Your Thoughts on Montgomery County Schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some data from the MCPS schools at a glance website: in 10 years the district has gone from 22% free lunch to 34%.

Montgomery County has positioned themselves for only the rich who can afford private and don't need county services and the poor. They don't want the "middle" class/income families and are running them out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are probably still reading now but you probably won't be for long, so let me sneak in this primer: It's a very large (150,000 students, 25 high schools), historically high-performing school district going through a lot of demographic change. It used to be a primarily white, upper-middle class suburban district. Along with the rest of the country it has become increasingly minority and, in some areas, lower income over the years. It is currently implementing what it calls "Curriculum 2.0," which is its brand of the Common Core that other states are adopting. Since it is such a large school district, schools differ tremendously demographically by where in the county you live. There is a large achievement gap along race and class lines. Housing prices tend to follow these lines as well, i.e. some very high performing schools with very high home prices, and many more modest homes with schools with more average performance. The country tries to allocate resources so the schools in the less wealthy areas have smaller class sizes in the early years to help improve outcomes.

Montgomery County was not historically an upper-middle class suburban school district. Many of the areas that comprise the county were, and still are mid- to lower-middle class and some areas were downright rural and poor. This is one of the myths that some people like to circulate about MoCo and is evident when you go outside of the Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Potomac areas. There is nothing upper middle class about much of Silver Spring, the original Takoma Park, Clarksburg, Gaithersburg and others. Real estate is every expensive here in the DC area but there is no need in convincing ourselves that those 1,000 square foot ramblers were upper middle class dwellings.

The original Takoma Park -- meaning the streetcar/railroad suburb -- was definitely fancy. Just look at the houses. Historic Clarksburg was a real town, with some fancy houses. Historic Gaithersburg was a real town, with some fancy houses. Conversely, the historic black communities go back to the end of the Civil War (and Montgomery County public schools were segregated by law until the early 1960s). Montgomery County was a place before the streetcar suburbs, and it was a place before the post-World War II suburbs.

And yes, those 1,000 square foot suburban ramblers were not for the upper middle class. But they were for the middle class.

Historic DC was pretty fancy too but the bulk of Montgomery County did not live in the painted lady's of yesteryear.Those were for the wealthy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some data from the MCPS schools at a glance website: in 10 years the district has gone from 22% free lunch to 34%.

Montgomery County has positioned themselves for only the rich who can afford private and don't need county services and the poor. They don't want the "middle" class/income families and are running them out.

BS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Historic DC was pretty fancy too but the bulk of Montgomery County did not live in the painted lady's of yesteryear.Those were for the wealthy.

Historic DC wasn't fancy at all. A lot of historic DC was total slums. It's just that the slums mostly got knocked down.

And the bulk of historic Montgomery County was a very small population, because the total population was very small. It was a very rural county. The population in the 1900 Census was 30,451. And they surely didn't live in 1,000-square-foot ramblers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some data from the MCPS schools at a glance website: in 10 years the district has gone from 22% free lunch to 34%.

Montgomery County has positioned themselves for only the rich who can afford private and don't need county services and the poor. They don't want the "middle" class/income families and are running them out.

Then they will need to try harder. My household is the median household income in Montgomery County, and we like it here just fine. We're not going anywhere.

[Anonymous]

To the OP - It is all relative - parents and kids who have had a great school experience prior will probably find MCPS lacking. Many who start with MCPS might not know any different/better. It greatly depends on your childs current school size, culture, overall teacher quality and your child's comfort/friends at school. So many variables - within MCPS and between kids. But overall, even in the "good" schools, it is best to expect just an average experience these days - that way you will not be too disappointed .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some data from the MCPS schools at a glance website: in 10 years the district has gone from 22% free lunch to 34%.

Montgomery County has positioned themselves for only the rich who can afford private and don't need county services and the poor. They don't want the "middle" class/income families and are running them out.

I tend to agree except a lot of the rich are leaving as lower income families are moving into more expensive neighborhoods and making it work. I live in the WJ district and a Latino family bought a small rambler a few streets away. I am talking 1000 sq ft max at about $450K. They added a second level and a couple bump outs and now there are a couple more families (relatives?) living in there with them. Lots of older cars parked on the street. I would really think twice about where you purchase - so far the Potomac area and parts of bethesda seem to be safe - but everywhere else - you better like diversity and speak a couple other languages so you can communicate with your neighbors. No incentive for non English speaker adults to learn how to speak English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some data from the MCPS schools at a glance website: in 10 years the district has gone from 22% free lunch to 34%.

