Is CES worth it?

[Anonymous]

I wonder what happen to those CES kids when they go to MS? I assume most likely they will go back and attend their home MS. How's friendship with back home elementary school kids? How's MS curriculum and earning at back home MS? Will that be a possible challenges?

[Anonymous]

YES. The home school was nice but boring to an extraordinary degree. At Chevy Chase CES, which wasn’t too far away, DD was less bored. In fact, it’s only now in 10th grade doing challenging APs, that she’s starting to find the work appropriate. First time I’m seeing a meaningful amount of homework done at home!

CC is a really lovely school, OP. Not overcrowded, great playground.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It was definitely worth it for my kids. The curriculum is much stronger than what the GenEd curriculum was at the time. The CCES teachers who are in the CES are outstanding, particularly the 5th grade science/social studies teacher who is the best educator we’ve had in MCPS. I had two kids go through, and both developed very strong friendships with classmates that have lasted beyond the program.

My daughter is in this teacher’s class right now. She has told me that does not want to miss a minute of her social studies/science time.

We lucked out and got into CCES CES - which is our neighborhood school. I was shocked because our older child didn’t get in. It has been a good experience and a great confidence builder for my younger child. I think I would struggle with the decision if this wasn’t our home school. I worry about the middle school friendships a bit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was definitely worth it for my kids. The curriculum is much stronger than what the GenEd curriculum was at the time. The CCES teachers who are in the CES are outstanding, particularly the 5th grade science/social studies teacher who is the best educator we’ve had in MCPS. I had two kids go through, and both developed very strong friendships with classmates that have lasted beyond the program.

My daughter is in this teacher’s class right now. She has told me that does not want to miss a minute of her social studies/science time.

We lucked out and got into CCES CES - which is our neighborhood school. I was shocked because our older child didn’t get in. It has been a good experience and a great confidence builder for my younger child. I think I would struggle with the decision if this wasn’t our home school. I worry about the middle school friendships a bit.

My kids had no trouble socially returning to middle school, but they are both boys. The middle school girl experience is like a completely other universe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder what happen to those CES kids when they go to MS? I assume most likely they will go back and attend their home MS. How's friendship with back home elementary school kids? How's MS curriculum and earning at back home MS? Will that be a possible challenges?

Daughter stayed close with a few CES friends who moved onto same home middle school, Westland Middle. Also made plenty of new friends in MS. Did not stay in touch with CES friends who went to other middle schools and that was fine. For all of my kids, including non CES, saw that friend groups recalibrated in middle school anyway.

[Anonymous]

My kids who went to CES went back to home middle and high school. One stayed in touch with a CES friend who went to a different MS/HS, but the rest they’re just in touch with via social media

[Anonymous]

It's good to hear the CES kid can re-connect with home ES kids (that did not go to CES) at homs MS. I thought the friendship could be gone or changed with no or limited 2 years of loss contact (4th grader & 5th grade) with each other because they attend different ES.

[Anonymous]

CES was fantastic for my kid. Went on to magnet middle but still kept up with local friends. Now in high school and has wide range of friends, some of whom went to school together and some who didn’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The kids say that CES is more advanced than Advanced English in middle school.

Yes 100% true. Going through this now with my 6th grade DD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:YES. The home school was nice but boring to an extraordinary degree. At Chevy Chase CES, which wasn’t too far away, DD was less bored. In fact, it’s only now in 10th grade doing challenging APs, that she’s starting to find the work appropriate. First time I’m seeing a meaningful amount of homework done at home!

CC is a really lovely school, OP. Not overcrowded, great playground.

Ugh, I was afraid of this. My Chevy chase CES grad is so bored in middle school and I’ve been hoping it improves in the next few years. Is 9th grade not a challenge either?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:YES. The home school was nice but boring to an extraordinary degree. At Chevy Chase CES, which wasn’t too far away, DD was less bored. In fact, it’s only now in 10th grade doing challenging APs, that she’s starting to find the work appropriate. First time I’m seeing a meaningful amount of homework done at home!

CC is a really lovely school, OP. Not overcrowded, great playground.

Ugh, I was afraid of this. My Chevy chase CES grad is so bored in middle school and I’ve been hoping it improves in the next few years. Is 9th grade not a challenge either?

The 9th grade curriculum is a joke. MCPS wrote it, which is all you need to know. It's substantially less challenging than the new 8th grade curriculum for this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder what happen to those CES kids when they go to MS? I assume most likely they will go back and attend their home MS. How's friendship with back home elementary school kids? How's MS curriculum and earning at back home MS? Will that be a possible challenges?

Daughter stayed close with a few CES friends who moved onto same home middle school, Westland Middle. Also made plenty of new friends in MS. Did not stay in touch with CES friends who went to other middle schools and that was fine. For all of my kids, including non CES, saw that friend groups recalibrated in middle school anyway.

This was our experiences as well. DD made new friends in CES but stayed friends with neighborhood kids who went to our zoned ES. Now in MS, DD has friends from all groups (and some of the "local" friends and non-local CES friends are all together with her in the same MS).

I think this is very kid-dependent, but our kid did fine with the school transition in 4th grade. Remember that friend groups will change/evolve in MS most likely anyway.

I would not hesitate to recommend CES even if only for the benefit of being with a smart/like-minded peer group (ignore the people who crap on the program since it became a lottery pool; it's still largely very smart kids who are probably more well-rounded).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The local literacy enrichment this year seems to be a big step down from the previous version (which used to be called the Enriched Literacy Curriculum and had some similarities to the CES curriculum.). What they do in local schools for literacy enrichment now is very CKLA-focused.

I agree with this. I have a 5th grader who turned down a CES spot at a different school and we felt great about it for 4th grade with ELC. I know some kids who did go struggled with the transition socially and at least one is still not doing so great (has basically no friends he sees outside of school from the CES program, still on occasion hangs out with my DC and one other friend). But I would really struggle with this decision now because the replacement for ELC is no where near as good. But I think the dynamics of twins would be very challenging to have at different schools so I guess just see how it works out?

[Anonymous]

Go to the open house- you and your kid. Feel it out. See what kid thinks. Go with their/your gut. “Is it worth it” is obviously different for everyone.

My kid got in back before it was a lottery - she took the test. Went to open house, she said nope. CES was only a mile away. Went with her decision to stay at home school and never regretted it. DD at a magnet for HS - again, her decision and she absolutely lives it. This time the magnet is quite far but we make it work.

Both decisions were the right ones for my kid. 🧒🏻

[Anonymous]

My daughter was not selected. She would have really benefited. Her teacher admitted there was no further enrichment the school had to offer. She completed it all and was thoroughly bored. Spent a lot of time in class reading her book while she waited for the rest of the kids to finish their work.

My son got in to the CES. He’s smart but not as naturally gifted as his sister. He struggled at first but really benefited from the challenge. He learned so much and learned about time management and juggling multiple big projects and assignments at the same time. Read lots of novels in class- basically one novel study per month. It was fantastic for him. He was in the pool for magnet middle school humanities but was not selected so he is at our local middle. The transition was very easy though because of the workload of the CES program and he is getting straight As in 6th grade without much effort. He actually misses the challenges of the CES.