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Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)
Another family considering moving to MoCo for the schools, but must stay east - recommendations?
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Anonymous
Hi all, I just read the other recent thread from a family considering moving to MoCo for the schools. We're in the same boat, but we're a little more constrained geographically. My husband commutes up 95 to Baltimore and I commute todowntown DC. So we can't move to some of the areas with the best schools such as Bethesda or Potomac. I think the furthest west my husband would be willing to move is around Georgia Ave. So, we've looked into Rosemary Hills, which has a good reputation -- though honestly when I visited the school I was struck by how overcrowded it is. A good location for us would be Woodmoor or Indian Springs or possibly Woodside -- anywhere quite close to the Beltway east of Georgia Ave. Any recommendations for neighborhoods and schools that are worth moving for? I've looked into some of the more suburban neighborhoods and schools --- I really like Westover elementary up around Randolph Road and New Hampshire -- but I would SO much prefer to live somewhat closer to the city (and downtown Silver Springdefinitely counts as "the city" at this point!  ). We are already out in the sticks (but the PG county sticks!) and if we're going to move I'd really like to go somewhere were we could at least walk to a grocery store, and be a quick drive away from downtown silver spring. Anyway, I'd be very appreciative of any suggestions! This whole situation is starting to feel like an insoluble puzzle. I really don't want to move to Columbia and spend half my life commuting, and the other half in a shopping mall ....
I feel a bit guilty that I don't want to move out to Ashton or Colesville or even HoCO so my daughters can attend better schools, and maybe we'll have to do that in the end, but I'm struggling against the idea right now ... surely parental quality of life counts for something in this equation too, right? thank you. |
Anonymous
| We moved from PG county to Montgomery Co for the schools. My son goes to Rosemary Hills and we love it. His teacher is amazing and the school has been working with us to get him caught up. It was really hard to leave our home but it was definitely worth it for our kids. |
Anonymous
Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm glad to hear you love Rosemary Hills. I went on a tour of the school, and as I mentioned it seemed so very crowded, that it seemed to me the teachers must spend a lot of time just trying to maintain order instead of teaching. But, it sounds like your son's teacher is giving him individual attention, despite the large class sizes? That's good to hear. My husband and I both really loved the Rosemary Hills neighborhood ... |
Anonymous
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Every time I read that Bethesda/Potomac have the best schools I get edgy. Bethesda/Potomac/private = higher SES. If you believe that your child will do well and even thrive with diversity - socioeconomic and racial - there are many good choices throughout the county. All schools teach the same curriculum. Bethesda/Potomac/prrivate schools have no monopoloy on engaging teachers. Lower SES elementary schools get more resources.
There, I feel better. |
Anonymous
| PP here. Yes, he's getting a lot of individual attention. It could be just that he has a great teacher but all of my neighbors love the school too. I think you would like the neighborhood a lot better than Columbia! |
Anonymous
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OP here. @23:29: I hear what you're saying. I just want to find a school for my children with good teachers and a good environment for learning. We're a multiracial family and I have no desire to have my children in an all-white environment. I realize that test scores may largely reflect the SES of the neighborhood families, but I feel like it's impossible for ME to know how much poor test scores actually reflect a poor learning environment. Sadly (inevitably?) I think I lost a lot of my idealism around these issues once I had children -- I hate the way the school system reinforces the inequality that exists in our society; but I don't want to put my kids in a bad school just because I wish all schools were equally good.
