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Schools and Education General Discussion
How bad are Montgomery County Schools?
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Anonymous
OK, then at this point, you should probably wait a bit before making another decision. I can understand why you are upset. Keep in mind that people are more likely to say negative things about public schools because it is easy to do so. My child is in a very expensive private school in MC, and it is very nice BUT, it is a strain on the wallet. Everything is a trade off. I sometimes think that the money we are putting towards private school could easily pay for DC's first condo in the future. MC schools are strongest in HS, then probably ES, then MS. I am a graduate of one of the best MC systems, and I can say that at the private school, the teachers are more involved, there are more specials, and so on. I can say that if we could do it all over again, I would have put them in public so that we would not know what we were missing. Good luck. Try to make it work. It is free. |
Anonymous
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I agree with the idea of supplementing with music, art, sports and other lessons. When we moved from private to public we suddenly had lots more money for these lessons, plus trips to Europe (and retiring before we are 90, don't discount that).
Also agree with the point that HS is better in terms of the range of classes offered, the level of challenge, et cetera. The magnet programs are especially great, if you can make that work for you -- both DCs are getting educations in their MS and HS magnets comparable to what they were getting in their private. |
Anonymous
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I have a child in K in MoCo and though I'm a newbie, I'm not yet hypervenilating about the test issue. Maybe it's there, but I certainly haven't seen it yet and honestly I'm a little skeptical of responses that suggest that K curriculum is so test-oriented that parents felt compelled to go private. I have yet to see a worksheet, and my active boy mostly enjoys school and seems engaged by the material that he's exposed to. (I get only snippets, but it's stuff like I heard today: mom, did you know that beavers don't live in the dams they build?) I'm totally prepared to believe that this gets worse as the kids get older, but I wonder if anyone who yanks their kid after K either had an unusually bad experience or an incoming preference for private.
Like any school system, MoCo sure isn't perfect - I'd prefer a lot more outdoor time than a half-hour recess - but even that is better at some MoCo schools. One final point - a lot of what happens in K and probably to a lesser extent in the first few grades is just the social and emotional adjustment to elementary school. I volunteer at my son's school and from what I can tell a lot of the energy of the teachers (and learning for the kids) involves helping kids learn how to handle themselves in a school setting. Here private may have some advantages in the form of smaller classes, but it's hard for me to believe that the adjustment process is all that different. |
Anonymous
We also moved to Mo Co for the schools and my wife is even a long-time teacher for MCPS. However, our kid was so miserable in her ES, and we were so concerned about the shallow education she was receiving, that we switched to private a couple of years ago. We also used to think that we could supplement her education with lots of extra activities but 1) the homework overload made that very difficult and 2) the problem wasn't just that the curriculum was lacking (which it totally was) but that the school was actually damaging. When the focus is all about raising test scores, even otherwise good teachers resort to bribes and threats to try to shovel in as much test-prep as possible. Some kids can take the mind-numbing drills. Some kids can't. |
Anonymous
May I ask which school your child is at? At ours kindergarteners get worksheet after worksheet after worksheet. Your child has seriously not had any? |
Anonymous
| We researched our specific MoCo school pretty carefully before moving and have been happy there. I think knowing a specific school's culture is key. |
Anonymous
What's different? Curriculum? Recess? Parental expectations? |
Anonymous
As has been mentioned, that helps, but only so far. Across schools, regardless of the "culture" of any given school, curriculum is the same, tests are the same, lacks of "specials" is the same, etc. The culture of a school can't make up for all that. I truly think that's great that you are happy with your school, but it's not a question of due diligence--it's a question of the very nature of education these days in the county. |
Anonymous
| Not PP, but there are 130 Elementary Schools in Montgomery County. Although the curriculum is the same, relatively speaking, there are a ton of intangible differences from parental involvement to types of afterschool enrichment activities to magnet schools to immersion programs to arts focused- schools to schools who have three recesses and a snack to schools who have only 1 half hour recess and no snack to schools that are falling apart to schools that have just been upgraded and have lovely facilities and play areas, schools that are Title 1, so have much smaller federally mandated classes, but have higher levels of poverty and thus a median level of incoming knowledge that is, perhaps, not similar to non-Title I schools, schools that have a high turnover of staff and thus non-committed teachers due to bad or overworked principals. So, yes. It can be a question of due diligence. |
Anonymous
