For the OP's original question - yes she has a VERY valid concern that her child will get left behind. AA and Latino kids do worse at PBES than other schools. White kids don't always do well either and there is more than one white kid that gets "left out" of the huge CES classes that are not diverse. Its not wise to just the school based on a few anonymous PBES boosters with all evidence pointing in the opposite direction.

The best thing to do is to look at why whites and asian american kids do better and mimic those behaviors when possible. Its not inherent IQ and you don't need to be wealthy.

Many asian americans do not trust the school system to educate their child. They remember how much more rigorous and competitive their own K-12 education was in their home country and do not trust that the lower American standards will yield success for their children. They all know that racial discrimination against asians is rampant in higher education and the workplace. They teach their kids that they need to be twice as smart and twice as good to succeed. They will supplement with a rigorous at home education to fill the gaps. So forget pretending that making cupcakes is really the science of baking and get an account on IXL, sign up for Mathnasium or Kumon. These three programs all include assessments and you can make sure that your child is always 1-2 years of MCPS grade level and more importantly develops skills that MCPS fails to teach. Don't let your kid just read a humor based book for twenty minutes every night. Choose books from magnet or private school reading lists, have your child read more frequently and write a short essay answering one of the guided reading assessment questions that you can find on-line. Its a fallacy that Indian, Chinese, Russian, Korean etc etc families are spending hundreds or more on supplementing or drawing on their graduate degrees to do this. White parents who let their kids watch the Disney channel all the time and are too lazy to supplement tell themselves this.

Many white families ensure their kids success at a school like PBES in a very different way. They get ahead by being aggressive advocates. They never miss an opportunity to point out how their child is not challenged. They put themselves into positions of power within the school. They establish early on that if their kid isn't in the highest reading group that they will complain up the chain as far as they can go. The school knows by the time CES admissions comes up which parents will be a royal pain in the butt if their child isn't admitted. Those kids get admitted and are a BIG part of the reason why there are two rather than one CES class at PBES. Be ready to be that parent. Make sure at every parent teacher conference to stress how bored and unchallenged your child is in school. Join the PTA and support the principal but be ready to ppunce once things don't go well for your child.

PBES is battle for resources and to not left your child fall through the cracks. You have to supplement or you have to be a squeaky wheel.

Cold Spring CES is also diverse. We have lots of Asians and even a black kid in one class.

Anonymous wrote:Wait - aren't you arguing for in-school segregation? By being so sad that your DC isn't going along with the other smart kids into the GT classes and is depressed at being stuck back with kids who don't school seriously, you are doing the same the thing that you accuse parents who live in W schools of doing. You don't want your kid surrounded by lower performing students. You want the housing discount as along as your child can be put in a class with other high performing white kids.

You do realize that Pat O'Neil (BOE) vehemently fights local CES, differentiation and tracking for exactly this reason. She spoken often against the optics of all the white wealthy high performing kids walking off to the GT classes while the rest of the kids of color sit back in the regular classrooms. Plus all the resources that are going into teaching this local CES for white kids are taking resources away from the kids of color that need them more. What is the point of allocating more money and resources to schools with high FARMS and lower SES kids only to divert the resources back to PBES white kids???

This is about PBES CES, which is very diverse. Are you part of that community? I am, and having looked at last year's' class and this year's classes I can tell you that it reflects the diversity of the school, which is significant. I'm not saying that would or wouldn't be the case in other schools, but it is a moot point in this thread.

People are talking about wanting their children to have differentiation and education without distraction. That is not a objectionable or unreasonable thing to ask for. Whether or not it comes with ugly realities, or correlates to troubling trends, is another issue, and one that should certainly be addressed. Wanting the best for your child and wanting equity in public schools are not mutually exclusive issues.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a parent of a PB CES student, I can tell you that the racial and ethnic makeup of the local CES classes approximates that of the school as a whole. It’s not a bunch of white kids by any means.

thats my impression of DD class who is one of many AA children in the local CES

Most white people have a black friend, doesn’t mean they have a diverse group of friends.

I’m looking at the class picture of the PBES CES class last year - about 30% (9 out of 29) Are immediately recognizable as being of African or Latinx descent. About 4 kids that are East Asian or South Asian and the rest white. Doesn’t quite approximate the diversity in the whole school but it’s not terrible.

