Anonymous wrote:I think it depends on your child. Any MCPS MS or HS is going to have a hard-working, high-achieving, cohort of kids. Some of those kids will be in a magnet or choice program, and some will not, but they will exist in any school.

Similarly, every school is going to have a cohort of troublemakers. At a rich school, those troublemakers are drinking and doing higher-end drugs. At a poorer school, they are vaping and smoking pot. The pool of troublemakers is probably smaller at a rich school, but it still exists.

So the question you need to figure out is whether your child is going to seek out the troublemakers. Does his ADHD present as risk-seeking and/or school avoidant?

The other thing to consider is school administration, which is typically more stable at the MS and HS levels. A good principal hiring good APs can make all the difference.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Northwood is fine even with the commute to Bethesda. The school is underrated. The twice exceptional program is there (gifted/talented learning disabled). DC likes that the school is smaller than a lot of the other DCC high schools.

Very happy at Northwood and the new building has not been the challenge we were anxious about.

Cannot say this about my other child’s Blair experience.

Could you say more about your other child’s Blair experience?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What seems to be missing from this racist discussion among white people is that excluding CAP (which is mostly white, UMC kids) the magnets are not in any way predominantly white or predominantly upper middle class. This is particularly true of MCPS’s flagship magnet at Blair, where white kids are very much the minority.

Those minority kids (Asians specifically) largely come from the 30-40% Asian wealthy neighborhoods.

+1 This isn't NYC. The Asian American kids in MCPS magnets are not coming from the families of dry cleaners and convenience store owners. They are the children of scientists and other professionals and disproportionately live in wealthy neighborhoods. You don't have to believe my word - check out this racial heat map: https://www.censusdots.com/race/montgomery-county-md-demographics

OMG, do you understand that there is an entire world between “upper middle class” and “dry cleaners and convenience store owners”? (Though the latter can be wealthy too)

Thank you for posting this. Most of you would be surprised at how many AAPI kids in those magnets end up taking UMD scholarships because they are not wealthy. The ignorance is shocking.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Northwood is fine even with the commute to Bethesda. The school is underrated. The twice exceptional program is there (gifted/talented learning disabled). DC likes that the school is smaller than a lot of the other DCC high schools.

Very happy at Northwood and the new building has not been the challenge we were anxious about.

Cannot say this about my other child’s Blair experience.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What seems to be missing from this racist discussion among white people is that excluding CAP (which is mostly white, UMC kids) the magnets are not in any way predominantly white or predominantly upper middle class. This is particularly true of MCPS’s flagship magnet at Blair, where white kids are very much the minority.

Those minority kids (Asians specifically) largely come from the 30-40% Asian wealthy neighborhoods.

+1 This isn't NYC. The Asian American kids in MCPS magnets are not coming from the families of dry cleaners and convenience store owners. They are the children of scientists and other professionals and disproportionately live in wealthy neighborhoods. You don't have to believe my word - check out this racial heat map: https://www.censusdots.com/race/montgomery-county-md-demographics

OMG, do you understand that there is an entire world between “upper middle class” and “dry cleaners and convenience store owners”? (Though the latter can be wealthy too)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What seems to be missing from this racist discussion among white people is that excluding CAP (which is mostly white, UMC kids) the magnets are not in any way predominantly white or predominantly upper middle class. This is particularly true of MCPS’s flagship magnet at Blair, where white kids are very much the minority.

Those minority kids (Asians specifically) largely come from the 30-40% Asian wealthy neighborhoods.

+1 This isn't NYC. The Asian American kids in MCPS magnets are not coming from the families of dry cleaners and convenience store owners. They are the children of scientists and other professionals and disproportionately live in wealthy neighborhoods. You don't have to believe my word - check out this racial heat map: https://www.censusdots.com/race/montgomery-county-md-demographics

OMG, do you understand that there is an entire world between “upper middle class” and “dry cleaners and convenience store owners”? (Though the latter can be wealthy too)

The median HHI in MoCo is $118K. From a sociological perspective, UMC is generally considered to be between the 60th and 80th percentile. So, a family with two GS-15s, or a physician and a SAHP, or any number of other configurations that are common in Bethesda/Potomac, are absolutely UMC.

That’s not a response to the point above

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Northwood is fine even with the commute to Bethesda. The school is underrated. The twice exceptional program is there (gifted/talented learning disabled). DC likes that the school is smaller than a lot of the other DCC high schools.

Very happy at Northwood and the new building has not been the challenge we were anxious about.

Cannot say this about my other child’s Blair experience.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What seems to be missing from this racist discussion among white people is that excluding CAP (which is mostly white, UMC kids) the magnets are not in any way predominantly white or predominantly upper middle class. This is particularly true of MCPS’s flagship magnet at Blair, where white kids are very much the minority.

Those minority kids (Asians specifically) largely come from the 30-40% Asian wealthy neighborhoods.

