What makes Prince Georges County School District bad?? (Bowie, Bladensburg: incomes, tax)

[EdwardA]

Originally Posted by Khemistry

No, the curriculum is definitely watered down. I'm not stating this from theory... I'm stating it from experience. My best friend went to PGCPS all his life and transferred to Sherwood High School in MoCo midway through his freshman year in PG. To this day, he still talks about how drastically different the curriculum was, specifically his "Matter & Energy" science course which is the equivalent of "Physical Science or Physics" in PGCS. He said PGCPS didn't even begin to prepare him for how much more advanced and rigorous MoCo schools were, and he didn't necessarily attend 'bad' schools while he was in PG.

Same stories with my younger siblings. All went to PGCPS schools at some point and two years ago, they transferred to MoCo schools. The difference was literally night and day from everything concerning how much more time/investment MoCo devoted towards them to how much more rigorous the curriculum was.

So, don't delude yourself and think for a second students in PGCPS are getting (or have the opportunity to get) the same education as students in Montgomery. That type of complacent thinking would almost be just as bad as people who just don't care one way or another. But, I do agree with some of your other points.

On the rare days my 7th grade brother does bring home homework from his PG County Middle School. The assignments are ridiculously easy. My personal favorite was the teacher had them write out their universal address.

Not knowing what exactly was an universal address he explained he had to write what planet they were on, what continent, country, state, city etc.

If by the 7th grade you don't know what planet you're on there really is no hope for you.

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by EdwardA

On the rare days my 7th grade brother does bring home homework from his PG County Middle School. The assignments are ridiculously easy. My personal favorite was the teacher had them write out their universal address.

Not knowing what exactly was an universal address he explained he had to write what planet they were on, what continent, country, state, city etc.

If by the 7th grade you don't know what planet you're on there really is no hope for you.

I remember that kind of stuff in public schools as well.

The funny thing is, I've taught much more difficult things in English to Japanese/Korean students in Japan/Korea than anything I actually learned in high school myself in the U.S. in my own language

[IdahoP]

We are a military family and will be relocating to the DMV this summer. We are considering purchasing a unit at National Habor. Our child will be entering the 4th grade in the Fall. Is anyone familiar with Fort Foote Elementary?

[bowian]

IdahoP,

Fort Foote Elementary School, Fort Washington MD School Profile, Ranking, and Reviews - SchoolDigger.com

Check out this site.

[liliblu]

FORT FOOTE ELEMENTARY

Fort Foote Elementary - Prince George's County Public Schools

[Renznceman]

Quote:
FORT FOOTE ELEMENTARY

Fort Foote Elementary - Prince George's County Public Schools

Now for a reality check: On Wednesday, January 25, there was a robbery attempt inside Fort Foote Elementary School. An Elementary school! No wonder they call it "Fort" Foote.

[justtitans]

Originally Posted by Renznceman

Quote:
FORT FOOTE ELEMENTARY

Fort Foote Elementary - Prince George's County Public Schools

Now for a reality check: On Wednesday, January 25, there was a robbery attempt inside Fort Foote Elementary School. An Elementary school! No wonder they call it "Fort" Foote.

Yeah that area is getting a little rough these days, but that isn't an indictment on the school. The school itself is actually improving quite a bit and they actually made AYP last year. As uncomfortable a situation as that was, I don't think the school should be blamed for that issue. Hopefully PG Police begin to get a better control of the crime in that area.

[Rapp5]

Sometimes you have to consider the bar for standards. I read an article in the local paper last school year that Crossland High School's standards for determining some of it's "Honor" class students were things like- if they could read at a 4th grade level. If you lower the bar at such a rate, sure..."84% of your students are Honors class kids". Sad state of America. Lower the bar, don't raise the expectations... Insanity. Stay out of PG county schools.

[paulmartinelli]

I notice this is a very old thread... nevertheless, I will post.

Recently, I've been looking at the state of public schools in Maryland, and I can't help but notice the abysmal state of PG County schools compared to other counties.

Here are the mean SAT Math scores for various county school districts in Maryland from 2017 for all students and broken down by race (source: https://reportcard.msde.maryland.gov...ist/Index?l=16):

(Yes, yes. I know SAT scores don't mean everything. But if you look at other tests, such as MCAP, you will find the same pattern with regard to PG County's appalling performance. One needs to be able to quantify school performance somehow.)

National Average: 527 (Black 462, Latino 489, White 553, Asian 612)

PG County: 474 (Black 466, Latino 466, White 569, Asian 554)
Montgomery County: 566 (Black 509, Latino 519, White 611, Asian 621)
Calvert County: 555 (Black 484, Latino 531, White 568, Asian 620)
AA County: 536 (Black 470, Latino 491, White 563, Asian 570)
Howard County: 588 (Black 516, Latino 541, White 613, Asian 631)

The TLDR of the statistics is that PG county performs at a level well below that of its neighbors, across all racial groups (with the exception of Whites, who perform similarly in PG County schools as they do in Calvert and AA Counties). PG County is the wealthiest Black-majority county in the US - why do Black students in PG County barely outperform the Black national average?

If you look at the individual school numbers (https://reportcard.msde.maryland.gov...ist/Index?l=16) (sorry, this shows 2016 numbers which aren't comparable to the 2017 numbers I suspect due to re-norming), you'll find that more well-off areas such as Bowie perform better than the more impoverished areas, but even Bowie and the other well-off areas perform abysmally on a national scale. The two standout high scoring schools are specialized high schools which have preselected students of demonstrated higher ability.

I often hear the argument of funding, but this seems suspicious given the very high property tax rate of PG County, and the high mean real property tax amounts. In Maryland, PG County's property taxes (not the rate, the total amount) are behind only HoCo and MoCo. And in PG outside of the Beltway, property taxes are sky-high, comparable with areas of MoCo with houses of lesser value. This does not translate to better schools.

Ok, now for a real TL;DR - PG County schools are demonstrably behind. Lack of funding doesn't seem to be the reason why. Even students in wealthy areas of PG County are doing badly. So what is it? Is there something broken in the public school system? Something sick? And more importantly, why do the proud, highly educated and successful people living here tolerate it?

[Mista Jones]

60 percent of the county budget goes to schools. Revenue to the county is heavily reliant on personal property due to lack of a corporate tax base. The funding to the schools is not enough as we have some of the oldest schools in the state. Furthermore we bear the brunt of this regions farms students. The parents even in wealthy areas don’t send their kids to public schools. So even in a good area, only low income kids are attending the schools. I think people forget how large the county is and how we are treated as a dumping ground for the regions underserved residents. And the concentration of wealth pales in comparison to the other counties. Context matters and we are not dealing with apples to apples comparison. Yes, the schools should and need to be better. But it requires involved parents and better resources.