Silver Spring Elementary Schools

[Anonymous]

I live in DC now, but am thinking of moving to Silver Spring for the better public schools. Are there any thoughts on which ones in SS are the best? I really have no idea about neighborhoods/schools there so any input on these would also be helpful. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Silver Spring is ENORMOUS and has a number of schools. Are you talking about downtown Silver Spring or further out? You can check the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) website and look at the one-pagers for each school where you can see the demographics and test scores. I was born and raised in Silver Spring but recently moved from Silver Spring (closer to Aspen Hill//Kennedy High School District) to the Olney/Brookeville area b/c our neighborhood schools weren't an option (the elem school is a Title 1 school and has issues).

[Anonymous]

OP here. I guess one of the neighborhoods I was thinking of was Seven Oaks/Indian Springs area. I think the Mont. website said the elem. school would be Highland view, do you know anything about this.

[Anonymous]

I live in woodmoor, and while DD is too young yet for school, it seems that most of the families in my neighborhood send their kids to the neighborhood elementaries - Montgomery Knolls and Pinecrest. While I have no personal experience with the schools, it reassures me that people are fleeing the neighborhood or running to private schools in order to avoid these schools. When we were house hunting, I got the same impression about Highland View, although again, I have no personal experience.

[Anonymous]

Thanks that is very helpful.

[Anonymous]

I just checked out the MCPS website and noticed that nearly half the kids at Highland View receive FARMS (free and reduced meals) which illustrates a high poverty rate among students. I also noticed very small class sizes -- which is a good thing -- but makes me wonder why. Is it b/c the neighborhoods in the area don't have a lot of kids (so you have to ask yourself if you want to live in a neighborhood with lots of empty nesters) or b/c many families in the area send their kids to private schools? I would spend a great deal of time driving through the neighborhood you're looking at to see if there are any kids playing outside. I'm the PP who left SS and moved out to Olney/Brookeville. We left a lovely home in an empty-nester neighborhood that fed into a Title 1 school (predominantly low income students). We couldn't figure out where all the low income kids were coming from since homes in our area sold for $430-600s. It turns out that a bunch of empty nesters opted to rent their homes out when the housing market started tanking, and that multiple families were living in SFHs. (We actually walked through one when it came on the market in our neighborhood at the same time we were selling our house, and we were stunned to see evidence of 4 families living in one home -- where they divided up the basement family room/storage area into 3 bedrooms and put a makeshift kitchen in the laundry room. We never would have guessed that 4 families were living there b/c they didn't have extra cars outside -- which I guess isn't surprising given that the house was located within walking distance of public transportation. Renters raises another point: do a search to see how many rentals come up in the zip code you are looking at.) Good luck to you.

[Anonymous]

Look in the Woodside neighborhood of Silver Spring if you want to be fairly close-in and have good schools. Very few of the problems the Brookeville/Olney poster mentioned.

[Anonymous]

I live in the area you mentioned, near the elementaries of Highland View, Oak View, etc. Lots of local families send their kids there. The area is diverse, with some lower income families and some higher. You can find the scores, and percentages of teachers qualified, etc. on the MCPS website. I grew up in a major city public school system with a very diverse group of people, so I don't really use low-income as a definition of poor schools.

[Anonymous]

Low-income isn't a definition for a poor school per se, but it can be an indicator for a neighborhood on the cusp of decline. Trust me. I moved from a neighborhood in Silver Spring with schools with stats and demographics comparable to the area the OP is looking at, and I watched it rapidly decline in 5 years (to become a Title 1 school) -- so much so that we had to move to an area with better schools. Something to consider: will the home you purchase hold its value, or will the neighborhood decline? When we sold our home this spring, we were told by our realtor and lender that our zip code was a "declining area." It made things a little more complicated (ie: getting our home properly appraised once we had a buyer). Talk to realtors, lenders and appraisers to get the real scoop on your area -- you don't want to get stuck in a bad situation.

[Anonymous]

the reason for the small class sizes at Highland View was due to its Title I status - which the school recently lost so I don't know how much longer the 15-17 students per class will last. Most people in the Indian Spring neighborhood do send their children to Highland View and are very happy there. We live in the neighborhood - and are educators in the MCPS system but our children are not yet K age.

[Anonymous]

Any insight into Forest Knolls Elementary in Silver Spring?