PP: glad to hear he is getting individual attention and your neighbors like the school too. Maybe we should reconsider, because I really liked the feel of the neighborhood. |
Anonymous
| OP again: PP, if I may ask, what PG county school was your son in? We are slated for Cherokee Lane which I am not planning to send them too, but if my daughter gets into the Robert Goddard French Immersion, we might stay ... |
Anonymous
| Indian Spring and Seven Oaks are nice neighborhoods with lots of families. HHighland View ES is a wonderful school with a great principal and very involved pareNts. Great racial and cultural diversity. It is one of the smaller schools in the county. Lots of families are happy at Forest Knolls ES as well, and both schools feed into Silver Spring International MS. |
Anonymous
| Forest Knolls is our neighborhood school and parents just rave about it. |
Anonymous
| OP here. @00:17, 00:19: thank you for the suggestions about Forest Knolls and Highland View. I do very much like those neighborhoods. Highland View has very low test scores though, although parent reviews are positive. And Forest Knolls has higher scores, but parents complaining vociferously about the new principal! So those things make me a little worried. All this information is just from greatschools.org, so I guess I should talk it with a grain of salt and go and actually visit the schools in person. Anyway, thank you both very much for sharing your experiences with these schools. Would love to hear more from people whose kids are attending now. |
Anonymous
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Your plan to visit schools and talk to parents is a good one. Be on the lookout for schools with magnets that may disguise problems in the rest of the school. Low test scores do not equate to problems - just to a more diverse groups of students. Sligo Creek is one such school - the French Immersion demographics may mask underachievement in the rest of the school and parents are chroincally unhappy with the principal. Pinecrest (local school grades 3-5 for Woodmoor) has the HGC which has helped disqualify the school for Title I funding; parents with kids there may comment on how their kids outside the HGC are impacted. The opposite can also be true - reportedly Takoma Park ES/Piney Branch which have the math/science GT do a good job for all students which carries through to Takoma Middle. Similarly, Silver Spring International which has a whole-school IB program does a good job for all of its very diverse students.
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Anonymous
| 00:17 here. I have not checked out Highland View on greatschools recently, but the last time I checked, the data were old and were inaccurate. The most up to date and accurate test data is at the maryland report card site - don't have the link handy. Highland View does a good job with a very wide range of abilities and backgrounds. I think OP is in a mulitracial family, right? There is no single race in the majority at HVES. There are families from all over the world. There are a lot of Latino students. I would guess that at least half of the African American students are from immigrant families from Ethiopia and West Africa. It is a challenge to meet all those needs for ESOL, etc in such a small school. But I think they do a good job. Classes are small in the early grades. The school has an NAACP parents council rep who keeps an eye on things like achievement gaps and tries to keep parents informed. I know there are some high achieving and accelerated Ethiopian kids in DS's class, so there is not a problem of low expectations for nonwhite kids. You might want to visit the school and meet the principal. She knows every child's name, and sets and achieves great expectations for behavior. And I can't say enough about how active the PTA is. I know of several students who either turned down Highly Gifted Centers or returned to HVES for 5th grade after a year at the HGC. And I have met a couple of parents who are not even having their bright kids tested for the HGC because they feel their needs are being well met at HVES. |
Anonymous
| We are in Forest Estates - feeds in to Oakland Terrace. We love the neighborhood and school. We can easily walk to the metro and we are close to downtown Ss as well as Wheaton. A new school is opening in 2012. |
Anonymous
While low test scores themselves aren't tremendously worrisome, do know that if the school continuously does not make AYP they will be at risk of restructuring which would cause a great deal of tumult. |
Anonymous
Oh my god I am so royally sick of hearing about people complaining about magnets, measuring schools based on test schools alone, and claiming their school is so vastly wonderful that kids don't need to apply to the HGCs. The scoop on HGCs is that they are created to serve kids whose needs cannot be met by the regular MCPS curriculum. So if the kids are happy, thriving, learning and doing well in their local school, they are not the targeted group for the HGCs. People just need to learn to deal with that. YOUR KID CAN BE SMART AND NOT BE A GOOD CANDIDATE FOR THE HGCs!! I have a kid in the HGC who went to a well-regarded ES where most kids were very happy and well-challenged. He was not. It doesn't mean the rest of the kids aren't smart or don't deserve an excellent and enriched education. I also have a child who stayed in that ES -- I think he's pretty smart and wonderful too.
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