Montgomery county schools or Frederick county schools

[Anonymous]

Which school system is better? would you move from MCPS to FCPS just for school?

[Anonymous]

I would choose a smaller system than MCPS any day. I think a lot of its problems are because it is so big. My kid only has two years left, or I would move.

[Anonymous]

I don’t know. The McPS system has a lot of kids which has some negatives. Here are the positives:
— more course offerings including a lot of very advanced courses, specialized programs, and electives
— lots of club offerings including competitive academic teams
— diverse student body that is generally very tolerant of differences of all sorts— so if it turns out your kid on quirky in some way, they will most assuredly find some kind of tribe at their HS, which would not necessarily be true at a smaller school or more rural school.

It’s definitely easier to get into UMDCP from Frederick County. There is a de facto cap on MCPS applicants and it’s now pretty hard to get in from MoCo.

[Anonymous]

Frederick County has better programs in place for dyslexia than MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Frederick county has better central office people and happier employees, which is good for kids. A lot of MCPS folks applying to go work there.

[Anonymous]

MCPS has many more options. Frederick is much smaller. Hard to really compare them otherwise.

[Anonymous]

15+ years ago, I would have said MCPS (amd we moved here for the schools).

Today, Frederick, no question

[Anonymous]

I'm a MCPS teacher who has kids in FCPS in Urbana. I'd say at least 40% of the people I teach with live in Frederick county and are fine with the schools up here. We moved out of MoCo as our kids were entering elementary school because I wasn't happy with MCPS.
FCPS is much smaller and central office doesn't have to jump through 1,000 hoops to get an initiative up and running. There aren't layers upon layers of positions at central either. I've been more than happy with our teachers and administrators here. There's an incredible sense of community and tons of activities and evening events.
I may get blasted for saying this, but I'm also not hearing about crazy behaviors in my children's elementary school like I observe in my own school.

[Anonymous]

I am a parent who left MCPS for FCPS, into the Urbana pyramid.

Kids were ES/MS when I left and now MS/HS.

It very much reminds me of when I went to school as a kid and teenager, especially at the younger ages.

You can take that as good or bad, depending on your perspective, I guess

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a MCPS teacher who has kids in FCPS in Urbana. I'd say at least 40% of the people I teach with live in Frederick county and are fine with the schools up here. We moved out of MoCo as our kids were entering elementary school because I wasn't happy with MCPS.
FCPS is much smaller and central office doesn't have to jump through 1,000 hoops to get an initiative up and running. There aren't layers upon layers of positions at central either. I've been more than happy with our teachers and administrators here. There's an incredible sense of community and tons of activities and evening events.
I may get blasted for saying this, but I'm also not hearing about crazy behaviors in my children's elementary school like I observe in my own school.

then why don't you teach in FCPS?

There are several teachers I know in MCPS who have kids in MCPS. So, I guess ymmv.

I think the two school districts are too different to compare, but MCPS does have way more offerings and more higher achieving kids than MCPS. If different programming and diversity are important to you, I'd stick with MCPS, and find a cluster that has the least issues. They do tend to be on the wealthier side.

If you don't care about the above two things, and your kids are just average to above average, FCPS might be better. MCPS being large does mean that some average/above average kids fall through the cracks.

My kids are biracial, and one has been in a gifted program since ES, so for us, MCPS makes more sense.

[Anonymous]

How is the diversity in Urbana? It sounds nice up there. We’re very dissatisfied with MCPS. The schooling is so low bar, it’s almost like it’s a DIY education. The only thing MCPS has going on is its HS programs and diversity.

I’m very surprised to hear it’s difficult to get into umdcp?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a MCPS teacher who has kids in FCPS in Urbana. I'd say at least 40% of the people I teach with live in Frederick county and are fine with the schools up here. We moved out of MoCo as our kids were entering elementary school because I wasn't happy with MCPS.
FCPS is much smaller and central office doesn't have to jump through 1,000 hoops to get an initiative up and running. There aren't layers upon layers of positions at central either. I've been more than happy with our teachers and administrators here. There's an incredible sense of community and tons of activities and evening events.
I may get blasted for saying this, but I'm also not hearing about crazy behaviors in my children's elementary school like I observe in my own school.

then why don't you teach in FCPS?

There are several teachers I know in MCPS who have kids in MCPS. So, I guess ymmv.

I think the two school districts are too different to compare, but MCPS does have way more offerings and more higher achieving kids than MCPS. If different programming and diversity are important to you, I'd stick with MCPS, and find a cluster that has the least issues. They do tend to be on the wealthier side.

If you don't care about the above two things, and your kids are just average to above average, FCPS might be better. MCPS being large does mean that some average/above average kids fall through the cracks.

My kids are biracial, and one has been in a gifted program since ES, so for us, MCPS makes more sense.

Compare salaries for teachers and report back, mkay?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How is the diversity in Urbana? It sounds nice up there. We’re very dissatisfied with MCPS. The schooling is so low bar, it’s almost like it’s a DIY education. The only thing MCPS has going on is its HS programs and diversity.

I’m very surprised to hear it’s difficult to get into umdcp?

Yes, from the whole state but especially McPS. Especially for particular majors but even the general studies requires pretty good grades and test scores at this point. I know a lot of kids who were shut out and are going to st Mary’s or Hood or paying more for out of state options. It’s not at all like it was decades ago. The rising cost of college means that many of the top kids are staying in state as it just isn’t worth close to half a million for private schools. Plus the rising interest in STEM makes Maryland a very good choice. Plus the demographic crunch that makes it impossible to get it anyplace (although that will start to ease up in another few years).

[Anonymous]

Mcps doesn’t even give kids textbooks anymore I would expect any kid going through mcps to learn much unless you are a super involved parent and essentially teaching your kid yourself

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a MCPS teacher who has kids in FCPS in Urbana. I'd say at least 40% of the people I teach with live in Frederick county and are fine with the schools up here. We moved out of MoCo as our kids were entering elementary school because I wasn't happy with MCPS.
FCPS is much smaller and central office doesn't have to jump through 1,000 hoops to get an initiative up and running. There aren't layers upon layers of positions at central either. I've been more than happy with our teachers and administrators here. There's an incredible sense of community and tons of activities and evening events.
I may get blasted for saying this, but I'm also not hearing about crazy behaviors in my children's elementary school like I observe in my own school.

then why don't you teach in FCPS?

There are several teachers I know in MCPS who have kids in MCPS. So, I guess ymmv.

I think the two school districts are too different to compare, but MCPS does have way more offerings and more higher achieving kids than MCPS. If different programming and diversity are important to you, I'd stick with MCPS, and find a cluster that has the least issues. They do tend to be on the wealthier side.

If you don't care about the above two things, and your kids are just average to above average, FCPS might be better. MCPS being large does mean that some average/above average kids fall through the cracks.

My kids are biracial, and one has been in a gifted program since ES, so for us, MCPS makes more sense.

Compare salaries for teachers and report back, mkay?

I guess the money is worth dealing with all the crap of MCPS, then. Why does MCPS pay their teachers more?