How to identify good schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are looking to move within Montgomery County and have two daycare age children. I understand that Great Schools ratings are not actually that informative. How does one figure out the quality of the schools? We hope to end up around North Bethesda / North Potomac / Rockville. I am most concerned about Elementary and Middle given our kids are young.

THey're all about the same to be honest. Things like shared accountability of GS ratings are just about bulk averages on standardized tests. These just reflect the SES of the schools population so if you're into that just use a heatmap of HHI, but otherwise live in a community you like. In the end, the same kid will do more or less the same at any of these schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of DCUM posters here just trying to raise the property values of their homes so take advice with a grain of salt.

I’m extremely happy with our kids’ N Potomac school. Very diverse in a good way, friendly, smart and well-behaved peers. Not something what I’ve noticed in some other areas of MCPS. W schools children can be overly competitive, cliquish and tribal, and some areas of Blair are rough.

How I found our school was making sure it was diverse (not just white/Asian) and has good test scores. I tend to agree with Niche rankings … Great Schools is terrible.

What does the bolded me? Is there a "bad way" in terms of diversity? Like too many poor people?

In MCPS, N. Potomac area is not really considered diverse. I live very close to that area (vast majority are white/Asian).

Rockville, Germantown, Gaithersburg are the most diverse.

North Potomac is Gaithersburg where people wanted more land/new homes.

Where in N. Potomac is it "Very diverse in a good way"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You guys love artisanal bread but supersized high schools - makes no sense. You get what you pay for - and frankly really depends on the kid. Some can handle/thrive on the chaos that is your average MCPS and some can’t.

? what does artisanal bread have to do with sending your kid to MCPS?

Some kids need a lot of hand holding and extra help; other kids do just fine in large schools.

I find the percentage of kids who Need this to be small. The percentage of parents who believe their kids need this is much higher which is why we see kids soo coddled. All kids benefit from individual and personal attention.

Many kids get lost in large MS and HS and often parents don't realize it till its too late.

sure, as stated, if your kid can't handle a large public school and need more hand holding, attention, then a large public isn't a good fit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You guys love artisanal bread but supersized high schools - makes no sense. You get what you pay for - and frankly really depends on the kid. Some can handle/thrive on the chaos that is your average MCPS and some can’t.

? what does artisanal bread have to do with sending your kid to MCPS?

Some kids need a lot of hand holding and extra help; other kids do just fine in large schools.

I find the percentage of kids who Need this to be small. The percentage of parents who believe their kids need this is much higher which is why we see kids soo coddled. All kids benefit from individual and personal attention.

Many kids get lost in large MS and HS and often parents don't realize it till its too late.

Disagree. I went to a 4000 kid high school (my freshman class was 1400 kids!). The opportunities I had were incredible. I think they offered 24 AP courses, tons of extracurriculars, clubs, lots of tutoring after school opportunities for when you needed help, instead of "band" we had marching band/jazz band/symphony/drum class. We had lots of counselors and better yet- those counselors were all good/specialized in different areas. One counselor was excellent at colleges, one was great at alternative tracks (knew the trades inside and out, plus all the community college licenses you could get), one was good for kids in crisis. It was basically a small college. Large MS and HS can offer economies of scale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nag. That’s 90s thinking. Do NOT correlate housing to schools. Pick the CHEAPEST and SAFEST neighborhood and go private.

Please recommend neighborhoods fit this description. Cannot afford Bethesda or CC.

[Anonymous]

High SES and HHI. That's the only answer you need.

[Anonymous]

Find a school with less than 25% free and reduced school lunch. Check for the nicest communities that feed in it. Richard Montgomery HS comes to mind.

[Anonymous]

My son attends the second best boy’s school in DC according to Niche. It has not turned out to be better than public, in some classes
actually worse. Few classes are decent and small class size is nice, however, we are not getting our money’s worth by far.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only Takoma Park MS has 25 seats set aside for local kids.

TKPK is unusual. It has enriched math in early elementary. It used to have the only elementary magnet. The local ES also has a local CES. There's also the inboundary set aside for the MS magnet and one of my kids who wasn't in the HS magnet took half a dozen magnet classes at Blair in addition to 10-12 standard APs. Point is there are many great opportunities out there but you need to look beyond things like GS to see it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are looking to move within Montgomery County and have two daycare age children. I understand that Great Schools ratings are not actually that informative. How does one figure out the quality of the schools? We hope to end up around North Bethesda / North Potomac / Rockville. I am most concerned about Elementary and Middle given our kids are young.

At the end of the day, high SES areas have the good schools. You can argue until cows come home but it is what it is. I'd focus on Bethesda/Potomac/North Potomac but not Rockville area. Full Disclosure - I am not in those areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are looking to move within Montgomery County and have two daycare age children. I understand that Great Schools ratings are not actually that informative. How does one figure out the quality of the schools? We hope to end up around North Bethesda / North Potomac / Rockville. I am most concerned about Elementary and Middle given our kids are young.

At the end of the day, high SES areas have the good schools. You can argue until cows come home but it is what it is. I'd focus on Bethesda/Potomac/North Potomac but not Rockville area. Full Disclosure - I am not in those areas.

high SES also have issues that go with too much wealth; low SES areas have issues that go with too much poverty.

Find somewhere in the middle. Rockville is a good one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nag. That’s 90s thinking. Do NOT correlate housing to schools. Pick the CHEAPEST and SAFEST neighborhood and go private.

Please recommend neighborhoods fit this description. Cannot afford Bethesda or CC.

Randolph Hills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are looking to move within Montgomery County and have two daycare age children. I understand that Great Schools ratings are not actually that informative. How does one figure out the quality of the schools? We hope to end up around North Bethesda / North Potomac / Rockville. I am most concerned about Elementary and Middle given our kids are young.

At the end of the day, high SES areas have the good schools. You can argue until cows come home but it is what it is. I'd focus on Bethesda/Potomac/North Potomac but not Rockville area. Full Disclosure - I am not in those areas.

high SES also have issues that go with too much wealth; low SES areas have issues that go with too much poverty.

Find somewhere in the middle. Rockville is a good one.

What is SES?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait. How can you now argue public schools are better when they closed or did virtual school for nearly TWO years. Even the worst private school stayed open….cue panic from MCPS teachers about their pensions now commenting below. And you weren’t very good pre-pandemic to begin with…

MCPS stayed open. Virtual is fine for kids with involved parents.

Touche.

[Anonymous]

You want wealth and less students. That is a good school.