MCPS for kids not in magnet or GT programs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - you guys are proving my fears about MCPS - it is all a game to get your child into one or another specialized programs. It seems a good general education is not available.

Our home middle school is NOT generally thought to be a good one - so I guess I'll keep my son where he is in a K- 8 private school. I'm sometimes fairly underimpressed by what we get for the hefty tuition payment we make, but at least he is getting smaller classes and a focus on a broad well rounded general education.

I actually don't think that this is true of MCPS in general, but here in the eastern part of MoCo, I do think it's often true. DH and I spend a lot of time and energy strategizing to get our kids into this or that magnet program, because in our view this affords them a better education. My sister, who lives in Bethesda, doesn't have to do this.

It annoys me because the point of a county-based school system is to share the wealth/spread the resources. But, it is what it is.

I'm not following. Greater government resources are put into east county schools because that's where the Title I and Focus schools are found. So there's more Federal and local money flowing there. However, it may not be possible to make them equivalent to west county schools where the average HHI is higher and the PTAs are richer. It's just too much to make up for.

Maybe I was not accurate in my wording. What I intended to say is that, while yes, more federal money is flowing to the eastern side of MCPS (not so sure about local money?), I don't think that anyone would say that the schools there are better than, or even as good as the ones in the western part of MoCo. We all know that this is about socioeconomic issues, for sure. And we cannot do anything about HHI. We can, however, do something about PTAs (which should be precluded IMO from spending money on the school itself, e.g. the playground or bathrooms - as Carderock ES did awhile back - which further exacerbates the differences), and we could choose to mix up the SES groups (kids ride buses anyway). But, MCPS doesn't do that. And because the system is so enormous, as a taxpayer I feel helpless and voiceless. After having attended a handful of MCPS School Board meetings, where a handful of citizens are allotted a few minutes to speak their pieces, I can say that I have zero confidence that I have any ability to effect any change.What gets me is that a county-based school system is allegedly about spreading the wealth, and yet, although we all pay the same rate of property tax, the differences from west to east are vast, and as a practical matter there is not a damn thing we here in the east can do about it. After eight years of having kids in MCPS, I can safely say that I would prefer to have local control (as in a town-based system), so that we could consider and effect change for our own kids, and those in our immediate community, in meaningful ways.

8:59 here. Sorry, meant to say that I have *complete* confidence that I have zero ability to effect any change.

PP, I agree that western MoCo parents have more influence with the School Board (as with everything else).

Come on over and take a look at the horrible playground at Sligo Creek Elementary School. It looks like a prison yard. You will never in a million years see anything comparable in Potomac or Bethesda.

[Anonymous]

8:59/9:56 - I'll second that this is a good post.

To expand, OP might be interested to learn that the language immersion magnets, like the one at Sligo Creek or the two spanish immersion magnets, are another draw for HHI families in the eastern part of the county. The lotteries for the language immersion programs are very much over-subscribed, however, so it's not a guarantee that your kid would get in.

So for OP, there are a number of attractive public school options in the Silver Spring/Takoma Park area, including some good local publics, the gifted, highly-gifted, MS and HS magnets, and the language immersion programs. And there is definitely more diversity than in the western part of the county, which many of us see as a plus. In addition, the houses here are more affordable.

However, you will spend more of your time trying to angle for your kid's next school, unless you have a good local public. As compared to buying a house in Bethesda or Potomac where your default options pretty much consistently fine.

And to expand on 8:59/9:56's point about the Sligo Creek playground: she's right, it's horrible. Plus, at least when DC was there a couple of years ago, there are never enough adults to supervise. This, combined with a passive school administration, leads to a serious problem with bullying (despite a PP's insistence that all the bullying takes place in Chevy Chase).

[Anonymous]

OP here - this is an interesting conversation and I thank all for their comments. I was interested in NON magnet options however ("a good general education" as opposed to magnet programs).

Like I said my DC attends a private school where we do get a "good general education" and innovative techniques etc are not reserved for magnet or GT programs. On the other hand, we pay a lot of money for tuition and have definitely had some teachers who were better than others (some are exceptional, but others are not).

We can afford the tuition (although we do without many things others would consider essential), but I sometimes wonder. . .

We do live in the eastern part of the county. We own our home (no mortgage) which I love!! Sometimes I wonder if we should buy something in the western part of the county even if it means taking on a mortgage.

