Recent experience at Parkland
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Anonymous
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Can parents please share their experience with Parkland MS?
My 5th grader got in by the lottery and we aren't sure. She used to love space stuff but now only wants to go where her friends are going. Our home school is decent. Commute is 25 mins each way which we may be able to reduce the pain of with carpools. What are pros/cons? GreatSchools and Niche make it look awful but the curriculum and course options look interesting. Also, what your home school was that you left would be relevant too. |
Anonymous
| Is the 8 period day appealing to her? The kids I know who liked the Parkland program liked having the chance to fit in the extra class. |
Anonymous
| I would like to know too . Any suggestions? The school curriculum looks good. But like OP said the school is in bottom 50% middle schools of Maryland. Any one have any idea? Thank you |
Anonymous
| I’m trying to find out same thing for Loiederman. Maybe contact some of the PTA members? I also asked for an in-person tour. |
Anonymous
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It looks like middle school in MCPS is universally disappointing.
I remember when I took my DS on the open house for those MS magnet programs, but hearing the reality of the experience from some parents, I'm stunned. |
Anonymous
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I’m a parent of a recent (pre-Covid) out-of-area Parkland student who went on to Poolesville magnet program. For advanced students, the academic program is strong and the 8th period allows them to take language, music, AND one more elective (tech, arts, or science). About half the classes are homogeneous grouping (math, language, science, and de facto music) the others are heterogeneous grouping, but my observation was that kids in the same language and music also ended up together in their English and Social Studies classes due to the schedule. I wouldn’t worry about overall school ratings. The area is generally low SES, which is why the lottery program is there (to draw more high SES to the school).
Since you can always return to your home school, my suggestion is to try it for at least one full year. What I think was most valuable for my kid was learning to work with kids not like them and having access to many clubs and other enrichment. They also learned some independence and how to use public buses to get home (8th grade). It was a nice school with lots of green teachers. |
Anonymous
Great teachers.  Not green
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Anonymous
| Anyone else have feedback on this school? |