If you could choose any MCPS cluster for DC, which would it be and why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are in Whitman cluster. We chose the neighborhood because we liked the house, liked the neighborhood, and the commute was as good as we could get and stay on the MD side of the line (which was important to me as a native MDer). While one of my kids opted for private high school, the other goes to Whitman and it's been a really great school. DC likes his classes, works hard, has good relationships with teachers, has a really good group of friends, is active in sports and other EC activities. The parents are committed to the school and volunteer for various volunteer activities - Sports teams, Arts Festival, drama, Post prom, etc. My DC does not find it a pressure cooker, as some people say it is, and has a pretty diverse group of friends (which to me is better than going to a so called diverse school but then only being friends with the people who look like you, which seems to be the norm at many of the diverse schools).

PP, I perceive this as defensive.

Whitman poster here (and I didn't post the previous responses). Sorry it was defensive. But I was trying to answer the question posed by the OP. People should be posting their own answers not criticizing mine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would pick Quince Orchard

Signed, RM Parent

New poster here. Could you elaborate? I'm in Wootton now and would prefer RM or QO. I think of them as being similarly diverse and less pressure-cooker than Wootton. What distinguishes them for you?

More school spirit. Appreciative diversity vs forced.
Better overall test scores (when you pull out IB scores, RM is not that good)
Less discipline issues (at a glance sheets)
QO is not as overcrowded, better feel with 2 middle schools entering
JW is awful in every aspect. All the elementary schools are overcrowded.
Families are more the same at QO - lots of basic middle class.
At RM is micromanaging nitpicky yoga snobs from Fallsgrove to very low income families. Not a lot of meshing.

[Anonymous]

How were you able to pull out the magnet scores at RM to know they are not as good as QO? I am an RM parent and have never seen a breakdown. It is so interesting to hear other prespectives. I like that there is just one MS (though it is crowded) so the kids get many years as a group. Your last comment is interesting...though I feel very differently. My kids have all kinds of friends..which is what I like about RM. What do you actaully mean by forced diversity?

[Anonymous]

Our kids are also at WJ. One thing to keep in mind about the WJ cluster is that it is somewhat unique among the Potomac and Bethesda clusters due to the fact that there are many, many apartments and townhomes in North Bethesda (most which feeds to WJ). This means there are more families at WJ with incomes across a wider spectrum than you'll find at Churchill, Whitman and Wooten.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our kids are also at WJ. One thing to keep in mind about the WJ cluster is that it is somewhat unique among the Potomac and Bethesda clusters due to the fact that there are many, many apartments and townhomes in North Bethesda (most which feeds to WJ). This means there are more families at WJ with incomes across a wider spectrum than you'll find at Churchill, Whitman and Wooten.

Percent of students at Walter Johnson with Free and Reduced Meals status: 8%
Percent of students at Walter Johnson who have ever had Free and Reduced Meals status: 18%

The same numbers for MCPS at a whole: 35%/43%

But yes, that's more than at Churchill (5%/10%), Whitman (<5%, <5%), and Wootton (<5%, 11%).

[Anonymous]

WJ trending towards becoming another Wheaton HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How were you able to pull out the magnet scores at RM to know they are not as good as QO? I am an RM parent and have never seen a breakdown. It is so interesting to hear other prespectives. I like that there is just one MS (though it is crowded) so the kids get many years as a group. Your last comment is interesting...though I feel very differently. My kids have all kinds of friends..which is what I like about RM. What do you actaully mean by forced diversity?

As in most schools, kids will experience the same school differently. I agree with PP that there are plenty of kids in RM that have a diverse group of friends - a varitable UN. But of course, you will have those that only stick to what they are comfortable with, which sometimes translates to their own ethnicity or race. But, the point is, that at schools like RM, QO and others like it, you have a bigger diverse group of people to find your peeps, whereas schools with very low minority or SES representation, the pool of such diversity is much smaller, so not as many choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WJ trending towards becoming another Wheaton HS.

not just wj... the entire MoCo public school system is trending that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WJ trending towards becoming another Wheaton HS.

Yeah cause 8% FARMS is really high...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WJ trending towards becoming another Wheaton HS.

Wheaton's numbers are 59% FARMS/78% ever FARMS. So, no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How were you able to pull out the magnet scores at RM to know they are not as good as QO? I am an RM parent and have never seen a breakdown. It is so interesting to hear other prespectives. I like that there is just one MS (though it is crowded) so the kids get many years as a group. Your last comment is interesting...though I feel very differently. My kids have all kinds of friends..which is what I like about RM. What do you actaully mean by forced diversity?

The scores are the same for both schools and includes RM's IB kids which we all know are the smartest in the county. So obviously they are pulling up the rear. If you look at test score of both middle and elementary schools from each district, you will see a difference too. At QO, 93% of all students have taken AP/Honors/IB classes while at the actual IB school, only 81% have. The AA and Hispanic kids are giving more chances as more than 85% of them are taking and passing honors courses. In RM it is about 60%. So to me, I think QO works on the student class as a whole. I think RM segregates the kids and doesn't push them to their full potential.

Listen, I am glad you like the school. I just do not at all. I have no desire to want my kids in a lily white school but I do like a good positive community and I just feel like RM lacks that. I am not the only parent to feel that way. The kids are very much segregated by the extreme SES levels and the IB program. It is not cohesive in anyway and that projects onto the kids and their parents. But it is just opinion.

[Anonymous]

9:58, please take your extreme RM hate-mongering elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is Wheaton a W school?

Yes.

No, no, no.. it's not about the schools that start with W. It's about the high performing schools where either the first or last name of the school (or both in case of Walt Whitman) has a W in it.

Read the link http://greatergreatereducation.org/post/20089/mont...oast-on-their-good-reputation/

And yet I've never heard anybody talk about Winston Churchill HS. Plus B-CC should be in the group, except that it doesn't have a w in the name. Maybe MCPS should change the name to Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School at East-West Highway. Then it would have two ws, just like Whitman.

Are you kidding? You never hear talk about Churchill? 2012 rated best high school in MD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is Wheaton a W school?

Yes.

No, no, no.. it's not about the schools that start with W. It's about the high performing schools where either the first or last name of the school (or both in case of Walt Whitman) has a W in it.

Read the link http://greatergreatereducation.org/post/20089/mont...oast-on-their-good-reputation/

And yet I've never heard anybody talk about Winston Churchill HS. Plus B-CC should be in the group, except that it doesn't have a w in the name. Maybe MCPS should change the name to Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School at East-West Highway. Then it would have two ws, just like Whitman.

Are you kidding? You never hear talk about Churchill? 2012 rated best high school in MD.

This year neither Winston Churchill nor B-CC even ranked in the Top High Schools.
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/maryland?int=9abb08

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is Wheaton a W school?

Yes.

No, no, no.. it's not about the schools that start with W. It's about the high performing schools where either the first or last name of the school (or both in case of Walt Whitman) has a W in it.

Read the link http://greatergreatereducation.org/post/20089/mont...oast-on-their-good-reputation/

And yet I've never heard anybody talk about Winston Churchill HS. Plus B-CC should be in the group, except that it doesn't have a w in the name. Maybe MCPS should change the name to Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School at East-West Highway. Then it would have two ws, just like Whitman.

Are you kidding? You never hear talk about Churchill? 2012 rated best high school in MD.

This year neither Winston Churchill nor B-CC even ranked in the Top High Schools.
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/maryland?int=9abb08

That doesn't mean anything. Not being ranked obviously doesn't make it bad school. There were factors as to why they were not, one, I think, being that the schools did not report the numbers to them.