Anonymous wrote:We faced this dilemma when we moved from Silver Spring to Potomac. I have three girls and we moved for better schools and I would do it again. I don't think there was much of a real racial dynamic in my oldest's (we moved during third grade) friend groups and she integrated well when moving in ES. Over time, she became self conscious because her preferred friend group was pretty girly and she became quite conscious of her hair. One girl even had a 'hair salon' birthday party. In sixth grade, one of the teachers moved her to the back of the room because others couldn't see around her hair. That kind of thing. My other two kids have different personalities and I think were much less conscious about this/it seems not to have come up much, or at least they didn't report it.

My second kid did face some racial issues in ES-- it was really just one unhappy kid who was targeting lots of people for whatever issue she could come up with so while it was racial taunts at my kid, it was other types of bullying for other kids.

Over time, though, two things happened. First, the schools became a bit more diverse moving into MS and HS. So you might look at that. If this is just an ES issue, I wouldn't think twice about it, frankly. As my kids moved into MS and especially HS, their friend group became much more Black. They still have a diverse set of friends, but there were definitely more Black kids included in their inner circle.

The other thing that happened, though, and I think it's related, is that going into MS and especially HS, race became front and center of a lot of the discourse. Like, the kids TALK about race a lot. In our society today, much more than I remember growing up, people just talk a lot more about race. And all three of them talked about being uncomfortable with those conversations in HS because they were in the minority. Things like teachers asking them (not in so many words but clearly in spirit) to represent the Black perspective. Lots of conversations in history and english classes where they felt like other kids in the class were looking at them. (Remarkably, all three of them said that kids in their US history class speculated about how much they would have brought at a slave auction. I think there must be a part of the class where they talk about shade of complexion as one of the inputs into the price of the slave and all three said that set kids in their class thinking.) One plays sports and says kids on OTHER teams have yelled slurs (which is a different thing that what you're asking) but that their own coach didn't really handle it well maybe due to inexperience-- she felt like the coach didn't protect them.

So I don't have good advice. In all, 1. I'm happy my kids went to better performing schools than they otherwise would have. 2. I think the kid's personality might matter a lot in terms of how sensitive they are to certain things. 3. As an ES parent, you're probably overly focused on ES dynamics and demographics and that's a short time and less of a big deal I think. Look at the MS and HS experiences. 4. Over time, all three of their friend groups became much more Black. Not just because the HS was more diverse than the ES but I think because the emphasis on race and other social dynamics nudged them in that direction as they grew older.

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Anonymous wrote:Where do you see performance stats by race?

You can look at performance stats by race across the system and by school on Maryland's Report Card website: https://reportcard.msde.maryland.gov/

They baked those stats though. Doesn't really tell what the scores are. Like they literally adjusted for the racial makeup of the schools.

I hope you noticed that OP only asked for parents of Black kids to respond with their opinion. That’s for a reason - because often we cannot have these conversations without people butting in with their irrelevant opinions about OUR experiences. Are you the parent of a Black child? What you’re discussing is off topic - OP didn’t ask about test scores.

Anonymous wrote:We are looking at two houses in Montgomery County - 20878 area code and would like to put in an offer soon. Love both houses equally but one has better curb appeal and a bit more square footage. However, for the slightly more appealing house, when looking at demographic stats for the zoned elementary school, it has very few Black students enrolled. For the other house, the stats for Black students are much higher - more than double the other school. At both schools, however, the highest demographic is Asian, followed by White/Caucasian.

So my question is - how much would these demographics concern you when looking for a school? My older kid is coming from an elementary school where the proportion of demographics was pretty even across the board, so it’s not really something we had to think about before, although I will say most of their close friend were Black. Have you found it easy for your child to socialize - i.e., play dates, etc.? Has race been an issue at all for your kid - less concerns about us as parents but more concerned for our kids (age 6 going into 2nd grade next year) and (age 4 going into kindergarten year after next).

Thank you!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do you see performance stats by race?

You can look at performance stats by race across the system and by school on Maryland's Report Card website: https://reportcard.msde.maryland.gov/

They baked those stats though. Doesn't really tell what the scores are. Like they literally adjusted for the racial makeup of the schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do you see performance stats by race?

You can look at performance stats by race across the system and by school on Maryland's Report Card website: https://reportcard.msde.maryland.gov/

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Anonymous wrote:Can’t believe you are worried about this. MCPS is one of the most diverse school systems in the country.

Have you seen what the proficiencies in ELA and Math are for Black students in MCPS? They're not good. OP has plenty of reason to worry.

Unfortunately I think this is mostly tied to income. Wealthy Black students do just as well as wealthy white students.

Uh, no they don’t. I don’t know what data you’re looking at but it’s not MCPS’s.

Non-FARMS Black kids don’t match the academic proficiencies of non-FARMS white kids. This was outlined in MCPS Antiracism audit. You should read it.

This doesn’t mean that the inverse is true - that high income Blacks don’t score the same as high income whites and Asians. They do.

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Anonymous wrote:Can’t believe you are worried about this. MCPS is one of the most diverse school systems in the country.

Have you seen what the proficiencies in ELA and Math are for Black students in MCPS? They're not good. OP has plenty of reason to worry.

Unfortunately I think this is mostly tied to income. Wealthy Black students do just as well as wealthy white students.

Uh, no they don’t. I don’t know what data you’re looking at but it’s not MCPS’s.

Non-FARMS Black kids don’t match the academic proficiencies of non-FARMS white kids. This was outlined in MCPS Antiracism audit. You should read it.

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Anonymous wrote:To the poster that moved to Potomac from silver spring for better schools. Why are they better?

They are NOT better in terms of curriculum (same curriculum for a given class across all schools) or mostly in terms of teachers (same teacher pool, pay, etc. across the county though some teachers may have a slight preference for W schools). Depending on home school, they may offer more APs and you're generally surrounded by a set of kids who push themselves hard academically. This last point leads to higher average test scores overall.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can’t believe you are worried about this. MCPS is one of the most diverse school systems in the country.

Have you seen what the proficiencies in ELA and Math are for Black students in MCPS? They're not good. OP has plenty of reason to worry.

Unfortunately I think this is mostly tied to income. Wealthy Black students do just as well as wealthy white students.

Uh, no they don’t. I don’t know what data you’re looking at but it’s not MCPS’s.

Non-FARMS Black kids don’t match the academic proficiencies of non-FARMS white kids. This was outlined in MCPS Antiracism audit. You should read it.

Anonymous wrote:That zipcode goes mostly to very diverse high schools.
IME race has not made a difference for playdates and was not really anything that came up in elementary for myself or the kids. Once kids get into HS as PP pointed out it's more of a discussion when they take U.S. history and talk about current events. It is nice not to be the "lone" anything in a class when that happens but that would not be an issue at QO or Gaithersburg HS.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Can’t believe you are worried about this. MCPS is one of the most diverse school systems in the country.

Have you seen what the proficiencies in ELA and Math are for Black students in MCPS? They're not good. OP has plenty of reason to worry.

Unfortunately I think this is mostly tied to income. Wealthy Black students do just as well as wealthy white students.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can’t believe you are worried about this. MCPS is one of the most diverse school systems in the country.

Have you seen what the proficiencies in ELA and Math are for Black students in MCPS? They're not good. OP has plenty of reason to worry.