Elementary Schools in Tacoma Park

[Anonymous]

Hello. We are considering moving to Tacoma Park and was wondering what the opinions are on the different elementary schools? By the time we move, I will have one child in Middle School and 2 in elementary. Are there any that we should avoid? Any with great programs? Just looking for general opinions on the areas we should be looking at based on home elementary school. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Takoma Park (with a K) feeds primarily into one school, functionally.

Takoma Park ES is K-2, and Piney Branch ES is 3-5. No new kids come in between 2nd and 3rd unless they just moved there. It's the same kids, in two neighboring buildings.

Then, all of those graduating 5th graders move to Takoma Park MS and meet up with kids who have graduated from East Silver Spring ES. East Silver Spring ES pulls from a very small sliver of the City of Takoma Park but we're talking about three blocks total.

The only other school you might attend if you live in the City of Takoma Park is Rolling Terrace ES, but again that's a smaller section of the attendance zone. Those kids have a bilingual immersion program so they end up at Silver Spring International Middle School.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hello. We are considering moving to Tacoma Park and was wondering what the opinions are on the different elementary schools? By the time we move, I will have one child in Middle School and 2 in elementary. Are there any that we should avoid? Any with great programs? Just looking for general opinions on the areas we should be looking at based on home elementary school. Thanks!

All of my kids attend(ed) TKPK schools.

TPES is a focus school. Class sizes are smaller, often 16-20 kids. They also offer enriched math, an artifact of the now-defunct primary magnet.

We were happy with PBES. Two of my children went through the local CES program. It was very competitive for a local program before the lottery; one of my neighbors’ kids didn’t make the cut with a 97% CogAT!

TPMS hosts the county’s middle school STEM magnet program. There is a 25-seat set aside for in-boundary students. My kids enjoyed the deeper science and math classes, but the enriched humanities were also great!

My oldest is in the Blair STEM magnet program. This is a rigorous program for kids interested in STEM. I feel being in the TPMS magnet and participating in its award-winning math team helped their chances, but who knows. Also, even if a student isn’t in the magnet, they may take many of the classes from Cellular Physiology to Linear Algebra if they meet the pre-reqs.

I can’t imagine a better set of schools. I hope you are as happy in TKPK as we are. Best of luck!

[Anonymous]

I echo what the previous poster said about the middle school. The elementary schools are too big without a solid sense of community. When your kids are in grades with ten classes it’s difficult to build consistent friendships from year to year. This is one benefit of the CES program. Also, the lack of younger kids at PBES has a negative impact - the kids are mean.

[Anonymous]

To answer your question more specifically, MCPS schools are all pretty similar. The curriculum is largely the same, the teachers have the same qualifications, the administrators move around and all go through the same training. So, the same kid will have about the same outcome in any school.

With that said, each of the schools on the list above have some subtle differences.

TPES/PBES have the focus on early/upper elementary school, and PBES has a home-school model for the Center for Enriched Studies, which means that 25 kids out of every grade are in separate classrooms for 4th and 5th and get enriched literacy.

ESSES is K-5, and the smallest of the schools on this list. It sends about 5-7 kids per year to a regional CES program for enrichment, and then home school kids have access to a local Enriched Literacy Curriculum for advanced English and Humanities.

RTES has the two-way immersion program, which means kids get the same subject in English one day and Spanish the next.

Kids in any of these three schools have access to "compacted math" or grade level math for 4th and 5th.

[Anonymous]

I know families who moved away from Tacoma park to Bethesda because the schools in TP were bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know families who moved away from Tacoma park to Bethesda because the schools in TP were bad.

I call BS on this post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know families who moved away from Tacoma park to Bethesda because the schools in TP were bad.

I call BS on this post.

DP. I call BS on this BS. The other poster bragged how the 97th percentile didn't get into the program, so that should tell you something. I'm familiar with the PBES program. I don't think it's any different than the W feeders. The main difference is TPMS, but now that it's a lottery, the program is not what it was. There's also an issue with the RLA program at PBES that was never fixed, imho. Both the P and teachers involved are still there. Not saying it's a bad program by any means, but the combination of lottery and a few bad apples dragged down the stature of the program overall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know families who moved away from Tacoma park to Bethesda because the schools in TP were bad.

I call BS on this post.

For one thing, if they really did know people from there, they’d know how to spell it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know families who moved away from Tacoma park to Bethesda because the schools in TP were bad.

I call BS on this post.

