Anonymous wrote:

Sort of. I'm the parent of a Black kid at PBES and I'm acutely aware that one of the factors that impacts the schools's scores on metrics like the Maryland Report Card is the the achievement gap between white kids and Black/Latino kids, and non-FARMS and FARMS kids.

Kids of color and poor/working class kids do worse at PBES than at most other schools, even in Silver Spring. If you compare Black and Latino kids at PBES with Black and Latino kids at nearby schools, it appears something is going wrong at PBES. White and Asian kids do well everywhere, but Black and Latino kids do worse. It's troubling both from an ethical standpoint (are these our TP values) and as a parent.

Overcrowding and too many squeaky wheels getting grease. The PBES UMC parents are relentless and whiney about making sure that their snowflake gets enrichment, gets put in the CES class and if they don't then all hands on deck needs to be out to make sure snowflake doesn't go down the wrong track. The combination of overcrowding and too many white parents who are only OK with a school full of diverse abilities as long as their kid is on top. The resources are spread too thin, especially after 3rd grade and too many get diverted away from the FARMS kids whose parents don't question the school or push for more resources.

Sort of. I'm the parent of a Black kid at PBES and I'm acutely aware that one of the factors that impacts the schools's scores on metrics like the Maryland Report Card is the the achievement gap between white kids and Black/Latino kids, and non-FARMS and FARMS kids.

Kids of color and poor/working class kids do worse at PBES than at most other schools, even in Silver Spring. If you compare Black and Latino kids at PBES with Black and Latino kids at nearby schools, it appears something is going wrong at PBES. White and Asian kids do well everywhere, but Black and Latino kids do worse. It's troubling both from an ethical standpoint (are these our TP values) and as a parent.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking at PBES on school digger it ranks 300 while many non-CES ES schools in higher performing areas are in the top 10. PBES did pretty badly on the MD report card too. I've also heard that the CES program isn't as strong as it is elsewhere. I'm not sure if its the over crowding or something else but something is always off at PBES.

The 4th grade CES curriculum is extremely challenging at PBES. The 5th grade teacher this year seems less set on pushing the CES curriculum and appears to pick and choose what he teaches in contrast to last year where the students were challenged to a very high level. Our 5th grader has much less classwork and homework than last year - by leaps and bounds....He's happy, but it is hard to get over the idea that 5th should be more challenging than 4th....

The problem with the PP is they fail to grasp that it's a diverse school with 35% FARMS. This impacts simple averages used by sites like school digger. Nevertheless, the high-achieving cohort is as strong or stronger than any school in the county.

Sort of. I'm the parent of a Black kid at PBES and I'm acutely aware that one of the factors that impacts the schools's scores on metrics like the Maryland Report Card is the the achievement gap between white kids and Black/Latino kids, and non-FARMS and FARMS kids.

Kids of color and poor/working class kids do worse at PBES than at most other schools, even in Silver Spring. If you compare Black and Latino kids at PBES with Black and Latino kids at nearby schools, it appears something is going wrong at PBES. White and Asian kids do well everywhere, but Black and Latino kids do worse. It's troubling both from an ethical standpoint (are these our TP values) and as a parent.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking at PBES on school digger it ranks 300 while many non-CES ES schools in higher performing areas are in the top 10. PBES did pretty badly on the MD report card too. I've also heard that the CES program isn't as strong as it is elsewhere. I'm not sure if its the over crowding or something else but something is always off at PBES.

The 4th grade CES curriculum is extremely challenging at PBES. The 5th grade teacher this year seems less set on pushing the CES curriculum and appears to pick and choose what he teaches in contrast to last year where the students were challenged to a very high level. Our 5th grader has much less classwork and homework than last year - by leaps and bounds....He's happy, but it is hard to get over the idea that 5th should be more challenging than 4th....

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking at PBES on school digger it ranks 300 while many non-CES ES schools in higher performing areas are in the top 10. PBES did pretty badly on the MD report card too. I've also heard that the CES program isn't as strong as it is elsewhere. I'm not sure if its the over crowding or something else but something is always off at PBES.

The 4th grade CES curriculum is extremely challenging at PBES. The 5th grade teacher this year seems less set on pushing the CES curriculum and appears to pick and choose what he teaches in contrast to last year where the students were challenged to a very high level. Our 5th grader has much less classwork and homework than last year - by leaps and bounds....He's happy, but it is hard to get over the idea that 5th should be more challenging than 4th....

