best school in Maryland

[Anonymous]

Bethesda Elementary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What high schools are stellar in Howard county?

River Hill, Centennial, Atholton, Mt. Hebron.

OP, HoCo has great support services for SN kids. Depending on where you work, it's a long commute. We moved out of Montgomery County to HoCo because of the schools and we're happy where we are (not in one of the high schools above). Our elementary and middle school are fantastic and our high school is steadily improving.

Are the high schools stellar, or are their demographics what the DCUM considers good?

River Hill - 56% white, 26% Asian (82%), FARMS 6%
Centennial - 48% white, 35% Asian (83%), FARMS 9%
Atholton - 50% white, 18% Asian (68%), FARMS 8%
Mt. Hebron - 50% white, 27% Asian (77%), FARMS 12%

http://www.hcpss.org/f/schools/profiles/prof_hs_all.pdf

Well as a MCPS family, demographics play a huge part in test scores and then housing prices for those scores. It isn't like people WANT to go to school with 50% Spanish speaking kids to be politically correct.

[Anonymous]

OP - now is not a good time to be moving into MCPS with a special needs child. There are four things that seem to be either unique or especially bad in MCPS that make it a poor choice for special needs kids.

1. MCPS always cuts support staff - special ed, para educators in budget cuts and then cuts teachers. Another big cut is looming. Other school districts have budget woes but MCPS seems to always be in a worse state and cut teaching/support staff first.

2. There is no accountability in MCPS for staff that illegally do not follow the IEPs. MCPS is like the tobacco company and will throw huge legal resources against fighting families. The BOE has been actively fighting proposed legislation for Burden of Proof which would require schools to provide proof that IEP services were met. Right now, the burden of proof is on you to prove that they didn't, yet you have no access to records. You may not end up down this road but the overall stance toward special needs is hostile in MCPS unless the local school, on its own wants to do something for your child.

3. Whether a local school wants to do something for your child, is inherently unequal and unfair. At every school and for everyone, it comes down to where a principal wants to spend her resources. Its a little kingdom mentality. Minorities and lower income families suffer the most. Families who can afford outside testing and know how to advocate for their legal rights do far better in not letting them get away with this. Its awful but teachers and administrators do have biases against minority children and their performance. You are more likely to run into teachers who believe that your child just isn't smart not that she has a learning disability. The burden is on you to prove otherwise and identify what services she needs to succeed.

4. The new curriculum is making it worse for special ed students. There is a new grading system is basically pass fail and harmful for special needs kids. NT students who are brilliant get all Ps and special needs students who are performing way below their abilities and their grade get all Ps. My DS who has dysgraphia and other language based LD received all Ps for writing even though all his assignments were blank. The teacher reasoned that he was proficient in the concept because he could verbally answer questions about the writing process. This makes it impossible to use class work or grades to support the need for special ed and gives you no indication of how far below your child is in comparison to his grade. You need outside testing to find this out. The teachers are overwhelmed with the bad roll out of the curriculum so more support time goes into developing materials, training and dealing with the mess. This takes time away from special needs.

[Anonymous]

I have two schools for you to look at OP...Flora Singer, and Oakland Terrace. They are both in Silver Spring and are part of the Down County Consortium. They both have really good principals. They are both very good for children with special needs. They are both diverse and the populations of both schools are full of involved parents.

They are both really good MCPS elementary schools that combine many of the things you are looking for.

[Anonymous]

If you have a clearly defined disability, MCPS can actually be great for students with special needs. I think some is teacher/school dependent, but the county devotes a lot of resources to special needs. I think having a mild learning disability is a disadvantage for supports at a "hub" school for serving more significant disabilities, but not at a non-hub school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Sorry I was much too vague. My job placement is not known at this point but will most likely be in montgomery county, but possibly pg or howard. I am not interested in an alll-white school. My child is not white. She has some academic challenges--slower to read, math is hard --and would benefit from a school where SN families feel supported in case in comes to an IEP or 504 plan in her future.

