Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:20:03 here

We didn’t fill out race box in profile and have Anglo-sounding name. (Most others I have met with this last name are white). But in reality, DC has been working 2 or 3 grades ahead in most subjects and outperforms kids in top private. Perhaps my child is a unicorn, but I doubt it given the extremely bright, hardworking families I meet every day. I this area you can fill classrooms with a diverse group of gifted students without lowering standard.

We were thinking of public for economic reasons and naively believed that DC could find bright friends from varying SES backgrounds. These threads make me very concerned about the mentality of families in Montgomery County.

Don’t assume until you have all the data.

Based on all the testing data in MCPS (and honestly nationally) yes, your child is something of a unicorn.

According to the PARCC results for 8th grade Geometry (reasonable assumption for kids aiming for a magnet) there were:

499 White students that exceeded expectations.
20 AA students that exceeded expectations.
25 Hispanic students that exceeded expectations.
435 Asian students that exceeded expectations.

These numbers are extremely disappointing. More needs to be done to deepen the bench of highly able urm students who now constitute half the kids in the county

Why are the numbers so low for AA and Hispanic students in 8th grade Math?

Good question.

Can anybody provide a link to the numbers above. On the state of maryland site, it says that 2022 students total took the geometry parcc in 2017. I couldn't figure out how to break out 8th graders only (except to look school by school). Do half of montgomery county students take the geometry parcc in 8th grade? That seems high to me.

The overall numbers for hispanic and black students taking the geometry parcc are low in 2017 period. Only 171 hispanic students took the test out of 2022 total test takers. Only 202 black students took the parcc. If I sorted right, the 2022 includes highschoolers and middle schoolers.

I looked at 10 different middle schools for 8th graders taking parcc, and out of ten schools only 1 had enough hispanic students taking the test to even report data (you have to have at least 10 students to report). Roberto Clemente had 10 8th grade hispanic students take the parcc geometry and 4 of those students exceeded expectations. Based on this data, why does Montgomery County even care about increasing participation in the magnets. We need to get more hispanic (and black kids) into the highest level math first and worry about magnet participation second.

I agree with the above poster, that there is definitely a low expectation culture in high farms schools, but expanding the pool of kids that can take compacted math, should help participation in higher level math and subsequently increase participation in magnets.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:20:03 here

We didn’t fill out race box in profile and have Anglo-sounding name. (Most others I have met with this last name are white). But in reality, DC has been working 2 or 3 grades ahead in most subjects and outperforms kids in top private. Perhaps my child is a unicorn, but I doubt it given the extremely bright, hardworking families I meet every day. I this area you can fill classrooms with a diverse group of gifted students without lowering standard.

We were thinking of public for economic reasons and naively believed that DC could find bright friends from varying SES backgrounds. These threads make me very concerned about the mentality of families in Montgomery County.

Don’t assume until you have all the data.

Based on all the testing data in MCPS (and honestly nationally) yes, your child is something of a unicorn.

According to the PARCC results for 8th grade Geometry (reasonable assumption for kids aiming for a magnet) there were:

499 White students that exceeded expectations.
20 AA students that exceeded expectations.
25 Hispanic students that exceeded expectations.
435 Asian students that exceeded expectations.

These numbers are extremely disappointing. More needs to be done to deepen the bench of highly able urm students who now constitute half the kids in the county

Why are the numbers so low for AA and Hispanic students in 8th grade Math?

Good question.

Because some elementary schools have a culture where they don't believe "these kids" can achieve and don't actively challenge them. I taught at a high FARMS middle school and our math department was fantastic at assessing kids and finding students who were capable. The number of kids who arrived with advanced MAP-M scores (and advanced math scores from the test before PARCC) but who hadn't been accelerated was infuriating. They created a special Math 6/IM class to get them into Algebra in 7th grade where they should have been. The first two years of the new curriculum 3 feeder elementaries couldn't "find" enough advanced students to offer compacted 4/5, so a small class of 12 4th graders was sent up to the middle school to teach it. That didn't fly for long. The cluster superintendent mandated that the elementaries "find" 15 kids out of 150 that could take compacted 4/5 and offer the class the next year. Shockingly, when they got to middle school to take IM in 6th grade, they were just fine.

Systemic racism is still alive an well in MCPS, thus the active efforts to try to offset it in other ways.

