Silver Springs schools?

[Anonymous]

To 11:24 - I believe living in SS and sending a kid to a SS school gives me enough street cred to post about that school. Having family (nephews) at schools in SS along with close friends has provided me with info as well (ie: listening to them praise certain teachers, bitch about others, praise extra resources, bitch about bullying, lament the lack of a real social network, etc.). This is a place where folks can post whatever they want...from truly helpful comments to completely useless comments and everything in between. And I have never called SS a shithole...I grew up there and I have tons of friends and family there.

RE: trading up - Generally speaking, trading up means moving into a bigger and better house. The comment had nothing to do with SS as lots of folks "trade up" to great homes in SS.

[Anonymous]

Just read the comments on trading up. Wow, folks...you need to settle down. If you live in a condo and move into a SFH, that's trading up. Ever heard of the starter home concept? Do you realize that some people might start out in a condo or TH in Bethesda and then trade up to a SFH in SS?

Honestly, it sounds like some of you SS folks are insecure and really need to get over it.

If you love your neighborhood and school then why freak out if some random stranger posts a comment you don't agree with on DCUM?

Just because you love your school doesn't mean that all of the people in that school love it just as much, right? I hear people rave about my school, but I'm not 100% thrilled...and I've heard other parents complain about our principal, certain teachers, etc. And that's fine. We are all entitled to our opinions.

[Anonymous]

To 13:20 - You commented that its offensive to use the term trading up as if that indicates that people in more costly homes are superior to others. Here's where you are being a tad myopic: depending on where you live in SS, your little brick house might cost twice as much as a home twice as large further out in MoCo. Folks do leave their smaller starter homes in SS for larger houses further out in MoCo or even beyond...for larger homes, more land, whatever. In short, not everyone leaves because they are snooty racists...but that's what some folks on here are implying.

[Anonymous]

I think the issue with the trading up post was that person had posted previously with thinly veiled racist language. I'm sure she has lack friends and all, but that's what got people out of sorts, not the concept. Plenty of people obviously trade up from place to place - one persons trade up from olney to silver spring is another's trade up from silver spring to olney.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:hey - good to know you're happy

I have 2 acres in a quiet little corner of the world. My kids are happy and most importantly, they're not ignored in school or pushed aside b/c others have more pressing needs. And no, not everyone looks like us in my 'hood, as my children are mixed race.

I am the fair-skinned one in the family. So don't generalize. While you may live in a diverse environment, not every person of color likes SS. And not every "open-minded" neighbor sends his/her kids to the local schools. Where there's money, private's always an option.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Einstein? Compare its test scores to Sherwood's. There is no comparison academically.
.

Welcome back sherwood booster. You're wrong on many levels, but it doesn't make sense arguing on every little item. And I won't generalize about Silver Spring, since it is a huge area, but concentrate on the active, thriving neighborhoods that feed into Einstein and Blair.

Yes, there are more lower income communities that feed into these schools. Mostly that is because as you get closer to the core, you get denser and denser populations, and more lower-income housing. There is nothing particularly shocking about this. Silver Spring borders Washington. Sherwood is 20 miles away.

So once upon a time you lived somewhere in Silver Spring, and growing up you seem to have had a bad elementary school experience. Clearly you have issues with people who don't look like you. I feel sorry for you, but I'm guessing you get that a lot. Today, if you go into any one of the neighborhood schools, you will see sometimes crowded classrooms full of kids who live in these neighborhoods. We go to a Fourth of July parade a couple of neighborhoods away, and there are usually 1000 kids under the age of 12 there. All shapes, colors, sizes, languages, etc. Kids here play in their front yards, pickup baseball and street hockey are common, there is a neighborhood block party monthly spring-fall. We have neighbors who will pick up our kids in a pinch, we can go away on vacation and call upon a dozen people to keep an eye on our house. This isn't unique to Silver Spring, but it highlights how the community works.

And schools. So clearly your experience with Blair is old. The magnet programs (yes, there are 2, not 1) are not a walled off school within a school. There are kids in our neighborhood who went magnet, and who didn't. Those that didn't still could take magnet level classes. They went to Stanford, UNC, Duke, Penn, top level state schools, and SLACs. A bunch went to UMD. A bunch went to Montgomery College...so basically, it's the same list for virtually every MoCo HS.

I know you're not going to hide in your wine cellar in Brookville and stop bashing Silver Spring. Yes, the higher population density leads to higher crime rates. Yes, my 1,500 SF home cost $650,000. I know I could buy 1/2 acre and 3 car garage elsewhere for that. Yes, there are kids who go to my zoned HS who will not go to college. Yes, my local park doesn't have 15 perfectly manicured soccer fields. I have to drive 20 minutes for my huge local indoor pool. But I - like the majority of the families who live here - enjoy living in Silver Spring. And while once upon a time things may have been different, the way they are today work well for a lot of similarly minded people.

