How in the world do you decide where to send your kids to public school?!

[Anonymous]

Op here -- thank you all for your thoughts. For 11:52, why did you hate Bethesda? Was it just b/c it has more of a "created" downtown feel than D.C. or were there other real concerns?
I don't think there's anyway we can afford to be walkable to downtown Bethesda, which is going to be a HUGE adjustment coming from Dupont, but it is feeling like Mo Co could be the better choice for the long term (although that study is very interesting -- but at this point, I'm more concerned about my kids quality of life/ safety/ etc in middle and high school vs. which colleges they get into). Thanks again. I'll keep thinking...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

One cannot read anything into this study about schools at all since the choice between public and private coming from a high quality elementary in a middle class school district like Lafayette is not at all random, parents are chosing what they feel is best for their child and to the extent that the parents made the 'right' choice then the outcomes might not be too different. In statistical terms, there is 'selection' bias. For this study to be valid, kids would need to have been randomly assigned to schools. Also because of sample size, all the privates were lumped together and I don't think anyone on ths board would agree that all the privates are equal.

I disagree - the OP is thinking about moving to NW DC or close-in Montgomery County for public schools. It is not unreasonable to assume that they are going to consider purchasing a house that would feed into Lafayette / Janney / Murch elementary school. From looking at the study, the OP can see that for a small sample, kids who went the public school route through the DC public schools (Deal and Wilson), they came out at the same place as their elementary school peers who went private with regard to the colleges they were attending.

This is information that someone who is on the fence trying to understand if Deal / Wilson are real options - can see that yes they are. (or at least - yes they were for this set of children)

Just anecdotally, I find this to be true based on my personal experience (albeit that experience is close to 20 years old now). I went to DCPS, but have many friends who went the private school route. All our families are on the same general socio-economic plain, and now as adults there is little to distinguish the private school alums from the public.

[Anonymous]

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/info/press/MDSemifinalists-NatlMeritProgram.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/info/press/MDSemifinalists-NatlMeritProgram.pdf

What is the point of this post?

[Anonymous]

Poster wants some guidance and suggestions of how to decide where to send your kids to public school in Montgomery County? Poster might be interested in relative performance of high school students on the PSAT exam that is mandatory for all students to take. The information in the link provides a surrogate yardstick of performance on the PSAT.

Any other questions?

[Anonymous]

Just out of curiousity- have you thought about Capital Hill?

[Anonymous]

I live in Capital Hill....go private