Schools in Silver Spring

[Anonymous]

Oakland Terrace has been excellent, and we have appreciated the small class sizes (17-18). Lots of friends at Forest Knolls and Flora Singer who have had a very positive experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Avoid the SSIMS cluster if you can. The ES are pretty good but SSIMS is a disaster and the building has lead/ asbestos issues. You will find tons of posts on this here.

Silver spring schools in general have suffered from low investment as it kind of gets lost in the middle. Not the best and not the most needy. Buildings are generally older and not top of list for future renovations. Woodlin is new though- once they actually finish it!

This is very true. Portables need to be taking over the parking lots before MCPS will even evaluate building a new school or addition.

While we have generally been happy at our SS schools, I would ask for real numbers on class sizes in recent years. Our Focus school is not always able to maintain the required small class sizes for K-2, which is very hard on the teachers to meet the needs of a diverse student body.

I have two kids who went to SSIMS recently, and while the building is run down and odd ( an old high school building in which portions were never renovated), the education has been very good. They have a number of educational programs that people seek out: language immersion in Spanish and French (which is for kids who went to language immersion elementary schools / are fluent), and the IB (International Baccalaureate) Middle Years Program. Demographics are diverse: plurality of white kids (maybe 30%), and similar proportions of Latino and Black kids, and smaller proportion of Asian kids. I think about 40% of kids are free and reduced lunch eligible. Our experience there for our (white, middle class) kids was positive, and was not the “horrible urban poverty” schools stereotype that some people (with no kids in the school) suggest that SSIMS, or schools in Silver Spring, are.

As a result of attending Silver Spring MCPS schools, my kids have grown up with peers from a range of backgrounds — a number of immigrants, multilingual kids — and I think that has served them well. They are not in a white wealthy elite bubble, and they are comfortable with all kinds of people.

[Anonymous]

SSIMS is also now getting a new principal (intern) and he is supposed to be fantastic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your family sounds more like a North Bethesda/Rockville family to me than Silver Spring.

Yup. I agree with this.

+1 I was about to post that many of the Eastern European and Russian families we know live in Rockville.

I grew up in silver spring, if I couldn’t afford Bethesda I would move to North Bethesda/Rockville as the pp stated. Silver Spring is just not where I would raise a family.

And you're going to find variety on this. So I'll just give an honest counter-view. We could afford to live in Bethesda and choose to raise our kids in Silver Spring. I have friends in Bethesda and the sense of community seems better in Silver Spring. Also, I just don't feel like enough people talk about the downsides of wealthy areas. The kids I know in Bethesda are more focused on brands, appearance, clothing, etc, and sort of cliquey keeping up with the Joneses stuff. In my experience there is less of that in Silver Spring, and that's more consistent with what I'm looking for in where I raise my kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your family sounds more like a North Bethesda/Rockville family to me than Silver Spring.

Yup. I agree with this.

+1 I was about to post that many of the Eastern European and Russian families we know live in Rockville.

I grew up in silver spring, if I couldn’t afford Bethesda I would move to North Bethesda/Rockville as the pp stated. Silver Spring is just not where I would raise a family.

And you're going to find variety on this. So I'll just give an honest counter-view. We could afford to live in Bethesda and choose to raise our kids in Silver Spring. I have friends in Bethesda and the sense of community seems better in Silver Spring. Also, I just don't feel like enough people talk about the downsides of wealthy areas. The kids I know in Bethesda are more focused on brands, appearance, clothing, etc, and sort of cliquey keeping up with the Joneses stuff. In my experience there is less of that in Silver Spring, and that's more consistent with what I'm looking for in where I raise my kids.

I live near but not in Bethesda. I know plenty of kids in Bethesda. I wouldn’t say any of the kids I know are focused on brands, appearance or clothing AT ALL, especially compared to kids I know in NY, NJ, Philly, Chicago, etc. This area is really not very fashion conscious. That’s not to say there aren’t other things that may differ from your neighborhood in Silver Spring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your family sounds more like a North Bethesda/Rockville family to me than Silver Spring.

Yup. I agree with this.

