Middle school choices

[Anonymous]

Current parents of Pyle or Newport Mill: can you weigh in on your experience and pros/cons?

[Anonymous]

Pyle and Newport Mills are two very different schools with two very different demographics. You go to the one where you live.

[Anonymous]

Current Pyle parent here. My child has had a great experience with classes, teachers, electives, and the music program. But the school is very big. My child has been able to handle it and has a nice friend group but I could see it being overwhelming/hard to navigate for some kids. Parents I’ve met are friendly and involved. Sports teams are limited and hard to make. Overall good prep for Whitman.

[Anonymous]

Newport Mill has 606 students; Pyle has 1260.

[Anonymous]

Pyle looks pretty from afar, but if you look closer it’s falling victim to MPCS. Class sizes are huge, History 34, English 32. We got lucky with 27 in Math. We were told that because we didn’t go to the magnet school, we would be offered enrichment through the honors history class. Well this year that went away. While the transcript says they are in the higher history class, it’s a farce. All the kids are in the same class, with those slated for enrichment having a different class noted on their transcript only. The writing assignment one month was really a Mad Libs style paragraph with fill in the blanks. I had numerous conversations with parents in older grades, Pyle has changed. 6th grade this year is the trial year with only two teams instead of three, and changes to the history enrichment program. Who knows going forward. We’ve been impressed with the teachers, and there are nice kids. But the focus of MPCS is closing the achievement gap, not letting kids fly.

[Anonymous]

My kid had a good experience at NMMS, but it was a few years ago. Music is particularly good. Small is also better. All of his friends went there and they had a tight friend group. They’re all seniors now, and many went to Einstein but others went to magnets at Wheaton and Blair.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the responses thus far. We have option to go to either. My main concern with Pyle was size and whether there’s really a difference in instruction and educational experience. Naturally this also impacts whether it’s Einstein vs Whitman as well.