Decided to move before K

[Anonymous]

The poster has pretty much already decided to leave her home and move and the issue she presented is whether she's alone in this decision. It's great that so many of you love your school in your SS neighborhood but she thinks hers is not very good and wants to move. I don't understand why people are flaming Bethesda schools to be honest. Just b/c you're happy with your school doesn't give you a ticket to slam multiple schools/multiple neighborhoods. We like our school. Not Bethesda but RHPS (SS) and then NCC (No. Chevy Chase). Our kids have a slightly unusual arrangement going K-2 and then switching to two smaller schools for 3-6 and staying in ES (for now) for 6th. Our community is very nice if you want to check it out. THere are houses in different price ranges from low income rentals to CC mansions (not likely to be in my future ever I guess).

[Anonymous]

Most silver spring schools are not desirable of you are used to the caliber in Bethesda.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most silver spring schools are not desirable of you are used to the caliber in Bethesda.

In what ways are they not desirable? What do you mean by "the caliber in Bethesda"? And what are the sources of your information?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most silver spring schools are not desirable of you are used to the caliber in Bethesda.

In what ways are they not desirable? What do you mean by "the caliber in Bethesda"? And what are the sources of your information?

http://www.greatschools.org/maryland/bethesda/schools/

http://www.greatschools.org/maryland/silver-spring/schools/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most silver spring schools are not desirable of you are used to the caliber in Bethesda.

In what ways are they not desirable? What do you mean by "the caliber in Bethesda"? And what are the sources of your information?

http://www.greatschools.org/maryland/bethesda/schools/

http://www.greatschools.org/maryland/silver-spring/schools/

You're basing your statements on greatschools ratings? Really? That's about as reliable as basing your statements on stuff you read on DCUM. Meaning: not reliable.

[Anonymous]

We have been very happy with RHPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most silver spring schools are not desirable of you are used to the caliber in Bethesda.

There is actually great variability between the Silver Spring schools.

[Anonymous]

"Most silver spring schools are not desirable of you are used to the caliber in Bethesda."

hmmm - why could this be? why why why? Possibly because Bethesda is a pretty small area that is relatively uniform in its degree of having lots of well off families and very few truly poor families while SS is huge - it probably easily takes 45 minutes w/o traffic to drive from one end to the other of it - and has a lot of variability from large groups of well-educated and MC/UMC families in the downtown area to large apartment clusterings that have many poor families in them.

Some SS schools are dreadful (mostly because they have lots of poor children; not because the teachers are so much worse) and others are a normal elementary school on par with what many MC families likely attended growing up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Most silver spring schools are not desirable of you are used to the caliber in Bethesda."

hmmm - why could this be? why why why? Possibly because Bethesda is a pretty small area that is relatively uniform in its degree of having lots of well off families and very few truly poor families while SS is huge - it probably easily takes 45 minutes w/o traffic to drive from one end to the other of it - and has a lot of variability from large groups of well-educated and MC/UMC families in the downtown area to large apartment clusterings that have many poor families in them.

Some SS schools are dreadful (mostly because they have lots of poor children; not because the teachers are so much worse) and others are a normal elementary school on par with what many MC families likely attended growing up.

Yes, I agree. I've had kids in both types of Silver Spring schools. You really can't put them all in the same category.

[Anonymous]

You're basing your statements on greatschools ratings? Really? That's about as reliable as basing your statements on stuff you read on DCUM. Meaning: not reliable.

+1000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Most silver spring schools are not desirable of you are used to the caliber in Bethesda."

hmmm - why could this be? why why why? Possibly because Bethesda is a pretty small area that is relatively uniform in its degree of having lots of well off families and very few truly poor families while SS is huge - it probably easily takes 45 minutes w/o traffic to drive from one end to the other of it - and has a lot of variability from large groups of well-educated and MC/UMC families in the downtown area to large apartment clusterings that have many poor families in them.

Some SS schools are dreadful (mostly because they have lots of poor children; not because the teachers are so much worse) and others are a normal elementary school on par with what many MC families likely attended growing up.

Yes, I agree. I've had kids in both types of Silver Spring schools. You really can't put them all in the same category.

It gets frustrating watching the parents from SS who love their schools try to discredit the parents who say their SS schools are a disaster (and the other way around). If everyone could just accept that some of the schools are good and some are, in fact, bad, it would make the conversation a little easier to bear. I had a friend whose kids were zoned for new hampshire estates. She was going to move, but she was able to get a transfer to another silver spring school that was excellent.

[Anonymous]

We also have to accept the fact that people have very difference experiences at the very same school based on the actual teachers/issues/child involved. Some people can't get passed a large class size and other peope just love the teacher and nothing else matters. Others focus only on test scores.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure who anyone thinks they are fooling, but the reason people move out of the "Blair" cluster and move into the B-CC cluster is in search of a more 'homogeneous' student body. I say that as someone who is in the Blair cluster and who has been very happy in the schools. However, I watch parents trip all over themselves making excuses as to why other clusters are 'better' based on nothing. It is parents concerned that they might not be in a majority-white school.

Which, I might point out, is a terrible reason to move schools.

I am in the MK-PC-Eastern-Blair area and my children have experience in all of them. The only students we had a problem with were the ones brought in from bethesda, rockville, etc and we had to report 3 of them at different times to teachers and principals for some type of 'entitled' bullying. No problems with students from the immediate area. So, watch out what you wish for…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure who anyone thinks they are fooling, but the reason people move out of the "Blair" cluster and move into the B-CC cluster is in search of a more 'homogeneous' student body. I say that as someone who is in the Blair cluster and who has been very happy in the schools. However, I watch parents trip all over themselves making excuses as to why other clusters are 'better' based on nothing. It is parents concerned that they might not be in a majority-white school.


But also remember, some parents move within silver spring, not just to the BCC, to avoid certain schools. Some of the schools in silver spring are >90% Farms, and I think that, as opposed to race, is the off-putting statistic. Whether high poverty is a valid reason to seek out another school is a question not everyone is going to answer the same. And it's a question some parent conveniently never face, because their schools have relatively balanced demographics.

[Anonymous]

As the original poster about parents actually seeking a majority-white environment, I agree with your post….I will grant that some parents (a) use FARMS as a proxy for race or (b) are choosing to be in a non-FARMS school district.

I also agree that neither is good reason for choosing a school and could be considered reprehensible. Particularly considering the school district is the same and, therefore, the range of classes is identical. You can get Math 7 in any school. Same with IM. That's the beauty (and some would say the curse) of a large school district such as MCPS.