DP. I call BS on this BS. The other poster bragged how the 97th percentile didn't get into the program, so that should tell you something. I'm familiar with the PBES program. I don't think it's any different than the W feeders. The main difference is TPMS, but now that it's a lottery, the program is not what it was. There's also an issue with the RLA program at PBES that was never fixed, imho. Both the P and teachers involved are still there. Not saying it's a bad program by any means, but the combination of lottery and a few bad apples dragged down the stature of the program overall.

What is the RLA program? I’ve had kids in piney Branch for the past four years and never heard of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know families who moved away from Tacoma park to Bethesda because the schools in TP were bad.

I call BS on this post.

DP. I call BS on this BS. The other poster bragged how the 97th percentile didn't get into the program, so that should tell you something. I'm familiar with the PBES program. I don't think it's any different than the W feeders. The main difference is TPMS, but now that it's a lottery, the program is not what it was. There's also an issue with the RLA program at PBES that was never fixed, imho. Both the P and teachers involved are still there. Not saying it's a bad program by any means, but the combination of lottery and a few bad apples dragged down the stature of the program overall.

This is very different than my experience. Both my kids loved TPES and PBES. They had no trouble making friends despite 10 classes. Both were consistently in the 96%-99% on both MAPs and so were many of their friends. Excellent schools. I could imagine better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know families who moved away from Tacoma park to Bethesda because the schools in TP were bad.

I call BS on this post.

DP. I call BS on this BS. The other poster bragged how the 97th percentile didn't get into the program, so that should tell you something. I'm familiar with the PBES program. I don't think it's any different than the W feeders. The main difference is TPMS, but now that it's a lottery, the program is not what it was. There's also an issue with the RLA program at PBES that was never fixed, imho. Both the P and teachers involved are still there. Not saying it's a bad program by any means, but the combination of lottery and a few bad apples dragged down the stature of the program overall.

What is the RLA program? I’ve had kids in piney Branch for the past four years and never heard of it.

I think it's remediation so I wouldn't know about that. My kids were in the accelerated groups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hello. We are considering moving to Tacoma Park and was wondering what the opinions are on the different elementary schools? By the time we move, I will have one child in Middle School and 2 in elementary. Are there any that we should avoid? Any with great programs? Just looking for general opinions on the areas we should be looking at based on home elementary school. Thanks!

All of my kids attend(ed) TKPK schools.

TPES is a focus school. Class sizes are smaller, often 16-20 kids. They also offer enriched math, an artifact of the now-defunct primary magnet.

We were happy with PBES. Two of my children went through the local CES program. It was very competitive for a local program before the lottery; one of my neighbors’ kids didn’t make the cut with a 97% CogAT!

TPMS hosts the county’s middle school STEM magnet program. There is a 25-seat set aside for in-boundary students. My kids enjoyed the deeper science and math classes, but the enriched humanities were also great!

My oldest is in the Blair STEM magnet program. This is a rigorous program for kids interested in STEM. I feel being in the TPMS magnet and participating in its award-winning math team helped their chances, but who knows. Also, even if a student isn’t in the magnet, they may take many of the classes from Cellular Physiology to Linear Algebra if they meet the pre-reqs.

I can’t imagine a better set of schools. I hope you are as happy in TKPK as we are. Best of luck!

Thanks very helpful!

[Anonymous]

ESS is also a FOCUS school with small class sizes. To the extent anyone felt that "the schools were too big," they were not talking about ESS, which has only about 500 kids total in Pre-K to 5th grade and draws from a very natural boundary bordering Takoma Park (and like a PP said, including a small sliver of it). Most of the ESS boundary is very very close to Takoma Park Middle School, where ESS kids go (and then on to Blair HS). My kid goes to ESS and we live closer to TPMS than ESS, but within a 5-10-minute walk to each. ESS has 3-4 small classes per grade, if that's a concern.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know families who moved away from Tacoma park to Bethesda because the schools in TP were bad.

I call BS on this post.

DP. I call BS on this BS. The other poster bragged how the 97th percentile didn't get into the program, so that should tell you something. I'm familiar with the PBES program. I don't think it's any different than the W feeders. The main difference is TPMS, but now that it's a lottery, the program is not what it was. There's also an issue with the RLA program at PBES that was never fixed, imho. Both the P and teachers involved are still there. Not saying it's a bad program by any means, but the combination of lottery and a few bad apples dragged down the stature of the program overall.

OP, listen to what this poster is saying. They are technically correct, but not in the way they think they are. Now that there's a lottery among the approximate 85-90th+ percentile instead of drawing mostly from the 97th+ percentile, certain people have decided it is not as good a program and the program has lost stature in their eyes. Consider why that might be, when the lottery has only been in effect for 1-2 years and there is no solid evidence that any of that is true.