Top 20 Elementary Schools for Homebuyers in Prince George's County, Maryland
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Anonymous
Same difference. Their website lists their city as Hyattsville, so Hyattsville it is. |
Anonymous
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Parents be forewarned that the article is inaccurate!
PG County Public Schools has some of the best kept secrets for education in its specialty program schools and yes the lottery process is a bear but worth the effort! Unfortunately PGCPS in general gets a bad rap because it is over 75% AA and is increasingly acquiring more ethnically socio-economically diverse populations -- Hispanic, African and Asian populations. I am a parent at the southern French Immersion program and it is awesome but not without its need for improvements like any other school. I also have friends at the TAG schools, the Visual & Performing Arts schools, STEM focused middle schools, Mandarin Immersion and Spanish Immersion. What you will find is that the specialty programs are awesome because they get more funding for support of their specialty and are more focused on the students' development and interests. PGCPS specialty programs are truly committed to its students but could use more funding like Fairfax County Public Schools, Montgomery County Public Schools, DCPS, etc. For example my youngest has a budding artsy personality and is extremely tactile. My youngest loves science, reading, drawing, building things and playing piano. Although my youngest child has been doing well at the French Immersion program for the last 3 years, I believe my youngest child would flourish in a visual arts program. Given my youngest child's proficiency in French, we have decided to apply to the lottery again to enter the Benjamin Foulois or Thomas Pullen arts program, which do not have a focus on language. The arts program students get Spanish albeit limitedly; I believe for one semester per year. We will maintain my younger child's French language development via Saturday classes throughout the DMV area; there are a great many. While my older child has been TAG identified since preschool and qualified for TAG school entrance in 2nd grade, we thought the challenge of becoming fluent in another language was in and of itself advanced; TAG students are not exposed to language development in this same way. My older child is reading, writing, and speaking French well and will take the DELF board proficiency exam provided via an agreement between PGCPS and Alliance Française de Washington. This certification enables her to attain a certain level of achievement and will enable her to follow up with more advanced language learning for future employment. But moving to the TAG program will stretch her even more because of the learning style catered to at the TAG schools --- depth of knowledge versus breath of knowledge. 5 years of French Immersion gave my older child language construction depth and understanding; French is a very structured language like Latin. But TAG programming will give her an advanced breath of knowledge via reading classical texts, doing higher order math with critical reasoning problems, more hands on science, etc. You will find that parents are very active at all the PGCPS specialty program schools which also positively impacts the success of students. Please do not sleep on the opportunities available in PGCPS! Many PGCPS specialty students are college bound! Please be a participating parent to ensure the success of your student regardless wherever your child attends school. Keep an eye out as Rushern Baker continues to make great improvements to the educational structure of the county! e.g. Brought Dr. Kevin M. Maxwell back from Anne Arundel County Public Schools to PGCPS as CEO! Major change since Dr. Maxwell began his teaching career in PGCPS and knows well where PGCPS can go. |
maydak
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| Is there any preschool where children can learn French to prepare for the French immersion programs? |
Anonymous
Have you tried Lango schools? One in Largo and Bowie I think. Also Children's Global Readiness Academy |
Anonymous
They really don't need to. It's amazing to watch kids go in to K at 5 years old, speaking no French and by 2nd grade they are blabbering on in French. |
Anonymous
In a good way. |
Anonymous
| PG County has a Chinese immersion school? Which one is that?? |
Anonymous
French and Spanish. No Chinese. |
Anonymous
| Isn't paint branch Chinese immersion ? |
Anonymous
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Yes, Paint Branch does offer Chinese immersion. STEM and Math are taught through the Chinese language. Its a partial immersion program. Here's a list of all the Immersion Programs
http://www1.pgcps.org/immersionprograms/ |