Overwhelmed - How does public school system in MD work, and how research "best" schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:SES = socioeconomic status. Basically, the single most important factor explaining children's test scores is the affluence and education level of their parents. So if a school has low test scores, is it because the children have poor, uneducated parents, or because the teaching is lousy, or both? If a school has high test scores, is it because the children have affluent, educated parents, or because the teaching is good, or both? Within Montgomery County, as the PP said, the variations among MCPS schools are mostly due to the affluence/education of the parents, not due to differences in teaching.

Why take the risk and not just assume that it's affluent, educated parents, or because the teaching is good, or both?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SES = socioeconomic status. Basically, the single most important factor explaining children's test scores is the affluence and education level of their parents. So if a school has low test scores, is it because the children have poor, uneducated parents, or because the teaching is lousy, or both? If a school has high test scores, is it because the children have affluent, educated parents, or because the teaching is good, or both? Within Montgomery County, as the PP said, the variations among MCPS schools are mostly due to the affluence/education of the parents, not due to differences in teaching.

Why take the risk and not just assume that it's affluent, educated parents, or because the teaching is good, or both?

What risk is who taking?

I should add that, since parental SES is the single most important factor, it's possible for a school with lousy teaching to nonetheless produce high test scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP Montgomery does not have the best school at all. They used to be much stronger but many dynamics are changing. Curriculum 2.0 sucks. The superintendent is very incompetent. They are feeling the effects of years of poor planning and lack of funding. Even the quality of the HGC program is being questioned at this point but rumors are that they may be dropping 2.0.

Its not a good time to buy a house banking on the strength of MCPS. You are better off looking near Annapolis.

PP at 12:15 again -- this is another reason to talk to real live people instead of DCUM. On DCUM it is the received wisdom that:

1. The superintendent is an idiot. If he did something, it's wrong; and if something goes wrong, he did it.
2. The new MCPS elementary school curriculum (Curriculum 2.0) is awful. No other school system anywhere is doing anything like it. And MCPS only adopted it because [fill in malign, evil conspiracy theory here].

This has to be the best quote ever. Whoever wrote this is spot on. This board is full of complete tools.
3. MCPS is a horrible school system. Certainly the worst in the state (except for Prince George's County). Probably one of the worst in the country. Bad teachers, bad schools, bad facilities, bad lunches, bad buses, bad schedules, bad calendar, bad snow days, bad parents, bad students.

Really, OP, for such a general question, you need to talk to real people. I think that DCUM is mostly useful for specific questions, like how can I get a change-of-school assignment, or what is involved with early entry to kindergarten, or where can I find the MCPS policy on bullying, or if your kid goes to X school what is your impression of it.

[Anonymous]

We're moving out of Montgomery County to McLean because of the schools. My kids have a wide age range so I see the difference. My oldest is will enter high school next year while my youngest will enter 2nd grade. The elementary school curriculum is terrible, I gave it a chance but anyone with older kids sees the decline.

[Anonymous]

You people are buffons. Please get the hell out of MoCo. We don't want your dumb assess breathing our air. Feel free to move to NoVa but realize that unless you are attending TJHS, your experience will be inferior to the top schools in MoCo. I consider anyone who complains about MoCo schools is a "damn fool, a damn fool."MoCo is one of the best systems in the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're moving out of Montgomery County to McLean because of the schools. My kids have a wide age range so I see the difference. My oldest is will enter high school next year while my youngest will enter 2nd grade. The elementary school curriculum is terrible, I gave it a chance but anyone with older kids sees the decline.

Here is what you are moving to:

http://www.ryanforschoolboard.com/1/post/2013/10/fairfax-schools-face-greatest-crisis-since-1950s.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/new-schools-might-help-ease-overcrowding-in-fairfax-county/2013/12/29/c4afb384-6f18-11e3-b405-7e360f7e9fd2_story.html

[Anonymous]

The most expensive parts of MoCo may perhaps be better than Fairfax schools. But. It everyone in the countyives there. Fairfax seems to better serve needs of advanced kids since its AAP program includes a much broader swath of kids. Possible that short changes a but the very few number if truly gifted kids though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:12:41 is the sole MCPS snowflake. Ignore her she works for MCPS and is probably the poster who helped with the 2.0 curriculum which should be thrown out the window.

OP- we moved to MCPS for the schools and we're deeply disappointed too. The better DC elementary schools, Arlington, Fairfax, or McLean would have been far superior choices. I've heard very good things about Howard County as well. When you look at school system we learned a hard lesson that test scores and what the system says can be very deceiving.

1. A school with great test scores can be a great school BUT if demographically that shifts significantly the high test scores simply represent the parental influences. This is very true in MCPS. The school with high scores have students that would score high anyway. It is NOT the quality of the curriculum.

2. MCPS spends A LOT of time marketing itself. They play with the numbers..best in the country actually means the best compared to inner city, large urban districts. Not a big pool and a pool with far more challenges than MCPS.

3. A big red flag should have been how MCPS buses kids all over the place. 40% of kids in some schools test as gifted but there is only room for 3% in the gifted programs. This means that 37% of kids in some schools are not served by the curriculum. MCPS would love to do away with the gifted test reporting but it is a Maryland state law requirement not MCPS. [/b]Other schools offer gifted programs and curriculums in the home school to accommodate more students.

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