Top 10 Schools in MoCo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The principal said that kids needed more time to play outside and should be able to get all the practice they need at school. Reality check for our neighborhood, most families have two parents who work. That means there aren't neighbor children to have over for playdates after school.

I personally think the principal made the change when parents started using homework as an example of what was wrong with the curriculum. The homework clued parents in that standards had been lowered. When parents complained using the only examples coming home, the homework, then poof - the homework stopped. This principal no longer works in MCPS by the way.

All the more reason, no? Aftercare, then going home, then homework?

Especially when the available research evidently shows that there is no academic benefit to homework in elementary school.

+1

Just because both parents work doesn't mean the kids cannot use their after-school time for playing outdoors. Our after-care program provides plenty of playtime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We have a neighbor who chose Georgetown Prep over the magnets.

To weigh the options and compare, you actually need to tour to see what is available. MCPS has dropped the ball while trying to write their own curriculum.

1. The curriculum fiasco is a catastrophe at the lower grades, but if we're talking about high school here, it's less of a problem because the curriculum was far less impacted by Erik Lang and his band of merry incompetents.

2. While I don't doubt your story about your neighbor, admission to the Blair magnet is highly competitive. No one should plan on getting in, or assume their child would have been admitted, as some others on this thread are doing. However, I'm not surprised that a young man who would be competitive for SMAC would also be competitive for an elite private. I hope they had a good experience.

Incoming high school freshmen were the first guinea pig test group for 2.0. My child got through because we supplemented with workbooks and extra assignments at home. He had time to do so because his school experimented with the concept of no homework. Things did not improve much in middle school. He had about 1/4 the amount of homework than my older child because it just wasn't being assigned.

High school students who just graduated could have been affected in Algebra, Geometry, and Algebra 2. Those were also rewritten. My child who just graduated was part of the first guinea pig students for those courses as well in which central office was literally writing the courses while school was going on. It was a disaster in which our school staff rebelled and taught the old curriculum which did not match up with the central office tests. We hired tutors to get through those courses.

Agree, go ahead and flip point one on it's head. 2.0 ES math is annoying but largely adequate . MCPS Alg 1, Geom and Alg2 are where the real harm is occurring and it's hard to come back from a three year math vacation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What criteria is used to decide which is "top?" If it's who sends the most students to Harvard, Princeton and MIT, according to polarislist.com, Blair is tops:

Montgomery Blair High School (Silver Spring), with a total of 21 sent to those three institutions 2015-2017:
Richard Montgomery High School (Rockville), with 20 students sent
Winston Churchill High School (Potomac), with 13 students sent
Thomas S. Wootton High School (Rockville), with 12 students sent
Walt Whitman High School (Bethesda), with 11 students sent
Walter Johnson High School (Bethesda), with 8 students sent
Poolesville High School (Poolesville), with 5 students sent
BCC (Bethesda), with 4 students sent
Einstein (Kensington), with 1 student sent
Gaithersburg High School (Gaithersburg), with 1 student sent

Of course, what's much more important is who turns out the happiest, most well adjusted students, not just the stressed out over achievers.

Ok.. but according to the list on that site, the top 10 schools in this order are: BLAIR, RM, CHURCHILL, WOOTTON. WHITMAN, WJ, POOLESVILLE, BCC, CLARKSBURG, NORTHWEST.

Clarksburg and Northwest each sent 3. Not at all far off from my previous list.

This list seems far more accurate than earlier attempts at least in terms of the academic opportunity available at these schools.

so true!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We have a neighbor who chose Georgetown Prep over the magnets.

To weigh the options and compare, you actually need to tour to see what is available. MCPS has dropped the ball while trying to write their own curriculum.

1. The curriculum fiasco is a catastrophe at the lower grades, but if we're talking about high school here, it's less of a problem because the curriculum was far less impacted by Erik Lang and his band of merry incompetents.

2. While I don't doubt your story about your neighbor, admission to the Blair magnet is highly competitive. No one should plan on getting in, or assume their child would have been admitted, as some others on this thread are doing. However, I'm not surprised that a young man who would be competitive for SMAC would also be competitive for an elite private. I hope they had a good experience.

Incoming high school freshmen were the first guinea pig test group for 2.0. My child got through because we supplemented with workbooks and extra assignments at home. He had time to do so because his school experimented with the concept of no homework. Things did not improve much in middle school. He had about 1/4 the amount of homework than my older child because it just wasn't being assigned.