I would say look at the bowie area, or Woodmore area both in PG county. Majority Black but still somewhat diverse, very good schools. Also the Tag Centers in PG like Glenarden Woods & Heather Hills have the best scores in the entire state of MD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Sorry I was much too vague. My job placement is not known at this point but will most likely be in montgomery county, but possibly pg or howard. I am not interested in an alll-white school. My child is not white. She has some academic challenges--slower to read, math is hard --and would benefit from a school where SN families feel supported in case in comes to an IEP or 504 plan in her future.

I would say look at the bowie area, or Woodmore area both in PG county. Majority Black but still somewhat diverse, very good schools. Also the Tag Centers in PG like Glenarden Woods & Heather Hills have the best scores in the entire state of MD.

You mean African American.

[Anonymous]

If you have a clearly defined disability, MCPS can actually be great for students with special needs. I think some is teacher/school dependent, but the county devotes a lot of resources to special needs.

MCPS is NOT great for special needs. Fairfax is know among special needs families as providing the most support -especially for autism. So many special needs families flock to Fairfax though that it strains the system. Mild learning disabilities are just as difficult and school/principal dependent in Fairfax as they are in MCPS. Most of the complaints in Fairfax are about the GT/LD kids.

In MCPS there are some good learning centers for children with profound disabilities but this doesn't sound like the OP's child. MCPS has GT/LD centers for 2E kids BUT its a long bus ride and doesn't start until 4th grade.

[Anonymous]

OP, a lot of these posts strike me as not representative of how most parents I know feel about our schools. But certainly it depends on what school.

Anyway, I saw Flora Singer mentioned, and the other one that comes to mind that sounds like a good fit for you is Highland View. It's a smallish elementary school with a terrific principal, caring staff and teachers, and a very active/supportive/positive community (and it seems to have a lot of diversity).

Good luck. There are lots of great options out there.

[Anonymous]

I think it can be if you're lucky but few people are. There's been so many due process complaints and requests for mediation that an independent consultant has been brought in to figure out what the problem is. They are working on this right now and have held forums and small group discussions with families. This has all been done very publicly as have the burden of proof discussions. When the Board of Ed agrees that there is a problem there is a problem.

MCPS's lack of accountability and problems with special needs kids is not the opinion of one person. It's a fact.

Anonymous wrote:If you have a clearly defined disability, MCPS can actually be great for students with special needs. I think some is teacher/school dependent, but the county devotes a lot of resources to special needs. I think having a mild learning disability is a disadvantage for supports at a "hub" school for serving more significant disabilities, but not at a non-hub school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Sorry I was much too vague. My job placement is not known at this point but will most likely be in montgomery county, but possibly pg or howard. I am not interested in an alll-white school. My child is not white. She has some academic challenges--slower to read, math is hard --and would benefit from a school where SN families feel supported in case in comes to an IEP or 504 plan in her future.

Look into Woodlin ES in Silver Spring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bethesda Elementary.

This. If you can afford it, it by far has the best SN reputation and is nationally recognized for it. Great school, area, proximity to everything, but very expensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Moving to Montgomery county for work and DC's school. Who is happy with their child's first grade experience/school?

Don't. The competition is insane. Your kids will suffer.

Just got off the phone with my friend. She told me how the seniors lied to get into good colleges, and how the others wrote to colleges to out them and ruin them... Very sad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Moving to Montgomery county for work and DC's school. Who is happy with their child's first grade experience/school?

Don't. The competition is insane. Your kids will suffer.

Just got off the phone with my friend. She told me how the seniors lied to get into good colleges, and how the others wrote to colleges to out them and ruin them... Very sad.

One or two cases don't mean the whole school system is bad.

There are excellent schools and excellent teachers in every school.
Besides there is transparency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Moving to Montgomery county for work and DC's school. Who is happy with their child's first grade experience/school?

Don't. The competition is insane. Your kids will suffer.

Just got off the phone with my friend. She told me how the seniors lied to get into good colleges, and how the others wrote to colleges to out them and ruin them... Very sad.

Whoa, what's the story? Guess they shouldn't have lied though, right? Parents didn't even read their applications?