Public vs. Private Schools for people living in Montgomery County

[Anonymous]

OP here,
well, there is always hope...hope they will get in at Stoddert. I know someone whose kid got in by lottery to an out of boundery charter school, at age 3.

[Anonymous]

By choosing private school, I got to pick a school culture that more closely aligned with my personal philosophies. Small classes, differentiated instruction, focus on the social/emotional well being of the kids (friendship/interpersonal skill building, etc.), and a focus on teaching coursework at a developmentally-appropriate level. No hyper-acceleration of coursework, and no "dumbing down."

Not better or worse than the public school, just more in tune with my general parenting outlook.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here,
well, there is always hope...hope they will get in at Stoddert. I know someone whose kid got in by lottery to an out of boundery charter school, at age 3.

yes, there are definitely spots available out of boundary for PS and PK at many DC public schools and charter schools. Just not at the ones that you mentioned in your post above.

[Anonymous]

I teach in MCPS and my DC attends private. I wanted a religious education and to avoid most of the social dysfunction I see first hand in public schools. We're AA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I teach in MCPS and my DC attends private. I wanted a religious education and to avoid most of the social dysfunction I see first hand in public schools. We're AA.

I find it great peopel on here are ok saying they are AA I think alcoholics have bene shamed so much in this country, glad they are willing to put in in every post.

[Anonymous]

People may jump all over this but I think that it is accurate to say that Montgomery County used to be considerably more homogenous in terms of social class. Over time the number of lower income residents has increased and this increase has occurred predominately in the eastern pert of the county. The shifting demographics have had an impact on MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here,
well, there is always hope...hope they will get in at Stoddert. I know someone whose kid got in by lottery to an out of boundery charter school, at age 3.

yes, there are definitely spots available out of boundary for PS and PK at many DC public schools and charter schools. Just not at the ones that you mentioned in your post above.

Hi OP - there are typically OOB PK4 spots available at Hearst and perhaps at Eaton but not the others. The incoming PK 4 class at Hearst is about 60% IB so about 16 OOB spots available. We have been at Hearst for 2 years now, DD finished up K this year. In discussion with friend with DC at one of the well-regarded Bethesda ES things seem quite comparable and in some regards better at our DCPS. class sizes no more than 20, 2 FT adults in the classroom PK thru 1st (one lead teacher and a degreed teaching asst - in our case many from the AU program nearby).

If you like living in the District, particularly if you have a walkable neighborhood and that's important to you I'd encourage you to consider staying in the District! Our DC walks 7 blocks to a great school and we've been very happy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Class sizes.

Cohorts.

MCPS isn't that great anymore.

+1, plus the extras, smaller school community, more individualized and innovated curriculum, and school culture. We moved to MoCo for the schools but when it came time for K, we took a close look and didn't like what we saw. On our street alone, there are 20+ kids and well over half attend private schools. Some started in public but switched. Everyone I know in MoCo who can comfortably afford private, chooses private.

[Anonymous]

We live in the Whitman cluster in MoCo. I wanted an IB (International Baccalaureate) school with an immersion program and didn't want to be at the mercy of a lottery system where several hundred families are wait-listed each year for 50 spots in the Spanish immersion school.

We're at WIS and have never looked back.

However, most of my neighbors send their kids to our neighborhood schools and are very happy with their choices. All the Whitman grads we know turned out to be great kids who attend great colleges.

[Anonymous]

In our bethesda neighborhood, most kids are in public. The public school is pretty good, and the teachers are great, as is parent involvement. Downside is the class-size of 28 kids per class; the teachers do surprisingly well at individualized instruction given these class sizes, but there's a limit to what try can do. The have white boards (like big iPads) and things like that, but it's not fancy in the way that the private schools are. And they only get art, PE, and music once a week. I can see some people deciding to pay for private on order to get all the nice "extras" like the rolling field campuses and the fancy art teachers.

[Anonymous]

One other thing to consider OP - are you done having kids? Private school for one kid will run you $25-40K after tax. If you have two kids, you're starring down $50-80K each year, plus the 4-10% increase, yearly.

Something to consider before signing up for private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We live in the Whitman cluster in MoCo. I wanted an IB (International Baccalaureate) school with an immersion program and didn't want to be at the mercy of a lottery system where several hundred families are wait-listed each year for 50 spots in the Spanish immersion school.

We're at WIS and have never looked back.

However, most of my neighbors send their kids to our neighborhood schools and are very happy with their choices. All the Whitman grads we know turned out to be great kids who attend great colleges.

Why are you all happy at WIS? I ask because my DC is there this summer for one of the language camps and loooooves it. We're in an immersion school during the year, fyi,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Certain schools in montgomery county are great, but not all. So it depends where your kids would be going. If you can afford private schooling, then you might want to do it.

Translation: Schools with lots of affluent, white, and Asian parents have a good reputation. Schools with lots of poor, African-American, and Hispanic parents have a bad reputation.

Very accurate translation. Good job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

say you live in Montgomery County, which has an excellent public school system

Montgomery County does not have an excellent school system. Its mediocre at best but getting worse each year. In the past few years it has gone down hill fast. Class sizes exploded a few years ago and 2.0 is the biggest disaster. The new Algebra 2.0 was such a disaster that MCPS inflated all test scores to bring everyone up to last year's failure rate. 32% of middle school kids and 82% of high school kids failed before the grade inflation. Several ES schools in Churchill and Wootton are seeing enrollment declines for the first time in years. It isn't because houses are not being sold to people with kids.

Montgomery County is becoming what NW DC used to be..a residential community with good houses but if you can afford it, you do private.

Considering that you can barely form a coherent sentence, your opinion lacks validity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Certain schools in montgomery county are great, but not all. So it depends where your kids would be going. If you can afford private schooling, then you might want to do it.

Translation: Schools with lots of affluent, white, and Asian parents have a good reputation. Schools with lots of poor, African-American, and Hispanic parents have a bad reputation.

Very accurate translation. Good job.

Peer groups matter.