Why this is still a problem at mcps? There was a ducument from 3-4 years ago showed that 1/3 of administrators in mcps were AA. School like Blair has been run AA principle for decades. Three out of seven adult BOE members are also AA. Hopefully, they will address the issue effectively and show progress soon.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:20:03 here

We didn’t fill out race box in profile and have Anglo-sounding name. (Most others I have met with this last name are white). But in reality, DC has been working 2 or 3 grades ahead in most subjects and outperforms kids in top private. Perhaps my child is a unicorn, but I doubt it given the extremely bright, hardworking families I meet every day. I this area you can fill classrooms with a diverse group of gifted students without lowering standard.

We were thinking of public for economic reasons and naively believed that DC could find bright friends from varying SES backgrounds. These threads make me very concerned about the mentality of families in Montgomery County.

Don’t assume until you have all the data.

Based on all the testing data in MCPS (and honestly nationally) yes, your child is something of a unicorn.

According to the PARCC results for 8th grade Geometry (reasonable assumption for kids aiming for a magnet) there were:

499 White students that exceeded expectations.
20 AA students that exceeded expectations.
25 Hispanic students that exceeded expectations.
435 Asian students that exceeded expectations.

These numbers are extremely disappointing. More needs to be done to deepen the bench of highly able urm students who now constitute half the kids in the county

Why are the numbers so low for AA and Hispanic students in 8th grade Math?

Good question.

Because some elementary schools have a culture where they don't believe "these kids" can achieve and don't actively challenge them. I taught at a high FARMS middle school and our math department was fantastic at assessing kids and finding students who were capable. The number of kids who arrived with advanced MAP-M scores (and advanced math scores from the test before PARCC) but who hadn't been accelerated was infuriating. They created a special Math 6/IM class to get them into Algebra in 7th grade where they should have been. The first two years of the new curriculum 3 feeder elementaries couldn't "find" enough advanced students to offer compacted 4/5, so a small class of 12 4th graders was sent up to the middle school to teach it. That didn't fly for long. The cluster superintendent mandated that the elementaries "find" 15 kids out of 150 that could take compacted 4/5 and offer the class the next year. Shockingly, when they got to middle school to take IM in 6th grade, they were just fine.

Systemic racism is still alive an well in MCPS, thus the active efforts to try to offset it in other ways.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:20:03 here

We didn’t fill out race box in profile and have Anglo-sounding name. (Most others I have met with this last name are white). But in reality, DC has been working 2 or 3 grades ahead in most subjects and outperforms kids in top private. Perhaps my child is a unicorn, but I doubt it given the extremely bright, hardworking families I meet every day. I this area you can fill classrooms with a diverse group of gifted students without lowering standard.

We were thinking of public for economic reasons and naively believed that DC could find bright friends from varying SES backgrounds. These threads make me very concerned about the mentality of families in Montgomery County.

Don’t assume until you have all the data.

Based on all the testing data in MCPS (and honestly nationally) yes, your child is something of a unicorn.

According to the PARCC results for 8th grade Geometry (reasonable assumption for kids aiming for a magnet) there were:

499 White students that exceeded expectations.
20 AA students that exceeded expectations.
25 Hispanic students that exceeded expectations.
435 Asian students that exceeded expectations.

These numbers are extremely disappointing. More needs to be done to deepen the bench of highly able urm students who now constitute half the kids in the county

Why are the numbers so low for AA and Hispanic students in 8th grade Math?

Good question.

Anonymous wrote:My kids have attended majority Hispanic DCC Elementary and middle schools. The Hispanic families value education, a lot. This and economic opportunity is why they came to the US. In my experience, they do not care about sending their kids to “elite” academic programs. They want their kids to be college prepared in schools close to home. They don’t care about parcc scores, elite colleges, etc. And if they are recent immigrants, they are used to hands off approach to education, that is school and teacher driven, not parent-driven. When MCPS figures out what these programs have to offer the typical poor and middle income Latino family (and offer more rigor at home schools so kids are prepared), maybe numbers will rise. The wealthier Hispanic families seem to strongly lean private- and are willing to sacrifice for it. They don’t want their kids on the mcps hamster wheel either.