High school students who just graduated could have been affected in Algebra, Geometry, and Algebra 2. Those were also rewritten. My child who just graduated was part of the first guinea pig students for those courses as well in which central office was literally writing the courses while school was going on. It was a disaster in which our school staff rebelled and taught the old curriculum which did not match up with the central office tests. We hired tutors to get through those courses.

Agree, go ahead and flip point one on it's head. 2.0 ES math is annoying but largely adequate . MCPS Alg 1, Geom and Alg2 are where the real harm is occurring and it's hard to come back from a three year math vacation.

My child survived and even excelled due to online support (Kahn Academy) and working with other bright students to teach themselves concepts that were being missed. Some students used tutors to fill in gaps from 2.0.

The affluent and students of well educated parents probably suffered less from the 2.0 experiment. The lower socio-economic groups probably were hit hardest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know this is dumb but... What do y'all think? I'd say-

Whitman
Churchill
WJ
BCC
Wootton
Poolesville
QO
RM
Sherwood
Clarksburg

Magnet MCPS anything
Private school HS
Catholic school HS
.
.
.
.
.
W schools

I actually don't think so.
The W's are equal to the top privates but they both (W's & privates ) are way behind the Magnets.

+1

I have a kid at Whitman and a kid at the Blair magnet, and the Blair experience (magnet and non-magnet classes alike) kicks the Whitman experience’s ass.

What makes the Blair non-magnet classes better than classes at Whitman?

DC's teachers for English have been excellent and this year's English teacher was positively phenomenal. DC has also had great teachers for history, with one exception. My other DC's English teacher at Whitman this past year was meh, and history was downright terrible.

It is also my impression that class discussions for my Blair-DC are better and more in-depth than those my Whitman-DC has experienced.

The magnet curriculum is in a class by itself. The Whitman math/science classes do not begin to compare to the magnet ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know this is dumb but... What do y'all think? I'd say-

Whitman
Churchill
WJ
BCC
Wootton
Poolesville
QO
RM
Sherwood
Clarksburg

Magnet MCPS anything
Private school HS
Catholic school HS
.
.
.
.
.
W schools

I actually don't think so.
The W's are equal to the top privates but they both (W's & privates ) are way behind the Magnets.

+1

I have a kid at Whitman and a kid at the Blair magnet, and the Blair experience (magnet and non-magnet classes alike) kicks the Whitman experience’s ass.

What makes the Blair non-magnet classes better than classes at Whitman?

DC's teachers for English have been excellent and this year's English teacher was positively phenomenal. DC has also had great teachers for history, with one exception. My other DC's English teacher at Whitman this past year was meh, and history was downright terrible.

It is also my impression that class discussions for my Blair-DC are better and more in-depth than those my Whitman-DC has experienced.

The magnet curriculum is in a class by itself. The Whitman math/science classes do not begin to compare to the magnet ones.

In terms of your comments re Whitman v non-Blair magnets, you are making pretty sweeping statements based on experiences with a few teachers and very amorphous "impressions" of class discussions.

I have no doubt there are good and bad teachers at each school and I don't know how you compare class discussions, particularly when you are trying to extrapolate your impressions from a couple of classes to the whole school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know this is dumb but... What do y'all think? I'd say-

Whitman
Churchill
WJ
BCC
Wootton
Poolesville
QO
RM
Sherwood
Clarksburg

Magnet MCPS anything
Private school HS
Catholic school HS
.
.
.
.
.
W schools

I actually don't think so.
The W's are equal to the top privates but they both (W's & privates ) are way behind the Magnets.

+1

I have a kid at Whitman and a kid at the Blair magnet, and the Blair experience (magnet and non-magnet classes alike) kicks the Whitman experience’s ass.

What makes the Blair non-magnet classes better than classes at Whitman?

DC's teachers for English have been excellent and this year's English teacher was positively phenomenal. DC has also had great teachers for history, with one exception. My other DC's English teacher at Whitman this past year was meh, and history was downright terrible.

It is also my impression that class discussions for my Blair-DC are better and more in-depth than those my Whitman-DC has experienced.

The magnet curriculum is in a class by itself. The Whitman math/science classes do not begin to compare to the magnet ones.

In terms of your comments re Whitman v non-Blair magnets, you are making pretty sweeping statements based on experiences with a few teachers and very amorphous "impressions" of class discussions.

