.
Anonymous
Post 02/21/2019 10:25     Subject: Where do you consider MCPS high schools on a scale of good-bad
I find the climate of racism and bullying at Churchill to be a sad indicator of a school in decline. Posts in this thread telling me how great Churchill is when there's another hate incident there every other week makes me think this thread is a joke.
Anonymous
Post 02/21/2019 10:01     Subject: Where do you consider MCPS high schools on a scale of good-bad
Anonymous wrote:
I agree.. I think it's because there are more whites at QO than NW. And NW has <5% ESOL while QO has 11.8%. So I don't know why QO would be considered "better" than NW in any metric, and considering the SAT scores you posted and they both have >95% graduation rate.

NW seems like it's one of the most balanced, diverse HSs, except for the ESOL rate.

I live in RM cluster fwiw.


That's the reason. The only difference is that the proportion of white kids at Quince Orchard HS is higher than at Northwest HS (and the proportion of non-white kids is lower, since it all has to add up to 100%).

But the pro-Northwest posts on DCUM that say, "WE'RE not Ganglandia, SVHS is Ganglandia!" don't exactly warm my heart either.
Anonymous
Post 02/21/2019 10:00     Subject: Re:Where do you consider MCPS high schools on a scale of good-bad
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Teachers who don't know the material, no feedback on homework/exams, massive emphasis on sports, poor guidance on course availability and sequence. This is for a kid in all honors and APs. Some of the teachers are good, but overall not impressed.

Any school that has a heavy emphasis on sports is not a great school IMO, especially if their academics is lackluster.


If the academics aren't lackluster, why is a heavy emphasis on sports still a bad thing?

I think this country's emphasis on sports is ridiculous. We pay sports athletes millions, and yet those who teach our children, especially the great teachers, get paid a tiny fraction of what athletes make.

Also, I find too heavy emphasis on sports detracts from academics and creates a mentality that is not healthy, ie, Damascus football team.

I'm not saying all athletic programs in school is bad, but often times, when a school puts a heavy emphasis on athletics, it's to the detriment of academics, especially for those athletes.

Again, I'm not against sports programs in schools, I just don't like it when there is too much emphasis YMMV.
Anonymous
Post 02/21/2019 09:58     Subject: Re:Where do you consider MCPS high schools on a scale of good-bad
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Teachers who don't know the material, no feedback on homework/exams, massive emphasis on sports, poor guidance on course availability and sequence. This is for a kid in all honors and APs. Some of the teachers are good, but overall not impressed.

Any school that has a heavy emphasis on sports is not a great school IMO, especially if their academics is lackluster.


If the academics aren't lackluster, why is a heavy emphasis on sports still a bad thing?


NP.

See Damascus. They cover up things in order to keep their sports teams on top. Football is just the tip of the iceberg.
Anonymous
Post 02/21/2019 09:55     Subject: Re:Where do you consider MCPS high schools on a scale of good-bad
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Teachers who don't know the material, no feedback on homework/exams, massive emphasis on sports, poor guidance on course availability and sequence. This is for a kid in all honors and APs. Some of the teachers are good, but overall not impressed.

Any school that has a heavy emphasis on sports is not a great school IMO, especially if their academics is lackluster.


If the academics aren't lackluster, why is a heavy emphasis on sports still a bad thing?
Anonymous
Post 02/21/2019 09:53     Subject: Re:Where do you consider MCPS high schools on a scale of good-bad
Anonymous wrote:
Teachers who don't know the material, no feedback on homework/exams, massive emphasis on sports, poor guidance on course availability and sequence. This is for a kid in all honors and APs. Some of the teachers are good, but overall not impressed.

Any school that has a heavy emphasis on sports is not a great school IMO, especially if their academics is lackluster.
Anonymous
Post 02/21/2019 09:50     Subject: Where do you consider MCPS high schools on a scale of good-bad
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:It’s funny bc svhs and NW are basically within a mile of each other on 118 (ish) yet 3 greatschool SES levels apart.

SO FAR YET SO CLOSE!


Northwest gets the kids from Darnestown and Boyds, the nicer part of Germantown. SVHS pulls from the rough neighborhoods.


I live in the "nicer" part of Germantown and if we stay where we are (we are renting), our kids will attend Northwest. From what I can tell, it is a good school. We would like to stay in the area and specifically in our current neighborhood (we are buying next year), but we are also considering neighborhoods zoned for Clarksburg and Quince Orchard.

I find it funny that so many people on this site denigrate Northwest as if it is ganglandia. Yet I see so many accolades for QO. When you look at the demographics of the school, the primary difference is that QO has a higher percentage of white students. The FARMS percentage for these schools are not far apart:

Quince Orchard: 21.3%
Northwest: 22.5%

Also, Northwest had a higher average for SAT scores for the 2017-2018 school year, 1145 to QO's 1134.

I think Seneca Valley has the potential to be a great school. Yes, it currently pulls from areas in Germantown that are densely populated (lots of apartments), but the upcoming boundary study will hopefully create 3 wonderful schools between Clarksburg and Germantown.

Here are the "At A Glance" Reports for both schools if you want to look for yourself:
Northwest: https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04246.pdf
Quince Orchard: https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04125.pdf

I agree.. I think it's because there are more whites at QO than NW. And NW has <5% ESOL while QO has 11.8%. So I don't know why QO would be considered "better" than NW in any metric, and considering the SAT scores you posted and they both have >95% graduation rate.

NW seems like it's one of the most balanced, diverse HSs, except for the ESOL rate.

I live in RM cluster fwiw.