Montgomery County School Recommendations

[Anonymous]

SS through DC to VA is a complete nightmare!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are looking for advice on Montgomery County pyramids, particularly elementary schools. We are a professionally, well-educated AA family and buying a home ($700 - 750k range) next year - work in Arlington and DC and would like to avoid an excessive commute. We are thinking Silver Spring but open to other recommendations. We would like advice on schools and understand assessing school quality is somewhat subjective. Our son will be entering 2nd grade this fall. We are looking for culturally diverse schools, with a culture of respect (from the top-down), academic enrichment, enthusiastic teachers and extracurricular activities. I understand this may make some people uncomfortable; however, we are looking for schools where my son won't be the only AA child in his class. I experienced that for 11 years in Catholic Schools and would like him to have a different experience. Race/ethnicity is definitely not the only factor - we want our son to value the importance of interacting with kids that may not look like him and come from homes with like-minded parents.

I don't want to turn this into a race debate and appreciate your honest feedback.

Thanks!

with those job locales, and assuming they are jobs with high security (i.e. not changing jobs every couple years), I'd live in NW DC any ES that rolls up to Deal and Wilson. Kid will have a blast, ES are great, MS has vastly improved and HS is half/half and kid will find his niches.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are turning it into a race issue. You will have a terrible commute to Arlington. You are better off living in VA.

Says the white person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are looking for advice on Montgomery County pyramids, particularly elementary schools. We are a professionally, well-educated AA family and buying a home ($700 - 750k range) next year - work in Arlington and DC and would like to avoid an excessive commute. We are thinking Silver Spring but open to other recommendations. We would like advice on schools and understand assessing school quality is somewhat subjective. Our son will be entering 2nd grade this fall. We are looking for culturally diverse schools, with a culture of respect (from the top-down), academic enrichment, enthusiastic teachers and extracurricular activities. I understand this may make some people uncomfortable; however, we are looking for schools where my son won't be the only AA child in his class. I experienced that for 11 years in Catholic Schools and would like him to have a different experience. Race/ethnicity is definitely not the only factor - we want our son to value the importance of interacting with kids that may not look like him and come from homes with like-minded parents.

I don't want to turn this into a race debate and appreciate your honest feedback.

Thanks!

Are you open to DC at all? We are a very similar family (down to the rising 2nd grader) and we live right across the line from Silver Spring in Shepherd Park in NW DC. It is a very diverse neighborhood with lots of other families like ours. You'd have to increase your budget to at least 800-850K, though.

As for MD, I agree that eastern Silver Spring and Takoma Park may be good bets. However, one of you will have a longish commute to Arlington--it might be tolerable if you leave very early.

PP again. One other thought--I understand your experience with Catholic schools, but many of the private/parochial schools in this area are a lot more diverse. My good friend bought in a relatively inexpensive area of NE DC, but has her kids in a diverse Catholic school. My kid just finished her first year in private, and although the school is probably only 10-15% black I swear that half her class was black/biracial. She is far from a lonely only.

You may want to post your specs (commute, price range, school quality) in the real estate forum and ask for recs re: where to live.

I've been doing the rounds of Catholic Schools. It really varies depending on the school in terms of race. But, all the ones we looked at were not very diverse in terms of religion. Every school we looked at basically put the kids in two categories of Catholic and not Catholic. When I asked the percentage of not Catholic being not Christian - i.e. Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, etc. there were very few. I don't consider that diverse.

OP, some days it can easily be a 2 hour commute to VA from Montgomery County.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:SS through DC to VA is a complete nightmare!

But isn't SS to the American Legion Bridge in the morning also really bad? I can see why people are recommending SS/TP based on the kind of school experience they're looking for, but if there aren't good routes through DC, then I would look on the Western side of the county since it's closer to Northern Virginia.

It would be pretty rare for a child to be the ONLY black kid in his class, even in the least diverse Montgomery County elementaries. I might look at Garrett Park or Rosemary Hills/North Chevy Chase or other Bethesda areas. If you get on the beltway at 355 or even closer to Virginia like River Road then the commute is bad but not as bad as if you have to take the beltway E/W too. Garrett Park might be a good option. Depends on whether 2-4 black kids per classroom is acceptable to OP or too much like being an "only."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SS through DC to VA is a complete nightmare!

But isn't SS to the American Legion Bridge in the morning also really bad? I can see why people are recommending SS/TP based on the kind of school experience they're looking for, but if there aren't good routes through DC, then I would look on the Western side of the county since it's closer to Northern Virginia.

It would be pretty rare for a child to be the ONLY black kid in his class, even in the least diverse Montgomery County elementaries. I might look at Garrett Park or Rosemary Hills/North Chevy Chase or other Bethesda areas. If you get on the beltway at 355 or even closer to Virginia like River Road then the commute is bad but not as bad as if you have to take the beltway E/W too. Garrett Park might be a good option. Depends on whether 2-4 black kids per classroom is acceptable to OP or too much like being an "only."