Montgomery County has positioned themselves for only the rich who can afford private and don't need county services and the poor. They don't want the "middle" class/income families and are running them out.

I tend to agree except a lot of the rich are leaving as lower income families are moving into more expensive neighborhoods and making it work. I live in the WJ district and a Latino family bought a small rambler a few streets away. I am talking 1000 sq ft max at about $450K. They added a second level and a couple bump outs and now there are a couple more families (relatives?) living in there with them. Lots of older cars parked on the street. I would really think twice about where you purchase - so far the Potomac area and parts of bethesda seem to be safe - but everywhere else - you better like diversity and speak a couple other languages so you can communicate with your neighbors. No incentive for non English speaker adults to learn how to speak English.

[Anonymous]

MoCo layers on its own income taxes so factor that in, in addition to state and federal. Property taxes are some of the highest per $100 of assessed value as well. Taxes never go down here.

Schools here are going through a lot of changes (demographic/illegal immigrant, curriculum, testing) but the teachers receive significant training (and pensions). VA across the river might be more stable and the DC charter schools are intriguing. Almost less of a social experiment than MoCo's transfer of revenues and new grading, teaching methods, curriculum.

[Anonymous]

I am not sure who decides the school budgets, but some of the schools, esp in eastern Montgomery County can sure use some updating. Broken locks on restroom doors, dingy hallways, just not that pleasant to be in. Teachers are hit or miss - with a bad one, expect to supplement a lot so that your child can keep up. You will never really know how your kid is doing because most kids get all Ps on their report cards - Montgomery County's way of keeping the high achievers down so that this achievement gap will close. MCPS was a great school system many years ago, but as others keep pointing out, it is going downhill. After living in this county for over 35 years, we have decided it is time to move elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Look west of Route 270. Buying east of 270 is asking for trouble.

[Anonymous]

OP you are getting a wide range of views-- pretty much anyone would say that half of this thread is nonsense (although they might disagree with which half).

[Anonymous]

I grew up in VA and have family in VA, but have lived in MD for 10 years for job reasons. If I had my choice I would use Arlington and Fairfax schools over MoCo right now.

There is just too much turmoil in MCPS schools. They are rolling out a whole new curriculum without much teacher training or testing of the curriculum. There are cohorts of MCPS kids that will be common core test subjects for their whole K-12 experience. Virginia was very wise not to jump on the Common Core bandwagon, so they are more stable.

In addition, the teacher's union rules over Maryland and MCPS schools. That is not bad in itself as teachers should have a seat at the table, but I sense that they have held power for so long and so completely that complacency and arrogance is now part of the culture. They don't give a $#@! what parents think. The spend money on perks and talk about social injustice, while the system is falling apart around them.

To be sure, if you are in a W-school or wealthy area, you will probably do fine. You might have to spend some bucks on a tutor depending on your situation. In my W-school, the teachers have ranged from average to exceptional. My complaints are not with individual teachers, but how the system is run. My complaints range from taking away my ADHD kid's recess as punishment to not even coming close to challenging one of my kids. It is one size fits all eduction, so we use tutors. The fact that the BOE and central office folks go off to fancy hotels, out of town conferences, expensive lunches, and top notch dinners, while all these problems exist just galls me. We can do way better. My kids will probably grow up fine, but I am envious of the education my nephews are getting over in Northern Virginia.

Aside from all my pet peeves, I think the fact that Virginia skipped the common core for now is the main reason I would skip Maryland. Maybe in 20 years this will all get worked out, but right now it is a mess.

[Anonymous]

I think the best thing about VA schools is the fact that they have a program for a very sizable chunk of advanced kids to challenge them. MD's program for those at the very top end only fits about 3% of the kids in the county so is very limited.

[Anonymous]

It is supposed to rank quite high within the nation as a school system. If that is indeed true then I shudder at what kinds of schools are in the US.

I would really rank it very low. I was educated in a 3rd world country and the education I received in my home country was superior by far.