Downcounty Strategizing and System-Wrangling - spinoff from academically advanced kid in DCC thread

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the OP: at least your kids got into the magnet programs --- MOST kids don't, so they end up in their neighborhood schools.

AND GUESS WHAT? MOST kids do just great!

The MCPS curriculum IS UNIFORM across the county. The only different variable from school to school is student population.

Finally, to all the haters on various threads about Olney/Brookeville: This is precisely why families move out to Olney/Brookeville --- where the housing is affordable and the schools are excellent. Sure the commute to DC super stinks, but that's the trade-off people make when they can't afford Bethesda, Potomac, CC or the nice part of K-town.

These are contradictory statements. If the MCPS curriculum is uniform, and MOST kids do just great, then why do you need to move to Olney/Brookeville for "excellent" schools?

Not the PP, but I'm sure he/she is trying to say that if you want MCPS, housing in Olney is an affordable way to get it. The alternative for the price range may be outside of MCPS. Nothing about the post that is contradictory.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the OP: at least your kids got into the magnet programs --- MOST kids don't, so they end up in their neighborhood schools.

AND GUESS WHAT? MOST kids do just great!

The MCPS curriculum IS UNIFORM across the county. The only different variable from school to school is student population.

Finally, to all the haters on various threads about Olney/Brookeville: This is precisely why families move out to Olney/Brookeville --- where the housing is affordable and the schools are excellent. Sure the commute to DC super stinks, but that's the trade-off people make when they can't afford Bethesda, Potomac, CC or the nice part of K-town.

These are contradictory statements. If the MCPS curriculum is uniform, and MOST kids do just great, then why do you need to move to Olney/Brookeville for "excellent" schools?

Not the PP, but I'm sure he/she is trying to say that if you want MCPS, housing in Olney is an affordable way to get it. The alternative for the price range may be outside of MCPS. Nothing about the post that is contradictory.

If she is the poster who writes about Olney from time to time, she moved from close-in SS to Olney.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the OP: at least your kids got into the magnet programs --- MOST kids don't, so they end up in their neighborhood schools.

AND GUESS WHAT? MOST kids do just great!

The MCPS curriculum IS UNIFORM across the county. The only different variable from school to school is student population.

Finally, to all the haters on various threads about Olney/Brookeville: This is precisely why families move out to Olney/Brookeville --- where the housing is affordable and the schools are excellent. Sure the commute to DC super stinks, but that's the trade-off people make when they can't afford Bethesda, Potomac, CC or the nice part of K-town.

These are contradictory statements. If the MCPS curriculum is uniform, and MOST kids do just great, then why do you need to move to Olney/Brookeville for "excellent" schools?

Not the PP, but I'm sure he/she is trying to say that if you want MCPS, housing in Olney is an affordable way to get it. The alternative for the price range may be outside of MCPS. Nothing about the post that is contradictory.

If she is the poster who writes about Olney from time to time, she moved from close-in SS to Olney.

Yeah, but that poster lives in mythological Olney which she claims is not a bad commute. Either she has come back to reality, or this is a different person because this person acknowledges that the commute to DC "super stinks."

[Anonymous]

Hmmm... is it possible more than one family moved from SS to Olney??? FWIW, I moved from SS to Olney, and I know tons of other families who did as well (as well as folks who moved from starter homes in Bethesda, Rockville, apts in the Kentlands, etc.).

[Anonymous]

"AND GUESS WHAT? MOST kids do just great! "

passing state tests does not = "doing great". Doing great means maximizing a child's potential to his/her fullest. If your child is stuck in a class that is pitched far below their ability level because the teacher must -as a practical matter - teach to the middle most of the time and focus on pulling up the low end in particular to make sure they don't fail the state tests...well, it's hard to see how that child is going to reach their full potential. That is what us unsatisfied parents in DCC worry about and what grates us about how the DCC schools are run.

It is not inevitable - there are certainly ways they could change how classrooms/schools are put together in DCC to make them more acceptable for more families. They just do not WANT to do that it seems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:YOU chose to live in that area. So instead of complaining deal.

Didn't you look at schools before moving? Or, better yet, didn't you save up for private school knowing you'd move into a school district that was not "acceptable" to you?

If dumb is in the genes, don't bother to apply to magnets.

Wow, aren't you something?

I'm not the OP, but consider this scenario: You move here in 2005 from out of state. In that year of peak real estate, you had literally a day to make an offer on a house once you'd been to an Open House. You scrimped and saved for 20% down on a 500K house. Your job was about to start and you had to move and you grabbed a house, figuring you would probably move within 5 to 10 years. Fast forward to now, when you are unable to sell your house in this market without taking a loss you can't afford to take.

