Eastern Middle and Silver Spring International Middle

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thank you for these responses. To answer some questions, we are looking for schools that have a large enough cohort of kids at and above grade level that there are classes and programs geared towards them (our local middle school has almost no kids at or above grade level) . If this criterion is met, we are ok with high farms. I hadn't thought about school within school issues. Sounds like sligo and ssims might be better than eastern. Was surprised to hear favoring ssims over eastern given that the latter feeds into Blair and the former into Northwood and Blair is generally considered to be better.

There’s some bias on this board toward Blair because of the STEM magnet and CAP. But Northwood has the prestigious Middle College program that allows students to earn an associate’s degree before their HS diploma. Come fall, I will have a 9th grader in MC2 at Northwood and a 9th grader in the comprehensive program at Blair. I expect both will do well. If the Blair freshman struggles more initially, I suspect it will be because he is new to MCPS and came from a tiny private school. I also had an older child graduate from comprehensive at Blair and except for one math class and one French class, the students in her classes were motivated.

Eastern offers both on level and advanced classes. However, as everywhere else in MCPS, advanced isn’t really advanced. It is what every other school system in the DMV would consider on level. Most MS in MCPS dropped their on level classes around 6 years ago and just did mixed ability under the title advanced. Eastern fought to keep on level courses in order to offer additional support to students who need remediation, but may not have an IEP or 504. A few other schools have done this as well.

Are you distinguishing between "advance" and "magnet," or no?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thank you for these responses. To answer some questions, we are looking for schools that have a large enough cohort of kids at and above grade level that there are classes and programs geared towards them (our local middle school has almost no kids at or above grade level) . If this criterion is met, we are ok with high farms. I hadn't thought about school within school issues. Sounds like sligo and ssims might be better than eastern. Was surprised to hear favoring ssims over eastern given that the latter feeds into Blair and the former into Northwood and Blair is generally considered to be better.

There’s some bias on this board toward Blair because of the STEM magnet and CAP. But Northwood has the prestigious Middle College program that allows students to earn an associate’s degree before their HS diploma. Come fall, I will have a 9th grader in MC2 at Northwood and a 9th grader in the comprehensive program at Blair. I expect both will do well. If the Blair freshman struggles more initially, I suspect it will be because he is new to MCPS and came from a tiny private school. I also had an older child graduate from comprehensive at Blair and except for one math class and one French class, the students in her classes were motivated.

Eastern offers both on level and advanced classes. However, as everywhere else in MCPS, advanced isn’t really advanced. It is what every other school system in the DMV would consider on level. Most MS in MCPS dropped their on level classes around 6 years ago and just did mixed ability under the title advanced. Eastern fought to keep on level courses in order to offer additional support to students who need remediation, but may not have an IEP or 504. A few other schools have done this as well.

Are you distinguishing between "advance" and "magnet," or no?

There are two levels in comprehensive at Eastern:
On level (remedial)
Advanced (actually just regular)

Then there’s magnet, which is only for humanities and is test-in. No guarantee OP’s kids will qualify as 5th graders. You can’t enter in 7th or 8th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thank you for these responses. To answer some questions, we are looking for schools that have a large enough cohort of kids at and above grade level that there are classes and programs geared towards them (our local middle school has almost no kids at or above grade level) . If this criterion is met, we are ok with high farms. I hadn't thought about school within school issues. Sounds like sligo and ssims might be better than eastern. Was surprised to hear favoring ssims over eastern given that the latter feeds into Blair and the former into Northwood and Blair is generally considered to be better.

There’s some bias on this board toward Blair because of the STEM magnet and CAP. But Northwood has the prestigious Middle College program that allows students to earn an associate’s degree before their HS diploma. Come fall, I will have a 9th grader in MC2 at Northwood and a 9th grader in the comprehensive program at Blair. I expect both will do well. If the Blair freshman struggles more initially, I suspect it will be because he is new to MCPS and came from a tiny private school. I also had an older child graduate from comprehensive at Blair and except for one math class and one French class, the students in her classes were motivated.

