Rosemary Hills, public vs. private in Montgomery County

[Anonymous]

I'm a parent looking for input on how other parents in Montgomery County have made schooling decisions. I have a 4 year old who would be zoned for Rosemary Hills. My husband has a sort of obsession with private schools - for the education first and foremost, but also because of the long-run possibilities of getting into good colleges, etc. My theory is that I did well enough in public schools and besides, the reason we moved to the suburbs was for the schools! And truthfully, while we could swing it financially with a huge effort, the idea of paying $20k or $30k a year for elementary school just seems totally insane to me. Then again, I realize that there are a lot of parents in Bethesda, Chevy Chase, etc. who pay that.

I'm just trying to get a sense of how other parents in this area make this decision - for those in private schools, why did you opt out given how good the public schools seem to be, at least by reputation? More generally how do you know what is best for your child at this stage? I realize it's early - or maybe it's late?? - to be trying to figure all this out, but I'd like to find the right environment for my son at the outset.

If anyone has any specific feedback on Rosemary Hills or the higher-grade schools (North Chevy Chase, etc), I'd love to hear that as well! Thanks very much!

[Anonymous]

Take my opinion for what's it's worth - with my oldest being 2 so I'm not really dealing with school issues quite yet.

My dd does seem a little shy - she takes awhile to warm up to other people. When I look ahead to school, I often wonder if a private school would be best because of the small classes.

Then I look at the price tag. Her younger sister is only 2 years younger so once she gets to school we'll have to pay double the tuition (40k to educate our 2 kids? Um, no.). We live in a good school cluster. Yeah, it may have all the problems of a public school but I don't want to sacrifice that much to send them to private when there is no guarantee they will turn out that much better.

I hear that "send kids to private schools so they can get into good colleges" and I don't know if I necessarily buy it. I remember reading about student at one of the elite schools (I think the student was in the Post or something) and they were going to VA Tech for college.

Now, I'm not knocking VA Tech - I think it's a great school - but I remember my first reaction was "those parents spent all that money for private school and their kid is going to VA Tech?" Nothing against VA Tech, but I don't think you need a private school on your resume to get in.

Then I Google my old high school classmates. I went to high school in a small town that isn't economically thriving (Walmart is the biggest store in town. Wait - pretty much the only store. Everything else is going out of business) - DC types would look down on my high school.

Know what? Some of my ex-classmates went on to elite colleges for undergrad and grad. U of Chicago for law school, Duke for MBA, UMichigan for med school, etc. Not too bad for a degree from that high school

So - I can't believe I'm saying this because I really do value education - but don't sacrifice too much (I don't know how huge an effort it would be for you) in order to send your kids to a private school. Odds are they will turn out just fine at Rosemary Hills.

And you can do so much more with that money! Use it to take fabulous vacations during the summer (that can be just as much a learning experience as school can be!) and see the world with your children.

[Anonymous]

To OP, my husband and I are going through the exact same decision making process so I will be curious to read the responses.
I can chime in on the college issue: I went to a private school in NYC considered then and now to be one of the top schools in the country. I'd say about 1/3 of my class went to the Ivies, 1/3 went to not-so-highly regarded private colleges and 1/3 went to everything in between. most of the kids who went to the ivies were very very smart and very hard workers. But, some were legacies or had some sort of "talent" and others were just plain very rich (and it's been basically proven that a well-known name with lots of $$ behind it will get you into those schools...). In any event, the kids like me who fit into none of the above, were told over and over that, although we were smart, and could do the work at an Ivy, we were in a disadvantage coming from a private school, esp, a NYC one (and I think this would ring true in the DC area). Admissions officers at the schools would rather let in hard working public school children than "spoiled" private school kids. I often joked about wanting to become a Hispanic tuba player from public school in North Dakota..Now my understanding of the top public schools in the area is that they are very good and turn out students who also could do the work at any top school. However, with large classes - 300-400 students - you have a lot more competition for each school. So, in that sense public school could be a disadvantage. However, I was one of 18 kids out of a class of 100 to apply to Yale. There is no way Yale was going to let us all in even if we were all qualified. So, my point is that I don't think privates schools give a huge advantage in the college admission game. Competition may be better and college counseling is probably better but I believe schools would rather take a public school student over a private one. Just my two cents..

[Anonymous]

I'm in Bethesda in a great school district and fielding questions from my MIL that seem to indicate she thinks private would be better. My personal belief is that my daughter is extroverted and bright and I have every reason to believe she will thrive in either setting. I plan to start her in the public school and be ready to explore other options if I see a need to. It's very difficult to compare two unknowns and I'm not in a position to spend this kind of money if she'd thrive in the free school. Moreover, I like the diversity that we'll find in the public schools and the "neigborhood" ties it provides.

Re--why so many ppl opt out of excellent schools for expensive privates. In many cases I think it's simply because they can do it without feeling it in their budget. There are alot of our neighbors who simply have more money than they know what to do with. At a price they can easily afford, they buy some assurance that their child will get more individualized attention + some status.

[Anonymous]

OP we are on the same boat. And we are zoned for Rosemary Hill as well, my DD is 4 and will be in PreK in September. Me and DH, visit the said school couple of times, not really an open house we just drive by and looked around. Im ok with it, but DH is not. I was telling him its ok for a start and we could just do some options later on we will see how she do in that public school. The private preschool we inquired around chevy chase costing from 5k to 8k a year.

i just found out tho, montgomery county public school for pre k, they do an income check. Im not so sure about this yet, i just saw it in their website info, that in able to get enrolled in pre K class family needs to be on low income status. Which i dont think we are.. so, we are actually in a puzzle still right now on what to do..

ill be watching this post for replies.

thanks

[Anonymous]

PP, why didn't your DH like the looks of Rosemary Hills?

