Did you leave DCPS for MOCO?

[Anonymous]

PP, how do BCC and Wilson compare? SWW is an application only school and if you live in the Wilson area there is no guarantee that your child would get into SWW. A better comparison would be SWW and, say, Richard Montgomery application-only IB program. I have heard from a current parent that Wilson only allows the top 5% of the grade to take "honors" classes, whereas BCC doesn't gate-keep honors classes (as far as I understand).

I can't compare Wilson b/c my kid did not go there. The mistake was to Westland. Deal was quite good. BCC is so so. No gatekeeping on honors classes as was mentioned. Large class sizes. We did not think moving from SWW to Wilson would be sufficient. SWW was the concern, not Deal. SWW was a disappointment. Teachers were not the high caliber we had expected with application school. Higher level Spanish teacher was not only poor Spanish teacher but also showed poor judgement on several issues. We should have tried to work around the system but we were fairly upset by the displays of threats of class punishments, lack of updating grades, disorganization etc. Not sure why they want to expand that school without fixing the problems first.

[Anonymous]

I sat in on some classes at SWW and honestly felt the AP classes were not up to the caliber of AP in the burbs, was disappointing. i went to FCPS so I remember what the classes were like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP, how do BCC and Wilson compare? SWW is an application only school and if you live in the Wilson area there is no guarantee that your child would get into SWW. A better comparison would be SWW and, say, Richard Montgomery application-only IB program. I have heard from a current parent that Wilson only allows the top 5% of the grade to take "honors" classes, whereas BCC doesn't gate-keep honors classes (as far as I understand).

I can't compare Wilson b/c my kid did not go there. The mistake was to Westland. Deal was quite good. BCC is so so. No gatekeeping on honors classes as was mentioned. Large class sizes. We did not think moving from SWW to Wilson would be sufficient. SWW was the concern, not Deal. SWW was a disappointment. Teachers were not the high caliber we had expected with application school. Higher level Spanish teacher was not only poor Spanish teacher but also showed poor judgement on several issues. We should have tried to work around the system but we were fairly upset by the displays of threats of class punishments, lack of updating grades, disorganization etc. Not sure why they want to expand that school without fixing the problems first.

I'm a little confused -- you say "BCC is so-so" and yet your child seems to have gone to SWW. On what do you base your comments about BCC? Is that what you've heard or based on personal experience with your child their? When you say BCC is so-so, if you had a kid there, what program did your child follow (full IB, certificate IB, AP classes only….)? What was disappointing about BCC -- just the large class size? (I agree that large class size is a problem in MoCo, both at the MS and HS level. My MoCo MS kid has some classes with 35 kids, which is insane. We are fortunate that DC#1 is the type of kid who can perform well despite this, but DC#2 not so much….)

Also, can you elaborate on why Westland was such a mistake? It has traditionally been thought of as the "weak link" in the cluster, but it would be helpful to have specifics.

[Anonymous]

We made the move from DC to Moco and are happy with the choice. I would say, however, that NO school is perfect. That is true of DC, MoCo, FCPS, and every private school. Once you are in a school, you see whatever deficiencies might be there. It is almost impossible to know from the outside whether a school is the right fit for you or not. Sad, but true. I know plenty of folks who have applied to the "perfect" private and have been thrilled when DC was accepted only do discover that it was a terrible fit (and cost a fortune). Similarly, plenty of folks move and discover that the great suburban school is a bad fit. Or find that Deal/Wilson are simply not that great.
I suppose what I'm saying is: figure out where you want to be and investigate the school to the extent that you can. After that, make the best decision you can with the information you have. Go into it knowing that nothing is perfect and you probably won't damage your child with whatever decision you make!

[Anonymous]

PP, how do BCC and Wilson compare? SWW is an application only school and if you live in the Wilson area there is no guarantee that your child would get into SWW. A better comparison would be SWW and, say, Richard Montgomery application-only IB program. I have heard from a current parent that Wilson only allows the top 5% of the grade to take "honors" classes, whereas BCC doesn't gate-keep honors classes (as far as I understand).

There is no gate keeping at Wilson for honors and AP classes. This info comes directly from Pete Cahill, the current Principal. Students chose which level they want to take based on interest and willingness to work. Wilson, like most other schools nationwide, has felt the pressure of such things as school challenge rankings to encourage as many students as possible to take high level classes and their corresponding exams. At SWW all students take AP. At both schools, Wilson and SWW, the "pass" rates (score of 3 out of five or better) for AP exams is 40%, i.e. SWW does no better than Wilson to prepare students for AP exams, and both schools lag FAR below MD and VA pass rates in the upper 80-90% range. This means that, if they go to SWW or Wilson, my three kids would be in AP classes where in a 25 student class, only ten students will manage to pass the AP test. I cannot help but fear that a classroom environment with this dynamic would be a bad place for an advanced student. It makes me sad because I loved Wilson on my various visits there and found the students with whom I spoke both sincere and articulate. I had the experience myself of attending a very inferior public MS and HS and then Yale (I was first from my public ever to attend), and I really don't want my kids to have the same weak preparation for college and life that I had.

[Anonymous]

I interview Wilson students for an Ivy League school. My sense is that Wilson is best for students who do not need hand-holding. While the administration has improved over the past few years, there are still a lot of gaps in instruction. One year I had a student who got an A in Chinese even though he did not have a Chinese teacher (there was a problem with the green card so the teacher did not arrive until January). There is not as much choice at Wilson for higher level courses (and those courses are almost exclusively white). The new academy structure has made mini-schools within Wilson. Additionally, the sports options at Wilson are also limited and require a lot of travel on the part of student/parents. So if your child is out-going, very focused and able to fend for themselves, they can get a fantastic education at Wilson. We opted for the more stable (although overcrowded) environment of the B-CC cluster and have been happy. IB for us was a big reason.

[Anonymous]

OP here, thank you 09:42. That was very helpful, especially the comparison to BCC. That was a very straightforward review of it.

[Anonymous]

The fact is that the individual teacher is much more important than the school. Good schools have better teachers than average, but you can still get screwed or get lucky anywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We made the move from DC to Moco and are happy with the choice. I would say, however, that NO school is perfect. That is true of DC, MoCo, FCPS, and every private school. Once you are in a school, you see whatever deficiencies might be there. It is almost impossible to know from the outside whether a school is the right fit for you or not. Sad, but true. I know plenty of folks who have applied to the "perfect" private and have been thrilled when DC was accepted only do discover that it was a terrible fit (and cost a fortune). Similarly, plenty of folks move and discover that the great suburban school is a bad fit. Or find that Deal/Wilson are simply not that great.
I suppose what I'm saying is: figure out where you want to be and investigate the school to the extent that you can. After that, make the best decision you can with the information you have. Go into it knowing that nothing is perfect and you probably won't damage your child with whatever decision you make!

Finally, a rational person!

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't move from DCPS to MCPS for elementary school. Its been a disappointment with 2.0. in the past, MCPS offered an accelerated math program and more writing/composition work. This is gone now so the value of moving for academic reasons is gone.

[Anonymous]

OP here, 12:09, are you in mcps now? Thank you for posting your experience.