So basically we agree. Generalizing is wrong, especially when someone doesn't have a clue what they're talking about. I know people who have moved from wood acres and somerset because of individual bad school experiences. I'm sure people in silver spring, olney, Rockville, anchorage, and elsewhere have bad individual experiences and make personal choices.

[Anonymous]

Meant to add that obviously most people don't consider wood acres or somerset to be bad areas because a couple of people had bad experiences. Quite the opposite. They are some of the most sought after neighborhoods and schools in the dc area. And for good reason - both are excellent. My point is that one or two individual experiences, even recent but especially when not recent, do not a pattern make.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If public school is important, then scratch SS off your list period. And I am born and raised from SS. It's a shit hole. Don't listen to all of the hippy posters on here who talk about how diverse or international or wonderful or la la la it is. It's not. Move farther west in Montgomery County if a decent school is important to you.

FYI, for "decent" read "white" or "affluent," because that's what this poster means. This is actually one of her less offensive posts.

Not true. Don't talk about what you don't know about. I am from SS. Enough said. And btw, DD's school isn't even 1/2 white. But it's got excellent scores - 90th percentiles, 9/10 greatschools etc. Why is everything about race to you? Oh I know, probably because you aren't from a very diverse area originally so it's fascinating to bring up race all the time even though it's very tacky.

Okay, now tell me where are the diverse middle and high schools with 9 and 10's in Montgomery County? There are plenty at the elementary level, but not at the middle and high school levels.

BCC

[Anonymous]

To 17:33 and others: no, the trading up poster didn't post anything related to race before. I'm the trading up poster, and I hadn't weighed in before with anything related to race or SES.

People: There are more than a handful of folks who post on DCUM. Unless a person says they are the poster from a certain post, you should always assume its a different person.

[Anonymous]

My kid goes to a vaunted west county school although we live in Silver Spring, due to magnet matriculation. I don't see a difference at all in the quality of education -- in fact, his school has been something of a disappointment. At least half of the teachers aren't very good at all, and he is bored and resentful of all the busywork.

But he is surrounded by lots and lots of very rich kids, most of them white, so if that makes a difference to some people ...

[Anonymous]

The whole notion of "excellence" being used to describe an elementary school is such a change from when we were growing up. Back in the day I remember people describing schools as nice. And that meant it was a good school. Is the whole country wrapped up in this obsession with demographics and test scores as a short hand way of determining if an elementary school sets itself apart as excellent? Or is it just a regional thing? Reading this thread one thing is clear - there is not a consensus about silver spring schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The whole notion of "excellence" being used to describe an elementary school is such a change from when we were growing up. Back in the day I remember people describing schools as nice. And that meant it was a good school. Is the whole country wrapped up in this obsession with demographics and test scores as a short hand way of determining if an elementary school sets itself apart as excellent? Or is it just a regional thing? Reading this thread one thing is clear - there is not a consensus about silver spring schools.

Well, part of that is because there are many, many schools in Silver Spring due to the size of Silver Spring. However, reading this thread the general consensus among those who actually sent their kids to school in Silver Spring is that there are many fine Silver Spring schools. Maybe there were one or two posters with actual, recent experience who disagreed, but pretty much everyone with real and recent experience had good things to say.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid goes to a vaunted west county school although we live in Silver Spring, due to magnet matriculation. I don't see a difference at all in the quality of education -- in fact, his school has been something of a disappointment. At least half of the teachers aren't very good at all, and he is bored and resentful of all the busywork.

But he is surrounded by lots and lots of very rich kids, most of them white, so if that makes a difference to some people ...

Given how many affluent white families have bailed on MCPS in recent years, I'm surprised anyone would make such a flippant remark in 2014. Those rich white kids are in limited supply in this majority-minority system, so get a good look at them while you still have the chance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid goes to a vaunted west county school although we live in Silver Spring, due to magnet matriculation. I don't see a difference at all in the quality of education -- in fact, his school has been something of a disappointment. At least half of the teachers aren't very good at all, and he is bored and resentful of all the busywork.

But he is surrounded by lots and lots of very rich kids, most of them white, so if that makes a difference to some people ...

Given how many affluent white families have bailed on MCPS in recent years, I'm surprised anyone would make such a flippant remark in 2014. Those rich white kids are in limited supply in this majority-minority system, so get a good look at them while you still have the chance.

Oh here we go with thus ignorant mess...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To 17:33 and others: no, the trading up poster didn't post anything related to race before. I'm the trading up poster, and I hadn't weighed in before with anything related to race or SES.

People: There are more than a handful of folks who post on DCUM. Unless a person says they are the poster from a certain post, you should always assume its a different person.

I stand corrected. I thought you were crazy racist olney lady, who did post thinly veiled racist remarks. At times it does seem as if there are only a handful of people on this post. And it looks like another usual suspect (majority minority poster) has struck again!

[Anonymous]

PP: there are tons of people who post on here from Olney. And I personally know a dozen or so families who moved to Olney from Silver Spring...and I'm sure there are many more. So please don't think it's one person.