Elementary schools in Montgomery county school district

[Anonymous]

Hi
Planning on moving to N Potomac/Potomac , Rockville or Bethesda.
We are looking to buy a starter house so our child will at least be attending elementary school where we move.
Input on good neighborhoods/best elementary schools in this area?

Also, anyone know which area has higher resale value when it comes to homes, N. Potomac vs. Rockville? Not from the MD area so I really don't have any idea.
Thank you.

[Anonymous]

What is your budget? Regarding your other question, it really depends on what part of Rockville you are talking about. For example, the areas closer to Potomac and Bethesda (Walter Johnson High School cluster) are going to have higher resale value than other areas of Rockville.

[Anonymous]

For resale, homes closer in (particularly inside the Beltway) and/or closer to Metro have held their value through the downturn better than anything that's further out and not accessible to public transit. Big caveat when it comes to Rockville, though - perception is that the neighborhoods and west of Rockville Pike (355) feed to much better schools than those that are on the east side, so that definitely affects property values.

As to the "starter house" plan - stop just thinking about resale value and PLEASE plan to buy a house that you can live in for at least seven years before moving somewhere else, for size, schools or whatever other reason. The era of buying something, staying for several years, and making enough profit to move up are over, particularly upcounty.

[Anonymous]

Budget is 550-650K.
Thanks for the helpful advice!

[Anonymous]

I have seen that statement about east/west of Wisconsin. Does that apply to Chevy Chase too? I know about Rosemary Hills but am less worried about k-2 and more concerned about schools after 2nd grade.

[Anonymous]

Rosemary Hills is great, as are the schools it feeds into (Bethesda elementary/North Chevy Chase/ Chevy Chase elementary). Eventually the latter two will switch to grades 3-5 (once the new middle school is built). RH is big but the fact that it's all young kids is really nice, and all the parents we've met over 3 years there seem as happy as we are. You'll get a lot more house (and more updated) for your budget though if you go further out.

[Anonymous]

I like College Gardens Elementary in Rockville, as well as the surrounding neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I like College Gardens Elementary in Rockville, as well as the surrounding neighborhood.

So do I.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like College Gardens Elementary in Rockville, as well as the surrounding neighborhood.

So do I.

This is a comparison of some of the elementary school's performance in terms of their Advance Proficiency in the English / Math / Science category by grade level from the 2010 MSAs Performance Report. I have chosen schools in the MCPS regions discussed on this thread and some high performing schools for comparison.

Grade(English/Math/Science) 3(Eng) 4(Eng) 5(Eng) 3(Math) 4(Math) 5(Math) 5(Science) Bells Mill Elementary 42.0% 48.0% 72.3% 73.9% 58.2% 55.4% 27.7% Bethesda Elementary 39.7% 48.6% 77.9% 69.1% 56.9% 36.2% 14.5% Burning Tree Elementary 42.1% 54.3% 85.6% 48.7% 70.0% 59.8% 22.4% College Gardens Elementary 37.6% 32.7% 68.5% 56.0% 57.1% 27.2% 6.3% Chevy Chase Elementary 48.5% 69.7% 85.2% 59.2% 78.2% 70.1% 41.9% Stone Mill Elementary 54.2% 62.5% 91.0% 81.1% 76.8% 57.3% 18.0% Wayside Elementary 47.5% 63.4% 83.3% 69.7% 76.3% 60.8% 26.5% Travillah Elementary 39.2% 61.1% 76.7% 64.9% 73.6% 55.8% 16.5%

[Anonymous]

Just my opinion, you can't go too far wrong with B-CC and WJ cluster schools. Whitman is good but tends to not be very diverse and is almost like an exclusive private school (so if you don't care about that issue, I'd include Whitman with WJ and B-CC).

http://gis.mcpsmd.org/MCPSViewer/mapviewer.jsf?width=673&height=1128

And

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/planning/index2.shtml

Might help.

[Anonymous]

Affordable homes in a good school area would be N. Potomac and some areas of Rockville. Fallsmead ES, Robert Frost MS, Wootton HS or Stone Mill ES, Cabin John MS, Wootton HS are affordable yet great for academics and conveniently located for other ECs.

[Anonymous]

Just a note on test scores: Bethesda Elementary accommodates special needs kids (including my child), which I'm guessing affects test scores. We are very, very happy there. I pick up a happy child. I can't believe how much she's learning.

[Anonymous]

What is the student to teacher ratio or students per class at Beall Elementary school?

[Anonymous]

We live in the Beall district. Our kids will go there in 2 years. We are VERY excited. The school has a great reputation around here. The ratios are now the same as every other elementery school (they used to have lower ratios) but due to budget cuts those are gone.
However, the community speaks so highely of the principal and teachers. I also like that there is some diversity in the school. We also live in a great neighborhood that is affordable (new mark commonds).

[Anonymous]

Ritchie Park has houses in that price range. It is in Rockville/Potomac. Feeds into JW and RM. We have been generally happy there although they have a new principal who is not so good.