+1 I was about to post that many of the Eastern European and Russian families we know live in Rockville.

I grew up in silver spring, if I couldn’t afford Bethesda I would move to North Bethesda/Rockville as the pp stated. Silver Spring is just not where I would raise a family.

And you're going to find variety on this. So I'll just give an honest counter-view. We could afford to live in Bethesda and choose to raise our kids in Silver Spring. I have friends in Bethesda and the sense of community seems better in Silver Spring. Also, I just don't feel like enough people talk about the downsides of wealthy areas. The kids I know in Bethesda are more focused on brands, appearance, clothing, etc, and sort of cliquey keeping up with the Joneses stuff. In my experience there is less of that in Silver Spring, and that's more consistent with what I'm looking for in where I raise my kids.

+1 to SS being great for families. We know lots of young families like ours and the sense of community is great. Bethesda, Silver Spring, Rockville, etc. are all so different and they are going to appeal to different people for different reasons — and even Silver Spring is vast and diverse. I also generally don’t find people IRL to have a problem with the local schools the way they sometimes do on dcum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your family sounds more like a North Bethesda/Rockville family to me than Silver Spring.

Yup. I agree with this.

+1 I was about to post that many of the Eastern European and Russian families we know live in Rockville.

I grew up in silver spring, if I couldn’t afford Bethesda I would move to North Bethesda/Rockville as the pp stated. Silver Spring is just not where I would raise a family.

And you're going to find variety on this. So I'll just give an honest counter-view. We could afford to live in Bethesda and choose to raise our kids in Silver Spring. I have friends in Bethesda and the sense of community seems better in Silver Spring. Also, I just don't feel like enough people talk about the downsides of wealthy areas. The kids I know in Bethesda are more focused on brands, appearance, clothing, etc, and sort of cliquey keeping up with the Joneses stuff. In my experience there is less of that in Silver Spring, and that's more consistent with what I'm looking for in where I raise my kids.

I live near but not in Bethesda. I know plenty of kids in Bethesda. I wouldn’t say any of the kids I know are focused on brands, appearance or clothing AT ALL, especially compared to kids I know in NY, NJ, Philly, Chicago, etc. This area is really not very fashion conscious. That’s not to say there aren’t other things that may differ from your neighborhood in Silver Spring.

Ya… this is wrong. Bethesda is incredibly materialistic, like wealthy suburbs everywhere. Guess you need to live “in” it. Raising kids in Silver Spring you avoid all that, but still get highly educated parents in a diverse community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your family sounds more like a North Bethesda/Rockville family to me than Silver Spring.

Yup. I agree with this.

+1 I was about to post that many of the Eastern European and Russian families we know live in Rockville.

I grew up in silver spring, if I couldn’t afford Bethesda I would move to North Bethesda/Rockville as the pp stated. Silver Spring is just not where I would raise a family.

And you're going to find variety on this. So I'll just give an honest counter-view. We could afford to live in Bethesda and choose to raise our kids in Silver Spring. I have friends in Bethesda and the sense of community seems better in Silver Spring. Also, I just don't feel like enough people talk about the downsides of wealthy areas. The kids I know in Bethesda are more focused on brands, appearance, clothing, etc, and sort of cliquey keeping up with the Joneses stuff. In my experience there is less of that in Silver Spring, and that's more consistent with what I'm looking for in where I raise my kids.

I live near but not in Bethesda. I know plenty of kids in Bethesda. I wouldn’t say any of the kids I know are focused on brands, appearance or clothing AT ALL, especially compared to kids I know in NY, NJ, Philly, Chicago, etc. This area is really not very fashion conscious. That’s not to say there aren’t other things that may differ from your neighborhood in Silver Spring.

Ya… this is wrong. Bethesda is incredibly materialistic, like wealthy suburbs everywhere. Guess you need to live “in” it. Raising kids in Silver Spring you avoid all that, but still get highly educated parents in a diverse community.

Why does it matter whether parents in Silver Spring are “highly educated?” You’re just elitist in your own way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your family sounds more like a North Bethesda/Rockville family to me than Silver Spring.