[Anonymous]

Hi - OP here - I don't know a lot about Rosemary Hills, but I recall the feedback on the DCUM archives was generally positive. What made us begin considering private schools was looking at the test scores on the Montomgery County schools' website. Rosemary Hill are great - but they are also notably lower than some of the Bethesda schools - eg. Somerset, Bannockburn, Bradley Hills and Burning Tree. I don't mean to make too much of this, after all we're talking about such little kids and I'm not qualified to judge how meaningful test scores might be, if at all.

On pre-K, I was also under the impression that in Montgomery County it is only available through the public school system for families that meet an income test. So at this stage I'm assuming I don't really need to make a decision on public vs. private until my son is ready for kindergarten, Sept 09. The only reason we're starting to think about it now is that we figured if we did go private, why not start with pre-k since we are already paying for all-day preschool...

By the way, I really appreciate what some of the other posters had to say on this whole issue - it seems to me that the whole college/life trajectories are a big unknown, and public schools have all kinds of advantages from my point of view (diversity, neighborhood friends, etc.) But I'm also a big believer in the value of great education, so I find myself swayed occasionally toward the arguments for private schools.

[Anonymous]

When looking at the MoCo school's websites about test scores, don't get too worked up over the actual test scores. Hate to say this, but I think a better number to look at is the % of children who get free or reduced meals...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP, why didn't your DH like the looks of Rosemary Hills?

Its not really the looks he doesnt like, but hes really into private school for his only child.

[Anonymous]

Private schools often have a low student teacher ratio which is said to make a difference in the early years. Some do not (parochial), and can have up to 35 kids in a class.
Since no child left behind, test scores have gone up for the most part and public schools have become more competitive.
In some private schools the behavior of the children is better, but I've heard that public schools are actually less tolerant of poor behavior now than private schools.
If you look closely, the curricula are the same in both pub. and priv.

[Anonymous]

I disagree that the curriculum is the same at public and private. Because private schools are not required to administer standardized tests to their students, or required to meet any federally or state mandated student achievement benchmarks, the curriculum at private schools tends to include more art, music, foreign languages, science, PE and recess. And obviously, the teachers do not have to teach to the test. I would carefully review the curriculum at each of the private schools you are exploring, and how much latitude each teacher has in developing their classroom and curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Sometimes that latitude is the problem.
The core curricula, math, science, reading are similar.

[Anonymous]

Some parents choose to send their kids to catholic school instead of "real" private school. Blessed sacrament is an alternative to Rosemary Hills and has a good reputation. It is under $7000 per year for parishoners and around 10K for non-parishoners.

[Anonymous]

OP, I was in your place several years ago. My kids, now 7 and 4, go to a "big 3" private school in the District. When my now-7-yr-old was 3.5, she was having a less than ideal time in pre-school. At the time, her preschool teachers reported that she was academically beyond her peers but very shy. The girls in her pre-school class were already clique-y and would alternately include and exclude her from group play. I literally stayed awake nights thinking of my little daughter spending her 4th year languishing in preschool (given where her birthday fell in the cut-off, she was facing an entire extra school year in pre-school before being eligible for Rosemary Hills kindgergarten) "graduating" to a nameless, faceless cast of hundreds of kindergartners at Rosemary Hills. I was particularly hung-up on this "lost" year for a 3.5 year old--what if someone asked ME to languish for a 25-35% of MY life!

We decided to have her take the WPSCI (or whatever that test is called) and were pleasantly surprised that she was above the 95th percentile in all areas, and that the tester used the phrase "socially mature" to describe her in the summary. Our daughter ended up getting into our top choice school, and has FLOURISHED there. At her school (where she has gone for PreK, K and 1st grade) she is academically right in the middle of the pack, with more friends and playdates that I can sanely manage some weeks. She is happy, loves going to school, excited to learn. The school is very inclusive feeling, even though we're neither rich nor fancy (by the school's standards).

I can't believe my sassy firecracker girl is the same daughter I worried would be a wallflower. The girl I see today would have been fine at Rosemary Hills, and I would have a very different bank balance. My instinct tells me that she would have come out of her shell eventually, but these years in a small, nurturing private school environment just fast forwarded the "real" personality coming out, so the expenditure has been well worth it for us.

On the other hand, our second child, also at the same private school, also flourishing, probably would have done fine to go straight to public school. #2 has a naturally outgoing personality and a different experience at preschool (where he was more of a natural leader who the other children flocked to). If #2 had been our #1, we would not have gone down the private school route at all.

I hope that helps!

This message is a long answer to your questions, so I'll sum up:
How did we decide to opt out? We took a hard look at what our daughter needed relative to what was available to her.

[Anonymous]

DC attends a private school where a number of classmates would be slated for Rosemary Hills. From what I glean, it wasn't so much that RH has anything wrong with it, as it was that these parents preferred a smaller school (I think RH has something like 7-8 K classes, right?) with all that a smaller school can provide. Also, at least one of the parents was disturbed that at RH the kindergartners were eating lunch really early in the day and weren't being given enough time to eat.