You can do well in school without worrying about standardized testing or getting into "elite" academic programs and colleges.
The way you show your children you value something is through your actions.
If you value family or your religion you make time for family gatherings or take your family to church etc.
If you value education you look at your child's homework (especially in K-2), you show up for parent teacher conferences and back to school night etc.
There is a large space between hovering over your child and having a hands off approach.
I also don't think that you have to be on a hamster wheel as you put it to get good grades especially in MCPS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

More needs to be done to deepen the bench of highly able urm students who now constitute half the kids in the county

Why only URMs? More need to be done to accommodate the Asian-Americans who are not being selected. The number of highly able URM students who are left behind is very little because they are eagerly swooped up by MCPS in all kinds of programs. The number of Asian-Americans and White who are not being selected even when they are highly able is shameful.

Could you list three of those programs, please?

Magnet Math/Sci in Takoma Park MS, Magnet Humanities in Eastern MS, Magnet Math/Sci in Clemente MS, Magnet Humanities in MLK.

All of the highly-able black, Latino, and poor kids in MCPS are in these programs? You don't say.

Another example of how MCPS makes all efforts to put resources towards URMs.

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/reports/detail.aspx?id=1488

I am at a school where a handful of Black parents have worked very hard to fund-raise and fund programs that can be used by AA and HI students. They have also been unable to move the dial though.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

More needs to be done to deepen the bench of highly able urm students who now constitute half the kids in the county

Why only URMs? More need to be done to accommodate the Asian-Americans who are not being selected. The number of highly able URM students who are left behind is very little because they are eagerly swooped up by MCPS in all kinds of programs. The number of Asian-Americans and White who are not being selected even when they are highly able is shameful.

Could you list three of those programs, please?

Magnet Math/Sci in Takoma Park MS, Magnet Humanities in Eastern MS, Magnet Math/Sci in Clemente MS, Magnet Humanities in MLK.

My kids have attended majority Hispanic DCC Elementary and middle schools. The Hispanic families value education, a lot. This and economic opportunity is why they came to the US. In my experience, they do not care about sending their kids to “elite” academic programs. They want their kids to be college prepared in schools close to home. They don’t care about parcc scores, elite colleges, etc. And if they are recent immigrants, they are used to hands off approach to education, that is school and teacher driven, not parent-driven. When MCPS figures out what these programs have to offer the typical poor and middle income Latino family (and offer more rigor at home schools so kids are prepared), maybe numbers will rise. The wealthier Hispanic families seem to strongly lean private- and are willing to sacrifice for it. They don’t want their kids on the mcps hamster wheel either.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:20:03 here

We didn’t fill out race box in profile and have Anglo-sounding name. (Most others I have met with this last name are white). But in reality, DC has been working 2 or 3 grades ahead in most subjects and outperforms kids in top private. Perhaps my child is a unicorn, but I doubt it given the extremely bright, hardworking families I meet every day. I this area you can fill classrooms with a diverse group of gifted students without lowering standard.

We were thinking of public for economic reasons and naively believed that DC could find bright friends from varying SES backgrounds. These threads make me very concerned about the mentality of families in Montgomery County.

Don’t assume until you have all the data.

Based on all the testing data in MCPS (and honestly nationally) yes, your child is something of a unicorn.

According to the PARCC results for 8th grade Geometry (reasonable assumption for kids aiming for a magnet) there were:

499 White students that exceeded expectations.
20 AA students that exceeded expectations.
25 Hispanic students that exceeded expectations.
435 Asian students that exceeded expectations.

These numbers are extremely disappointing. More needs to be done to deepen the bench of highly able urm students who now constitute half the kids in the county

Why are the numbers so low for AA and Hispanic students in 8th grade Math?

Because "separate but equal" doesn't work. White and Asian American parents in the county are scrambling to segregate themselves to the point of paying enormous housing premiums. So black and Hispanic kids are concentrated in high-poverty, segregated schools. If rich white and Asian American kids still went to these schools, the schools would have after-school robotics and geography bees and advanced math, etc.

where do you put the rich blacks and poor whites? In what ratio of races that the URM will perform optimally? Suppose we don't need to consider the needs of white and asian students and their sole purpose of going to school is to create diversity for others to do better, we still need to figure out the magic number of their percentage.