Yup. I agree with this.

+1 I was about to post that many of the Eastern European and Russian families we know live in Rockville.

I grew up in silver spring, if I couldn’t afford Bethesda I would move to North Bethesda/Rockville as the pp stated. Silver Spring is just not where I would raise a family.

And you're going to find variety on this. So I'll just give an honest counter-view. We could afford to live in Bethesda and choose to raise our kids in Silver Spring. I have friends in Bethesda and the sense of community seems better in Silver Spring. Also, I just don't feel like enough people talk about the downsides of wealthy areas. The kids I know in Bethesda are more focused on brands, appearance, clothing, etc, and sort of cliquey keeping up with the Joneses stuff. In my experience there is less of that in Silver Spring, and that's more consistent with what I'm looking for in where I raise my kids.

I live near but not in Bethesda. I know plenty of kids in Bethesda. I wouldn’t say any of the kids I know are focused on brands, appearance or clothing AT ALL, especially compared to kids I know in NY, NJ, Philly, Chicago, etc. This area is really not very fashion conscious. That’s not to say there aren’t other things that may differ from your neighborhood in Silver Spring.

Ya… this is wrong. Bethesda is incredibly materialistic, like wealthy suburbs everywhere. Guess you need to live “in” it. Raising kids in Silver Spring you avoid all that, but still get highly educated parents in a diverse community.

Why does it matter whether parents in Silver Spring are “highly educated?” You’re just elitist in your own way.

DP - when there's a common misperception that SS is mostly low SES, it's reasonable to correct the record.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BTDT, kid in HS, and reading in between the lines (just my judgement here): with a 1.1 budget you should look west. Plenty of 900K -1.1m houses that'll give you room to not be too stretched that are districted for Wootton, RM, and even Churchill. I think you'll be happier there. Sincerely. I am not judging. I also think the Eastern European community will be stronger.

OP stated "not pressure cooker" so that only leaves RM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your family sounds more like a North Bethesda/Rockville family to me than Silver Spring.

Yup. I agree with this.

+1 I was about to post that many of the Eastern European and Russian families we know live in Rockville.

I grew up in silver spring, if I couldn’t afford Bethesda I would move to North Bethesda/Rockville as the pp stated. Silver Spring is just not where I would raise a family.

And you're going to find variety on this. So I'll just give an honest counter-view. We could afford to live in Bethesda and choose to raise our kids in Silver Spring. I have friends in Bethesda and the sense of community seems better in Silver Spring. Also, I just don't feel like enough people talk about the downsides of wealthy areas. The kids I know in Bethesda are more focused on brands, appearance, clothing, etc, and sort of cliquey keeping up with the Joneses stuff. In my experience there is less of that in Silver Spring, and that's more consistent with what I'm looking for in where I raise my kids.

I live near but not in Bethesda. I know plenty of kids in Bethesda. I wouldn’t say any of the kids I know are focused on brands, appearance or clothing AT ALL, especially compared to kids I know in NY, NJ, Philly, Chicago, etc. This area is really not very fashion conscious. That’s not to say there aren’t other things that may differ from your neighborhood in Silver Spring.

Ya… this is wrong. Bethesda is incredibly materialistic, like wealthy suburbs everywhere. Guess you need to live “in” it. Raising kids in Silver Spring you avoid all that, but still get highly educated parents in a diverse community.

Why does it matter whether parents in Silver Spring are “highly educated?” You’re just elitist in your own way.

DP - when there's a common misperception that SS is mostly low SES, it's reasonable to correct the record.

Another DP. People constantly justify their choice to buy in Bethesda/Potomac/Chevy Chase because they seem to think that's where all the high achieving parents live so that's where all the high achieving kids will be. The multiple assumptions here are all wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your family sounds more like a North Bethesda/Rockville family to me than Silver Spring.

Yup. I agree with this.

+1 I was about to post that many of the Eastern European and Russian families we know live in Rockville.

I grew up in silver spring, if I couldn’t afford Bethesda I would move to North Bethesda/Rockville as the pp stated. Silver Spring is just not where I would raise a family.

