Does this sound like your MOCO elementary school?
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Anonymous
My library has over 11,000 books. |
Anonymous
6, we get less than that - art, music and PE once a week. No STEM, no language and library only k-3 exempt every few weeks. Instruments in 4/5 and choir in 5th. Engaged PTA 
Stay where you are at. |
Anonymous
| Our school has 5 “specials” so one each day of the week that are art, music, PE, library/media, and Second Step/counseling. Language offerings through the PTA as a before school activity but not as part of the school day. PTA social events tend to be a bit clumped at the beginning and end of the year, less in the middle. Before, after, spring break, winter break and professional day care by Bar-T. Sounds relatively similar to what you describe in your list. |
Anonymous
| Our ES offers all of the above. The exception- language and STEM are after school clubs. |
Anonymous
| You guys describing your elementary schools but not naming them are completely unhelpful to OP. |
Anonymous
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NW DC DCPS are better for PK-5. Deal and Wilson are trending up as well.
MCPS is trending down and K-8 has been a total mess. Bare minimum PE in the country: 30 mins a week total in ES. They have cleared 28 kids per K, 1 teacher as well in ES's when it happens, instead of adding another teacher/classroom. Title 1 doesn't have this issue. Be ready for very large high schools and middle schools of 400-600 kids per grade, right off the bat in 6th grade. And zero ability tracking or differentiating (deemed racist a few years ago) means a different set of 35 kids each hour. No sense of community. |
Anonymous
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Interesting.
Op are considering Arlington or Fairfax schools? Or maybe rent out your DC place and rent a large place in DC, same schools |
Anonymous
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OP Here - I really appreciate the responses. At the very least, it's framing my expectations for what to expect in MCPS. I was asking these questions because it was information I couldn't necessarily discern from MCPS websites or from a Great School profile that provides test scores, class sizes etc. I was doing my best to try to filter out some characteristics that we've appreciated but are not usually measured or reported. I can also appreciate that MCPS clusters are different and understand that some middle/high schools are stronger.
If anyone wants to name their elementary school, I would welcome it! 
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Anonymous
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Our school with the art/music/PE/media center/Second Step specials weekly is Kensington Parkwood.
At Chevy Chase ES there was a makerspace option for lunch/recess a few times per year last year. Not sure if they're doing it again. I know that Glennallen has a STEM teacher. The FOCUS/Title I schools get extra staffing and sometimes use that staffing for a STEM teacher or math content coach or something like that. Those decisions are made by the principal, as would be the logistical scheduling and how often various classes or groups of kids visit or are visited by those teachers. Kensington Parkwood and Chevy Chase have both also had artists in residence come in and work with classes on a variety of things like poetry, clay art, performance art, etc. But those are not on a regular schedule and are more of a special thing here or there. |
Anonymous
What a joke of a post. |
Anonymous
| Washington Grove has STEM as a special and is a dual language Spanish school beginning in Kindergarten! |
Anonymous
NP, this has been discussed on the DC public school board extensively. When making apples to apples demographic comparisons, DCPS PARCC scores are similar to or exceed nearby MoCo schools in Bethesda. In addition, DC schools have smaller class sizes. For example, my kid had only 16 students in her Deal feeder K class, along with a teacher's aide. I have a younger kid, but I hear Deal and Wilson are still more of a mixed bag, with Wilson continuing to maintain its reputation as a "Yale or jail" school. So while middle/high are not seen as comparable quite yet, some kids certainly do well there. One should have no qualms about DCPS at many schools for elementary (Deal/Hardy feeders, Maury/Brent on the Hill, etc.). |
Anonymous
Thank you, PP! |
Anonymous
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This sounds like my son's school, Bayard Rustin Elementary in Rockville, which feeds into Julius West MS and Richard Montgomery HS.
We have the lottery Chinese immersion program, but my non-immersion kindergartener still gets a Chinese special every Tuesday, where he is learning basic language and culture. Monday - Art Tuesday - Chinese Wednesday - PE Thursday - Music Friday - Art There's no explicit built-in STEM, but there are STEM-focused after school clubs, and STEM toys and workshops during Kids After Hours before/after care. KAH is also available on breaks and days when school is closed. The PTA seems pretty active so far, too. We've had family fitness days, book fair, and some other activities already this year. |
Anonymous
Ack, I meant to say Friday was Media Center, which is the library, but probably will incorporate some other tech stuff as he gets older. They also use Chromebooks in the classroom sometimes. |