Thanks for the link. I feel like every damn day I'm on my local mom group on Facebook telling Becky that yes, segregation does exist in our district and that no, Great Schools is not an unbiased source for how good a school is. I'll be adding this link to the reading I suggest in such posts.
You must live in Austin, TX. Same deal here!
I am and yes, this is the bullshit I’ve been fighting in the recent boundary redraw for some southwest schools. We’re a school that doesn’t look good on paper (I.e. Great Schools rating of 4.) But we routinely have 98-100% satisfaction ratings for the teachers and administration from the school community. We’re small. We’re diverse. We have busted our asses to create an amazing community. And yet families who may now be forced to go to our school from their 9-rated school are threatening to move so they don’t have to go to the brown school.
I had to give my Dad (who is progressive politically, but old white guy progressive*) the smackdown over Thanksgiving about GreatSchools (my brother is househunting) and "high crime" neighborhoods.
I pointed out that this is nothing new. My high school had more AP classes and more kids per capita who gained entrance to "elite" colleges than any other school in the county, but was considered to be "worse" than another one that was mostly white. He was receptive, but I'm not sure he's 100% convinced how insidious this whole ranking system is. I should send him their respective GreatSchools scores (just looked them up: 3 and 8, respectively).
* I know that as middle aged white lady progressive person I have my own blind spots to work on.
Thanks for the link. I feel like every damn day I'm on my local mom group on Facebook telling Becky that yes, segregation does exist in our district and that no, Great Schools is not an unbiased source for how good a school is. I'll be adding this link to the reading I suggest in such posts.
You must live in Austin, TX. Same deal here!
I'm in the 'progressive' bay area.
Although I will say that part of the confusion here is that so many people of all racial backgrounds are sending kids to US schools for the first time and are struggling to figure out a whole new system. Often these families are really shocked to learn that Great Schools isn't official or necessarily the best resource in terms of overall score.
I am and yes, this is the bullshit I’ve been fighting in the recent boundary redraw for some southwest schools. We’re a school that doesn’t look good on paper (I.e. Great Schools rating of 4.) But we routinely have 98-100% satisfaction ratings for the teachers and administration from the school community. We’re small. We’re diverse. We have busted our asses to create an amazing community. And yet families who may now be forced to go to our school from their 9-rated school are threatening to move so they don’t have to go to the brown school.
That whole southwest neighborhood (I assume you're referring to the huge planned community down that way) gets a huge eyeroll from me. I love how people are freaking out about being rezoned from their schools that are 185% enrolled! Insane.
Similar to some others, we love our title 1 2/3 non white school. We have more resources than some of the "better" schools because we are title 1. So that's a thing.
Our county as a whole though...welp...Google for maryland schools redistricting and you can read all about it.
For sure. My SIL open enrolls to the more affluent district in our suburb and and now that we have a kid in school it's weird to me the things their school doesn't provide.
I am and yes, this is the bullshit I’ve been fighting in the recent boundary redraw for some southwest schools. We’re a school that doesn’t look good on paper (I.e. Great Schools rating of 4.) But we routinely have 98-100% satisfaction ratings for the teachers and administration from the school community. We’re small. We’re diverse. We have busted our asses to create an amazing community. And yet families who may now be forced to go to our school from their 9-rated school are threatening to move so they don’t have to go to the brown school.
That whole southwest neighborhood (I assume you're referring to the huge planned community down that way) gets a huge eyeroll from me. I love how people are freaking out about being rezoned from their schools that are 185% enrolled! Insane.
Similar to some others, we love our title 1 2/3 non white school. We have more resources than some of the "better" schools because we are title 1. So that's a thing.
Our county as a whole though...welp...Google for maryland schools redistricting and you can read all about it.
For sure. My SIL open enrolls to the more affluent district in our suburb and and now that we have a kid in school it's weird to me the things their school doesn't provide.
wawa your district’s batshit crazy is spilling into mine. I am lurking (unsuccessfully—I keep trying to give facts and they are NOT interested) on a FB group opposed to redistricting that hasn’t happened yet and is still theoretical. These UMC middle-aged White people are losing their goddamn minds. And the racist things they are posting....
For sure. My SIL open enrolls to the more affluent district in our suburb and and now that we have a kid in school it's weird to me the things their school doesn't provide.
wawa your district’s batshit crazy is spilling into mine. I am lurking (unsuccessfully—I keep trying to give facts and they are NOT interested) on a FB group opposed to redistricting that hasn’t happened yet and is still theoretical. These UMC middle-aged White people are losing their goddamn minds. And the racist things they are posting....
Hey man, y'all come by it honest. Don't blame me. There's been some crazy reactions to even the slightest hint of boundary shift there for as long as Ive been working in the county.
I am glad they are focusing more on growth scores because I do think that is the best way to show teaching quality.
Yes.
