Unfamiliar with ranking of MCPS high shools
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Anonymous
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Thinking of moving to MoCo (likely Bethesda or Chevy Chase), but not familiar with MCPS. The area where I would consider buying would fall in the Rosemary Hills/CCES - Westland - BCC. With effort, I might get a small rambler in area Someset ES
That said, I would be open to consider other zones, but indeially inside the Beltway -- ideally between River Rd in the west and Silver Springs on the east. Is the BCC cluster considered good? In particular, how does BCC (and its cluster) compares with Whitman, Churchill, or Walter Johnson (and their clusters)? More precisely, are the alternatives to the BCC cluster so much better than BCC that I should seriously consider not moving to my preferred location? Or are all the MCPS that I am mentioned comparable, give or take? |
Anonymous
| Lots of posts on this subject. You might also look at scores on the MCPS website and rankings in US News and other magazines. It will also depend on what's important to you - some value top test scores (Whitman), others want more diversity (BCC), some want less academic pressure (WJ). |
Anonymous
| Don't forget to consider that some of the programs that make schools attractive are by application only. MCPS HS is complicated. |
Anonymous
None of the 4 OP mentioned are magnet programs. BCC has an IB program but it is not a magnet, it's for kids inbounds for BCC. |
Anonymous
Fair enough. My point to OP was that the system is complicated and there is a lot to consider besides location. |
Anonymous
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With respect to the US News ranking that was suggested above, keep in mind that any school with an IB program, like BCC, is going to do very well in the rankings. This is because one of the factors in the rankings is how many kids do AP or IB tests. At an IB school like BCC, by definition most of the kids will take the IB test.
BCC is a good school, regardless. And the US News rankings can be helpful for getting a broad idea. Just keep in mind that a grain of salt is necessary when interpreting the rankings. |
Anonymous
BCC I think does have a magnet program - not IB - I think for language. I think this because we live in the exburbs and my neighbor's kids go to BCC - they were in the Spanish immersion program. |
Anonymous
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FWIW, in Moco the immersion programs are not technically called "magnets" because you enter through a lottery rather than through magnet application process (the magnet application process involves testing, teacher recs, transcript). Therefore, even if BCC had an immersion program, this would still not make BCC a magnet in the MoCo sense of the word. Just some MoCo jargon.
In MoCo, there are immersion programs in some elementary and middle schools, but not in the high schools, I don't think. There are two spanish immersion feeder schools to BCC: Rock Creek Forest ES and Westland MS (I think ??? Maybe someone can correct the school names). Often the spanish immersion kids end up in the BCC IB program. As for the BCC IB program itself, my understanding is that kids can enter if they have a GPA meeting a certain threshold, but there is no lottery and no full-fledged magnet-type application process. Also, you can attend BCC but not do the IB program if you're not interested in IB. |
Anonymous
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http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/maryland/rankings
Here are the us news and world report rankings. #1 Churchill #2 Whitman #3 Wootton #4 Poolesville # 5 Walter Johnson #6 BCC The difference in the rankings was based on college readiness. The looked at the percentage of 12th grade students taking the AP and the percentage that passed. Churchill had an 85 (89% took/84% passed) BCC had a 65 (77% took/61% passed) BCC was also slightly lower in Alegebra and English Proficiency |
Anonymous
| OP -- to answer your question, there are not huge differences in the schools you mentioned. They are all great schools, so I don't feel there would be any reason to expand your options outside of your target area. |
Anonymous
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11:09 here. I don't have a kid at any of these schools, so I don't have a dog in this fight. About 5 years ago, when we were looking to move to Bethesda, BCC was ranked in the top ten in the country and higher than any of the others listed at 12:43. So of course, we were dead set on BCC and we scoped out houses in the area (although we opted for a private school in the end).
In retrospect, that would have been a bad strategy, no? Yet I think BCC is still a great school. Which makes me a little skeptical about the year-to-year variation in the US News rankings. A lot of the rankings depends on how they build this index, which has changed over the past few years, but is still subject to a lot of criticism. Over the past few years a few things have changed. First, the methodology - I don't think pass rates were included originally. And second, and the mere existence of the US News rankings has caused schools to encourage more kids to take APs to boost the school's rankings. I think BCC is still a really good school. The lower scores in some areas may be down to socio-economic diversity - which is a plus in many peoples' minds. Honestly, OP, you can't go wrong with any of the schools on that list, from Churchill to BCC. Your kid will get out of them what s/he puts in. |
Anonymous
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OP here. Thanks, PPs, for your useful replies (and apologies for the grammatical errors in my OP).
Regarding what 11:09/12:57 said, "I think BCC is still a really good school. The lower scores in some areas may be down to socio-economic diversity - which is a plus in many peoples' minds." It seems to be that a kid with highly involved parents who have a high degree of educational attainment should do equally well in BCC as in the other schools mentioned above. If so (and that would be my expectation), it seems like I will keep my search in my preferred geographical area. One last thing: is bullying more / less / the same of an issue in BCC vis-a-vis the other schools? Thanks |
Anonymous
Judge for yourself. Two recent incidents about BCC. http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/2012/03/26/gIQArfFzcS_story.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/bethesda-chevy-chase-highs-color-day-turns-violent-concerns-on-hazing/2011/10/21/gIQAFJJj4L_story.html |
Anonymous
Oh please. A year or two ago Whitman hit the post with kids robbing a grocery store. Every school has some issues. |
Anonymous
| ^^^ hit the Post |