| I have to say that some days I could certainly be one of those parents bemoaning the lack of extra outdoor time and specials and the focus on test prep. At the same time, our kid did not know how to read going into K and blossomed into a great reader and I have really liked the teachers and they have tried to provide challenging work. I also love that we know the kids in the neighborhood from school and feel free to spend money on plays and ballet, soccer and dance classes, trips and restaurants. At the end of the day, I am sure I would also have gripes about whatever private school we went to (including the greater bubble of privilege). In my heart I dream of the perfect school but in my head I feel like our local school is right for us. |
Anonymous
Public education does not have to be rote. Parents should not feel that they have to put up with this grim, test-driven grind. But it will take a major shift in the way we all think about education. Schools should be involved in offering rich academic opportunity, rather than producing test results. This is a message you need to send to your representatives in Congress, to Arne Duncan, and to Barak Obama, because they apparently don't get it. |
Anonymous
| BTW, there is nothing inherently wrong with teaching young children to memorize. Some facts just have to be memorized before or while understanding. |
Anonymous
I guess it depends what one is looking for. I am the PP who posted earlier that we are in a B/CC cluster but left public (after 1st gr) to go private. If one is investigating the facilities or Title I involvement or even how much recess there is, sure, that's easy to research--the rest, not so much. (And it didn't sound like anyone on this thread is referring to special programs such as immersion or magnets, so those are irrelevant to this thread.) We did tons of research--talked to at least fifteen families in our neighborhood over a couple of years, had a long conversation with the PTA president, attended local school meetings, visited the school, even met with the principal--and it was still impossible to find out in advance that our academically-advanced child was going to be left to languish and not learn anything because DC entered K already reading and doing math at a high level. Of course, my main questions during my research had been how the school treated advanced children, but in fact the answers were different than what really happened. So much of it depends on the individual teacher, and as one cannot request teachers, due diligence doesn't matter there. In addition, principals leave, budgets change, etc. (For example, the principal told us that providing challenging work to advanced students is dependent on budget (I think because it requires extra staff), which changes from year to year. One things that was also clear is that what the school tells parents is not necessarily what really happens. So I must respectfully disagree that research is all that is required. To OP, I think I would stil try your public school, but hold private in reserve. HTH. |
Anonymous
As a person who went to private schools in MoCo K-12, I was worried about sending my kid to public schools -- particularly given all the "talk" about testing, pressure, etc. DS is in K and is thriving. He did not enter K reading (he knew some numbers and letters and sounds -- like most kids his age). He thinks school is fun and according to him all they do is play  Hats off to his teachers for making learning fun! He has art, music, PE, media, etc. every week (just like I did in private elementary school). At the parent-teacher conference in November, his teacher showed us a million examples of his work, their assessments, etc. Clearly, MCPS teachers are on the ball, meeting the students where they are and doing their best to help the kids make progress. I know parents with kids in private school in MoCo who didn't receive any sort of data/concrete examples of what their kids are doing/how they've been assessed, etc. DH and I are thrilled with our son's school. It is a very academic yet nurturing environment.
RE the comment about not being able to sit still/follow directions, etc.: MCPS understands what to expect of 5/6 year olds. The kids are not expected to sit for long periods of time. If a child has trouble sitting still and following directions, that is probably a sign of another problem --- and I don't think a private school environment (unless it's some sort of alternative school) will magically address those kinds of issues. If your kid isn't in school yet, then perhaps you should contact the local school, talk to the principal, and see if it's possible to observe a portion of a class. |
Anonymous
| To the PP- The schools may understand what to expect of 5/6 yr olds but they may not actually follow those expectations in their planning. 5/6 yr olds still learn by doing, not being talked to. They learn by concrete experiences. My friends teach and have taught K and every single one of them says that what is NOW expected of 5/6 yr olds is not what it used to be. They are expected to sit still and listen and do work (mainly worksheets b/c they are easily reproducible) for the entire LA block. They used to have center time prior to NCLB but they got rid of them in favor of a more prescribed scripted curriculum. These are 3 schools I know of. Perhaps your child's school has high enough test scores (b/c that is the bottom line these days) that they don't need to go this route. So you can do tons of research ahead of time but what actually happens in K sometimes cannot be known until the student actually gets there. There are very wide differences among county schools even though they do teach the same curriculum. |