Anonymous wrote:Diversity encompasses a broad spectrum from race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, national origin, and socio-economic status. It bothers me greatly that many in MCPS don't acknowledge this.

MCPS is very focused on the lowest scoring group. The demographics of this group have several attributes racial- black or hispanic, ethnicity/national origin -AA, Central America, socioeconomic status - below or at the poverty line. Its wrong to say that race is the driver for low scores as African immigrants and wealthy AA score very well. Its wrong to say its only socioeconomic as poor Asian students score very well. The low scores correlate with several demographic attributes not one aspect.

Wootton and Churchill have broad diversity in race, religion, ethnicity, and national origin. They both have low diversity in socio-economic status. They have a low population of students with the collection of attributes that correlate with the lowest performance.

Except for national origin from Central America, South America, the Caribbean, or Africa (either recently or via the trans-Atlantic slave trade). That's a big chunk of the world.

As for your assertion that students from African immigrant, poor Asian immigrant, and wealthy African-American families score "very well" -- I would be very interested in data that support your assertion.

Anonymous wrote:Diversity encompasses a broad spectrum from race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, national origin, and socio-economic status. It bothers me greatly that many in MCPS don't acknowledge this.

MCPS is very focused on the lowest scoring group. The demographics of this group have several attributes racial- black or hispanic, ethnicity/national origin -AA, Central America, socioeconomic status - below or at the poverty line. Its wrong to say that race is the driver for low scores as African immigrants and wealthy AA score very well. Its wrong to say its only socioeconomic as poor Asian students score very well. The low scores correlate with several demographic attributes not one aspect.

Wootton and Churchill have broad diversity in race, religion, ethnicity, and national origin. They both have low diversity in socio-economic status. They have a low population of students with the collection of attributes that correlate with the lowest performance.

the schools may have diversity in religion and countries of origin, but certainly not by race.

Diversity encompasses a broad spectrum from race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, national origin, and socio-economic status. It bothers me greatly that many in MCPS don't acknowledge this.

MCPS is very focused on the lowest scoring group. The demographics of this group have several attributes racial- black or hispanic, ethnicity/national origin -AA, Central America, socioeconomic status - below or at the poverty line. Its wrong to say that race is the driver for low scores as African immigrants and wealthy AA score very well. Its wrong to say its only socioeconomic as poor Asian students score very well. The low scores correlate with several demographic attributes not one aspect.

Wootton and Churchill have broad diversity in race, religion, ethnicity, and national origin. They both have low diversity in socio-economic status. They have a low population of students with the collection of attributes that correlate with the lowest performance.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
LOL! You really do live in your own Churchill world. Black/Hispanic students make up 50% of MCPS. Even alone, they are not 1 out of 6, maybe in west MCPS they are, but certainly not for all of MCPS.

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/about/

Demographics (2014-2015)
White: 31%
Hispanic/Latino: 28.5%
Black or African American: 21.5%
Asian: 14.2%
Two or more races: ? 5.0%
American Indian or Alaskan Native: ? 5.0%
Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander: ? 5.0%

You are correct -- I don't have the slightest interest in what the numbers are for Montgomery County. I value diversity in my kids' school because I want them to know kids with different backgrounds and perspectives. For example, I want them to have Muslim friends so they aren't susceptible to anti-Muslim hysteria in the media. I want them to meet black kids who are smarter than they are, so they aren't prey to stupid stereotypes. For this reason, I am very happy with the diversity in my Churchill school district.

Now MCPS bean counters seem to have an interest in seeing that every school district have the same racial divisions across the entire county. (They also have a curious obsession with kids from Latin America, but not from other parts of the world.) I suppose they have their job to do, but it doesn't interest me as a parent.

If MCPS were truly interested in racial diversity *across* the county, Churchill would look very different. And if you were truly interested in your kids being exposed to a wider variety of smart kids, then Churchill wouldn't be the place because having a handful of Black/Hispanic smart kids, but a majority not so smart Black kids isn't showing your kids great diversity.

We used to live in a district where the majority of the Black/Hispanic kids were from poor families. Sure, there were a handful that were not, but the vast majority were, and the rest of the student body was made up of wealthier Asian/White families. Sound familiar? It was just like Churchill. We moved because we didn't want our kids to associate predominately Black/Hispanic with poor. That is Churchill.