And you're going to find variety on this. So I'll just give an honest counter-view. We could afford to live in Bethesda and choose to raise our kids in Silver Spring. I have friends in Bethesda and the sense of community seems better in Silver Spring. Also, I just don't feel like enough people talk about the downsides of wealthy areas. The kids I know in Bethesda are more focused on brands, appearance, clothing, etc, and sort of cliquey keeping up with the Joneses stuff. In my experience there is less of that in Silver Spring, and that's more consistent with what I'm looking for in where I raise my kids.

I live near but not in Bethesda. I know plenty of kids in Bethesda. I wouldn’t say any of the kids I know are focused on brands, appearance or clothing AT ALL, especially compared to kids I know in NY, NJ, Philly, Chicago, etc. This area is really not very fashion conscious. That’s not to say there aren’t other things that may differ from your neighborhood in Silver Spring.

Ya… this is wrong. Bethesda is incredibly materialistic, like wealthy suburbs everywhere. Guess you need to live “in” it. Raising kids in Silver Spring you avoid all that, but still get highly educated parents in a diverse community.

Why does it matter whether parents in Silver Spring are “highly educated?” You’re just elitist in your own way.

DP - when there's a common misperception that SS is mostly low SES, it's reasonable to correct the record.

I feel like you are conflating lots of things. It is not a “misperception” that there is more wealth in parts of the county where housing is more expensive and less wealth where housing is less expensive. There is an actual correlation between level of education attained and wealth generally, but no one on this thread said that there aren’t plenty of Silver Spring residents who have attained high levels of education. It is also completely possible for people at all socioeconomic levels to be materialistic or not materialistic. But people with more disposable income obviously have greater choice in whether to purchase items some consider materialistic. But saying it is rampant in Bethesda doesn’t actually make it a true statement. It isn’t true in my experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your family sounds more like a North Bethesda/Rockville family to me than Silver Spring.

Yup. I agree with this.

+1 I was about to post that many of the Eastern European and Russian families we know live in Rockville.

I grew up in silver spring, if I couldn’t afford Bethesda I would move to North Bethesda/Rockville as the pp stated. Silver Spring is just not where I would raise a family.

And you're going to find variety on this. So I'll just give an honest counter-view. We could afford to live in Bethesda and choose to raise our kids in Silver Spring. I have friends in Bethesda and the sense of community seems better in Silver Spring. Also, I just don't feel like enough people talk about the downsides of wealthy areas. The kids I know in Bethesda are more focused on brands, appearance, clothing, etc, and sort of cliquey keeping up with the Joneses stuff. In my experience there is less of that in Silver Spring, and that's more consistent with what I'm looking for in where I raise my kids.

I live near but not in Bethesda. I know plenty of kids in Bethesda. I wouldn’t say any of the kids I know are focused on brands, appearance or clothing AT ALL, especially compared to kids I know in NY, NJ, Philly, Chicago, etc. This area is really not very fashion conscious. That’s not to say there aren’t other things that may differ from your neighborhood in Silver Spring.

Ya… this is wrong. Bethesda is incredibly materialistic, like wealthy suburbs everywhere. Guess you need to live “in” it. Raising kids in Silver Spring you avoid all that, but still get highly educated parents in a diverse community.

Why does it matter whether parents in Silver Spring are “highly educated?” You’re just elitist in your own way.

DP - when there's a common misperception that SS is mostly low SES, it's reasonable to correct the record.

Another DP. People constantly justify their choice to buy in Bethesda/Potomac/Chevy Chase because they seem to think that's where all the high achieving parents live so that's where all the high achieving kids will be. The multiple assumptions here are all wrong.

I mean, people also justify their choice by citing commute times, crime stats, access to particular amenities, available housing stock (lots of large, luxurious new construction in these neighborhoods, less in SS), re-sale ability based on perception of the value of location, etc. I don’t think people are going around trying to rub shoulders with “high achieving parents.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your family sounds more like a North Bethesda/Rockville family to me than Silver Spring.

Yup. I agree with this.