The problem with the PP is they fail to grasp that it's a diverse school with 35% FARMS. This impacts simple averages used by sites like school digger. Nevertheless, the high-achieving cohort is as strong or stronger than any school in the county.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking at PBES on school digger it ranks 300 while many non-CES ES schools in higher performing areas are in the top 10. PBES did pretty badly on the MD report card too. I've also heard that the CES program isn't as strong as it is elsewhere. I'm not sure if its the over crowding or something else but something is always off at PBES.

The 4th grade CES curriculum is extremely challenging at PBES. The 5th grade teacher this year seems less set on pushing the CES curriculum and appears to pick and choose what he teaches in contrast to last year where the students were challenged to a very high level. Our 5th grader has much less classwork and homework than last year - by leaps and bounds....He's happy, but it is hard to get over the idea that 5th should be more challenging than 4th....

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking at PBES on school digger it ranks 300 while many non-CES ES schools in higher performing areas are in the top 10. PBES did pretty badly on the MD report card too. I've also heard that the CES program isn't as strong as it is elsewhere. I'm not sure if its the over crowding or something else but something is always off at PBES.

The 4th grade CES curriculum is extremely challenging at PBES. The 5th grade teacher this year seems less set on pushing the CES curriculum and appears to pick and choose what he teaches in contrast to last year where the students were challenged to a very high level. Our 5th grader has much less classwork and homework than last year - by leaps and bounds....He's happy, but it is hard to get over the idea that 5th should be more challenging than 4th....

My PBES CES fifth-grader is equally or more challenged this year than last. The teacher seems to place more importance on classwork than on homework, which is as it should be (IMO).

The fifth grade teacher is far more experienced than the fourth grade one, fwiw.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking at PBES on school digger it ranks 300 while many non-CES ES schools in higher performing areas are in the top 10. PBES did pretty badly on the MD report card too. I've also heard that the CES program isn't as strong as it is elsewhere. I'm not sure if its the over crowding or something else but something is always off at PBES.

The 4th grade CES curriculum is extremely challenging at PBES. The 5th grade teacher this year seems less set on pushing the CES curriculum and appears to pick and choose what he teaches in contrast to last year where the students were challenged to a very high level. Our 5th grader has much less classwork and homework than last year - by leaps and bounds....He's happy, but it is hard to get over the idea that 5th should be more challenging than 4th....

Anonymous wrote:Looking at PBES on school digger it ranks 300 while many non-CES ES schools in higher performing areas are in the top 10. PBES did pretty badly on the MD report card too. I've also heard that the CES program isn't as strong as it is elsewhere. I'm not sure if its the over crowding or something else but something is always off at PBES.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The challenges OP describes are not isolated to Local CES programs. Regional CES programs, and really any school with a special program in it, will always have people feeling that one group is getting something special that another group isn't. It really is dependent on the principal to set the tone for the school and to not have an us/them culture develop. With the local CES programs, it is more noticeable because kids that were mixed together K-3 are now separated, and those in the CES classes know the kids not in the CES classes and see them in their neighborhoods, so there is more opportunity for teasing and unkindness.

Since this problem is relatively new, I think it would be worth parents and the PTA bringing it to the principal's attention and trying to work together to eliminate the problem. Some of this can be dealt with simply by proper messaging to parents and students from teachers and administration. Framing the CES as being for students who are "smarter" is very different than framing it as for students who "learn differently" (which is what it is.)

The differences in the classes are more visable at the local schools since so many kids are labeled advanced. If 3 kids went a regional center there would be a large range of kids...but if you remove the top third of the kids it has a much larger affect on the other classes. Top third of the class probably don't learn differently.

Anonymous wrote:The challenges OP describes are not isolated to Local CES programs. Regional CES programs, and really any school with a special program in it, will always have people feeling that one group is getting something special that another group isn't. It really is dependent on the principal to set the tone for the school and to not have an us/them culture develop. With the local CES programs, it is more noticeable because kids that were mixed together K-3 are now separated, and those in the CES classes know the kids not in the CES classes and see them in their neighborhoods, so there is more opportunity for teasing and unkindness.

Since this problem is relatively new, I think it would be worth parents and the PTA bringing it to the principal's attention and trying to work together to eliminate the problem. Some of this can be dealt with simply by proper messaging to parents and students from teachers and administration. Framing the CES as being for students who are "smarter" is very different than framing it as for students who "learn differently" (which is what it is.)