I'd like to class pictures for a few other CES and see how diverse they are relative to PBES.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a parent of a PB CES student, I can tell you that the racial and ethnic makeup of the local CES classes approximates that of the school as a whole. It’s not a bunch of white kids by any means.

thats my impression of DD class who is one of many AA children in the local CES

I voluntered in DC’s 4th grade CES at PBES a few times last year. The demographic makeup of their class was remarkably diverse and roughly approximates the larger community. I imagine PBES CES is one of the most diverse and inclusive centers in the county. Are there many AA or Hispanic students at the centers in Chevy Chase or Cold Spring?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a parent of a PB CES student, I can tell you that the racial and ethnic makeup of the local CES classes approximates that of the school as a whole. It’s not a bunch of white kids by any means.

thats my impression of DD class who is one of many AA children in the local CES

Most white people have a black friend, doesn’t mean they have a diverse group of friends.

I’m looking at the class picture of the PBES CES class last year - about 30% (9 out of 29) Are immediately recognizable as being of African or Latinx descent. About 4 kids that are East Asian or South Asian and the rest white. Doesn’t quite approximate the diversity in the whole school but it’s not terrible.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a parent of a PB CES student, I can tell you that the racial and ethnic makeup of the local CES classes approximates that of the school as a whole. It’s not a bunch of white kids by any means.

thats my impression of DD class who is one of many AA children in the local CES

Most white people have a black friend, doesn’t mean they have a diverse group of friends.

Anonymous wrote:As a parent of a PB CES student, I can tell you that the racial and ethnic makeup of the local CES classes approximates that of the school as a whole. It’s not a bunch of white kids by any means.

thats my impression of DD class who is one of many AA children in the local CES

Anonymous wrote:Umm no, AA and Latino students are woefully underrepresented in the local CES.

If only the supreme court, would allow racial quotas!

Umm no, AA and Latino students are woefully underrepresented in the local CES.

As a parent of a PB CES student, I can tell you that the racial and ethnic makeup of the local CES classes approximates that of the school as a whole. It’s not a bunch of white kids by any means.

Wait - aren't you arguing for in-school segregation? By being so sad that your DC isn't going along with the other smart kids into the GT classes and is depressed at being stuck back with kids who don't school seriously, you are doing the same the thing that you accuse parents who live in W schools of doing. You don't want your kid surrounded by lower performing students. You want the housing discount as along as your child can be put in a class with other high performing white kids.

You do realize that Pat O'Neil (BOE) vehemently fights local CES, differentiation and tracking for exactly this reason. She spoken often against the optics of all the white wealthy high performing kids walking off to the GT classes while the rest of the kids of color sit back in the regular classrooms. Plus all the resources that are going into teaching this local CES for white kids are taking resources away from the kids of color that need them more. What is the point of allocating more money and resources to schools with high FARMS and lower SES kids only to divert the resources back to PBES white kids???

Yes, I think it's great to add more gifted ed, but back in the day when HGC was only at Pine Crest/Oakview, lost of kids opted to stay at Piney Branch rather than travel, making for a stronger group in the PBES classes. Don't know what the answer is to help every kid....

I have a child in the PBES CES and a few of the PPs hit the nail on the head for us. The CES cohort is so large (2 of 9 classes) that the "smart" or focused kids remaining in the other 7 classes get left behind, watered-down instruction that is peppered with a host of other issues. That is a real problem. If our child had not made it into the CES program, we knew that we would be leaving the school as soon as possible. We know what it looks like to be in a situation where your child's needs are not being met or are compromised, and we had no interest in sticking around if we thought that was a virtual certainty. It's a very tough situation.

Anonymous wrote:people ask why these large pockets of kids are doing so poorly and I am sure there are some deep and systematic reasons why. But I can't help help but see it as simply this school has a large pocket of kids who will never catch up and are divesting from education. Then that school will consolidate it's large pocket of kids with the other incredibly high FARMS schools in that cluster into a even higher concentration at middle school level which will only get worse at the high school level as those kids start to get into real trouble.

who cares why they are doing so bad, why not just pay a little bit more for one's house and find a school without huge pockets of bad students? Honest question

Damn, you at just concerned about your individual kid huh? I care about both.

One thing-farms and proficiency don’t always line up. Pbes is 31.1% FARMs and ESS is 51.4. Almost double the ESOL and SPED rate too. ESS is doing something right. Don’t write off or demonize the students.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/02749.pdf
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/02756.pdf