Takoma Park Middle School quality?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child attended and it was great. Lots of extracurriculars — Wonderful instrumental music teacher!![/quote]

I thought she was absent a lot. The choir teacher is quite good.

My child has not reported many absences by the band teacher.

Yeah, that wasn’t true either, though she was out for about a week when she had Covid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parent of former Takoma Park Middle School, and a former MCPS sub. I found it had one of the worst - essentially non-existing - discipline issues in the county, and that is saying something.
Examples
As a substitute there, I was assaulted by a student (in hockey terms, the student cross-checked me!); it took threatening to sue the principal to get even a one day in-school suspsension for the student. Even though it was the easiest school for me to sub at, I eventually stopped taking assignments there as it was very poorly run.
Again, while subbing, two students started trading punches. Called security. Securities response: "we asked the two students if they were fighting and they said no." OK...

When my child attended, they would often bring home weekly or daily stories of out of control fighting in the bathrooms, classes, etc. My favorite was how there was an on-going "fight club" in one of the bathrooms. The bathroom even had some admin posted outside it, but the admin would never go into the bathroom to stop the fights.

Had friends pull their child out of TPMS because the admin failed to properly address the constant physical bullying of their child, including the student being physically assaulted by fellow students (but just off school property)
Another friend pulled their child for a few days due to the trauma of seeing another student beat bloody and near senseless (story was parents had to take to the emergency room after school). The school claimed it didn't happen "during school", which was true, it happened a few minutes after the final bell rang. And since they had no footage of the stairwell, they claimed they had no evidence it happened.I mean, besides the beaten and bloody student.

Knew of multiple other instances of physical assaults of students on other students that the admin refused to admit happened; parents started calling the police rather than deal with the school

But hey, other parents thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. If you're in the honors/magnet classes, there was a far less chance you got beaten up.

To each their own!

Not saying that there aren't problem -- it is middle school after all -- but this is not remotely similar to our experience, and we live within walking distance and see/hear kids coming and going in the am and pm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
When did this happen? Parent of a current student and my kid’s experience bears absolutely no relation to what you have just described. Sounds like a completely different school (and my kid is an 8th grader).

2021-2022 year, first and only full year my child did there; I had one of those children who excelled during covid because no school drama.

I think there are big issues with TPMS being very bimodal; students in the honors/magnet classes don't have to witness the behavioral problems that were rampant in on-level and below.
And again, there were other middle schools I worked at where the behavior wasn't as consistent a problem. Of course as DCUM would expect, no consistent issues at Pyle and other "Big W" feeder schools.
But in contrast, White Oak and Parkland MS had reasonably well behaved students. Silver Spring International was worse; Silver Creek wasn't as violent, but the admin tolerated lots of poor behavior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
When did this happen? Parent of a current student and my kid’s experience bears absolutely no relation to what you have just described. Sounds like a completely different school (and my kid is an 8th grader).

2021-2022 year, first and only full year my child did there; I had one of those children who excelled during covid because no school drama.

I think there are big issues with TPMS being very bimodal; students in the honors/magnet classes don't have to witness the behavioral problems that were rampant in on-level and below.
And again, there were other middle schools I worked at where the behavior wasn't as consistent a problem. Of course as DCUM would expect, no consistent issues at Pyle and other "Big W" feeder schools.
But in contrast, White Oak and Parkland MS had reasonably well behaved students. Silver Spring International was worse; Silver Creek wasn't as violent, but the admin tolerated lots of poor behavior.

So last year? My current 8th grader reported nothing of the sort and is pretty well connected to all types of different groups of kids bc of sports. There are lots of classes that aren’t “bi modal”….all English classes, all non magnet science classes, PE/health, foreign language and all electives. Neither of my kids reports disruptive behavior. Some kids are disengaged to be sure but no outbursts, disrespecting the teacher, etc..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are moving from the Boston area to Takoma Park in July. Currently our child is in 7th grade at a secular private school but he really wants to start in public once we move and we've heard very encouraging things about Montgomery Blair, which we'd feed into. Can anyone who has direct experience comment or direct us to an existing thread on the academic and social quality of Takoma Park Middle School? Are the teachers pretty solid? Curriculum decent? Have there been any major issues with discipline, bullying, violence? Thanks for any insight.

DCUM is full of catastrophizing. Take everything negative with a handful of salt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
When did this happen? Parent of a current student and my kid’s experience bears absolutely no relation to what you have just described. Sounds like a completely different school (and my kid is an 8th grader).