Eastern offers both on level and advanced classes. However, as everywhere else in MCPS, advanced isn’t really advanced. It is what every other school system in the DMV would consider on level. Most MS in MCPS dropped their on level classes around 6 years ago and just did mixed ability under the title advanced. Eastern fought to keep on level courses in order to offer additional support to students who need remediation, but may not have an IEP or 504. A few other schools have done this as well.

Are you distinguishing between "advance" and "magnet," or no?

You can use this link if you want a sample of the differences:

https://www2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/easternms/students/summerassignment/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SSIMS is great, and has an excellent principal.

Love SSIMS too, and Forest Knolls ES. Great teachers, administrators, and community.

The one negative about Forest Knolls was that it had been very, very overcrowded. But they just had a boundary rezoning to fix that. Starting this fall, homes south of Dennis Avenue will be rezoned to Montgomery Knolls for K-2 and Pine Crest for 3-5. These homes will remain zoned to SSIMS for 6-8. Details are here:

http://gis.mcpsmd.org/boundarystudypdfs/Knolls_BOEResolution.pdf

Can someone help translate this document. For a kid starting K in a few years, they follow the new boundaries. If they are at forest Knolls they go to ssims and Northwood. If they are at Montgomery Knolls and pine crest they go to eastern and Blair? It is hard to see the markers to understand the new boundary.

Also, the new Pine Crest principal is last year's principal intern at Forest Knolls.

Yes, for a kid starting K in a few years, they follow the new boundaries. Kids living within the rezoned area only will now go to Montgomery Knolls, Pine Crest, and SSIMS, and Northwood is their base area HS. Kids who live within the remaining Forest Knolls zones will still go to FKES, SSIMS, and Northwood. Kids living within the original Montgomery Knolls/Pine Crest zone will still go to MKES, PCES, Eastern, and Blair.

[Anonymous]

OP, with the DCC, it doesn’t really matter if your home is zoned for Blair or Northwood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thank you for these responses. To answer some questions, we are looking for schools that have a large enough cohort of kids at and above grade level that there are classes and programs geared towards them (our local middle school has almost no kids at or above grade level) . If this criterion is met, we are ok with high farms. I hadn't thought about school within school issues. Sounds like sligo and ssims might be better than eastern. Was surprised to hear favoring ssims over eastern given that the latter feeds into Blair and the former into Northwood and Blair is generally considered to be better.

I think there are parts of the SSIMS zone that do feed into Blair, for what its worth. Maybe everything zoned for Rolling Terrace?

Any of those schools will have a cohort of high achievers and what I've found is that the "advanced" kids end up de facto having schedules that bring them together a lot because they are all in the same math class, and the same humanities class, and they tend to cluster around the same electives, which means there are only so many ways the schedule can break out.

Yes, and there are also some areas in downtown Silver Spring south of Thayer and west of Georgia which are zoned for SSIMS and Blair.

http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/SilverSpringInternationalMS.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SSIMS is great, and has an excellent principal.

Love SSIMS too, and Forest Knolls ES. Great teachers, administrators, and community.

Forest Knolls is great. Not at all happy with the rezoning to Montgomery Knolls/ Pine Crest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eastern can be tougher for avg kids not Academically driven. There are already clicks roaming the halls with no intention of graduating. If you kids can avoid them and be ignored by them they will do great. If they get involved there is risk. All schools have kids like that, eastern has more than most. Mom of two middle class kids who got two different results there. My one boy is having a lot of problems in HS with the crowd he met at eastern. He was never going to be a good student, but is dabbling in things that have long ranging damage as a 10th grader. Daughter is in a great college assuming it opens back up in the fall

This is really the story of MCPS. All of the schools have the resources to support great students. The curriculum is the same and the teachers are more or less good and bad at all places. It really comes down to the peer group and that sets how far a poor performer can fall. Some D student at Churchill is just going to end up working at his fathers company when he drinks him self out of college. Places like Eastern, kids can find no bottom to the trouble they can find if they go looking for it. The percentage of kids at eastern middle who will not end up graduating high school is pretty high considering, if they aren't doing school work, they are doing something else. Better hope it doesn't interest your kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, with the DCC, it doesn’t really matter if your home is zoned for Blair or Northwood.