OP's budget makes these western Moco areas tough, unfortunately. They might find something, but won't be a ton of options in that area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

OP, some days it can easily be a 2 hour commute to VA from Montgomery County.

I've been doing Kensington to Alexandria for almost 2 years, and it's taken me 2 hours to get home exactly twice in those 2 years. I use my GPS religiously for every commute. That usually helps me avoid any really bad accident-related traffic. Also, we don't know if OP's Arlington job might allow for teleworking one or two days per week. If you don't have to do it every day at the worst rush hour traffic, it makes it more do-able. But an hour to an hour and 20 minutes is normal for the evening (morning is quicker). Usually just over an hour in the evening and just under an hour in the morning. Also, if you try it out during the summer, summer traffic is markedly lighter than school-year traffic, especially in the mornings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wootton, Churchill, Walter Johnson all have AA students beyond one kid per elementary. These schools lack the economic diversity but that's not always a bad thing because the kids that look like you are not economically different from you or the kids of all the other races. It can be difficult to be one the few high performing/UMC minorities when most of the kids that look like you are very poor and/or low performing. The schools that have the stark economic and performance segregation tend to have racial issues.

This might be why so many UMC minorities choose Bethesda, a W school, private or Prince Georges/magnet program.

too funny. If OP is considering Rockville, then OP would be better off at RM cluster for the diversity. But, as others have noted, the commute to Arlington would be horrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are looking for advice on Montgomery County pyramids, particularly elementary schools. We are a professionally, well-educated AA family and buying a home ($700 - 750k range) next year - work in Arlington and DC and would like to avoid an excessive commute. We are thinking Silver Spring but open to other recommendations. We would like advice on schools and understand assessing school quality is somewhat subjective. Our son will be entering 2nd grade this fall. We are looking for culturally diverse schools, with a culture of respect (from the top-down), academic enrichment, enthusiastic teachers and extracurricular activities. I understand this may make some people uncomfortable; however, we are looking for schools where my son won't be the only AA child in his class. I experienced that for 11 years in Catholic Schools and would like him to have a different experience. Race/ethnicity is definitely not the only factor - we want our son to value the importance of interacting with kids that may not look like him and come from homes with like-minded parents.

I don't want to turn this into a race debate and appreciate your honest feedback.

Thanks!

with those job locales, and assuming they are jobs with high security (i.e. not changing jobs every couple years), I'd live in NW DC any ES that rolls up to Deal and Wilson. Kid will have a blast, ES are great, MS has vastly improved and HS is half/half and kid will find his niches.

On OP's budget of $750K? I guess if OP just wants 2br and is ok living in a tower block.

[Anonymous]

What about Rosemary Hills in BCC Cluster? Extremely strong schools and the schools are diverse. You could find a house for that price.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agreed with East Silver Spring or Cannon Road ES come to mind. Cannon Road is right off the ICC and it has relatively little to no traffic to get to VA. Welcome to MCPS!

You must be kidding. I lived near there years ago and the traffic to Virginia was horrible. Parents still live there and say it's only gotten worse. Being right off the ICC doesn't help with getting to DC or Virginia.

[Anonymous]

OP - the RM cluster is very diverse, from ES up to HS. You can look at the breakdowns here.

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/glance/

You might be able to take metro to Arlington but I would imagine that would be a very long metro ride. I know people who live in RM cluster who drive down to the Grosvenor station and take the metro to DC from there.

If you are looking to move to MoCo, you are going to have to either sacrifice the diversity or the commute.

I honestly don't know that much about the schools down in NoVa. Are there none that have a good diversity for AA in an affordable area? Why look in MoCo if you work in DC/Arlington?

[Anonymous]

OMG, prioritize the commute to Arlington. Pretty much anywhere in MoCo would be a nightmare commute to Arlington. Where is the commute to in DC? Is the Arlington commute metro accessible? There must be some cluster in VA that has houses in that price range and an easier commute. Or, even areas of DC like Navy Yard. Or a condo in Crystal City. Almost anywhere would be better than MoCo.

[Anonymous]

I would not go further East than Kensington if you are commuting to Arlington.

We are in North Kensington zoned to Rock View > Newport Mill > Einstein, and between higher income American families and first generation immigrants from Africa there is definitely a high achieving cohort of black kids.

I agree with others that it is unlikely for your kid to be the only black kid at Parkwood, Ashburton or Rosemary Hills if you want a less economically diverse cluster. I think you could find a house at your budget point for these ES, if you are patient.

We always lose a few higher income black families to private and the W clusters after ES. They aren't willing to roll the dice on friend groups in MS and HS. You wouldn't have to worry about that at the W's.

[Anonymous]

What about Cabin John?