2021-2022 year, first and only full year my child did there; I had one of those children who excelled during covid because no school drama.

I think there are big issues with TPMS being very bimodal; students in the honors/magnet classes don't have to witness the behavioral problems that were rampant in on-level and below.
And again, there were other middle schools I worked at where the behavior wasn't as consistent a problem. Of course as DCUM would expect, no consistent issues at Pyle and other "Big W" feeder schools.
But in contrast, White Oak and Parkland MS had reasonably well behaved students. Silver Spring International was worse; Silver Creek wasn't as violent, but the admin tolerated lots of poor behavior.

So last year? My current 8th grader reported nothing of the sort and is pretty well connected to all types of different groups of kids bc of sports. There are lots of classes that aren’t “bi modal”….all English classes, all non magnet science classes, PE/health, foreign language and all electives. Neither of my kids reports disruptive behavior. Some kids are disengaged to be sure but no outbursts, disrespecting the teacher, etc..

Yup, last year. Happy your child had a better experience at TPMS than other children did. Perhaps being a "well connected" child accepted by multiple groups meant they weren't the one getting beat up? Rarely the "popular kids" that get brutalized. Lucky for you and yours.
But yes, everything I described did happen last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
When did this happen? Parent of a current student and my kid’s experience bears absolutely no relation to what you have just described. Sounds like a completely different school (and my kid is an 8th grader).

2021-2022 year, first and only full year my child did there; I had one of those children who excelled during covid because no school drama.

I think there are big issues with TPMS being very bimodal; students in the honors/magnet classes don't have to witness the behavioral problems that were rampant in on-level and below.
And again, there were other middle schools I worked at where the behavior wasn't as consistent a problem. Of course as DCUM would expect, no consistent issues at Pyle and other "Big W" feeder schools.
But in contrast, White Oak and Parkland MS had reasonably well behaved students. Silver Spring International was worse; Silver Creek wasn't as violent, but the admin tolerated lots of poor behavior.

So last year? My current 8th grader reported nothing of the sort and is pretty well connected to all types of different groups of kids bc of sports. There are lots of classes that aren’t “bi modal”….all English classes, all non magnet science classes, PE/health, foreign language and all electives. Neither of my kids reports disruptive behavior. Some kids are disengaged to be sure but no outbursts, disrespecting the teacher, etc..

Yup, last year. Happy your child had a better experience at TPMS than other children did. Perhaps being a "well connected" child accepted by multiple groups meant they weren't the one getting beat up? Rarely the "popular kids" that get brutalized. Lucky for you and yours.
But yes, everything I described did happen last year.

Among what grade level kids did all of this happen last year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
When did this happen? Parent of a current student and my kid’s experience bears absolutely no relation to what you have just described. Sounds like a completely different school (and my kid is an 8th grader).

2021-2022 year, first and only full year my child did there; I had one of those children who excelled during covid because no school drama.

I think there are big issues with TPMS being very bimodal; students in the honors/magnet classes don't have to witness the behavioral problems that were rampant in on-level and below.
And again, there were other middle schools I worked at where the behavior wasn't as consistent a problem. Of course as DCUM would expect, no consistent issues at Pyle and other "Big W" feeder schools.
But in contrast, White Oak and Parkland MS had reasonably well behaved students. Silver Spring International was worse; Silver Creek wasn't as violent, but the admin tolerated lots of poor behavior.

So last year? My current 8th grader reported nothing of the sort and is pretty well connected to all types of different groups of kids bc of sports. There are lots of classes that aren’t “bi modal”….all English classes, all non magnet science classes, PE/health, foreign language and all electives. Neither of my kids reports disruptive behavior. Some kids are disengaged to be sure but no outbursts, disrespecting the teacher, etc..

Also, would like to point out that although you are correct that many classes are non-magnet, the logistics of scheduling mean that magnet students tend to be sorted together into the non-magnet classes. Indeed, if you read between the lines, that was one of the reasons Deeny chose not to implement - if I recall the correct classes - not to implement magnet-level history at the time; the unspoken issue was if they did, then there would have been almost no mixing between regular and magnet schools. (I think since then a magnet-level social studies has been implemented.)