I'm glad this PP's crystal ball worked out for her, or that her job or her husband bankrolled her pricier house, but I can completely understand the OP's position because I'm in it myself.

[Anonymous]

To the OP or anyone else who has any ideas, what can we as parents DO about this if we get together? Sending the cream of the crop off to magnets does not seem to solve the problem -- it just kicks it down the road for other families to deal with. I know dozens of families who would join a movement but I don't know what it would look like or what it could accomplish. What would a solution look like? I would seriously be part of it.

[Anonymous]

A movement for what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A movement for what?

Kind of vague I know but I meant a movement of parents to increase the options and quality of instruction for academically advanced kids in the DCC. I hear these frustrations from parents a lot and I know a lot of parents willing to do anything they can but don't know where to start.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the OP or anyone else who has any ideas, what can we as parents DO about this if we get together? Sending the cream of the crop off to magnets does not seem to solve the problem -- it just kicks it down the road for other families to deal with. I know dozens of families who would join a movement but I don't know what it would look like or what it could accomplish. What would a solution look like? I would seriously be part of it.

NP here -

I'd join an effort to improve the DCC schools. My daughter is only 2 years old, but I'm already concerned about the limited options in this part of Silver Spring. The local ES is terrible and most families in my neighborhood opt for private. I'd like DD to attend public schools - it's a huge part of why I moved to this area (though at the time I moved, the ES in our nieghborhood actually performed much better overall).

I do find it absurd that families downcounty have to make do with mediocre schools, while those west and north have a host of excellent options. Don't tell me it's about paying more in taxes because as other posters have pointed out, we all pay the same rate in property taxes. My kid should have access to a quality education without having to jump through myriad hoops to get into a magnet or immersion program. I'd gladly invest time, energy, and even some money to develop a group to A) get the County to recognize the issue B) get the County to address the issue in a meaningful way. As it stands now, MCPS really only serves the wealthiest of its citizens - those of us downcounty are really stuck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A movement for what?

Kind of vague I know but I meant a movement of parents to increase the options and quality of instruction for academically advanced kids in the DCC. I hear these frustrations from parents a lot and I know a lot of parents willing to do anything they can but don't know where to start.

Here is information on a group of MoCo parents who work for better options for academically advanced kids called the Gifted and Talented Association. There are lots of different viewpoints in the group but there are some reasonable, committed parents who are working towards exactly what you state. I recommend getting on the listserve -- you can get a lot of great information there.

To become a GTA member, please send your: name, e-mail address, address,
telephone number, and child's school/grade, along with tax-deductible
membership dues, to GTA, P.O. Box 60243, Potomac, MD 20859-0243.

Dues are $15.00/one year, $25.00/two years, or $100.00/lifetime
membership.

To subscribe to GTAletters, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GTAletters/join

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hear you, OP. I live in Silver Spring and have a really crappy ES school to choose from, a mediocre middle school, and the DCC high schools to choose from for my DD. My DH and I don't have the money to buy in Bethesda or CC (or Potomac or Rockville). We're stuck. It burns me up that we pay the same rate in taxes and have nothing to show for it from a schools perspective.

Ah, but your house is likely much less expensive. Brick 40's colonial much less expensive in your location than Bethesda or Chevy Chase, so those folks do pay more in taxes, for same house. Just different location of land.

[Anonymous]

"what can we as parents DO about this if we get together? "

It's not a cure-all since it would of course not address curriculum faillings, but fighting against those that oppose ability grouping would in my view be a good start.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hear you, OP. I live in Silver Spring and have a really crappy ES school to choose from, a mediocre middle school, and the DCC high schools to choose from for my DD. My DH and I don't have the money to buy in Bethesda or CC (or Potomac or Rockville). We're stuck. It burns me up that we pay the same rate in taxes and have nothing to show for it from a schools perspective.

Ah, but your house is likely much less expensive. Brick 40's colonial much less expensive in your location than Bethesda or Chevy Chase, so those folks do pay more in taxes, for same house. Just different location of land.

What is your point?

Is your point that those in less expensive houses are not entitled to the same education as those in more expensive houses?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"what can we as parents DO about this if we get together? "

It's not a cure-all since it would of course not address curriculum faillings, but fighting against those that oppose ability grouping would in my view be a good start.

Isn't this part of what the Parents Coalition and the GTA have been doing for a long time? Check out their listservs.