High school overview

[Anonymous]

We’re considering a move to PG county in 2 years when our oldest will be entering 6th. We’d like to move to a place with a path to a decent high school. I have no familiarity with high schools in PG. Could you give me a rough overview? I’m interested in academic rigor but more concerned about happy, safe students.

[Anonymous]

I heard college park academy is really good. Not sure if it is only lottery based. There are a lot speciality programs in PG county like science and tech peogram in Eleonar Roosevelt, Oxonhill, charles flowers, academy of health sciences and aerospace program in Duval. All PG county students have to PSAT test in 8th grade. Admission into these speciality programs depend on the score in psat and also grades in each quarter of 7th grade and 1st quarter of 8th grade in all core subjects. All programs have very rigorious academic courses and we are eligible where ever you live in PG county. hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

If I were moving to PG, I would move in bounds to Eleanor Roosevelt High School.
There are plenty of other programs in good high schools but a lot of those are lottery, test or audition based. I know people with kids in the STEM program at ERHS and in the comprehensive program and all of them are happy. Living in bounds to ERHS will give you a solid option if you kid doesn't get into the other specialty programs.
I live in PG and my kid goes to Northwestern in the VPA program. It is the right place for them but it isn't for everyone.

[Anonymous]

Move for 5th grade (seriously) so you can establish residency the year before. This will allow your child to enter all of the middle school lotteries.

My older kids are both at College Park Academy, and it's terrific. It's lottery based, but preference is given to folks who live in the College Park area. I think 35% of the seats are held for kids in the CP area - not sure if that includes Greenbelt or not, but I think it includes Hyattsville, Riverdale, UP, CP, and Berwyn Heights.

Middle school is the wild card. There are lots of great high school options in the CP area. Most folks here talk about the S/T program at Eleanor Roosevelt, but Duval has the aerospace engineering program, Parkdale has IB, College Park Academy has a high school, as does CMIT in Laurel. And for performing arts, Northwestern or Suitland!

Depending on where you move, your eligibility for certain schools will be different. For example STEM school for northern PG is ER but for south is different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Move for 5th grade (seriously) so you can establish residency the year before. This will allow your child to enter all of the middle school lotteries.

My older kids are both at College Park Academy, and it's terrific. It's lottery based, but preference is given to folks who live in the College Park area. I think 35% of the seats are held for kids in the CP area - not sure if that includes Greenbelt or not, but I think it includes Hyattsville, Riverdale, UP, CP, and Berwyn Heights.

Middle school is the wild card. There are lots of great high school options in the CP area. Most folks here talk about the S/T program at Eleanor Roosevelt, but Duval has the aerospace engineering program, Parkdale has IB, College Park Academy has a high school, as does CMIT in Laurel. And for performing arts, Northwestern or Suitland!

Depending on where you move, your eligibility for certain schools will be different. For example STEM school for northern PG is ER but for south is different.

This is good advice. I am 99% sure that the zone for preferred entrance to CPA does not include Greenbelt. Most people I know with kids in CPA live in University Park and they are happy.

Middle school can be tough but if you zoned for Greenbelt MS and ERHS public school should be an option.

[Anonymous]

I used to teach at CPA. If you want happy and safe, that's your place, but it's not a traditional high school.

CPA is a small middle-high school. There are about 650 kids from grades 6-12 in a one-story building. Outside of the core classes, mostly everything is taught asynchronously through the Pearson Connexus online platform. They don't have the usual facilities you'd expect in a high school (gym with bleachers, field/track, auditorium). It's in the middle of an office park, so it kinda feels like a large office space, but they make the most of it. The building itself is less than ten years old, so it's state of the art.

The kids are very laid back and respectful. I've taught at schools that average 3-4 fights a day. I may have seen one fight a year while I was there. Kids turn in cellphones and Airpods to the lost and found, so it's safe to say theft is minimal. I'm biased, but I think the teachers and staff are great. You get out of it what you put in though. It's an online platform, and kids are...resourceful. If Google is your child's best friend, then they may not get as much out of the program as a kid who actually studies and does the work themselves.