Best elementary school for a STEM gifted child?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had very good luck in HoCo for an older child fitting a similar profile.

MoCo offera a great STEM countywide magnet program, but it requires a combination of scores + geographical location (recent add-on) to attend. They have started to actively avoid kids who would otherwise attend middle schools with high-scoring peers. These tend to be middle school nestled along hwy 270.

Regular ES do not, I believe, offer any accommodation since their mission is not to enrich the top students, but to pull up the middle/rear towards meeting the state standard.

The only thing regular ES has in this is compacted math. To OP, compacted math is a more advanced math track that starts in 4th grade. It puts the student on track to take Algebra in 7th, and Calc AB in 11th grade. If your DC is super duper smart in math, they may let him advance even a bit more.

Or calc BC in 11th

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Different angle here OP.

Assess you budget, then look at best cluster you can afford to buy into for the other 4 boys in your household.

If your 1 boy is truly gifted, he may place into a county program and get busing. As for the other 4, you might not want them to be in the non-magnet rest of school in a lesser performing school and/or peer group.

OP here. I like this. Thanks! Great advice.

[Anonymous]

Where can you afford to live? What is your budget? What is the point of talking about anything without knowing your budget?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where can you afford to live? What is your budget? What is the point of talking about anything without knowing your budget?

OP here. Budget not an issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where can you afford to live? What is your budget? What is the point of talking about anything without knowing your budget?

OP here. Budget not an issue.

Then send your kid to private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where can you afford to live? What is your budget? What is the point of talking about anything without knowing your budget?

OP here. Budget not an issue.

Then send your kid to private.

Thanks. We are looking at all the options. What’s your attitude about?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where can you afford to live? What is your budget? What is the point of talking about anything without knowing your budget?

OP here. Budget not an issue.

Then send your kid to private.

Thanks. We are looking at all the options. What’s your attitude about? [/quot

You may consider move to churchill cluster for well rounded solid education and send that STEM gifted kid to Feynman school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where can you afford to live? What is your budget? What is the point of talking about anything without knowing your budget?

OP here. Budget not an issue.

Then send your kid to private.

Thanks. We are looking at all the options. What’s your attitude about?

OP: You should read the MANY threads about the MoCo magnets program and decide for yourself about attitudes. You should also take into account the fact that this forum is a tiny sliver of the MoCo community, and that anonymous posts allow people to say pretty much whatever they want. All that said, if you have a truly gifted child, and budget is not an issue, a good private school may be the least stressful way of ensuring an appropriate educational program for your child. (Full disclosure - Our DC is in MoCo schools, but currently in a regional CES, with which we have been very happy. It's not "ruined" by any stretch.) But consider whether your budget is truly not an issue, because today's WaPo noted that the tuition at St. Albans (a good all-boys school in DC) is between $45-65K a year, and last I looked, that's not an outlier for the top private schools in the area.

[Anonymous]

Takoma Park ES is the lower elementary K-2 that puts half of their first grade into their science "magnet" (it's called a magnet because they leave 10 spots open for out-of- boundary students, but they are not eligible for future benefits.) TPES feeds into Piney Branch ES where there is one 27-student class of fourth and fifth graders, respectively, at aside for their local Center for Enriched Studies. Then, about 25 PBES students are invited directly into the Takoma Park Middle School STEM magnet without the heavy competition the rest of the lower county. If I knew what I was doing 15 years ap when we'd bought our house, we'd have moved into that school some.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Different angle here OP.

Assess you budget, then look at best cluster you can afford to buy into for the other 4 boys in your household.

If your 1 boy is truly gifted, he may place into a county program and get busing. As for the other 4, you might not want them to be in the non-magnet rest of school in a lesser performing school and/or peer group.

OP here. I like this. Thanks! Great advice.

Next you need to ask what makes a cluster "the best".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would go with Piney Branch ES, which has a local CES. Even though CES is mostly humanities-based. Also living in Takoma Park MS zone you'll have a better chance of getting a seat in the magnet program.

Piney Branch used to have a dedicated science teacher. Not sure if they still do.

[Anonymous]

on the comment on the ruined regional CES.... keep in mind that is now not an option for some as there is a home school CES option now at many schools.

Also same for Middle school. MCPS took away the regional option because of local options and peer group. And believe me they are no where near the same. I know because I have had kids in both programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where can you afford to live? What is your budget? What is the point of talking about anything without knowing your budget?

OP here. Budget not an issue.

Then send your kid to private.

Not for STEM

[Anonymous]

Private is not where you go for stem, public is much stronger

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where can you afford to live? What is your budget? What is the point of talking about anything without knowing your budget?

OP here. Budget not an issue.

Then send your kid to private.

Thanks. We are looking at all the options. What’s your attitude about?

I didn't see any attitude in PP's post? If budget isn't an issue, go private. Mcps isnt known for it's STEM. Buy in Potomac or Bethesda so you can send them to McLean