I have no doubt there are good and bad teachers at each school and I don't know how you compare class discussions, particularly when you are trying to extrapolate your impressions from a couple of classes to the whole school.

Yeah, giant grain of salt on that transparent attempt to boost Blair. There are more than a few Blair boosters who are very resentful of the “W” communities.

[Anonymous]

My experience has primarily been with the magnet programs. We have been in very diverse schools with high rates of FARMS/ESOL population and the overall experience has been good for us mainly because the classroom dynamics and peer group has been that of like-ability students.

I will say that Magnet program in HS was much more intense, Middle school was by far the weakest (even in the test-in) because it was just a few classes that were magnet. As a result we continued to supplement outside of the school.

We see a lot of private school kids in the magnet program in ES and MS, and my sense from talking to many of the parents is that the needs of highly able students are seldom met in private schools both in terms of peer grouping as well as curriculum.

Of course, this is all just an opinion. As parents we take best decisions for our family and circumstances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know this is dumb but... What do y'all think? I'd say-

Whitman
Churchill
WJ
BCC
Wootton
Poolesville
QO
RM
Sherwood
Clarksburg

Magnet MCPS anything
Private school HS
Catholic school HS
.
.
.
.
.
W schools

I actually don't think so.
The W's are equal to the top privates but they both (W's & privates ) are way behind the Magnets.

+1

I have a kid at Whitman and a kid at the Blair magnet, and the Blair experience (magnet and non-magnet classes alike) kicks the Whitman experience’s ass.

What makes the Blair non-magnet classes better than classes at Whitman?

DC's teachers for English have been excellent and this year's English teacher was positively phenomenal. DC has also had great teachers for history, with one exception. My other DC's English teacher at Whitman this past year was meh, and history was downright terrible.

It is also my impression that class discussions for my Blair-DC are better and more in-depth than those my Whitman-DC has experienced.

The magnet curriculum is in a class by itself. The Whitman math/science classes do not begin to compare to the magnet ones.

In terms of your comments re Whitman v non-Blair magnets, you are making pretty sweeping statements based on experiences with a few teachers and very amorphous "impressions" of class discussions.

I have no doubt there are good and bad teachers at each school and I don't know how you compare class discussions, particularly when you are trying to extrapolate your impressions from a couple of classes to the whole school.

Yeah, giant grain of salt on that transparent attempt to boost Blair. There are more than a few Blair boosters who are very resentful of the “W” communities.

I live in the Whitman catchment and have kids at both schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My experience has primarily been with the magnet programs. We have been in very diverse schools with high rates of FARMS/ESOL population and the overall experience has been good for us mainly because the classroom dynamics and peer group has been that of like-ability students.

I will say that Magnet program in HS was much more intense, Middle school was by far the weakest (even in the test-in) because it was just a few classes that were magnet. As a result we continued to supplement outside of the school.

We see a lot of private school kids in the magnet program in ES and MS, and my sense from talking to many of the parents is that the needs of highly able students are seldom met in private schools both in terms of peer grouping as well as curriculum.

Of course, this is all just an opinion. As parents we take best decisions for our family and circumstances.

Honest question: if highly able kids aren’t being served well in private or public school, then what’s the answer for how to educate them before they get to magnet or top private HS’s?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know this is dumb but... What do y'all think? I'd say-

Whitman
Churchill
WJ
BCC
Wootton
Poolesville
QO
RM
Sherwood
Clarksburg

Magnet MCPS anything
Private school HS
Catholic school HS
.
.
.
.
.
W schools

I actually don't think so.
The W's are equal to the top privates but they both (W's & privates ) are way behind the Magnets.

+1

I have a kid at Whitman and a kid at the Blair magnet, and the Blair experience (magnet and non-magnet classes alike) kicks the Whitman experience’s ass.

What makes the Blair non-magnet classes better than classes at Whitman?

DC's teachers for English have been excellent and this year's English teacher was positively phenomenal. DC has also had great teachers for history, with one exception. My other DC's English teacher at Whitman this past year was meh, and history was downright terrible.

It is also my impression that class discussions for my Blair-DC are better and more in-depth than those my Whitman-DC has experienced.

The magnet curriculum is in a class by itself. The Whitman math/science classes do not begin to compare to the magnet ones.