+1 I was about to post that many of the Eastern European and Russian families we know live in Rockville.

I grew up in silver spring, if I couldn’t afford Bethesda I would move to North Bethesda/Rockville as the pp stated. Silver Spring is just not where I would raise a family.

And you're going to find variety on this. So I'll just give an honest counter-view. We could afford to live in Bethesda and choose to raise our kids in Silver Spring. I have friends in Bethesda and the sense of community seems better in Silver Spring. Also, I just don't feel like enough people talk about the downsides of wealthy areas. The kids I know in Bethesda are more focused on brands, appearance, clothing, etc, and sort of cliquey keeping up with the Joneses stuff. In my experience there is less of that in Silver Spring, and that's more consistent with what I'm looking for in where I raise my kids.

I live near but not in Bethesda. I know plenty of kids in Bethesda. I wouldn’t say any of the kids I know are focused on brands, appearance or clothing AT ALL, especially compared to kids I know in NY, NJ, Philly, Chicago, etc. This area is really not very fashion conscious. That’s not to say there aren’t other things that may differ from your neighborhood in Silver Spring.

Ya… this is wrong. Bethesda is incredibly materialistic, like wealthy suburbs everywhere. Guess you need to live “in” it. Raising kids in Silver Spring you avoid all that, but still get highly educated parents in a diverse community.

Why does it matter whether parents in Silver Spring are “highly educated?” You’re just elitist in your own way.

DP - when there's a common misperception that SS is mostly low SES, it's reasonable to correct the record.

I feel like you are conflating lots of things. It is not a “misperception” that there is more wealth in parts of the county where housing is more expensive and less wealth where housing is less expensive. There is an actual correlation between level of education attained and wealth generally, but no one on this thread said that there aren’t plenty of Silver Spring residents who have attained high levels of education. It is also completely possible for people at all socioeconomic levels to be materialistic or not materialistic. But people with more disposable income obviously have greater choice in whether to purchase items some consider materialistic. But saying it is rampant in Bethesda doesn’t actually make it a true statement. It isn’t true in my experience.

It is a misperception that SS is "mostly" low SES, which is what I said. People on this board don't seem to understand, frankly, what the demographics are like and the fact that it's an enormous area. Does it, overall, have lower SES than Bethesda? Yes. Was that what I claimed is a misperception? No.

Also, what does your experience matter? Bethesda overall does have more wealth than SS. It's not implausible to think that materialism is far more common in Bethesda than SS. Rampant is likely overstating things, but thinking that there aren't qualitative differences between living in SS and Bethesda seems disingenuous. It's not true that Bethesda is both more affluent and has MUCH better schools than SS, but also that it's just as down to earth. It's not.

-Bethesda native who currently lives in Silver Spring

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to broaden your definition of “unsafe environment” to include exposure to and availability of drugs and alcohol, high academic/social pressure, racism, etc. If you’re stretching to pay for Bethesda schools and that leads to financial stress, that’s problematic for kids. We’re at OTES and know lots of kids who have gone through various DCC high schools (mostly Einstein and Blair) - they do fine. Parental education and involvement are far more predictive of outcome than specific high school.

OP here.
Maybe you misread my comment? You are describing exactly the "pressure cooker environment" we'd like to avoid. We can afford a house in Bethesda, but it would be an old house that would be smaller than we'd like. Budget is up to $1.1 million. We'd love to stay well under that.

FWIW, we are white but moved here from another country and the kids are bilingual. We'd like enough diversity where we won't be the token Eastern European family.

You mentioned "pressure cooker" - but that's a different concern than substance use or even financial stress, which are specific considerations for some lower FARMS schools than many in Silver Spring.

Anyway. There are tons of us educated professionals in SS who send our kids to public school and whose kids have positive experiences there. There are also many families who start out at Oakland Terrace or Flora Singer or Forest Knolls or wherever and move when their kids get close to middle school, out of (largely unfounded) concern about "safety." If you truly want "the best education possible" for your kids, you may despise MCPS altogether.

If you truly want the best education possible for your kids you may despise MCPS altogether.

No truer words spoken on this board.