Rockville/potomac high schools

[Anonymous]

We are thinking of moving to the Rockville area and wanted to know what people thought about the high schools/elementary schools and middle schools in that area. Our kids are still very young, but we are hoping to buy something we can stay in until the go to college. My husband and I went to public school and would like our children to do the same. We have found some houses we like that are in the Robert Montgomery school district, but my husband is convinced we need to be in Wootton or Winston Churchill. I feel like our kids will be successful and get into great colleges because we will be involved in their lives and their schools.


Any thoughts? Do you think it really matters or are most the schools of similar caliber?

[Anonymous]

There was a recent thread (within the past four months or so) about RM and Churchhill and Wooten that might go a long way to answering your questions. You might want to do a search on this site first. The 4Ws (Winston Churchill, Wooten, Walter Johnson, and Whitman) and BCC (Bethesda Chevy Chase) are widely regarded as the "top" public high schools but RM is not far behind - and other MoCo hs's have programs that may vault them past all of these for specific topics (Blair's Science Magnet comes to mind). You may also want to check Montgomery County's website for concrete information regarding test scores and demographics. http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org. Finally, for a very unscientific approach to outcomes at the various schools, you can take a look at Bethesda magazine's yearly compilation of self-reported data regarding where students applied and were accepted to college. That's not available online, though - so you may need to get a back issue at a library or from the publisher.

Also, where are you moving from? That may make a difference in your perspective?

[Anonymous]

Thank you! I'm not the OP, but this is great information.

Anonymous wrote:There was a recent thread (within the past four months or so) about RM and Churchhill and Wooten that might go a long way to answering your questions. You might want to do a search on this site first. The 4Ws (Winston Churchill, Wooten, Walter Johnson, and Whitman) and BCC (Bethesda Chevy Chase) are widely regarded as the "top" public high schools but RM is not far behind - and other MoCo hs's have programs that may vault them past all of these for specific topics (Blair's Science Magnet comes to mind). You may also want to check Montgomery County's website for concrete information regarding test scores and demographics. http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org. Finally, for a very unscientific approach to outcomes at the various schools, you can take a look at Bethesda magazine's yearly compilation of self-reported data regarding where students applied and were accepted to college. That's not available online, though - so you may need to get a back issue at a library or from the publisher.

Also, where are you moving from? That may make a difference in your perspective?

[Anonymous]

To the OP - It's not Robert Montgomery. It's Richard Montgomery.

[Anonymous]

We're in the Richard Montgomery district, and although our kids are not yet at RM, we've heard very good things from friends who have kids there (some in the IB program, some not).

We looked at houses in the Walter Johnson, RM, and Wooten districts (the other Ws were too rich for our blood) and liked what we saw with each of those schools. Our final decision was about the house/neighborhood rather than about the school, but we have not regretted our choice so far.