The only school you're guaranteed to be able to attend is your base area school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, with the DCC, it doesn’t really matter if your home is zoned for Blair or Northwood.

The only school you're guaranteed to be able to attend is your base area school.

It really only matters slightly for just for Blair though because none of the others have that high demand. Northwood isn’t turning away choice students.

[Anonymous]

I had a child at Eastern magnet and a child at Sligo. I would not recommend Eastern. A lot of chaos and bullying. It’s a tough place. The counselors are wonderful though. Education very mediocre at Sligo and current principal isn’t that great (same at Eastern though).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thank you for these responses. To answer some questions, we are looking for schools that have a large enough cohort of kids at and above grade level that there are classes and programs geared towards them (our local middle school has almost no kids at or above grade level) . If this criterion is met, we are ok with high farms. I hadn't thought about school within school issues. Sounds like sligo and ssims might be better than eastern. Was surprised to hear favoring ssims over eastern given that the latter feeds into Blair and the former into Northwood and Blair is generally considered to be better.

I think there are parts of the SSIMS zone that do feed into Blair, for what its worth. Maybe everything zoned for Rolling Terrace?

Any of those schools will have a cohort of high achievers and what I've found is that the "advanced" kids end up de facto having schedules that bring them together a lot because they are all in the same math class, and the same humanities class, and they tend to cluster around the same electives, which means there are only so many ways the schedule can break out.

Yes, and there are also some areas in downtown Silver Spring south of Thayer and west of Georgia which are zoned for SSIMS and Blair.

http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/SilverSpringInternationalMS.pdf

Yes, everything zoned for Rolling Terrace.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thank you for these responses. To answer some questions, we are looking for schools that have a large enough cohort of kids at and above grade level that there are classes and programs geared towards them (our local middle school has almost no kids at or above grade level) . If this criterion is met, we are ok with high farms. I hadn't thought about school within school issues. Sounds like sligo and ssims might be better than eastern. Was surprised to hear favoring ssims over eastern given that the latter feeds into Blair and the former into Northwood and Blair is generally considered to be better.

I think there are parts of the SSIMS zone that do feed into Blair, for what its worth. Maybe everything zoned for Rolling Terrace?

Any of those schools will have a cohort of high achievers and what I've found is that the "advanced" kids end up de facto having schedules that bring them together a lot because they are all in the same math class, and the same humanities class, and they tend to cluster around the same electives, which means there are only so many ways the schedule can break out.

Yes, and there are also some areas in downtown Silver Spring south of Thayer and west of Georgia which are zoned for SSIMS and Blair.

http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/SilverSpringInternationalMS.pdf

Yes, everything zoned for Rolling Terrace.

Plus the area zoned for Sligo Creek ES/SSIMS/Blair as shown on the map.

[Anonymous]

OP, I know you said high school isn't a big concern, but by the time your child is in high school, Northwood should have a brand new building. 2025 or 2026.

[Anonymous]

The new principal at Eastern, Mr Johnson, is terrific! Teachers love him and he’s inclusive- used to be the head of the magnet there year ago, before Kerwin.

I’m not saying I would choose Eastern (non-magnet) over Sligo or SSIMS. I definitely wouldn’t. It is rough- More so than Sligo or SSIMS.

As for the school within a school feel, even though TPMS has the math magnet I think they do a good job of making it feel like one school- my kid can’t often tell who is “in” and who isn’t. It’s more obvious at Eastern, unfortunately, and that vibe is definitely there. Even with the immersion kids at SSIMS the school within a school vibe is not there.

Good luck, OP. If I got to choose? TPMS- great school culture, amazing principal, involved parents.