The best teachers I’ve ever met are the veteran teachers (4+ years) in schools that are ranked fairly low on Greatschools. Frankly, they’re the best because they’ve seen some shit in their years: they’re tasked with educating EVERYONE, not just students with at least one college-educated parent who speak English at home. They plan lessons with their students’ diverse needs in mind, and they integrate the arts into their lessons because they know not everybody’s getting private lessons at home. They plan amazing field trips on a shoestring budget. Their kids grow SO much in a year...even if the end result is still a “basic” score on a test. That “basic” may reflect two years’ worth of growth in a single year, while the “proficient” score another student gets represent stagnation at the hands of a teacher with 35+ years who’s used the same lesson plans since 1984. I know whose classroom I’d rather my kid be in, you know?
Post by cinnamoncox0 on Dec 8, 2019 19:31:45 GMT -5
You know, I’m shocked right now. I looked up my high school (I work at the one in my city) and the elementary my youngsters attend and they’re 6/5 respectively, and we are what I think is upper middle, 98.9% white, privileged, very little if any poverty and regarded as a “very desirable district”. We participate in the METCO program and I can’t help but wonder if that is why.
Similar to some others, we love our title 1 2/3 non white school. We have more resources than some of the "better" schools because we are title 1. So that's a thing.
Our county as a whole though...welp...Google for maryland schools redistricting and you can read all about it.
wawa your district’s batshit crazy is spilling into mine. I am lurking (unsuccessfully—I keep trying to give facts and they are NOT interested) on a FB group opposed to redistricting that hasn’t happened yet and is still theoretical. These UMC middle-aged White people are losing their goddamn minds. And the racist things they are posting....
Hey man, y'all come by it honest. Don't blame me. There's been some crazy reactions to even the slightest hint of boundary shift there for as long as Ive been working in the county.
I guess I didn’t really realize just how goddamn racist these W-school folks are. It’s appalling.
You know, I’m shocked right now. I looked up my high school (I work at the one in my city) and the elementary my youngsters attend and they’re 6/5 respectively, and we are what I think is upper middle, 98.9% white, privileged, very little if any poverty and regarded as a “very desirable district”. We participate in the METCO program and I can’t help but wonder if that is why.
Don’t even get me started on the METCO program, ugh.
Post by katieinthecity on Dec 9, 2019 10:02:35 GMT -5
I feel like it might make a difference if the real estate websites would just stop using GS rankings in their listings. Something I hear a lot of around here (NoVa, so...) is people who say that even if the GS number isn't actually reflective of school quality, it impacts home values (though not clear that this is even true - but it's a pervasive assumption) so they want to improve the GS score on their local school in order to improve/preserve their home values. If the numbers weren't fucking plastered all over every home buying website, this wouldn't be an argument to be made.
The bias behind testing and the emphasis on scores is maddening. The whole concept of testing is irrelevant to actual learning, but it’s the biases that drive it. It gives cover to labeling some schools good and some schools bad and presupposes that there will always be a bad school, and that bad school will be scary and full of non-whites and impossible to improve. If this were about improving schools the approach would be entirely different.
@@ When I google my son’s school the first rating site to pop up is School Digger. It seems more blatant than Great Schools - prominent on the front page (even before test scores) are racial demographics and % of free lunches, as if that’s what defines the student body or its achievements. So gross. We’re 2/3rds minority and over half get free lunch. Our test scores aren’t great, but GS gives us 4 out of 10 (6 for improvement) and SD gives us 2 out of 10.
I ignore the testing. For one, they’re in English and that’s entirely inappropriate for a dual-immersion school. Also, I’m in the school often enough to know that it’s not some Wild West anarchy that no one could possibly learn in. The kids are focused and also kids with all the spontaneity, angst and joy that brings. The teachers and staff care - not usually about who is getting the highest scores or pushing them harder, but caring for their well-being and who they are as people. But mostly, because I try to remember that most kids learn in a variety of environments, and it really doesn’t have to be optimized to maximize every last shred of potential.
You know, I’m shocked right now. I looked up my high school (I work at the one in my city) and the elementary my youngsters attend and they’re 6/5 respectively, and we are what I think is upper middle, 98.9% white, privileged, very little if any poverty and regarded as a “very desirable district”. We participate in the METCO program and I can’t help but wonder if that is why.
Don’t even get me started on the METCO program, ugh.
Seriously, there’s a lot of “hidden” othering going on where I am and I’m sure it’s not the only place.
We recently toured a school for our kid, and honestly I LOVED it. Just looked it up - it’s got a 2. The other 2 schools we’re considering are a 4 and a 7.
And OMG, the high school I went to, which was INSANELY competitive and full of super high achievers, is rated a 5. I thought high school was harder than college, so I am definitely not going to put any stock in these ratings.
Post by underwaterrhymes on Dec 9, 2019 19:23:59 GMT -5
Great Schools ratings piss me off. We ignored them when buying for just that reason and I absolutely refused to consider the local charter school, which some people call “better” (but really they just mean whiter.) Our district is 36% low income and 20% English language learners as well as 42% Caucasian, 32% Hispanic, 12% Asian, 8% African American, 6% multiracial, and 0.5% American Indian. If you look at our last census, it’s clear that our community is growing more and more diverse every year, which is important to me and my husband.
I love our district. Our public school offers a dual language Spanish/English immersion program and I’m excited to be raising our kids in a community where not everyone looks like them, speaks like them, or celebrates their faith like them.