Are you seriously comparing non-magnet Blair with Whitman? What a stupid thing to say!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know this is dumb but... What do y'all think? I'd say-

Whitman
Churchill
WJ
BCC
Wootton
Poolesville
QO
RM
Sherwood
Clarksburg

Magnet MCPS anything
Private school HS
Catholic school HS
.
.
.
.
.
W schools

I actually don't think so.
The W's are equal to the top privates but they both (W's & privates ) are way behind the Magnets.

New PP chiming in. I have had several children go through Churchill cluster schools. High school standards were not what I had as an MCPS student and school standards in the elementary and middle school were lowered from 2.0. I toured the privates close to our house - Georgetown Prep (Catholic) and Bullis (non religious) - and I was amazed at their class offereings and resources. If you can swallow the price tag, these two schools are far beyond anything in MCPS.

You are definitely dreaming and delusional.
No private schools in the area can match the Magnets.
Only the top privates are equal to the W's. Bullis is not one of them

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know this is dumb but... What do y'all think? I'd say-

Whitman
Churchill
WJ
BCC
Wootton
Poolesville
QO
RM
Sherwood
Clarksburg

Magnet MCPS anything
Private school HS
Catholic school HS
.
.
.
.
.
W schools

I actually don't think so.
The W's are equal to the top privates but they both (W's & privates ) are way behind the Magnets.

New PP chiming in. I have had several children go through Churchill cluster schools. High school standards were not what I had as an MCPS student and school standards in the elementary and middle school were lowered from 2.0. I toured the privates close to our house - Georgetown Prep (Catholic) and Bullis (non religious) - and I was amazed at their class offereings and resources. If you can swallow the price tag, these two schools are far beyond anything in MCPS.

They are not beyond the magnet programs.

Have you toured the new science building at Bullis or looked at their STEM signature program? For us, we thought the program exceeded Blair and my child would not have the downside of a long commute.

LOL
"Exceeded Blair "? You must be out of your mind. What has Bullis done STEM wise?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know this is dumb but... What do y'all think? I'd say-

Whitman
Churchill
WJ
BCC
Wootton
Poolesville
QO
RM
Sherwood
Clarksburg

Magnet MCPS anything
Private school HS
Catholic school HS
.
.
.
.
.
W schools

I actually don't think so.
The W's are equal to the top privates but they both (W's & privates ) are way behind the Magnets.

+1

I have a kid at Whitman and a kid at the Blair magnet, and the Blair experience (magnet and non-magnet classes alike) kicks the Whitman experience’s ass.

What makes the Blair non-magnet classes better than classes at Whitman?

DC's teachers for English have been excellent and this year's English teacher was positively phenomenal. DC has also had great teachers for history, with one exception. My other DC's English teacher at Whitman this past year was meh, and history was downright terrible.

It is also my impression that class discussions for my Blair-DC are better and more in-depth than those my Whitman-DC has experienced.

The magnet curriculum is in a class by itself. The Whitman math/science classes do not begin to compare to the magnet ones.

Are you seriously comparing non-magnet Blair with Whitman? What a stupid thing to say!!

What's so stupid?
She compared some of her DC's Blair teachers to Whitman teachers.
Is that too hard for you to understand?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know this is dumb but... What do y'all think? I'd say-

Whitman
Churchill
WJ
BCC
Wootton
Poolesville
QO
RM
Sherwood
Clarksburg

Magnet MCPS anything
Private school HS
Catholic school HS
.
.
.
.
.
W schools

I actually don't think so.
The W's are equal to the top privates but they both (W's & privates ) are way behind the Magnets.

New PP chiming in. I have had several children go through Churchill cluster schools. High school standards were not what I had as an MCPS student and school standards in the elementary and middle school were lowered from 2.0. I toured the privates close to our house - Georgetown Prep (Catholic) and Bullis (non religious) - and I was amazed at their class offereings and resources. If you can swallow the price tag, these two schools are far beyond anything in MCPS.

You are definitely dreaming and delusional.
No private schools in the area can match the Magnets.
Only the top privates are equal to the W's. Bullis is not one of them

Have you visited Bullis? My child's abilities exceeded what the W schools could provide. Bullis even had classes for him that was not available at any MCPS school thanks to their STEM program and new science building.

If your child is happy with a magnet school, then good for you. Our experience, a private looked at the whole child and offered him courses based on his needs. Public told us that he exceeded what they offered and they could not have classes for 1 child. He would have had to be dual enrolled at MC versus having a class with a teacher at a private.