I realize that we have a wealth of options that others do not have and am grateful for that especially in these hard economic times.

Thanks again for commenting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:8:59/9:56 - I'll second that this is a good post.

To expand, OP might be interested to learn that the language immersion magnets, like the one at Sligo Creek or the two spanish immersion magnets, are another draw for HHI families in the eastern part of the county. The lotteries for the language immersion programs are very much over-subscribed, however, so it's not a guarantee that your kid would get in.

So for OP, there are a number of attractive public school options in the Silver Spring/Takoma Park area, including some good local publics, the gifted, highly-gifted, MS and HS magnets, and the language immersion programs. And there is definitely more diversity than in the western part of the county, which many of us see as a plus. In addition, the houses here are more affordable.

However, you will spend more of your time trying to angle for your kid's next school, unless you have a good local public. As compared to buying a house in Bethesda or Potomac where your default options pretty much consistently fine.

And to expand on 8:59/9:56's point about the Sligo Creek playground: she's right, it's horrible. Plus, at least when DC was there a couple of years ago, there are never enough adults to supervise. This, combined with a passive school administration, leads to a serious problem with bullying (despite a PP's insistence that all the bullying takes place in Chevy Chase).

8:59 here again, and I completely agree. My children also went to Sligo Creek ES, and in addition to the prison yard that we are supposed to believe is a playground, the administration at Sligo Creek Elementary is a living nightmare. The principal sucks with the power of a thousand Dysons. I know not a single parent (literally, not one) who thinks she is even ok. So why does she stay, year after year? Well, because (1) she succeeds at making her student population achieve acceptable test scores, and because (2) there is a large parent population at Sligo Creek who have little or no voice before the BOE. Who don't even know that the BOE is there to address their concerns.

Again, are we to believe that this would happen in Potomac or Bethesda? I think not!

This is the story of our lives here in the eastern part of the county, even though we ourselves are educated, knowledgeable, and have high HHIs. Despite those advantages, since our children attend school with children of parents without such resources, our voices tend to be muffled in the public arena. So, we can either move, or send our kids to private schools, or angle and maneuver to get our kids into alternative programs.

Maddening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - this is an interesting conversation and I thank all for their comments. I was interested in NON magnet options however ("a good general education" as opposed to magnet programs).

Like I said my DC attends a private school where we do get a "good general education" and innovative techniques etc are not reserved for magnet or GT programs. On the other hand, we pay a lot of money for tuition and have definitely had some teachers who were better than others (some are exceptional, but others are not).

We can afford the tuition (although we do without many things others would consider essential), but I sometimes wonder. . .

We do live in the eastern part of the county. We own our home (no mortgage) which I love!! Sometimes I wonder if we should buy something in the western part of the county even if it means taking on a mortgage.

I realize that we have a wealth of options that others do not have and am grateful for that especially in these hard economic times.

Thanks again for commenting.

OP, what is your home school? Your options may be acceptable, depending on your home school (and your child).

Have you toured your home school? I would start there.

[Anonymous]

So much unhappiness at Sligo Creek - with a large part attributed to the principal. Having had kids at the school I know that a) it is a complicated place due to its three distinct programs (academy, high-functioning autism, immersion) and b) the principal is just not up to the task, neither adequately supports or maintains high expectations for staff, and does not respond constructively to legitimate parent concerns.

Please tell me that those with kids at the school are voicing their concerns to the community supt. to whom the principal reports??

[Anonymous]

No amount of money or transfer of resources is going to equalize schools in the east and the west. The fact is that the children of rich motivated parents always do better. The only thing you could do to equalize is to bus half the rich kids over to Wheaton and half the poor kids over to Potomac. Then you could equalize the schools - because all the rich people would flee to private schools or Virginia and you would be left with the same low achievement in all the MCPS schools.

The job of a school system should not be to drag everyone down to the same level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No amount of money or transfer of resources is going to equalize schools in the east and the west. The fact is that the children of rich motivated parents always do better. The only thing you could do to equalize is to bus half the rich kids over to Wheaton and half the poor kids over to Potomac. Then you could equalize the schools - because all the rich people would flee to private schools or Virginia and you would be left with the same low achievement in all the MCPS schools.

The job of a school system should not be to drag everyone down to the same level.

I guess my point was that it isn't JUST poor children in east county schools. Plenty of us have upper middle class salaries, multiple degrees, and nice houses, and our kids go to regular SS schools, not magnets. I wouldn't want someone deciding where to live to assume that their children will be the only ones.