+1 This isn't NYC. The Asian American kids in MCPS magnets are not coming from the families of dry cleaners and convenience store owners. They are the children of scientists and other professionals and disproportionately live in wealthy neighborhoods. You don't have to believe my word - check out this racial heat map: https://www.censusdots.com/race/montgomery-county-md-demographics

OMG, do you understand that there is an entire world between “upper middle class” and “dry cleaners and convenience store owners”? (Though the latter can be wealthy too)

The median HHI in MoCo is $118K. From a sociological perspective, UMC is generally considered to be between the 60th and 80th percentile. So, a family with two GS-15s, or a physician and a SAHP, or any number of other configurations that are common in Bethesda/Potomac, are absolutely UMC.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for all the insights.

PPs are correct. The language is so not-so-thinly veiled. I know there is a lot of fear-mongering here about the DCC, but there had to be "regular" kids succeeding and heading to college. DCUM makes it sound like it's magnet/IB or bust.

I'll definitely tune out the noise and continue supporting DC the best we can. We really love our ES and our community.

“Regular kids” meaning white and UMC according to this thread. Not even veiled racism anymore.

Knee jerk much? The “regular” description was to distinguish kids from magnet kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What seems to be missing from this racist discussion among white people is that excluding CAP (which is mostly white, UMC kids) the magnets are not in any way predominantly white or predominantly upper middle class. This is particularly true of MCPS’s flagship magnet at Blair, where white kids are very much the minority.

Those minority kids (Asians specifically) largely come from the 30-40% Asian wealthy neighborhoods.

+1 This isn't NYC. The Asian American kids in MCPS magnets are not coming from the families of dry cleaners and convenience store owners. They are the children of scientists and other professionals and disproportionately live in wealthy neighborhoods. You don't have to believe my word - check out this racial heat map: https://www.censusdots.com/race/montgomery-county-md-demographics

OMG, do you understand that there is an entire world between “upper middle class” and “dry cleaners and convenience store owners”? (Though the latter can be wealthy too)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for all the insights.

PPs are correct. The language is so not-so-thinly veiled. I know there is a lot of fear-mongering here about the DCC, but there had to be "regular" kids succeeding and heading to college. DCUM makes it sound like it's magnet/IB or bust.

I'll definitely tune out the noise and continue supporting DC the best we can. We really love our ES and our community.

“Regular kids” meaning white and UMC according to this thread. Not even veiled racism anymore.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TPMS and Blair both have a ton of kids- not in magnet programs - across all racial and SES groups, that are college bound and motivated in school.

+1
It's just just TPMS but TPMS is probably the richest of the DCC schools although SSI also pulls from some pretty well off areas.

Meant it's not JUST TPMS. All the DCC schools have a group of highly motivated and smart students across racial and SES groups.

Yes, of course. PP here - I only have experience at TPMS and Blair. I wonder if it's true that TPMS is the richest of the DCC middle schools - sure Takoma Park has a lot of very expensive houses but we also have a lot of low income apartments. Wonder how it all balances out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What seems to be missing from this racist discussion among white people is that excluding CAP (which is mostly white, UMC kids) the magnets are not in any way predominantly white or predominantly upper middle class. This is particularly true of MCPS’s flagship magnet at Blair, where white kids are very much the minority.

Those minority kids (Asians specifically) largely come from the 30-40% Asian wealthy neighborhoods.

+1 This isn't NYC. The Asian American kids in MCPS magnets are not coming from the families of dry cleaners and convenience store owners. They are the children of scientists and other professionals and disproportionately live in wealthy neighborhoods. You don't have to believe my word - check out this racial heat map: https://www.censusdots.com/race/montgomery-county-md-demographics

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What seems to be missing from this racist discussion among white people is that excluding CAP (which is mostly white, UMC kids) the magnets are not in any way predominantly white or predominantly upper middle class. This is particularly true of MCPS’s flagship magnet at Blair, where white kids are very much the minority.

It has been a long time since MCPS released the demographic data for magnets, but RMIB and Poolesville are both at least plurality white.

All of the magnets, including Blair, are predominantly upper middle class if we use a normal metric for upper middle class, not a DCUM metric.

So actually the only true thing here is that the Blair magnet is predominantly Asian. Which is fine and cool but doesn't really mean anything about the rest of the programs.

Blair magnet is mostly composed of kids who are Asian - many are Indian - with some black kids and very few white and Hispanic. Many kids, including the white ones (a significant proportion that are Russian or Eastern European) are children of immigrants. The majority are not upper middle class by any definition.

RMIB is also mostly Asian (less Indian kids maybe?). I’m unfamiliar with Poolesville.

I have no idea why you think Asians and Russians have no money. These Potomac kids at Blair magnet (a huge fraction) have money and big houses..

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TPMS and Blair both have a ton of kids- not in magnet programs - across all racial and SES groups, that are college bound and motivated in school.

+1
It's just just TPMS but TPMS is probably the richest of the DCC schools although SSI also pulls from some pretty well off areas.

Meant it's not JUST TPMS. All the DCC schools have a group of highly motivated and smart students across racial and SES groups.