I agree with the PP. yes I think Rockville is diverse, but it' too far out for me. Sure, there are parts of Silver Spring that are far out too, but I don't live in those parts.

To PP, fair point. When I usually refer to west, it tends to be places that are as close in - Kensington, Bethesda, etc. Rockville may be a good choice but not in our sights due to our particular commutes.

People who live in Silver Spring who say they'd never move further west because of the diversity don't seem to actually be familiar with the stats. I live in Rockville. We're actually more diverse than Silver Spring. We have almost a solidly equal distribution of White/Black/Hispanic/Asian people (and mixed race is up every year).

Silver Spring does have higher percentages of Black and Hispanic people. That is not the same thing as diverse.

I live in one of the school pyramids described here. My biggest concern is middle school, since there is a movement in MCPS away from ability grouping. The fact is that there is a much wider gap in abilities in DCC middle schools than in Bethesda middle schools, which can make it hard for teachers to meet all students' needs and still challenge high achieving students. That said, we really want to make it work- we love Silver Spring and value the diversity and don't want to (nor could we afford) to live elsewhere. We may move in a few years for house reasons and will reevaluate the schools at that point. I think there are some "risks" in buying a forever house here, since school boundaries can always change and school quality can change over time, particularly when there are changes in school leadership.

NP here. I am not white but I understand that it is easier to look at demographics in order to make a choice about being in a school with high achievers, etc. I can't speak for others, but what I look for is involved parents. The preschool and elementary school I send my kids to is diverse. It is also filled with families who care about their kids and try to help their kids succeed. In turn, the kids (not just the white kids) seem to understand the value of learning and helping others. Take that into the older grades and you have kids who are less likely to get into trouble because they care and their parents care - regardless of whether they are in the advanced or average classes.

I can't completely figure out how the good kid/bad kid lines are drawn. Some of the kids that are behind (not trouble) because of ESOL and just need to catch up. Some are from lower socio-economic backgrounds where the parents can't be involved. Some are just troublemakers and who knows why - maybe just personality and they may or may not grow out of it. So when you pull up the schools at a glance sheets for tests and safety, you have a correlation. More white, less FARMS, and it looks better and safer so it seems less likely that your kid will end up friends with kids that will be trouble or not care about school.

I do have a friend who is in the Whitman district and who sends her kids to private. I wondered why at first but they are not white and they decided that diversity was important enough to pay for school. They wanted their kids friends to be high achievers but wanted them to also be from different backgrounds. For that reason as well (and because so far, I love the schools), I am staying east of Conn. Ave.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP, are we pretending that environment doesn't influence some kids negatively and therefore a responsible parent will try not to expose their child to that environment?

It's all about maximizing opportunities to succeed for many parents.

So you are saying that average white kids are better than average black and Latino kids.

I'm the poster you responded too and I'm not white. But it's quite clear that in the reality we all live in the SES of whites is on average higher than blacks/Latinos and a whole slew of ills affect the later two groups to a larger extent. Some of which is attributable history. But wherever it originates you can't fault parents from avoiding communities that have these issues if they have the means.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP, are we pretending that environment doesn't influence some kids negatively and therefore a responsible parent will try not to expose their child to that environment?

It's all about maximizing opportunities to succeed for many parents.

So you are saying that average white kids are better than average black and Latino kids.

Yes.

Anonymous wrote:NP, are we pretending that environment doesn't influence some kids negatively and therefore a responsible parent will try not to expose their child to that environment?

It's all about maximizing opportunities to succeed for many parents.

So you are saying that average white kids are better than average black and Latino kids.