In truth, east county is a mix of people. Yes, your child would be in school with kids who have much less, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

[Anonymous]

"The principal sucks with the power of a thousand Dysons. "

Thanks for that, I want to remember to use it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No amount of money or transfer of resources is going to equalize schools in the east and the west. The fact is that the children of rich motivated parents always do better. The only thing you could do to equalize is to bus half the rich kids over to Wheaton and half the poor kids over to Potomac. Then you could equalize the schools - because all the rich people would flee to private schools or Virginia and you would be left with the same low achievement in all the MCPS schools.

The job of a school system should not be to drag everyone down to the same level.

I guess my point was that it isn't JUST poor children in east county schools. Plenty of us have upper middle class salaries, multiple degrees, and nice houses, and our kids go to regular SS schools, not magnets. I wouldn't want someone deciding where to live to assume that their children will be the only ones.

In truth, east county is a mix of people. Yes, your child would be in school with kids who have much less, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

To be fair, there are some poor families' kids who put our kids to shame. It is a mix of people, it's diverse, and that can be a good thing as well as a bad thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No amount of money or transfer of resources is going to equalize schools in the east and the west. The fact is that the children of rich motivated parents always do better. The only thing you could do to equalize is to bus half the rich kids over to Wheaton and half the poor kids over to Potomac. Then you could equalize the schools - because all the rich people would flee to private schools or Virginia and you would be left with the same low achievement in all the MCPS schools.

The job of a school system should not be to drag everyone down to the same level.

But the idea is that in a county-wide school system, they should do better based on what they are getting at home, not on what they are getting at school. This holds true when you break down demographics within east county schools. Higher SES kids as a whole do better than FARMS kids. In a county-wide school system, kids at Sligo Creek should not have a depressing broken down playground.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No amount of money or transfer of resources is going to equalize schools in the east and the west. The fact is that the children of rich motivated parents always do better. The only thing you could do to equalize is to bus half the rich kids over to Wheaton and half the poor kids over to Potomac. Then you could equalize the schools - because all the rich people would flee to private schools or Virginia and you would be left with the same low achievement in all the MCPS schools.

The job of a school system should not be to drag everyone down to the same level.

But the idea is that in a county-wide school system, they should do better based on what they are getting at home, not on what they are getting at school. This holds true when you break down demographics within east county schools. Higher SES kids as a whole do better than FARMS kids. In a county-wide school system, kids at Sligo Creek should not have a depressing broken down playground.

This.

[Anonymous]

re: Sligo Creek playground facility - the Sligo Creek PTA has plenty of fundraising muscle. And playground upgrades typically fall to the PTA if they go above and beyond the standard equipment. Nothing will change the fact that the school site is what it is - an old high school building. But the inside of the building still shines (even without the added $ that some PTAs elsewhere choose to raise). So what has the Sligo Creek PTA been doing to improve the playground facility?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:re: Sligo Creek playground facility - the Sligo Creek PTA has plenty of fundraising muscle. And playground upgrades typically fall to the PTA if they go above and beyond the standard equipment. Nothing will change the fact that the school site is what it is - an old high school building. But the inside of the building still shines (even without the added $ that some PTAs elsewhere choose to raise). So what has the Sligo Creek PTA been doing to improve the playground facility?

I agree with this. If you want a better playground, the PTA needs to start fundraising. Personally, I don't see anything wrong with having PTAs put money into playground equipment. I am surprised they've been allowed to work on bathrooms, but playground equipment seems like the perfect use of PTA money. Especially at a school like Sligo with 2 schools within a school-every kid will benefit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:re: Sligo Creek playground facility - the Sligo Creek PTA has plenty of fundraising muscle. And playground upgrades typically fall to the PTA if they go above and beyond the standard equipment. Nothing will change the fact that the school site is what it is - an old high school building. But the inside of the building still shines (even without the added $ that some PTAs elsewhere choose to raise). So what has the Sligo Creek PTA been doing to improve the playground facility?

Have you seen this playground? If not, you should go and check it out. It would take a lot more than new equipment to address its prison-yard character. This is not a project that PTA funding can address.

The inside of the building might be sparkly, but at the time the school was built/re-done as an elementary school, nothing was done for the playground - nothing - other than to put up a few climbing pieces.

I do not believe that there is any playground, at any other school in MoCo, that is as dismal as this one.