Anne Arundel Schools vs Howard Schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The hype for Hoco schools are for Centennial , river hill and Marriotts ridge high schools. None that you listed OP!

You mean the schools with the lowest percentages of students receiving FARMS.

Yes, schools in wealthier neighborhoods perform better than lower SES neighborhoods. News to you?

- np

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The hype for Hoco schools are for Centennial , river hill and Marriotts ridge high schools. None that you listed OP!

You mean the schools with the lowest percentages of students receiving FARMS.

Yes, schools in wealthier neighborhoods perform better than lower SES neighborhoods. News to you?

- np

That’s generally true when a school is overburdened with poverty. However, there are some schools that have students receiving FARMS (not to the point where they’re a high poverty school) and outperform schools with almost no students receiving FARMS.

[Anonymous]

HoCo's reputation mostly stems from it not really having any bad schools.

Its worst schools are better than the worst schools of other counties, so it attracts people escaping BCPS. It also has a few schools that rank reasonably high on US News, so it attracts the people who care about that.

HoCo also has some diversity, so that's a draw for some people too. Maryland's Koreatown is in Ellicott City, for example.

But if you like Anne Arundel there's no reason not to move there.

[Anonymous]

We looked at the Servera Park school district but ended up buying in River Hill. My kids did well there, but there is a lot of pressure to excel at River Hill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Assuming that this is a good-faith post (and you aren't trolling), the difference can be explained through socio-economic status.

I'm not saying that AACPS are worse than Howard, just that you have to look at SES to understand what goes into the rankings and performance of the schools. Also, when it comes to high school performance, AACPS high schools have programs like IB that accept students from non-feeder schools, which tends to improve the performance of schools with higher concentrations of poverty. Other than ROTC, which isn't based on academics, HCPSS has no special programs - you go to the high school for which you are zoned.

This is not true. Howard has many academic, performing arts, and extensive college level research programs in their schools.

My own child is in the following programs: Project Lead The Way Engineering Program which is a four-year program, accelerated GT Math Program, in addition to those two programs, she is also a part of the GT Music program. Since this is her last year in PTLW she has to research and design a senior engineering project.

Here is information about my child's PTLW Engineering Program https://www.pltw.org/our-programs/pltw-engineering

HCPSS offers research opportunities, internships, and apprenticeships for students going into certain fields due to their connections with various organizations and businesses. HCPSS has its own Applied Research Lab, Jump Start Program which is partnered with Howard Community College, and offers Career Academies. Students have the choice to join an academy or not.

Here is a link to the course catalog which explains the various programs, academies, and high school course offerings. https://www.hcpss.org/f/academics/hs-catalog-2023-24.pdf

Yes, in HCPSS students attend the schools that they are zoned to because most programs, AP courses, and GT courses, are offered at a student's home school. There are GT resource teachers and Career Academy teachers at every high school, however students in certain academies like computer, science, aerospace engineering, biotechnology, etc. have to take courses at the HCPSS Applied Research Lab.

Also, HCPSS has a great performing arts and Humanities program for students who are not interested in STEM. There is something for everyone here in HCPSS no matter your child's interests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We looked at the Servera Park school district but ended up buying in River Hill. My kids did well there, but there is a lot of pressure to excel at River Hill.

River Hill’s principal lives in a $1M+ waterfront home in Severna Park and sends her kids to Severna Park’s schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We looked at the Servera Park school district but ended up buying in River Hill. My kids did well there, but there is a lot of pressure to excel at River Hill.

River Hill’s principal lives in a $1M+ waterfront home in Severna Park and sends her kids to Severna Park’s schools.

Principals are moved around very often in HoCo. Where she lives and works have nothing to do with the quality of schools of either county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Assuming that this is a good-faith post (and you aren't trolling), the difference can be explained through socio-economic status.

I'm not saying that AACPS are worse than Howard, just that you have to look at SES to understand what goes into the rankings and performance of the schools. Also, when it comes to high school performance, AACPS high schools have programs like IB that accept students from non-feeder schools, which tends to improve the performance of schools with higher concentrations of poverty. Other than ROTC, which isn't based on academics, HCPSS has no special programs - you go to the high school for which you are zoned.

This is not true. Howard has many academic, performing arts, and extensive college level research programs in their schools.

My own child is in the following programs: Project Lead The Way Engineering Program which is a four-year program, accelerated GT Math Program, in addition to those two programs, she is also a part of the GT Music program. Since this is her last year in PTLW she has to research and design a senior engineering project.

Here is information about my child's PTLW Engineering Program https://www.pltw.org/our-programs/pltw-engineering

HCPSS offers research opportunities, internships, and apprenticeships for students going into certain fields due to their connections with various organizations and businesses. HCPSS has its own Applied Research Lab, Jump Start Program which is partnered with Howard Community College, and offers Career Academies. Students have the choice to join an academy or not.

Here is a link to the course catalog which explains the various programs, academies, and high school course offerings. https://www.hcpss.org/f/academics/hs-catalog-2023-24.pdf

Yes, in HCPSS students attend the schools that they are zoned to because most programs, AP courses, and GT courses, are offered at a student's home school. There are GT resource teachers and Career Academy teachers at every high school, however students in certain academies like computer, science, aerospace engineering, biotechnology, etc. have to take courses at the HCPSS Applied Research Lab.

Also, HCPSS has a great performing arts and Humanities program for students who are not interested in STEM. There is something for everyone here in HCPSS no matter your child's interests.

I never said that HCPSS had no special programs - I said that there are no special programs other than JROTC that allow students to attend out-of-boundary schools. Is that not correct? Can HPSS students pick and choose which high school they want to attend? If so, I have not heard of that (other than a few one-time offerings) in my 20 years of living in Howard County.

[Anonymous]

Centennial is on par with Howard, Mount Hebron, and Atholton socio-economically, and home prices there are actually less expensive than Atholton home prices. The reason Centennial is very high-performing is because a large number of middle-class Asian families moved there for the reputation of the schools.