Public vs. Private Schools for people living in Montgomery County

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

It is mediocre. That is why all the affluent, educated, white people are leaving.

The white population of Montgomery County is actually increasing.

White population of Montgomery County, 2010 (Census): 558,358
White population of Montgomery County, 2013 (American Community Survey): 636,440

This doesn't show the rate at which the new white folk enroll their kids in public school vs private school, though. Has this rate changed in the last 3 years? The last 5 or 10?

Also -- and I personally believe this to be critically important when discussing montgomery county changing demographics -- that us census designated group "white people" includes new Latino immigrants in Langley park, Wheaton, etc.

No, it doesn't. It is the "whites only" category. Not to mention that Langley Park is not in Montgomery County.

[Anonymous]

Huh? Of course today's kids are going to be interacting with more different kinds of people that ever before when they grow up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

It is mediocre. My daughter is in the highest reading level in 2nd grade and her teacher constantly tells us she has promise. Her cousin who attends a top school in Anne Arundel County dances circles around her. her cousin goes to a mostly white school. They are ok with the lack of diversity because honestly, how many times are you going to need to interact with someone who isn't similar to you later in life???? Diversity isn't that important to me either because i see it is adding no value to my daughter's education - she is in a very diverse school.

Constantly, unless you go to great trouble to avoid it.

[Anonymous]

Para educators are not class room assistants. They are added help when a class has child with an IEP, usually some learning disability or a developmental disorder. MoCo thinks the best way to educate these children is to allow them to be a part of a regular classroom rather than pulling them out and having a separate classroom, and I think the research supports this approach. But if there is a class of all "average/normal" kids, my understanding is that there is no para educator support. On our tour of our neighborhood public, they explained this very explicitly.

[Anonymous]

"how many times are you going to need to interact with someone who isn't similar to you later in life????"

duh, how about every day unless you are independently wealthy and don't have to work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

It is mediocre. That is why all the affluent, educated, white people are leaving.

The white population of Montgomery County is actually increasing.

White population of Montgomery County, 2010 (Census): 558,358
White population of Montgomery County, 2013 (American Community Survey): 636,440

FYI - it helps to use the same data source when comparing data points over time. Decennial Census surveys every household - ACS doesn't and is based on sampling framework.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

It is mediocre. My daughter is in the highest reading level in 2nd grade and her teacher constantly tells us she has promise. Her cousin who attends a top school in Anne Arundel County dances circles around her. her cousin goes to a mostly white school. They are ok with the lack of diversity because honestly, how many times are you going to need to interact with someone who isn't similar to you later in life???? Diversity isn't that important to me either because i see it is adding no value to my daughter's education - she is in a very diverse school.

Constantly, unless you go to great trouble to avoid it.

Not PP, but the way I interpret her comment is that people tend to gravitate to those who are similar to them. For example, someone living in an upscale neighborhood is not shopping in Wheaton and will probably rarely have to deal with a non-English speaking or low income person. I actually live in Wheaton and do not know my neighbors. They don't speak English and hang out with the other Latinos in the neighborhood. Another example, my nience attends a low-income, ghetto middle school in the NEC. She hates it (and we do too) because most of the kids there don't care about getting an education. Fighting is a daily occurence. Trust me, once my daughter is out, she won't be hanging out in Southeast DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:also OP- depending where you are in DC, many people consider some DC schools to be equal to, or superior, to MoCo these days. Just ask the hive here about 2.0...

Keep dreaming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not very unusual for MCPS elementary classes in the younger years to have 16-18 students. My son's was like that for 3 years in a row so not a fluke.

Yes, child #1's class size was 17-18 students for K-3. Not in a Title I/Focus school, either. Child #2's class size has been 22-23 in the same school. I think that a class size of 30 is probably quite atypical in MCPS elementary schools.

Are those class sizes with one teacher, or two?

One. No assistant either.

For comparison purposes, our private PK and K classes have 2 teachers got a class of 13-16 and they're co-teachers. Minimal requirement is a BA in education. About 40-50 % have MA degrees. Classes get bigger from 1st on (2 teachers for 20-22). This us for our middle of the pack VA private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

It is mediocre. That is why all the affluent, educated, white people are leaving.

The white population of Montgomery County is actually increasing.

White population of Montgomery County, 2010 (Census): 558,358
White population of Montgomery County, 2013 (American Community Survey): 636,440

This doesn't show the rate at which the new white folk enroll their kids in public school vs private school, though. Has this rate changed in the last 3 years? The last 5 or 10?

Also -- and I personally believe this to be critically important when discussing montgomery county changing demographics -- that us census designated group "white people" includes new Latino immigrants in Langley park, Wheaton, etc.

No, it doesn't. It is the "whites only" category. Not to mention that Langley Park is not in Montgomery County.

Part of Langley Park is in Montgomery County and the other in Prince George's. Just like Laurel sits in parts of Montgomery, Anne Arundel, Prince George's, and Howard counties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

It is mediocre. That is why all the affluent, educated, white people are leaving.

