DCPS (Upper NW) vs MCPS, where to go?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you want to make the switch to MCPS at some point, I would just do that. Obviously experiences may vary, but with a MS student now (and HS student), I can’t see moving at this stage of the game. I would just do it in early ES and be done.

Lots of benefits to living in upper NW - kids walk to school, very independent, hangs out with friends and gets places without much parental involvement.

I think JRHS has pros and cons, but is not terribly academically rigorous. In retrospect, maybe we should’ve made the move to MoCo but we never wanted to do it (commute, low mortgage rate on current house, kids liked their friends and were settled).

jRHS is as rigorous as any MCPS school if you load up on APs (which you pretty much have to do as there are no honors classes by like junior year).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are an MCPS family moving to DCPS for our oldest, a rising K! I think DCPS and charter elementaries are better than MCPS. I've toured many in trying to make this decision. We will re-evaluate in 5th grade!

I am confused—how are you an MCPS family if your oldest is rising K? MCPS doesn’t have Pk right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are an MCPS family moving to DCPS for our oldest, a rising K! I think DCPS and charter elementaries are better than MCPS. I've toured many in trying to make this decision. We will re-evaluate in 5th grade!

I am confused—how are you an MCPS family if your oldest is rising K? MCPS doesn’t have Pk right?

Right. We are zoned for MCPS but are moving now to DCPS in time for our oldest to begin K there in the fall.

[Anonymous]

can you elaborate why you prefer DCPS?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are an MCPS family moving to DCPS for our oldest, a rising K! I think DCPS and charter elementaries are better than MCPS. I've toured many in trying to make this decision. We will re-evaluate in 5th grade!

I am confused—how are you an MCPS family if your oldest is rising K? MCPS doesn’t have Pk right?

Right. We are zoned for MCPS but are moving now to DCPS in time for our oldest to begin K there in the fall.

[Anonymous]

The smaller NW DCPS elementaries feel like privates: small grade sizes, two teachers per class in K, beautiful facilities, and more varied after-school enrichment offerings than MCPS ES.

There is more latitude in DC for PTAs to fund extra staff than in MCPS, where there is no allowance for it. PTAs also seem more active in DC, by percentage of parents participating in them and funds raised per capita.

Some NW DCPS also teach a foreign language once a week during the core school day. (DC has many immersion schools, too, if you want to go that route).

Also, many MCPS don’t allow parent tours; it’s up to the principal. I was only able to tour two Bethesda publics, one Silver Spring, and one Chevy Chase public school. The MCPS schools I toured wouldn’t let us observe a class (with the exception of Somerset, whose parent guide let us pop into two classes for a few minutes) and wouldn’t allow us to come by during recess, when student—staff ratio is lowest / chaos level is highest.

DCPS, on the other hand, provides so much transparency. I visited nearly every NW school, some multiple times, and it made me feel more comfortable with DCPS as a whole. I was able to take pre-scheduled and one-off tours. Everyone was so friendly in administration! The front office staff just seem happier in DC.

I also like that DC schools are largely walkable. In MCPS, many students bus to school. I know many kids enjoy the bus, but we want to sort of “root” ourselves in a walkable school community.

Finally, I liked how diverse the parents on the tour were, by nationality and race in DC. In the Bethesda and Chevy Chase elementaries, it was almost universally white, American parents (many born in Maryland) on the tours — maybe 80-90% of the parents fit that description. We were looking for more international family community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The smaller NW DCPS elementaries feel like privates: small grade sizes, two teachers per class in K, beautiful facilities, and more varied after-school enrichment offerings than MCPS ES.

There is more latitude in DC for PTAs to fund extra staff than in MCPS, where there is no allowance for it. PTAs also seem more active in DC, by percentage of parents participating in them and funds raised per capita.

Some NW DCPS also teach a foreign language once a week during the core school day. (DC has many immersion schools, too, if you want to go that route).

Also, many MCPS don’t allow parent tours; it’s up to the principal. I was only able to tour two Bethesda publics, one Silver Spring, and one Chevy Chase public school. The MCPS schools I toured wouldn’t let us observe a class (with the exception of Somerset, whose parent guide let us pop into two classes for a few minutes) and wouldn’t allow us to come by during recess, when student—staff ratio is lowest / chaos level is highest.

DCPS, on the other hand, provides so much transparency. I visited nearly every NW school, some multiple times, and it made me feel more comfortable with DCPS as a whole. I was able to take pre-scheduled and one-off tours. Everyone was so friendly in administration! The front office staff just seem happier in DC.

I also like that DC schools are largely walkable. In MCPS, many students bus to school. I know many kids enjoy the bus, but we want to sort of “root” ourselves in a walkable school community.

Finally, I liked how diverse the parents on the tour were, by nationality and race in DC. In the Bethesda and Chevy Chase elementaries, it was almost universally white, American parents (many born in Maryland) on the tours — maybe 80-90% of the parents fit that description. We were looking for more international family community.

DCPS have many of the everyday embassy worker kids attend the schools. Seems like all embassies import their entire labor force, from the ambassador down to the janitor.

Every now and then the ambassador's kid may attend DCPS (I recall the ambassador from Peru sent his kids to DCPS during the time he was stationed in the US), though most of those kids are in private...but all the everyday workers send their kids to DCPS.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for sharing. I did not know that MCPS doesn't give school tour. I guess DCPS is unique as it has the lottery system which make school tours very reasonable.

