PG County, is this for real? (Bowie, Potomac: low income, house, buying)

[North Beach Person]

Originally Posted by DoughLow805

I just want to say this, Great Schools is garbage. The score is basically how kids scoring or showing improvement on their ACT/SAT or other standardized tests. For me, that's a pretty crappy way to rate a school. I value cultural and socio-economic diversity (up that eliminates private school for my kids). How strong are the clubs, activities, and sports programs at the school? How strong is the PTA? How are the facilities? At least Niche tries to factor this stuff into their rating, which is also an imperfect rating system, but better than Great Schools. Roosevelt Niche A, Great Schools 7 of 10.

Otherwise, I agree with your points. Particularly (4) will ensure that PGC and Baltimore will certainly be both the most diverse and worst rated schools in these systems.

Using test scores may be a crappy way to rate schools but that's one of the ways (among several) that's mandated (not SAT and ACT scores but PARCC and HSA scores) by NCLB, then R3T and now ESSA. Take that up with a couple Presidents and Congress.

[EdwardA]

Originally Posted by Schwartzmann

Catholic and non-Catholic Christian schools are big in PG County. Some parents have moved to neighboring Charles County (to the south) because of PG's public schools... and the prohibitive cost (to some) of private schools. Some wealthier families have moved to districts in Virginia with better school systems.

Areas of PG county on or near the DC line are the most dysfunctional... with exceptions, like Cheverly. Out in the county, further away from DC, you have the McMansion phenomenon (old farm land bought up and subdivided for those who have the money).

The latest one-year population growth statistics for the counties making up the DC metropolitan area (from the U.S. Census Bureau) put PG County dead last... at just 0.1%. Schools may be a big factor behind this sluggish growth.

Charles County schools are declining too, there's no where to run.

[EdwardA]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

About the last: that's a copout and just an excuse.

The reality is the Prince George's schools were the second worst in the state, and the County much poorer, when it was majority White. People avoided and denigrated the County then, too.

The "stigma" was always there. PG was always considered the redheaded stepchild of the DC area. Always.

Black officeholders didn't invent the politics of the County, all they did was inherit and continue the practices.

All four of them are excuses frankly.

[EdwardA]

Originally Posted by biafra4life

hey there y'all.
I stumbled across this video on youtube which was a list of the ten richest African American cities:


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[SIZE=3]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hT5Ks1TWF68[/SIZE]
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PG County had more than half the cities listed.

Now I live in the Dallas area. I showed the video to several of my black friends and family (I'm black too btw) and we were frankly stunned. While we do have some predominantly African American cities in the DFW metroplex, they tend to be either at best working to lower middle class, or at worst straight up stereotypical ghettoes. Most middle to upper class, white collar blacks tend to live in the northern suburbs which are predominantly white.


Thus for a long time the idea that 'black is whack' unfortunately tends to be the story here in Dallas. If you have any type of economic mobility, you move to the white suburbs for the good schools, safety etc. The idea that there could be prosperous, thriving majority black cities seemed impossible...till this video.


So is this video telling the truth about PG? Or is the actual reality less encouraging? Curious minds wish to know from the residents of PG.

OP it's not much different than what you are seeing in Dallas.

[Jalux]

I hear a lot of crying from those that refuse to accept reality. It's okay. It's normal to feel defensive.

[Mos82]

What Prince Georges county has is a large number of middle class AA. No its not millionaire wealth like Potomac or the Hamptons nor has anyone here ever pretended that it was. People only discuss this because of the scale of the Black middle class. Most areas might have a neighborhood or 2 or some housing developments but PG Black middle class is spread throughout the whole county and that is UNFORTUNATLEY unique/rare. So no matter if you are in Upper Marlboro, or Bowie, or FortWashington, or Greenbelt there are scores of middle to upper income AA.

I will say Prince Georges County has BENEFITTED from the influx of Blacks. There was not Triple Bond Rating before AA moved in, no Reds Skin Stadium, no National Harbor, no Bowie Town Center no Whole Foods, no Wegmans. We changed the economy of the county for the better. The school system has options now that did not exist 20-30 years ago. The expansion of Tag Centers, the expansion of Science & Tech programs increased Grad rates, increased College entrance rates etc.

[dukeofbelair]

The problem with GreatSchools is the ratings are largely driven by test scores, and these are easily skewed by demographics. The racial achievement gap is well documented, and while it is closed somewhat by parity in parental affluence and education, it still stubbornly resists fully disappearing, and hasn't been fully explained*.

You can look at two schools in affluent, educated areas, and you see that the difference between schools is often driven significantly by the racial makeup.

Look at these three schools (all data from GreatSchools): Bowie High (Bowie, MD), Arundel High (Odenton, MD), and Broadneck High (Arnold, MD). As the school becomes progressively more white, the scores go up overall, and the school's score climbs. Parents are superstitious, and want to put their kids in "good" schools to make sure that "good" rubs off on them, but in the end, they're going to do about the same wherever they go. Parents who bought homes specifically to get their kids in the "good schools" will go to some pretty outrageous lengths to put down the schools in Prince George's county - it's pretty obviously an expression of choice-supportive bias, where they see that they could have bought bigger, nicer homes and feel the need to justify the premium they paid.

*the gap seems to really take hold around the time students hit adolescence, which makes me wonder how much of it is peer pressure and fear of being accused of being a sellout. Nobody ever made me feel like a race traitor for getting good grades and exploring academic interests, but black friends and colleagues have said they sometimes felt those pressures.

[Jalux]

"...but in the end, they're going to do about the same wherever they go."

Conclusory. Unsubstantiated assertion.

[ElectricLights]

Originally Posted by Jalux

"...but in the end, they're going to do about the same wherever they go."

Conclusory. Unsubstantiated assertion.

Also disagree.


You are who you hang with. In some places the lure of idiot friends makes it easier to get in trouble. All boys are idiots but it is amplified by one's particular peer group and that is what anyone should be afraid of. When your friends do dumb stuff, you get pulled in. It works the other way too. It's a stark reality, but I cannot afford to live in Mclean. I have no doubt that if I did, my kids future would look brighter just by virtue of adjusted expectations of everyone around them.


I can't be the only one who thinks this.

[Jalux]

"When your friends do dumb stuff, you get pulled in. It works the other way too."

You are now contradicting yourself. Your original argument supported the notion that regardless of school, a child will do the same. Yet your last post is a total reversal, and instead affirms my point-- that your environment makes a difference. School is where a child spends most of his or her time, for intellectual pursuits and for social development. Ergo, the people a child spends time associating with in school will have an impact. It is but one of several, granted, but the impact is significant nonetheless. Further, the issues with school goes beyond who one "hangs" with. Access to resources and talent have a pivotal impact on how a child succeeds. I speak as a person that is intimately familiar with this, having grown up in 'academic emergency' inner-city public schools throughout my youth. I know that my position in life would be significantly different - for the better - had my family possessed the wealth to keep me in an educational environment that was not an abject failure.