OP, you have asked a lightning rod sort of question. I’m black and live in Kensington. Unpopular opinion - there isn’t any public school in MoCo that I like for Black children. Start digging into the test data and you will find that there are very few schools where Black children test similarly to their white peers. And this is taking SES into account. The educated, wealthy Black doctors, lawyers, and consultants are not all raising untalented children. So one then has to wonder why are the children performing poorly? There has been a lot of research about implicit bias and lowered expectations for Black children, as well as different outcomes for Black children in schools with a predominantly white faculty. If you check the demographics of some of these schools, you will see that the majority of the non white staff is support staff and not teaching or admin. So your children are in an environment where everyone who looks like them is in a service role.

I have no problem with my children attending a school that has economic diversity, but I don’t want them at a school where every other child who looks like them is low SES. No matter what teachers say, there are lowered expectations for those students and your child will be lumped in to those lowered expectations.

If you can afford it, you may want to consider a cheaper house and pay for private. There are great neighborhoods in Kensington that are zoned to Rock View and Oakland Terrace that will be much more affordable than the Parkwood side of town. I will also note that children in our neighborhood of all races who attend Oakland Terrace, Rock View, Newport Mill MS and Einstein HS are lovely, bright, well adjusted children.

Anonymous wrote:It would be super cool if PP could stop using "two parent homes" as some sort of dog whistle for what they think Black kids are lacking.

The numbers don't lie though. 75% of black kids grow up in single parent household. And 2 vs 1 parents in the home is the one of the greatest predictors of academic and financial success. But go ahead and regale us with more of your virtuois thought.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps look at areas that feed into Walter Johnson.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04424.pdf

Isn't that the school with the posts about a recent hate crime that some parent is trying to blame on "black kids" because it couldn't possibly be one of our good kids? I'd avoid that one.

I think most of us know better than to make assumptions about who is making posts like this online, right? Right???

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps look at areas that feed into Walter Johnson.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04424.pdf

Isn't that the school with the posts about a recent hate crime that some parent is trying to blame on "black kids" because it couldn't possibly be one of our good kids? I'd avoid that one.

Perhaps look at areas that feed into Walter Johnson.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04424.pdf

Anonymous wrote:TKPK: Takoma Park
ESS: East Silver Spring Elementary School
TPMS: Takoma Park Middle School

(I think. I'm not the pp)

Thank you!

Anonymous wrote:OP,
The at a glance documents by school also have the race of teachers and administrators. I do want to add that my child goes to an elementary where the student body is mostly white and the teachers are mostly white and really loves it. It is a very international community though so it's diverse in that way. We chose the school because it is high performing.

We have an older child who went to a more mixed school with a high percentage of African American children and White children and there was more segregation which we did not like.

Op here--- what school is this? And, thank you!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the challenges here is that OP is looking for small class sizes and Black leadership/teachers, but also focusing on the more wealthy parts of the county.

The higher needs the school, the smaller the class sizes.

Also, MCPS tends to (not exclusively, but tends to) place Black administrators in majority Black schools, for exactly the reason that OP mentions - so that kids have leadership who looks like them. Those Black principals sometimes (and sometimes not) prioritize hiring diverse teachers.

So, both of the things that OP lists are actually easier to find outside the geographic zone being targeted.

OP here-- this makes sense ...thanks for breaking this down. So what about Silver Spring... any thoughts?

In addition to the previously mentioned East Silver Spring, Oakland Terrace, and Flora Singer, I would check out Woodlin, Highland View, and Forest Knolls elementary schools. Very popular neighborhoods with young and diverse families.

These are all great suggestions for Silver Spring. Also Sligo Creek ES.

Anonymous wrote:https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/02783.pdf

Kensington Parkwood is 6% black.

Kensington is not a diverse area. The zip code skews conservative (particularly the neighborhoods that feed into the local Catholic school, Holy Redeemer).

The link given is for 2019-2020. For 2020-2021, KPES was 8.7% African American, 9.4% Asian, 13.9% Hispanic, 58.1% white.
https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/02783.

I looked back at when my college student started school, and comparable figures for KPES were 5.2% African American, 5.1% Asian, 7.0% Hispanic, and 82.1% white. (You can see data for all schools dating back to 2002-2003 here: https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/glance/)

I know that we are not alone in welcoming the increased diversity we see in our neighborhood!

Anonymous wrote:If you make the assertion that socioeconics trumps race, then show US the data. Not your anecdotes.

Private school.

Literally every private school has black students who are thriving and are far better equipped for college and future leadership than any public school student regardless of race.

What’s that WaPo ad? “If you don’t get it, you don’t get it.”

Anonymous wrote:If you make the assertion that socioeconics trumps race, then show US the data. Not your anecdotes.

Do you live in a white bubble? Do you not have black friends and neighbors who are living lives comparable to you in terms of work, schools, activities, church, etc? Do you think your white kid is smarter and will do better than your black Nextdoor neighbor? Do you not have black teachers at your school?

Maybe I’m a unicorn living in a UMC diverse bubble, but this is my reality. Some of the best teachers my kids and I ever had were black.

If you are living in a fancy zip code with only a tiny bit of diversity, then that’s your choice. If the only black people you know are low-income, then that’s an indictment on your real estate choices.

There is lots of research on how SES and parent education is more important than race in terms of school outcomes. That doesn't mean there isn't stereotyping and discrimination that minority children face that white children do not. This is something that happens for Black, Brown children and Asian children too. I've heard teachers assume certain Asian kids are terrible at English although they are third generation Americans. If your read these boards you see how everyone assumes Asian American kids who are doing well prep and are grinds but not naturally intelligent. Those stereotypes are very stressful, limit opportunities and impact school outcomes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the challenges here is that OP is looking for small class sizes and Black leadership/teachers, but also focusing on the more wealthy parts of the county.

The higher needs the school, the smaller the class sizes.

Also, MCPS tends to (not exclusively, but tends to) place Black administrators in majority Black schools, for exactly the reason that OP mentions - so that kids have leadership who looks like them. Those Black principals sometimes (and sometimes not) prioritize hiring diverse teachers.

So, both of the things that OP lists are actually easier to find outside the geographic zone being targeted.

OP here-- this makes sense ...thanks for breaking this down. So what about Silver Spring... any thoughts?

DP, but Oakland Terrace’s principal is a Black woman (and a phenomenal principal), and the school itself is diverse. It’s Focus so the class sizes are smaller, and there’s a mix of highly educated parents to more blue collar. We really like it.

OP,
The at a glance documents by school also have the race of teachers and administrators. I do want to add that my child goes to an elementary where the student body is mostly white and the teachers are mostly white and really loves it. It is a very international community though so it's diverse in that way. We chose the school because it is high performing.

We have an older child who went to a more mixed school with a high percentage of African American children and White children and there was more segregation which we did not like.

If you make the assertion that socioeconics trumps race, then show US the data. Not your anecdotes.