And the school behavior was bimodal; indeed if I needed to "bounce" an on-level student out of my class (a fairly common tactic at TPMS) for behavior issues, the magnet/honors teachers encouraged me to send the problematic student to their classes. Why? Because the honors/magnet students were there to learn and didn't socially tolerate the problematic behavior. Basically the problem behavior got the opposite of positive feedback from the honors/magnet students; nothing like 30 pairs of stink-eye from peers to shut down a class clown's antics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
When did this happen? Parent of a current student and my kid’s experience bears absolutely no relation to what you have just described. Sounds like a completely different school (and my kid is an 8th grader).

2021-2022 year, first and only full year my child did there; I had one of those children who excelled during covid because no school drama.

I think there are big issues with TPMS being very bimodal; students in the honors/magnet classes don't have to witness the behavioral problems that were rampant in on-level and below.
And again, there were other middle schools I worked at where the behavior wasn't as consistent a problem. Of course as DCUM would expect, no consistent issues at Pyle and other "Big W" feeder schools.
But in contrast, White Oak and Parkland MS had reasonably well behaved students. Silver Spring International was worse; Silver Creek wasn't as violent, but the admin tolerated lots of poor behavior.

So last year? My current 8th grader reported nothing of the sort and is pretty well connected to all types of different groups of kids bc of sports. There are lots of classes that aren’t “bi modal”….all English classes, all non magnet science classes, PE/health, foreign language and all electives. Neither of my kids reports disruptive behavior. Some kids are disengaged to be sure but no outbursts, disrespecting the teacher, etc..

Yup, last year. Happy your child had a better experience at TPMS than other children did. Perhaps being a "well connected" child accepted by multiple groups meant they weren't the one getting beat up? Rarely the "popular kids" that get brutalized. Lucky for you and yours.
But yes, everything I described did happen last year.

Among what grade level kids did all of this happen last year?

My child was 8th, the friend physically assaulted was 8th. Child saw the same sorts of issue in the half year that was 6th. Sorry if we didn't stop and run a survey of the other students that were bullied and beaten and ask them to fill out a questionnaire on their grade level. Had I known your concern, I'm sure we would have. By concern I mean your concern for the school reputation; obviously you have none for bullied and assaulted students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
When did this happen? Parent of a current student and my kid’s experience bears absolutely no relation to what you have just described. Sounds like a completely different school (and my kid is an 8th grader).

2021-2022 year, first and only full year my child did there; I had one of those children who excelled during covid because no school drama.

I think there are big issues with TPMS being very bimodal; students in the honors/magnet classes don't have to witness the behavioral problems that were rampant in on-level and below.
And again, there were other middle schools I worked at where the behavior wasn't as consistent a problem. Of course as DCUM would expect, no consistent issues at Pyle and other "Big W" feeder schools.
But in contrast, White Oak and Parkland MS had reasonably well behaved students. Silver Spring International was worse; Silver Creek wasn't as violent, but the admin tolerated lots of poor behavior.

So last year? My current 8th grader reported nothing of the sort and is pretty well connected to all types of different groups of kids bc of sports. There are lots of classes that aren’t “bi modal”….all English classes, all non magnet science classes, PE/health, foreign language and all electives. Neither of my kids reports disruptive behavior. Some kids are disengaged to be sure but no outbursts, disrespecting the teacher, etc..

Same here. I also know a child at Pyle who complains constantly about disruptive behavior, racism and bullying. Whenever I hear this I’m glad my kid has no such experience at TPMS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
When did this happen? Parent of a current student and my kid’s experience bears absolutely no relation to what you have just described. Sounds like a completely different school (and my kid is an 8th grader).

2021-2022 year, first and only full year my child did there; I had one of those children who excelled during covid because no school drama.

I think there are big issues with TPMS being very bimodal; students in the honors/magnet classes don't have to witness the behavioral problems that were rampant in on-level and below.
And again, there were other middle schools I worked at where the behavior wasn't as consistent a problem. Of course as DCUM would expect, no consistent issues at Pyle and other "Big W" feeder schools.
But in contrast, White Oak and Parkland MS had reasonably well behaved students. Silver Spring International was worse; Silver Creek wasn't as violent, but the admin tolerated lots of poor behavior.

So last year? My current 8th grader reported nothing of the sort and is pretty well connected to all types of different groups of kids bc of sports. There are lots of classes that aren’t “bi modal”….all English classes, all non magnet science classes, PE/health, foreign language and all electives. Neither of my kids reports disruptive behavior. Some kids are disengaged to be sure but no outbursts, disrespecting the teacher, etc..