The white population of Montgomery County is actually increasing.

White population of Montgomery County, 2010 (Census): 558,358
White population of Montgomery County, 2013 (American Community Survey): 636,440

FYI - it helps to use the same data source when comparing data points over time. Decennial Census surveys every household - ACS doesn't and is based on sampling framework.

OK, then you find the 2010 American Community Survey data for the whites-only population of Montgomery County, and let us know the results. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

No, it doesn't. It is the "whites only" category. Not to mention that Langley Park is not in Montgomery County.

Part of Langley Park is in Montgomery County and the other in Prince George's. Just like Laurel sits in parts of Montgomery, Anne Arundel, Prince George's, and Howard counties.

The city of Laurel is in Prince George's County. And Langley Park is in Prince George's County. The only way you can say that Langley Park is in Montgomery County is if you define Langley Park as "that place over there where lots of Latino immigrants live ".

[Anonymous]

Back to the original question - why did you choose private when in MoCo?

We didn't choose it to start with. We know many public school students from both DC (Wilson) and MoCo who went to amazing schools and are just great young people.

Slowly, we became aware of more and more people from MoCo who move one or more children to private school.

Eventually, my husband and I figured out that if you have a kid who self-advocates, odds are he/she can get an excellent education at MCPS. But if you have someone who needs some extra attention and the kid is not a "squeaky wheel" and is "doing fine," then you are really sunk. MCPS will not provide "extra help" to any kid just because the parents think the kid is not performing up to potential. If the kid is meeting grade-level standards, if the kid is in advanced classes, then in my experience, the student "is doing fine." There is just not the motivation to encourage every kid to reach his potential. This can be especially troubling for really bright kids who did not make HGC and are now languishing in "advanced" academic classes, or kids who have differentiated learning abilities - very strong in math for example, but weak in English - or the reverse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

say you live in Montgomery County, which has an excellent public school system

Montgomery County does not have an excellent school system. Its mediocre at best but getting worse each year. In the past few years it has gone down hill fast. Class sizes exploded a few years ago and 2.0 is the biggest disaster. The new Algebra 2.0 was such a disaster that MCPS inflated all test scores to bring everyone up to last year's failure rate. 32% of middle school kids and 82% of high school kids failed before the grade inflation. Several ES schools in Churchill and Wootton are seeing enrollment declines for the first time in years. It isn't because houses are not being sold to people with kids.

Montgomery County is becoming what NW DC used to be..a residential community with good houses but if you can afford it, you do private.

Lol, if you think MCPS is mediocre I hope you never leave the "DC Metro area" bubble...

It is mediocre. My daughter is in the highest reading level in 2nd grade and her teacher constantly tells us she has promise. Her cousin who attends a top school in Anne Arundel County dances circles around her. her cousin goes to a mostly white school. They are ok with the lack of diversity because honestly, how many times are you going to need to interact with someone who isn't similar to you later in life???? Diversity isn't that important to me either because i see it is adding no value to my daughter's education - she is in a very diverse school.

yes, MCPS are mediocre though they were once outstanding. Many, many here think (wish?) things never change. MCPS is a prime example of what happens when the interests of the teacher's unions take precedence over the interests of the students. Perception lags reality, but you can't fool people for ever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

say you live in Montgomery County, which has an excellent public school system

Montgomery County does not have an excellent school system. Its mediocre at best but getting worse each year. In the past few years it has gone down hill fast. Class sizes exploded a few years ago and 2.0 is the biggest disaster. The new Algebra 2.0 was such a disaster that MCPS inflated all test scores to bring everyone up to last year's failure rate. 32% of middle school kids and 82% of high school kids failed before the grade inflation. Several ES schools in Churchill and Wootton are seeing enrollment declines for the first time in years. It isn't because houses are not being sold to people with kids.

Montgomery County is becoming what NW DC used to be..a residential community with good houses but if you can afford it, you do private.

Lol, if you think MCPS is mediocre I hope you never leave the "DC Metro area" bubble...

It is mediocre. My daughter is in the highest reading level in 2nd grade and her teacher constantly tells us she has promise. Her cousin who attends a top school in Anne Arundel County dances circles around her. her cousin goes to a mostly white school. They are ok with the lack of diversity because honestly, how many times are you going to need to interact with someone who isn't similar to you later in life???? Diversity isn't that important to me either because i see it is adding no value to my daughter's education - she is in a very diverse school.

Yes. I feel that MCPS is living off of its reputation from 20+ years ago. It's a large bureaucracy that is slow to adapt to the world around it. That was part of our reason for going private.

yes, MCPS are mediocre though they were once outstanding. Many, many here think (wish?) things never change. MCPS is a prime example of what happens when the interests of the teacher's unions take precedence over the interests of the students. Perception lags reality, but you can't fool people for ever.