How bad are Montgomery County Schools?

[Anonymous]

"If your child does not enter K reading extremely well, or is unable to sit down, shut up, and do exactly what they teacher wants then s/he will have a horrible experience."

This has not been my experience at all. My oldest doesn't read well and the school provides him with tons of extra services to help him get caught up. My youngest son is ADHD and can't sit down and shut up if his life depends on it. The school is extremely patient and he too gets services to make sure he doesn't fall behind. Also, the school accommodates his inability to stay in his seat and some of his non-traditional ways of learning.

[Anonymous]

I am guessing the PP's child has a diagnosis of ADHD? As a former teacher, I know how ridiculously long it takes to get services from an IEP. I would recommend some students for testing at the beginning of the year (by mid-end of Oct) and their services may not have started by Spring Break and sometimes not even by the end of that school year. So, yes, it helps if your child has a diagnosis and an IEP already but it is hard for ADHD students before that happens.

[Anonymous]

Why won't anyone on this board name their freaking schools, good or bad? These are anon posts, for crying out loud.

[Anonymous]

I don't have a child in the public schools. We are also planning on doing one of the lower-cost privates, at least for the first few years of elementary school. But I've heard mixed feed-back from friends with kids in College Gardens, Stone Mill (where my child would go), Dufief, and Germantown elementary schools. The mixed feedback ranged from being bored in Kindergarten because their child could already read to not enough physical activity throughout the day to 2 hours of homework each night by 3rd grade to poor aftercare programs. Nothing deal-killing, IMO. But something to consider. And then I also have neighbors who just rave about Stone Mill. It's definitely best to explore the particular school you are interested in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the PP- The schools may understand what to expect of 5/6 yr olds but they may not actually follow those expectations in their planning. 5/6 yr olds still learn by doing, not being talked to. They learn by concrete experiences. My friends teach and have taught K and every single one of them says that what is NOW expected of 5/6 yr olds is not what it used to be. They are expected to sit still and listen and do work (mainly worksheets b/c they are easily reproducible) for the entire LA block. They used to have center time prior to NCLB but they got rid of them in favor of a more prescribed scripted curriculum. These are 3 schools I know of. Perhaps your child's school has high enough test scores (b/c that is the bottom line these days) that they don't need to go this route. So you can do tons of research ahead of time but what actually happens in K sometimes cannot be known until the student actually gets there. There are very wide differences among county schools even though they do teach the same curriculum.

At our school, K still uses centers (but not first grade). Out child's K teacher also seemed good about keeping the kids physically moving on a regular basis, even if it was just to move around the room or shake out arms and legs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why won't anyone on this board name their freaking schools, good or bad? These are anon posts, for crying out loud.

I second that - hear, hear! If you like it or not, that would be helpful for people trying to figure out what to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why won't anyone on this board name their freaking schools, good or bad? These are anon posts, for crying out loud.

I second that - hear, hear! If you like it or not, that would be helpful for people trying to figure out what to do.

That would be really counterproductive. If you live in a public school district but are unhappy with your school, bad mouthing the school itself by name only helps that school get a worse reputation, doesn't it? Then why would people want to choose your neighborhood to buy a house?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's excellent for a public school system. NCLB has damaged them all, IMO. But that doesn't mean many kids don't thrive there, because they do.

Not all public school systems are like Montgomery County though. I have friends with kids in Montgomery, Arlington, and Fairfax, but the folks in Arlington are quite happy with most aspects of their chid's schooling, Fairfax somewhat, and Montgomery County parents are least happy.

What's different? Curriculum? Recess? Parental expectations?

This is all just anecdotal, based on what I am hearing from my friends. The overall school climate andexpectations of students for kids in Arlington just seem to have parents (and kids) happiest in Arlington. When I talk to my friends whose kids go to Arlington Public schools (in both North and South Arlington) they basically seem quite pleased with the school day, the amount and type of homework, the math curriculum, the opportunities for advanced work, etc. They just don't have a lot of complaints, in the early grades at least. THat's just MY friends -- all three of them, in Arlington.

