Thinking of moving from MoCo to HoCo - pros & cons

[Anonymous]

…from a schooling perspective. The commute distance to the city, museums etc are obviously things we are thinking off. We have 2 elementary aged kids and wondering whether about HoCo public education. For instance, they have Common Core but do they let kids work at a higher level? Do they have HGC with alternate curriculums?
Ay feedback would be much appreciated.

[Anonymous]

MoCo HoCo no go.

[Anonymous]

I love HoCo. I actually have worked at Shady Grove Adventist and Howard County General and can tell you the difference is unbelievable in patients.

We looked at houses about 10yrs ago but my husband's business involves many government buildings and we had to stay here. Have never been impressed. I have many friends in HoCo and their neighborhoods are cleaner, friendlier, more down to earth, less traffic and more involvement without over-involvement (if you know what I mean.) You are halfway in-between 2 cities.

Look around, you might really like it.

[Anonymous]

There are no highly gifted centers or magnet programs in Howard County. GT students are serviced in the mainstream classroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love HoCo. I actually have worked at Shady Grove Adventist and Howard County General and can tell you the difference is unbelievable in patients.

We looked at houses about 10yrs ago but my husband's business involves many government buildings and we had to stay here. Have never been impressed. I have many friends in HoCo and their neighborhoods are cleaner, friendlier, more down to earth, less traffic and more involvement without over-involvement (if you know what I mean.) You are halfway in-between 2 cities.

Look around, you might really like it.

What does this mean?

[Anonymous]

So . . . the quality of schools is better in Ho Co b/c 1) the patients in Ho Co are better, 2) the neighborhoods are cleaner/friendlier/more down to earth and 3) something about more involvement w/o over-involvement.


I'm sure OP has learned a lot from your post.

one question - Did you WORK at the hospitals or were you a patient in the psych ward?

Anonymous wrote:I love HoCo. I actually have worked at Shady Grove Adventist and Howard County General and can tell you the difference is unbelievable in patients.

We looked at houses about 10yrs ago but my husband's business involves many government buildings and we had to stay here. Have never been impressed. I have many friends in HoCo and their neighborhoods are cleaner, friendlier, more down to earth, less traffic and more involvement without over-involvement (if you know what I mean.) You are halfway in-between 2 cities.

Look around, you might really like it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love HoCo. I actually have worked at Shady Grove Adventist and Howard County General and can tell you the difference is unbelievable in patients.

We looked at houses about 10yrs ago but my husband's business involves many government buildings and we had to stay here. Have never been impressed. I have many friends in HoCo and their neighborhoods are cleaner, friendlier, more down to earth, less traffic and more involvement without over-involvement (if you know what I mean.) You are halfway in-between 2 cities.

Look around, you might really like it.

What does this mean?

I think we can all guess what PP meant.

[Anonymous]

If you can deal with the commute, HoCo schools are now much better than MCPS. MCPS continues to decline. Curriculum 2.0 isn't about common core. The grading system, lack of rigor and just overall poor standard is appalling. A high % of kids in MCPS qualify for GT centers but only 3% can get in due to space. It involves a long bus ride in many cases. Its far better to offer GT options in mainstream schools and raise rather than lower the bar for the curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you can deal with the commute, HoCo schools are now much better than MCPS. MCPS continues to decline. Curriculum 2.0 isn't about common core. The grading system, lack of rigor and just overall poor standard is appalling. A high % of kids in MCPS qualify for GT centers but only 3% can get in due to space. It involves a long bus ride in many cases. Its far better to offer GT options in mainstream schools and raise rather than lower the bar for the curriculum.

What this means is that MCPS now has a FARMS rate of 33.2% (42.4% ever FARMS), compared to 17.2% for HCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love HoCo. I actually have worked at Shady Grove Adventist and Howard County General and can tell you the difference is unbelievable in patients.

We looked at houses about 10yrs ago but my husband's business involves many government buildings and we had to stay here. Have never been impressed. I have many friends in HoCo and their neighborhoods are cleaner, friendlier, more down to earth, less traffic and more involvement without over-involvement (if you know what I mean.) You are halfway in-between 2 cities.

Look around, you might really like it.

What does this mean?

That Is code for MoCo has more, many more, poor undereducated black and Hispanic residents than entirely exurban Howard county.

[Anonymous]

HoCo is where MoCo families move to get more space for the money. Not for better schools. Overall they are quite comparable (with the exception of the GT thing), but the worst schools on HoCo look like PG County, whereas the worst schools in MoCo are still pretty darn good.

At the mid to upper end there is no comparison.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you can deal with the commute, HoCo schools are now much better than MCPS. MCPS continues to decline. Curriculum 2.0 isn't about common core. The grading system, lack of rigor and just overall poor standard is appalling. A high % of kids in MCPS qualify for GT centers but only 3% can get in due to space. It involves a long bus ride in many cases. Its far better to offer GT options in mainstream schools and raise rather than lower the bar for the curriculum.

What this means is that MCPS now has a FARMS rate of 33.2% (42.4% ever FARMS), compared to 17.2% for HCPS.

OP should look at the school district they are in in MoCo. The FARMS rate varies drastically depending on where you are in the county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love HoCo. I actually have worked at Shady Grove Adventist and Howard County General and can tell you the difference is unbelievable in patients.

We looked at houses about 10yrs ago but my husband's business involves many government buildings and we had to stay here. Have never been impressed. I have many friends in HoCo and their neighborhoods are cleaner, friendlier, more down to earth, less traffic and more involvement without over-involvement (if you know what I mean.) You are halfway in-between 2 cities.

Look around, you might really like it.

What does this mean?

That Is code for MoCo has more, many more, poor undereducated black and Hispanic residents than entirely exurban Howard county.

OK sweet I am moving there too

[Anonymous]

The problems in MCPS can't be blamed in increasing FARMS. MCPS is a horribly run organization. The superintendent is an arrogant idiot who can't manage his way out of a paper bag.

MCPS may have decided to trash the curriculum to hide the achievement gap in school with higher FARMS number but they didn't have to do this. Its not the fault of the FARMS students who deserve a better curriculum too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problems in MCPS can't be blamed in increasing FARMS. MCPS is a horribly run organization. The superintendent is an arrogant idiot who can't manage his way out of a paper bag.

MCPS may have decided to trash the curriculum to hide the achievement gap in school with higher FARMS number but they didn't have to do this. Its not the fault of the FARMS students who deserve a better curriculum too.

Oh, it's one of the "Superintenent Starr invented 2.0 to hide the achievement gap by lowering achievement among high-achieving groups!" conspiracy theorists. In order to believe in this theory, of course, you have to disregard that

1. MCPS started developing 2.0 under Weast.
2. Every school district in Maryland has changed its curriculum to align with the Common Core.
3. Lowered achievement among high-achieving demographic groups would be immediately obvious, because MCPS tracks achievement by demographic groups. (But maybe you think that Starr and everybody else in MCPS is too stupid to figure this out?)

And you cannot logically claim, at the same time, that the increasing proportion of poor students has nothing to do with achievement in MCPS, and that MCPS invented 2.0 to hide the achievement gap. If there were no achievement gap between poor and non-poor students, MCPS would not need to (supposedly) try to hide it.