I don't understand why parents waste so much money on private schools in this area.

[Anonymous]

My kids attended FCPS from K-6 and K-4. They're now in a charter in a different state. The new school is leagues beyond FCPS. I understand why people would choose private schools in the DMV. FCPS is quite honestly a terrible school system, and my kids learned very little there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids attended FCPS from K-6 and K-4. They're now in a charter in a different state. The new school is leagues beyond FCPS. I understand why people would choose private schools in the DMV. FCPS is quite honestly a terrible school system, and my kids learned very little there.

I agree 100%!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids attended FCPS from K-6 and K-4. They're now in a charter in a different state. The new school is leagues beyond FCPS. I understand why people would choose private schools in the DMV. FCPS is quite honestly a terrible school system, and my kids learned very little there.

I agree 100%!

FCPS did fine by my kids - one has a high-paying tech job on the West Coast and the younger is in a Top 10 grad school program in their field. But from everything I've read the decline in recent years has been pronounced. Obviously the fact that the current FCPS leadership and School Board spend most of their time talking about "equity" and next to no time talking about "academics" isn't very reassuring.

[Anonymous]

Our school systems aren’t very good here. They teach to the bottom students and ignore everyone else. And it’s getting worse with the elimination of advanced tracks. The only reason our schools score as highly as they do is because there are a lot of smart kids here by virtue of them having smart parents who also do a lot of tutoring.

[Anonymous]

My DH attended FFX’s very best schools and insists on private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MoCo school have gone down the toilet because of the idiots in Takoma Park. MoCo is still riding its reputation from the 70s and 80s when in fact the quality of schools has dramatically declined. VA has mediocre schools unless you get into TJ. The area in general has very mediocre schools.

Your mediocre schools comment is definitely relative to where you're coming from - I moved to NoVA from the Midwest and the schools here are light years better - both public and private. For my family all of it is a big step up and would hardly consider this areas public schools mediocre when in 2021 VA publics are ranked 4th nationally and MD is 10th. God forbid you come from the south where the school systems are so much worse. You just don't know how good it is here compared to a large part of the US.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MoCo school have gone down the toilet because of the idiots in Takoma Park. MoCo is still riding its reputation from the 70s and 80s when in fact the quality of schools has dramatically declined. VA has mediocre schools unless you get into TJ. The area in general has very mediocre schools.

Your mediocre schools comment is definitely relative to where you're coming from - I moved to NoVA from the Midwest and the schools here are light years better - both public and private. For my family all of it is a big step up and would hardly consider this areas public schools mediocre when in 2021 VA publics are ranked 4th nationally and MD is 10th. God forbid you come from the south where the school systems are so much worse. You just don't know how good it is here compared to a large part of the US.

I graduated from MCPS and we moved to a W school district for the schools. We've now moved to private and it's a lot better in our own experience. MCPS is a lot different from how it was when I attended. It feels like downcounty gets the shaft resource-wise because we're perceived as too well-off, and all MCPS decisions are made about equity and focusing on the lowest common denominator. Fine if they want to do so, but that's not resulting in the ideal outcome for our own kids.

If there's one expense I dont' mind spending money on, it's our kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MoCo school have gone down the toilet because of the idiots in Takoma Park. MoCo is still riding its reputation from the 70s and 80s when in fact the quality of schools has dramatically declined. VA has mediocre schools unless you get into TJ. The area in general has very mediocre schools.

Your mediocre schools comment is definitely relative to where you're coming from - I moved to NoVA from the Midwest and the schools here are light years better - both public and private. For my family all of it is a big step up and would hardly consider this areas public schools mediocre when in 2021 VA publics are ranked 4th nationally and MD is 10th. God forbid you come from the south where the school systems are so much worse. You just don't know how good it is here compared to a large part of the US.

We moved from San Francisco to Maryland. In SF I went to a school meeting for prospective parents (because of the lottery system, schools have to woo parents to apply) and the PTA was raising money for a school nurse part-time. Don’t know about VA but since I grew up in MD attending public schools which always had that kind of staff, it shocked me. We were very pleased with our MD school until the pandemic and then due to family circumstances we ended up moving to a different state. The quality of public schools here do not have a good rep after elementary so we’ll probably have to go private. If we were still in MD we’d go public all the way to HS.

