How bad are Montgomery County Schools?

[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?

Possibly. But I think the homework load itself is overscheduling.

I do extracurricular things with my son, but at a slower pace. I don't think life should be jam-packed, whether it's done in school or at home.

[Anonymous]

It was our story as well. We moved to Bethesda/Chevy Chase before our child has started K. I was very much disappointed in the MoCo curriculum. In 3 years we took our child out.

[Anonymous]

We plan to send our kids to BCCHS but now I see the new US news rankings, and BCC isnt even in the running for top school anymore! http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/high-schools/2009/12/09/americas-best-high-schools-gold-medal-list.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Wow. Cynical much?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Re: the lack of arts focus. If you are sending your kids to public school, can you not use the money saved by not having $30,000 a year in tuition after taxes to put towards arts camp, going to plays, concerts, piano lessons etc? If you are strapped because of tuition all that other stuff goes right out the window. As for outdoor time, i think tat does vary from school to school.

In the end it is a Public School education - not a private school education for free. As such, there are some trade-offs - you won't get a private school education by going to a public school (i.e. small classes, lots of enrichment activities, lots of arts, more handholding), but you will get an excellent educational grounding - it's just more rote - it has to be - the system is serving thousands of students with various needs - not the 400 or so that a private school serves. The parents need to fill in the gaps.

As for the lack of arts focus, in Chicago, the public schools offer music class every other day. It rotates on and off with PE, which is every other day. From what I've read about Mo Co schools, PE is only once a week. When I was in elementary school, we had PE every single day. And policymakers are wondering why our kids are so fat and can't learn. They don't give them enough opportunities to exercise!

[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?

I wouldn't schedule my kid for an afterschool activity every day, but I think 1-2 during the week and one on the weekend is fine if they like them. Plus the homework is about 15 min/day-- and in K you can skip it if you want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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 with it help us and our kids?

Wow. Cynical much?

No. I'm a realist. This is why people who are unhappy with their local public schools don't usually share that information. Except with people who have already bought into the neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We plan to send our kids to BCCHS but now I see the new US news rankings, and BCC isnt even in the running for top school anymore! http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/high-schools/2009/12/09/americas-best-high-schools-gold-medal-list.html

Am I reading that list right? Of their top 100 high schools, the first one is Thomas Jefferson in Fairfax VA, but none of the rest are in VA or MD?

Did they just not include MD in the ranking?

[Anonymous]

I would like to see how Montgomery County kids fare on certain tests compared with students from other nearby counties. Isn't there a national test that is given to all 4th and 8th graders?

[Anonymous]

OK, help me out someone.

I found this website:

http://nationsreportcard.gov/data_tools.asp

How can I find out how kids from say, Montgomery County, Fairfax County, and Arlington County scored on the 4th grade math test?

[Anonymous]

Interesting (I'm someone who has posted a few times in a row -- not sock puppeting)

I did not know this -- NAEP basically doesn't report individual districts, just state wide and a few urban districts.

Up until 1994 they were prohibited from reporting on anything lower than state level.

http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10049&page=30

If that is still true, I find it very sad. The test is one of the few that is given across the country to kids in 4th grade. Seems as if it would be very useful information for parents to have when comparing schools, esp across state lines.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting (I'm someone who has posted a few times in a row -- not sock puppeting) I did not know this -- NAEP basically doesn't report individual districts, just state wide and a few urban districts. Up until 1994 they were prohibited from reporting on anything lower than state level. http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10049&page=30 If that is still true, I find it very sad. The test is one of the few that is given across the country to kids in 4th grade. Seems as if it would be very useful information for parents to have when comparing schools, esp across state lines.

I agree those are really interesting tools. I also wish the data were reported with details about each school/district.

I wonder whether local school districts create pressure not to report on a school/county basis, because that leads to people pointing fingers at the bottom-of-the-barrel schools. That's just speculation on my part.

I do think that individual schools and districts get reports on how each of their own schools scored. Sometimes I see the data published. I presume that schools/districts scoring highly will publish, but that those performing poorly will keep it quiet.

[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?

I don't think scheduling is required in order to get in all of the extras. Sure, some scheduling is needed (e.g. our boys take piano lessons - 1/2 hour/child/week; both kids take tennis, which is an hour/week, and the younger one takes a pottery class which is 1 hour/week), but we get in a lot of that stuff as a family: We visit museums, go to concerts, go swimming together, camp, hike, and play sports together. Those aren't extracurriculars, it's just life.

I like our kids' MCPS elementary school. I don't love it, but I like it. My kids have parents with good, professional jobs; a large house; clothes, shoes, school supplies, and abundant food; a spiritual community; warm beds, and lots of love. They attend school in a top-rates school system and get plenty of formal and informal extras.

So their school isn't The Best? So what? From my point of view, they are blessed. Good enough is good enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Agree. DD is in private school, and we just barely have time for ice skating, which she does 12 hours a week. I could not imagine doing this in public school. We are happy that she gets music, art, Spanish, PE AT SCHOOL, so we don't even have to think about how to squeeze it all in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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 with it help us and our kids?

Wow. Cynical much?

No. I'm a realist. This is why people who are unhappy with their local public schools don't usually share that information. Except with people who have already bought into the neighborhood.

Let me make sure I am understanding you correctly. If someone looking for info about schools is asking about which school districts perform poorly, you won't provide negative info about your neighborhood's school. And that's because helping someone out would not "benefit me or anyone in my neighborhood"? And you'd share your concerns about the schools only with people "who have already bought into the neighborhood." Are you saying you'd hide the poor schools just because there's no clear benefit to you in sharing the info, or is it because you think sharing the info hurts you somehow? How do you think this might hurt you?

Are you the only one who thinks this way, or do you think all your friends/neighbors think the same way?

I've got to say, this way of thinking surprises me.