Yup, last year. Happy your child had a better experience at TPMS than other children did. Perhaps being a "well connected" child accepted by multiple groups meant they weren't the one getting beat up? Rarely the "popular kids" that get brutalized. Lucky for you and yours.
But yes, everything I described did happen last year.

Among what grade level kids did all of this happen last year?

My child was 8th, the friend physically assaulted was 8th. Child saw the same sorts of issue in the half year that was 6th. Sorry if we didn't stop and run a survey of the other students that were bullied and beaten and ask them to fill out a questionnaire on their grade level. Had I known your concern, I'm sure we would have. By concern I mean your concern for the school reputation; obviously you have none for bullied and assaulted students.

You’re lying. I don’t know why you would lie but you are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of former Takoma Park Middle School, and a former MCPS sub. I found it had one of the worst - essentially non-existing - discipline issues in the county, and that is saying something.
Examples
As a substitute there, I was assaulted by a student (in hockey terms, the student cross-checked me!); it took threatening to sue the principal to get even a one day in-school suspsension for the student. Even though it was the easiest school for me to sub at, I eventually stopped taking assignments there as it was very poorly run.
Again, while subbing, two students started trading punches. Called security. Securities response: "we asked the two students if they were fighting and they said no." OK...

When my child attended, they would often bring home weekly or daily stories of out of control fighting in the bathrooms, classes, etc. My favorite was how there was an on-going "fight club" in one of the bathrooms. The bathroom even had some admin posted outside it, but the admin would never go into the bathroom to stop the fights.

Had friends pull their child out of TPMS because the admin failed to properly address the constant physical bullying of their child, including the student being physically assaulted by fellow students (but just off school property)
Another friend pulled their child for a few days due to the trauma of seeing another student beat bloody and near senseless (story was parents had to take to the emergency room after school). The school claimed it didn't happen "during school", which was true, it happened a few minutes after the final bell rang. And since they had no footage of the stairwell, they claimed they had no evidence it happened.I mean, besides the beaten and bloody student.

Knew of multiple other instances of physical assaults of students on other students that the admin refused to admit happened; parents started calling the police rather than deal with the school

But hey, other parents thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. If you're in the honors/magnet classes, there was a far less chance you got beaten up.

To each their own!

Not saying that there aren't problem -- it is middle school after all -- but this is not remotely similar to our experience, and we live within walking distance and see/hear kids coming and going in the am and pm.

There have been posters who are threatened by positive feedback about any schools that aren't WOTP and go out of their way to trash talk even though they almost never have any direct or first-hand experience. If you have real interest, the best thing you can do is contact the school directly and get a walkthrough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
When did this happen? Parent of a current student and my kid’s experience bears absolutely no relation to what you have just described. Sounds like a completely different school (and my kid is an 8th grader).

2021-2022 year, first and only full year my child did there; I had one of those children who excelled during covid because no school drama.

I think there are big issues with TPMS being very bimodal; students in the honors/magnet classes don't have to witness the behavioral problems that were rampant in on-level and below.
And again, there were other middle schools I worked at where the behavior wasn't as consistent a problem. Of course as DCUM would expect, no consistent issues at Pyle and other "Big W" feeder schools.
But in contrast, White Oak and Parkland MS had reasonably well behaved students. Silver Spring International was worse; Silver Creek wasn't as violent, but the admin tolerated lots of poor behavior.

So last year? My current 8th grader reported nothing of the sort and is pretty well connected to all types of different groups of kids bc of sports. There are lots of classes that aren’t “bi modal”….all English classes, all non magnet science classes, PE/health, foreign language and all electives. Neither of my kids reports disruptive behavior. Some kids are disengaged to be sure but no outbursts, disrespecting the teacher, etc..

Also, would like to point out that although you are correct that many classes are non-magnet, the logistics of scheduling mean that magnet students tend to be sorted together into the non-magnet classes. Indeed, if you read between the lines, that was one of the reasons Deeny chose not to implement - if I recall the correct classes - not to implement magnet-level history at the time; the unspoken issue was if they did, then there would have been almost no mixing between regular and magnet schools. (I think since then a magnet-level social studies has been implemented.)

And the school behavior was bimodal; indeed if I needed to "bounce" an on-level student out of my class (a fairly common tactic at TPMS) for behavior issues, the magnet/honors teachers encouraged me to send the problematic student to their classes. Why? Because the honors/magnet students were there to learn and didn't socially tolerate the problematic behavior. Basically the problem behavior got the opposite of positive feedback from the honors/magnet students; nothing like 30 pairs of stink-eye from peers to shut down a class clown's antics.