My DC's ES has this fantastic Art-Engineer program run by parents with the support of the school. It is open to all the students, our school has a sizeable URM but none of them showed up at the information meeting. The school also has Geo-bee and Spelling bee run by the teachers in the classroom but you hardly see any of the URM students participate.
In MCPS classroom, all the students, regardless your skin or family's bank accounts, receive the same instruction from the teachers and work on the same homework since many schools do not differentiate students. Except for situations outside of the school, URM students receive same education in the classroom. MCPS has done a lot for the FARM students, including the free lunch, breakfast and take-home meal at the end of school day. There are also Saturday schools that cost $10 for the school year offered at in DCC area.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:20:03 here

We didn’t fill out race box in profile and have Anglo-sounding name. (Most others I have met with this last name are white). But in reality, DC has been working 2 or 3 grades ahead in most subjects and outperforms kids in top private. Perhaps my child is a unicorn, but I doubt it given the extremely bright, hardworking families I meet every day. I this area you can fill classrooms with a diverse group of gifted students without lowering standard.

We were thinking of public for economic reasons and naively believed that DC could find bright friends from varying SES backgrounds. These threads make me very concerned about the mentality of families in Montgomery County.

Don’t assume until you have all the data.

Based on all the testing data in MCPS (and honestly nationally) yes, your child is something of a unicorn.

According to the PARCC results for 8th grade Geometry (reasonable assumption for kids aiming for a magnet) there were:

499 White students that exceeded expectations.
20 AA students that exceeded expectations.
25 Hispanic students that exceeded expectations.
435 Asian students that exceeded expectations.

These numbers are extremely disappointing. More needs to be done to deepen the bench of highly able urm students who now constitute half the kids in the county

Why are the numbers so low for AA and Hispanic students in 8th grade Math?

Because "separate but equal" doesn't work. White and Asian American parents in the county are scrambling to segregate themselves to the point of paying enormous housing premiums. So black and Hispanic kids are concentrated in high-poverty, segregated schools. If rich white and Asian American kids still went to these schools, the schools would have after-school robotics and geography bees and advanced math, etc.

where do you put the rich blacks and poor whites? In what ratio of races that the URM will perform optimally? Suppose we don't need to consider the needs of white and asian students and their sole purpose of going to school is to create diversity for others to do better, we still need to figure out the magic number of their percentage.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:20:03 here

We didn’t fill out race box in profile and have Anglo-sounding name. (Most others I have met with this last name are white). But in reality, DC has been working 2 or 3 grades ahead in most subjects and outperforms kids in top private. Perhaps my child is a unicorn, but I doubt it given the extremely bright, hardworking families I meet every day. I this area you can fill classrooms with a diverse group of gifted students without lowering standard.

We were thinking of public for economic reasons and naively believed that DC could find bright friends from varying SES backgrounds. These threads make me very concerned about the mentality of families in Montgomery County.

Don’t assume until you have all the data.

Based on all the testing data in MCPS (and honestly nationally) yes, your child is something of a unicorn.

According to the PARCC results for 8th grade Geometry (reasonable assumption for kids aiming for a magnet) there were:

499 White students that exceeded expectations.
20 AA students that exceeded expectations.
25 Hispanic students that exceeded expectations.
435 Asian students that exceeded expectations.

These numbers are extremely disappointing. More needs to be done to deepen the bench of highly able urm students who now constitute half the kids in the county

Why are the numbers so low for AA and Hispanic students in 8th grade Math?

Because "separate but equal" doesn't work. White and Asian American parents in the county are scrambling to segregate themselves to the point of paying enormous housing premiums. So black and Hispanic kids are concentrated in high-poverty, segregated schools. If rich white and Asian American kids still went to these schools, the schools would have after-school robotics and geography bees and advanced math, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

More needs to be done to deepen the bench of highly able urm students who now constitute half the kids in the county

Why only URMs? More need to be done to accommodate the Asian-Americans who are not being selected. The number of highly able URM students who are left behind is very little because they are eagerly swooped up by MCPS in all kinds of programs. The number of Asian-Americans and White who are not being selected even when they are highly able is shameful.

Could you list three of those programs, please?

More needs to be done to deepen the bench of highly able urm students who now constitute half the kids in the county

Why only URMs? More need to be done to accommodate the Asian-Americans who are not being selected. The number of highly able URM students who are left behind is very little because they are eagerly swooped up by MCPS in all kinds of programs. The number of Asian-Americans and White who are not being selected even when they are highly able is shameful.