You keep saying you value diversity, but Churchill is not diverse by any means. Having a handful of Muslims, Black, Hispanic, etc.. is not considered diverse. It's considered just a handful. That's like saying ketchup is considered a fruit because it has some tomatoes. Keep it at a minimum and that's your ideal.

Anonymous wrote:

You are correct -- I don't have the slightest interest in what the numbers are for Montgomery County. I value diversity in my kids' school because I want them to know kids with different backgrounds and perspectives. For example, I want them to have Muslim friends so they aren't susceptible to anti-Muslim hysteria in the media. I want them to meet black kids who are smarter than they are, so they aren't prey to stupid stereotypes. For this reason, I am very happy with the diversity in my Churchill school district.

Now MCPS bean counters seem to have an interest in seeing that every school district have the same racial divisions across the entire county. (They also have a curious obsession with kids from Latin America, but not from other parts of the world.) I suppose they have their job to do, but it doesn't interest me as a parent.

No, they don't. They are, however, interested in mitigating the effects of poverty on education. Perhaps you think that this interest on their part constitutes "a curious obsession", but I don't. In Montgomery County (as in many other parts of the US), poverty is highly correlated with Hispanic/Latin American ethnicity and African-American origin, for reasons that are neither coincidental nor reflective of individual personal failings. And one of the best ways of mitigating the effects of poverty on education is educating poor kids in low-poverty instead of high-poverty schools.

I'm glad that you like the diversity at Churchill. But Churchill has no economic diversity (besides kids from Scotland, as previously mentioned). Your kids will not meet any kids with the background and perspective of poverty in the US. And that is a feature, not a bug.

Holy shit! I had no idea that only 5% of Churchill's population was Native Hawaiin or Pacific Islander. This school is not diverse. Its filled with continent dwellers that have no understanding of alternative land masses.

Anonymous wrote:
LOL! You really do live in your own Churchill world. Black/Hispanic students make up 50% of MCPS. Even alone, they are not 1 out of 6, maybe in west MCPS they are, but certainly not for all of MCPS.

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/about/

Demographics (2014-2015)
White: 31%
Hispanic/Latino: 28.5%
Black or African American: 21.5%
Asian: 14.2%
Two or more races: ? 5.0%
American Indian or Alaskan Native: ? 5.0%
Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander: ? 5.0%

You are correct -- I don't have the slightest interest in what the numbers are for Montgomery County. I value diversity in my kids' school because I want them to know kids with different backgrounds and perspectives. For example, I want them to have Muslim friends so they aren't susceptible to anti-Muslim hysteria in the media. I want them to meet black kids who are smarter than they are, so they aren't prey to stupid stereotypes. For this reason, I am very happy with the diversity in my Churchill school district.

Now MCPS bean counters seem to have an interest in seeing that every school district have the same racial divisions across the entire county. (They also have a curious obsession with kids from Latin America, but not from other parts of the world.) I suppose they have their job to do, but it doesn't interest me as a parent.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
A while ago, there was an incident involving some black students. The Principal at Churchill apparently told the non-black parents not to worry because it was black on black violence. So, apparently, they are not that well integrated.

I agree that was an awful thing for the principal to say, and I don't believe she ever sufficiently apologized.

Anonymous wrote:
And to the poster that insists these schools are diverse, you are so funny in your persistence that those are considered diverse schools.

I am that poster, and yes I am very happy with the diversity in my Churchill school district. My kid's best friends are immigrants from Iran, Ethiopia and China. She socializes with Muslims and Sikhs along with Catholics, Jews, and
Protestants. And according to MCPS statistics one out of six students is African-American or hispanic.

What I find funny is how someone from Argentina is supposed to make the school diverse, but someone from the poorer country of Portugal does not. Again, nothing against Latin Americans but why are they singled out among all countries of the World as making a school diverse?

LOL! You really do live in your own Churchill world. Black/Hispanic students make up 50% of MCPS. Even alone, they are not 1 out of 6, maybe in west MCPS they are, but certainly not for all of MCPS.