As a parent of both a magnet and non-magnet student, I can tell that is definitely not true. All DC's non-magnet classes have a mix which according to them is comparable to the overall student body. My other child who was non-magnet similarly had many friends in the magnet they knew through their classes like advanced english, HIGH etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
When did this happen? Parent of a current student and my kid’s experience bears absolutely no relation to what you have just described. Sounds like a completely different school (and my kid is an 8th grader).

2021-2022 year, first and only full year my child did there; I had one of those children who excelled during covid because no school drama.

I think there are big issues with TPMS being very bimodal; students in the honors/magnet classes don't have to witness the behavioral problems that were rampant in on-level and below.
And again, there were other middle schools I worked at where the behavior wasn't as consistent a problem. Of course as DCUM would expect, no consistent issues at Pyle and other "Big W" feeder schools.
But in contrast, White Oak and Parkland MS had reasonably well behaved students. Silver Spring International was worse; Silver Creek wasn't as violent, but the admin tolerated lots of poor behavior.

So last year? My current 8th grader reported nothing of the sort and is pretty well connected to all types of different groups of kids bc of sports. There are lots of classes that aren’t “bi modal”….all English classes, all non magnet science classes, PE/health, foreign language and all electives. Neither of my kids reports disruptive behavior. Some kids are disengaged to be sure but no outbursts, disrespecting the teacher, etc..

Also, would like to point out that although you are correct that many classes are non-magnet, the logistics of scheduling mean that magnet students tend to be sorted together into the non-magnet classes. Indeed, if you read between the lines, that was one of the reasons Deeny chose not to implement - if I recall the correct classes - not to implement magnet-level history at the time; the unspoken issue was if they did, then there would have been almost no mixing between regular and magnet schools. (I think since then a magnet-level social studies has been implemented.)

And the school behavior was bimodal; indeed if I needed to "bounce" an on-level student out of my class (a fairly common tactic at TPMS) for behavior issues, the magnet/honors teachers encouraged me to send the problematic student to their classes. Why? Because the honors/magnet students were there to learn and didn't socially tolerate the problematic behavior. Basically the problem behavior got the opposite of positive feedback from the honors/magnet students; nothing like 30 pairs of stink-eye from peers to shut down a class clown's antics.

You are acting as if the only cohort of non disruptive kids are the magnet kids. This is universally untrue. One of the great things about TPMS is the strong cohort of non magnet kids who are bright and care about school. My kids are 2 of these - and they are in English, science, PE,electives, foreign language and lunch with magnet and non magnet kids and they don’t report the kind of disruptive behavior you are talking about (nor do their friends’ parents). I’m not saying it hasn’t happened but it’s not a widespread problem and TPMS. I’m sorry that you and your friend’s kids were bullied and beat up (if true). That’s awful but that experience is not representative of most kids’ experiences there. FWIW - one of my kids is the type that might get bullied - quirky, gender non confronting and socially awkward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
When did this happen? Parent of a current student and my kid’s experience bears absolutely no relation to what you have just described. Sounds like a completely different school (and my kid is an 8th grader).

2021-2022 year, first and only full year my child did there; I had one of those children who excelled during covid because no school drama.

I think there are big issues with TPMS being very bimodal; students in the honors/magnet classes don't have to witness the behavioral problems that were rampant in on-level and below.
And again, there were other middle schools I worked at where the behavior wasn't as consistent a problem. Of course as DCUM would expect, no consistent issues at Pyle and other "Big W" feeder schools.
But in contrast, White Oak and Parkland MS had reasonably well behaved students. Silver Spring International was worse; Silver Creek wasn't as violent, but the admin tolerated lots of poor behavior.

So last year? My current 8th grader reported nothing of the sort and is pretty well connected to all types of different groups of kids bc of sports. There are lots of classes that aren’t “bi modal”….all English classes, all non magnet science classes, PE/health, foreign language and all electives. Neither of my kids reports disruptive behavior. Some kids are disengaged to be sure but no outbursts, disrespecting the teacher, etc..

My 7th and 8th graders who are there have similar experiences. In fact, I'm amazed that it's gone so smoothly since it is still middle school but the students overall seem unusually decent to each other. Come to think of it I've never even heard of disruptive behavior being an issue there.