My friends in Fairfax also seem pretty content.. It's the friends with kids in Montgomery County schools that just seem to have the most complaints about the classroom and school environoment. They really have complaints about the way math is handled -- apparently there's quite a push to have many kids take math a year above grade level, and some kids TWO years above grade level -- and they feel kids are being rushed through without opportunity to solidify basic math skills.

Of course if you ASK the parents if they are happy with their school district, they almost always say yes. But my experience has been that no one will admit to not liking their school district if their kids are in the school. But if you listen to how their daily life actually is, at least among my own friends, the ones Iwith kids in Montgomery County schools seem to be the least happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why won't anyone on this board name their freaking schools, good or bad? These are anon posts, for crying out loud.

I second that - hear, hear! If you like it or not, that would be helpful for people trying to figure out what to do.

That would be really counterproductive. If you live in a public school district but are unhappy with your school, bad mouthing the school itself by name only helps that school get a worse reputation, doesn't it? Then why would people want to choose your neighborhood to buy a house?

I can't decide if this post is a joke. At any rate, if you make blanket statements about how bad ALL of montgomery county schools are, then people won't move to the county at all! At least naming schools , especially those schools that aren't bad, would help demystify the issue.

[Anonymous]

Personally, I wouldn't want to name our school because I don't want to anyone to figure out who I am--it's a privacy issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: the principal told us that providing challenging work to advanced students is dependent on budget (I think because it requires extra staff), which changes from year to year.

22:21 here. This would have been a major red flag for me. We had similar concerns about how advanced students would be accommodated, and if a principal had said this to me, I would have had serious doubts about the school. Of course principals have to make difficult decisions based on changing budgets. However, what this principal stated outright is that, in effect, differentiation would be one of the first things to go.

[Anonymous]

I'll name a school: Greenwood Elementary in Brookeville, MD. It is an excellent school, with talented teachers, strong leadership, and a dedicated and effective PTA. The kindergarten classes use centers. There's lots of movement throughout the day --- kids are not stuck in their seats. The students are fully engaged and stimulated, but not pressured. It is a lovely, nurturing environment, and we're thrilled with the school on several different levels. We know parents who have yanked their kids out of private school to attend strong MCPS public schools comparable to Greenwood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I can't decide if this post is a joke. At any rate, if you make blanket statements about how bad ALL of montgomery county schools are, then people won't move to the county at all! At least naming schools , especially those schools that aren't bad, would help demystify the issue.

No, it wasn't a joke.

I'm not the OP, and I didn't say all Montgomery County Schools were bad.

But if I happened to think my own neighborhood school (in any county) WAS bad -- I can't really see how posting that information here would really benefit me or anyone in my neighborhood, exactly. It might benefit other people thinking about moving into the neighborhood, that I get. But if we are already living here, and kind of stuck with the school -- how does telling other people about how disappointed we are wityh it help us and our kids?

[Anonymous]

To the posters agreeing that the school lack programs beyond the basic reading, writing, and math skills but suggesting you use the money saved to pay for extra art, music, and sports programs, don't your children become overscheduled this way? Does it really make sense for a K or 1st grader to be stuck in a chair all day doing worksheets and then spend 1-2 hours in scheduled extracurricular activities, go home eat a quick dinner and then do worksheet homework? Wouldn't weekends become filled with catching up on what was left out in school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the posters agreeing that the school lack programs beyond the basic reading, writing, and math skills but suggesting you use the money saved to pay for extra art, music, and sports programs, don't your children become overscheduled this way? Does it really make sense for a K or 1st grader to be stuck in a chair all day doing worksheets and then spend 1-2 hours in scheduled extracurricular activities, go home eat a quick dinner and then do worksheet homework? Wouldn't weekends become filled with catching up on what was left out in school?

This is why we pay for private school.