Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I do hear this fear from parents that you mention too, but I don't know if it's real. Can anyone chime in if they have a high-performing child in a lower-performing school, and how it has affected them?

np here. I have no kids yet in MoCo but I have a very close relative who teaches at New Hampshire Estates, a title I school. Sbe tells us things that she's really contractually or ethically forbidden to discuss. In her classes of ~15, there's always one child who isn't FARM + ESL. The other 14 are always poor to dirt poor recent immigrants with parents who are entirely uninvested in the kids' education -- for a variety of reasons. ie, they don't speak English, it's not culturally common to engage with teachers, they work 3 jobs, they live in another country and the kid is staying in a counsin's basement ... whatever.

Bottom line, my teacher-relative spends 98% of her time focusing on the 14 students described above because she must. The 'high performing child' gets minimal attention and my relative freely admits this. She is frustrated because she spend a huge amount of time on classroom management and behavior and less time than is needed on instruction.

Not to mention, when 14 of the 15 kids need to learn at a slow pace during oral instruction -- again, for a variety of understandable reasons -- the 15th kid must necessarily learn at a slow pace. Do a DCUM search for 'new hampshire estates' and you'll find other posts of hers and mine with more concrete examples of what I'm talking about.

I'm not discrediting everything you've said here, but who is or is not a FARMS student is confidential information. Not even the administrators know this in a school. I guarantee your relative does not know who the FARMS students in her class are.S She may guess based upon what she knows of their families, but she doesn't know for sure about anyone.

Anonymous wrote:My child attends a "focus school" and I think they have done a good job of addressing the needs of both the kids who came in not speaking English and those who came in reading chapter books. In addition to reading groups in the classroom, the kids who are reading at a higher level are taken out 3 times a week to work in groups of 3 with another teacher on higher level reading and writing.

Anonymous wrote:I just want to put this out there. I see people referring to the Bethesda-Chevy Chase district or the Rockville district, etc. But with the exception of the magnet schools, the curriculum is the same across the county, from K to 12. The teachers are very good across the county. The only difference among schools is who your kid is sitting next to in class. People on this board look at the average scores of the kids in the school and then tend to consider a school "good" if that kid sitting next to your kid is relatively wealthy and usually white or asian. They tend to consider a school "bad" if that kid is relatively less wealthy and usually hispanic or black. But Montgomery County schools are among the best in the nation, whoever is sitting next to your kid. We have great teachers and lots of resources. If you are looking for a place to live, please don't believe the scare tactics. These are all good schools.

Anonymous wrote:There is a broad spectrum within MCPS between a Bradley Hills and New Hampshire Estates. The problem comes when parents assume that any school that isn't a Bradley Hills or Somerset is a New Hampshire Estates.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
np here. I have no kids yet in MoCo but I have a very close relative who teaches at New Hampshire Estates, a title I school. Sbe tells us things that she's really contractually or ethically forbidden to discuss. In her classes of ~15, there's always one child who isn't FARM + ESL. The other 14 are always poor to dirt poor recent immigrants with parents who are entirely uninvested in the kids' education -- for a variety of reasons. ie, they don't speak English, it's not culturally common to engage with teachers, they work 3 jobs, they live in another country and the kid is staying in a counsin's basement ... whatever.
Bottom line, my teacher-relative spends 98% of her time focusing on the 14 students described above because she must. The 'high performing child' gets minimal attention and my relative freely admits this. She is frustrated because she spend a huge amount of time on classroom management and behavior and less time than is needed on instruction.
Not to mention, when 14 of the 15 kids need to learn at a slow pace during oral instruction -- again, for a variety of understandable reasons -- the 15th kid must necessarily learn at a slow pace. Do a DCUM search for 'new hampshire estates' and you'll find other posts of hers and mine with more concrete examples of what I'm talking about.

I guess I can understand this frustration, but we do go to school with other people in our community in this country. Their children need to learn English and the schools are doing an excellent job teaching them. Is this 15th kid really losing so much that it's worth it for his wealthier family to pull him out, like all the other wealthier families have pulled their kids out, so there are literally no highly involved parents left? It seems like we've made that bargain in this country. That we keep our own kid completely safe, surrounded by other wealthy kids, while draining all the parental resources out of the schools we leave.

Anonymous wrote:
np here. I have no kids yet in MoCo but I have a very close relative who teaches at New Hampshire Estates, a title I school. Sbe tells us things that she's really contractually or ethically forbidden to discuss. In her classes of ~15, there's always one child who isn't FARM + ESL. The other 14 are always poor to dirt poor recent immigrants with parents who are entirely uninvested in the kids' education -- for a variety of reasons. ie, they don't speak English, it's not culturally common to engage with teachers, they work 3 jobs, they live in another country and the kid is staying in a counsin's basement ... whatever.
Bottom line, my teacher-relative spends 98% of her time focusing on the 14 students described above because she must. The 'high performing child' gets minimal attention and my relative freely admits this. She is frustrated because she spend a huge amount of time on classroom management and behavior and less time than is needed on instruction.
Not to mention, when 14 of the 15 kids need to learn at a slow pace during oral instruction -- again, for a variety of understandable reasons -- the 15th kid must necessarily learn at a slow pace. Do a DCUM search for 'new hampshire estates' and you'll find other posts of hers and mine with more concrete examples of what I'm talking about.

Anonymous wrote:

I do hear this fear from parents that you mention too, but I don't know if it's real. Can anyone chime in if they have a high-performing child in a lower-performing school, and how it has affected them?

np here. I have no kids yet in MoCo but I have a very close relative who teaches at New Hampshire Estates, a title I school. Sbe tells us things that she's really contractually or ethically forbidden to discuss. In her classes of ~15, there's always one child who isn't FARM + ESL. The other 14 are always poor to dirt poor recent immigrants with parents who are entirely uninvested in the kids' education -- for a variety of reasons. ie, they don't speak English, it's not culturally common to engage with teachers, they work 3 jobs, they live in another country and the kid is staying in a counsin's basement ... whatever.

Bottom line, my teacher-relative spends 98% of her time focusing on the 14 students described above because she must. The 'high performing child' gets minimal attention and my relative freely admits this. She is frustrated because she spend a huge amount of time on classroom management and behavior and less time than is needed on instruction.

Not to mention, when 14 of the 15 kids need to learn at a slow pace during oral instruction -- again, for a variety of understandable reasons -- the 15th kid must necessarily learn at a slow pace. Do a DCUM search for 'new hampshire estates' and you'll find other posts of hers and mine with more concrete examples of what I'm talking about.

Anonymous wrote:

The 'high performing child' gets minimal attention and my relative freely admits this. She is frustrated because she spend a huge amount of time on classroom management and behavior and less time than is needed on instruction.

Not to mention, when 14 of the 15 kids need to learn at a slow pace during oral instruction -- again, for a variety of understandable reasons -- the 15th kid must necessarily learn at a slow pace.

We've had a similiar experience, though not at this school. When we asked why she hadn't met with our child for reading in three weeks, the teacher told us that she was required to meet with the "at risk" kids on a daily basis, and she fits the other groups in as often as she can. While I understand the need for this, I still feel like our DC gets short changed.