Anonymous wrote:The smaller NW DCPS elementaries feel like privates: small grade sizes, two teachers per class in K, beautiful facilities, and more varied after-school enrichment offerings than MCPS ES.

There is more latitude in DC for PTAs to fund extra staff than in MCPS, where there is no allowance for it. PTAs also seem more active in DC, by percentage of parents participating in them and funds raised per capita.

Some NW DCPS also teach a foreign language once a week during the core school day. (DC has many immersion schools, too, if you want to go that route).

Also, many MCPS don’t allow parent tours; it’s up to the principal. I was only able to tour two Bethesda publics, one Silver Spring, and one Chevy Chase public school. The MCPS schools I toured wouldn’t let us observe a class (with the exception of Somerset, whose parent guide let us pop into two classes for a few minutes) and wouldn’t allow us to come by during recess, when student—staff ratio is lowest / chaos level is highest.

DCPS, on the other hand, provides so much transparency. I visited nearly every NW school, some multiple times, and it made me feel more comfortable with DCPS as a whole. I was able to take pre-scheduled and one-off tours. Everyone was so friendly in administration! The front office staff just seem happier in DC.

I also like that DC schools are largely walkable. In MCPS, many students bus to school. I know many kids enjoy the bus, but we want to sort of “root” ourselves in a walkable school community.

Finally, I liked how diverse the parents on the tour were, by nationality and race in DC. In the Bethesda and Chevy Chase elementaries, it was almost universally white, American parents (many born in Maryland) on the tours — maybe 80-90% of the parents fit that description. We were looking for more international family community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All the MCPS parents are sitting on the playground complaining about their schools just like we are. It's sometimes different but it's not consistently better. Therefore I'd shop houses in both areas and choose based on logistics.

The complaining is different though. The MCPS parents complainers are very condescending and entitled. The DCPS parents tend to have more of “how can we improve this” mentality and see the problems in DCPS as everyones problems to resolve as opposed to just blaming MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are an MCPS family moving to DCPS for our oldest, a rising K! I think DCPS and charter elementaries are better than MCPS. I've toured many in trying to make this decision. We will re-evaluate in 5th grade!

I am confused—how are you an MCPS family if your oldest is rising K? MCPS doesn’t have Pk right?

Right. We are zoned for MCPS but are moving now to DCPS in time for our oldest to begin K there in the fall.

I think dcps elementary schools are fine, but they will put your kid on a academically weaker path come middle and high school. Dcps middle and high schools are uniformly worse than even charters. Look at the older grades.

[Anonymous]

NW DC parents also seemed more enthusiastic about their ESs than MCPS elementary parents in Bethesda and Chevy Chase, who were generally “happy enough” in their responses.

The other consideration is the MCPS boundary study. Fresh off a HS boundary study in which catchment areas were rezoned for new high schools, the County is embarking on the same for ESs. They are also rethinking magnet programs for elementary upper grades. I worried that we’d buy a place in Bethesda/CC now, only to find in two years we ended up zoned for a different ES.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are plenty of peers for your kids - academically and socially - in DCPS. We stayed in DCPS (upper NW) because we loved our neighborhood, and figured the schools would be good enough. Kids went through Stoddert-Hardy-Jackson Reed - were more than ready for college and thrived while in DCPS and after graduation.

Same experience here with exact same feeder pattern! I do have one going to MacArthur now as well.

[Anonymous]

4th grade mom here who has done both- we were in upper NW DC through first grade and it was totally fine. Now we're in Bethesda and I'm 8 min from the Red Line for commuting into the city. My commute is easy and I'm much more impressed with our elementary school here for our now 4th grader and his younger K sibling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:4th grade mom here who has done both- we were in upper NW DC through first grade and it was totally fine. Now we're in Bethesda and I'm 8 min from the Red Line for commuting into the city. My commute is easy and I'm much more impressed with our elementary school here for our now 4th grader and his younger K sibling.

Great! Sounds like you may be at Bradley Hills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the MCPS parents are sitting on the playground complaining about their schools just like we are. It's sometimes different but it's not consistently better. Therefore I'd shop houses in both areas and choose based on logistics.

The complaining is different though. The MCPS parents complainers are very condescending and entitled. The DCPS parents tend to have more of “how can we improve this” mentality and see the problems in DCPS as everyone's problems to resolve as opposed to just blaming MCPS.

This is such BS. MCPS PTA fund raising is equalized, whereas DCPS, PTAs get to keep the money for themselves (as someone else explained upthread). This is a ridiculous equity issue where the rich schools can fundraise and provide extras. Don't pat yourself on the back for sending yourself to DCPS over MCPS because you think is more social justice oriented.

And to the posted who said MCPS is less diverse, that's utterly false. My kids are white and have been in the racial minority their entire school experience (DCC). Their high school was less than ten percent white and half the kids came from immigrant families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All the MCPS parents are sitting on the playground complaining about their schools just like we are. It's sometimes different but it's not consistently better. Therefore I'd shop houses in both areas and choose based on logistics.

PP, please note the area cited in the OP’s original post. They are looking for school zoned to only the Whitman, WJ and Churchill clusters.

Of course, many schools in Montgomery County are less than 50% white. However, the schools feeding into these high schools are majority white.