[Anonymous]

The people complaining about VA or MD public schools or saying that private schools are better are either ignoring or don't know the most important part of the private school education: teaching students that they're very important, more important than public schools kids, more important than most adults including their teachers. Kids learn it. Parents should know about it and decide if that's what they want. Or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Your mediocre schools comment is definitely relative to where you're coming from - I moved to NoVA from the Midwest and the schools here are light years better - both public and private. For my family all of it is a big step up and would hardly consider this areas public schools mediocre when in 2021 VA publics are ranked 4th nationally and MD is 10th. God forbid you come from the south where the school systems are so much worse. You just don't know how good it is here compared to a large part of the US.

That's surprising. Generally, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa have highly rated schools.

I'm the PP who moved from FCPS to an out of state charter. My kids are now learning grammar, spelling, and writing. The younger grades use a phonics based scientifically sound reading curriculum, so there aren't many struggling kids that consume the teacher's attention. In English classes, the entire class reads 4 books per year, and they do whole class discussions. For math, they use Saxon, which has been shown to be much better than whatever FCPS is using these days. They don't have to use any absurd programs like ST Math or Dreambox. The curriculum is very knowledge rich, with appropriate time given to science and social studies.

When my kids were in FCPS, they had Lucy Calkins, cobbled together teachers-pay-teachers worksheets in math, and a very sparse science and social studies curriculum. My kids were in the top groups even in AAP, so they rarely got time with the teacher. Instead, they spent tons of time on the online reading programs or Dreambox. Maybe middle and high school in FCPS is decent, but the elementary schools are truly awful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Getting access to top public schools requires more money than paying tuition at a private (especially at parochial schools). Also some homes with a good commute don’t feed into “good” schools.

Side note: the definition of a good school is highly subjective.

Yep. I work in Old Town Alexandria and several of my colleagues live in Old Town Alexandria or Del Ray, very close to work and have one kid. Honestly, in this case, it makes more financial sense and saves more time just to put the one kid in SSAS than to move to avoid the terrible Alexandria publics.

[Anonymous]

Agree. We have moved to the west coast, but local MCPS schools are generally very good. My daughter did K at Bethesda Elem before we left, and I worked at a few independent/ private schools in the area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Your mediocre schools comment is definitely relative to where you're coming from - I moved to NoVA from the Midwest and the schools here are light years better - both public and private. For my family all of it is a big step up and would hardly consider this areas public schools mediocre when in 2021 VA publics are ranked 4th nationally and MD is 10th. God forbid you come from the south where the school systems are so much worse. You just don't know how good it is here compared to a large part of the US.

That's surprising. Generally, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa have highly rated schools.

I'm the PP who moved from FCPS to an out of state charter. My kids are now learning grammar, spelling, and writing. The younger grades use a phonics based scientifically sound reading curriculum, so there aren't many struggling kids that consume the teacher's attention. In English classes, the entire class reads 4 books per year, and they do whole class discussions. For math, they use Saxon, which has been shown to be much better than whatever FCPS is using these days. They don't have to use any absurd programs like ST Math or Dreambox. The curriculum is very knowledge rich, with appropriate time given to science and social studies.

When my kids were in FCPS, they had Lucy Calkins, cobbled together teachers-pay-teachers worksheets in math, and a very sparse science and social studies curriculum. My kids were in the top groups even in AAP, so they rarely got time with the teacher. Instead, they spent tons of time on the online reading programs or Dreambox. Maybe middle and high school in FCPS is decent, but the elementary schools are truly awful.

The nice suburban upper midwest areas have excellent schools, which is what you're referring to. Minneapolis suburbs for example. But once you get down to OH, MO, IN it can get dicey really fast even in teh suburbs of bigger cities.

[Anonymous]

We are in a “W” school and my older children attended public. I always assumed we’d use public schools. We’ve now gotten fed up with MCPS and switched to private. It’s not a great district IMO. I don’t know if we’ll go back. My MCPS complaints are horrible curriculum (especially math), failure to teach grammar, no accountability (everyone gets 50%, no valedictorians, they have taken away much motivation from kids), and an absolutely horrible experience with virtual. My 2nd grader is now in private with a class of ten. There just isn’t any comparison to the public class of 20-25 and the attention he gets from his teacher.

[Anonymous]

PP above. I am also frustrated in that I feel the BOE uses kids as pawns in their social justice experiment. I am not OK with the removal of SROs in high school. That was another factor.