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/about/

Demographics (2014-2015)
White: 31%
Hispanic/Latino: 28.5%
Black or African American: 21.5%
Asian: 14.2%
Two or more races: ? 5.0%
American Indian or Alaskan Native: ? 5.0%
Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander: ? 5.0%

Anonymous wrote:I used to live in the Wayside area of Potomac. I moved a couple of years ago so I haven't kept up on the school renovation schedules. But I would also look at how old your kids are and when Potomac Elementary is scheduled to be modernized b/c when I lived in the area that school was falling apart. If your kids are babies and won't start school for a few years, maybe the school will be rebuilt and you will be fine. I don't know if you've narrowed it down to two houses and one is in Travilah and one is in Potomac Elementary or if you are just starting to look. But it is just something else to consider.

OP here. That is a really good point, and one of the reasons I like the Wootton cluster. We have narrowed down our search to two neighborhoods, one in each cluster.

Anonymous wrote:Potomac ES is getting modernized?? That is a travesty. Guess the two brand new middle schools in that cluster, plus the sprawling campus at BFES, is not enough. Other clusters are overcrowded, but the Churcill cluster is heading toward having all brand new facilities.

Potomac ES was last renovated in 1976.

If you have some spare time, you could look up how many schools there are in MCPS that have not been renovated since 1976 or earlier, or were built in 1976 or earlier and have not been renovated. I doubt that there are many.

Anonymous wrote:Potomac ES is getting modernized?? That is a travesty. Guess the two brand new middle schools in that cluster, plus the sprawling campus at BFES, is not enough. Other clusters are overcrowded, but the Churcill cluster is heading toward having all brand new facilities.

It opened in 1949 and hasn't been updated--hardly a travesty to modernize it after 66 years.

Modernization starts in 2 years.

Potomac ES is getting modernized?? That is a travesty. Guess the two brand new middle schools in that cluster, plus the sprawling campus at BFES, is not enough. Other clusters are overcrowded, but the Churcill cluster is heading toward having all brand new facilities.

I used to live in the Wayside area of Potomac. I moved a couple of years ago so I haven't kept up on the school renovation schedules. But I would also look at how old your kids are and when Potomac Elementary is scheduled to be modernized b/c when I lived in the area that school was falling apart. If your kids are babies and won't start school for a few years, maybe the school will be rebuilt and you will be fine. I don't know if you've narrowed it down to two houses and one is in Travilah and one is in Potomac Elementary or if you are just starting to look. But it is just something else to consider.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
And to the poster that insists these schools are diverse, you are so funny in your persistence that those are considered diverse schools.

I am that poster, and yes I am very happy with the diversity in my Churchill school district. My kid's best friends are immigrants from Iran, Ethiopia and China. She socializes with Muslims and Sikhs along with Catholics, Jews, and
Protestants. And according to MCPS statistics one out of six students is African-American or hispanic.

What I find funny is how someone from Argentina is supposed to make the school diverse, but someone from the poorer country of Portugal does not. Again, nothing against Latin Americans but why are they singled out among all countries of the World as making a school diverse?

Who says that Portugal is poorer than Argentina?

And again, there are many different forms of diversity. Ethnic diversity is certainly one form. Religious diversity and geographic diversity are other forms. And economic diversity is also a form. If there is one thing the Churchill part of Potomac is not, it's economically diverse. (Except, of course, for Scotland...)

Anonymous wrote:
A while ago, there was an incident involving some black students. The Principal at Churchill apparently told the non-black parents not to worry because it was black on black violence. So, apparently, they are not that well integrated.

I agree that was an awful thing for the principal to say, and I don't believe she ever sufficiently apologized.

Anonymous wrote:
And to the poster that insists these schools are diverse, you are so funny in your persistence that those are considered diverse schools.

I am that poster, and yes I am very happy with the diversity in my Churchill school district. My kid's best friends are immigrants from Iran, Ethiopia and China. She socializes with Muslims and Sikhs along with Catholics, Jews, and
Protestants. And according to MCPS statistics one out of six students is African-American or hispanic.

What I find funny is how someone from Argentina is supposed to make the school diverse, but someone from the poorer country of Portugal does not. Again, nothing against Latin Americans but why are they singled out among all countries of the World as making a school diverse?