No actually you don’t know what you are talking about. Many of my kids friends transferred to MCPS from private in 9th grade. |
No, you don’t know what you are talking about. Public school attendance has dropped and private has risen. That is a fact. Your “kids friends” are not what is happening across the country. |
None of mine children’s friends have dropped from private into public. In fact, many public friends made the switch to private. |
What sport? Some teams are harder to make than others and it would be harder to make them as a Sophomore. An example is boys soccer which usually does a ton of cuts.
There are lots of clubs but in my kids' experience they do not always meet a lot. Some are more active than others. They don't have experience with those activities you mention in particular but perhaps others can speak to them. Overall we like Churchill. |
Public school enrollment has dropped 4 percentage points in the past decade with some states as much as 7. |
Parent at another W school here. DC went to private k-8 thanks to grandparents, but that “funding” was not available for HS so MCPS it is.
We’ve been pleased with teachers, but the overall size of the school thus far has been a negative—especially socially. DC is quiet and makes friends best through structured activities like clubs and sports, but DC did not make the team and clubs have met so sporadically it’s been hard to get to know people. At private DC had no issues finding friends I think in part because there were so many more opportunities to participate in structured activities, but it was also more difficult to avoid kids DC didn’t like. Also—people like to argue that more AP classes is a reason MCPS is superior to privates that have more limited offerings. I’m not at all convinced that’s true. I don’t think, for example, freshman should be taking AP classes other than under special circumstances. And it makes no sense that they allow those APs to boost your GPA without the expectation that kids take the AP exam. Your DS might be psyched about getting a GPA boost without the exam, but policies like that are ones you need to weigh as a parent. |
MoCo kids certainly switch from private to Churchill and other W schools, we know many who have done this because the private social environment was stifling, they are looking for broader academic offerings, more music, theater, etc. Sports are a challenge, with teams like soccer, baseball, basketball very hard to make. Look for no-cut teams, depending on school, like cross country. Also, the music departments at these schools are generally really highly regarded and a great way to meet people and have things to do. |
that could also be due to the population change. There are less children today than several years ago. https://usafacts.org/articles/the-us-child-population-shrank-by-1-million-between-2010-and-2020/ |
But lots of freshman do take AP exams. |
I think for most teens, public school is better for social reasons. More different types of kids means it's easier to find your crowd. Teenage years is when kids start to really think about who they are and what type of friend group they want. Plus, if you have a falling out with a friend group, it's easier to find another friend group in a big school than a small one. And yes, the bigger wealthier publics have more clubs to pick and choose from. The theater production at our large public is great. Really amazing. But, the drawback of course is that it's harder to get parts, especially the lead. But, that is in part why the productions are so amazing. They have a lot of amazing talent. That said, of course, there are drawbacks to large publics. Yea, the bathroom situation is one, and the large class sizes. One of my kids went to a public magnet, and it was a great fit for them. The other one is not at a public magnet, but at least they are taking some AP/IB classes. |
In high school? What are the numbers for high school in Maryland, and Montgomery county.? |
Correct. Where you usually see private school drop is late ES or MS. There’s an increase in HS. I think it’s the 10th or 11th grade classes currently that MCPS has been accounting for growth in various situations. |