GreatSchools rating of 3 - off the table?

[Anonymous]

Elementary school.

Benefits of the Elementary are, it's 2 blocks from our house and has very strong PTA involvement. Pulls from a wide range of neighborhoods - from extremely wealthy to working class. 15 years ago it was the "IT" elementary school in town before more were opened/improved. Feeds very strong Middle and High schools.

Would any of the above factors sway your decision, or would you go private based upon GS rating alone?

[Anonymous]

Nope. I would want to know more specifics about the school like average class size, test statistics, teacher quality, and maybe talk to some neighborhood families with kids who attend. I give Great Schools very little weight.

[Anonymous]

Agree with PP. Find out more.

[Anonymous]

We go to a school that is 3 on Great Schools and are fine with it -- but that's because we investigated and got information on how they could meet our children's needs. I would look into it further. The key question is whether your children will do well there, not what the overall test scores are like (which is what the GS ratings are based on). Good luck!

[Anonymous]

GreatSchools ratings, pfft. It's information, I guess, but it's not useful information.

[Anonymous]

We are in a GS4 school, and it's totally fine. We rented first and talked to other parents in the neighborhood, but ended up feeling fine with our choice. The administration is strong, the classes are tiny by MCPS standards (max of 18 per class in K-2), and the parent community is great.

[Anonymous]

We've been to "high-farms" multi racial schools that were awesome. Now in an all-white upper class school that is simply so-so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We've been to "high-farms" multi racial schools that were awesome. Now in an all-white upper class school that is simply so-so.

FARMS that is.

[Anonymous]

At a GS 3 school now. We like it a lot - have been very happy with DD's teachers so far and administration is great.

Downsides:
1) make sure you talk to neighbors about socialization issues. We do have playdates but it is not somewhere that has all class parties all the time and I found I needed to be really proactive in being the one to ask for playdates.
2) same stuff no one else likes about MCPS RE: math...no differentiation. But I hear this is everywhere so I try not to hold it against our school.

[Anonymous]

My child was at a gs5 school and it was horrible. We moved to a school with a 9 rating and it was good, not perfect, but very good. Now we are at a school rated 7 and we like it better than the 9 school. I think it just depends, but I don't think I'd choose a school with a rating of 3, there must be a lot of problems throughout the whole school for it to have such a low score.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child was at a gs5 school and it was horrible. We moved to a school with a 9 rating and it was good, not perfect, but very good. Now we are at a school rated 7 and we like it better than the 9 school. I think it just depends, but I don't think I'd choose a school with a rating of 3, there must be a lot of problems throughout the whole school for it to have such a low score.

I'm the one who posted about being at a high-FARMS school that was really good. They get low scores because there are language issues so they don't test well, not because the school is bad. That was our experience.

[Anonymous]

Don't take it off the table. I worked at a 3, and if it's title I then there can be a lot of benefits. In fcps that means smaller classes, better trained teachers, more resources. Ours was really a very nice school.

The downside was that the general level of performance was low, meaning an average middle class kid wasn't necessarily pushed to work at a higher level. They were even kind of ignored sometimes, because teachers were so focused on the lowest kids. Another downside was some scary types that probably shouldn't have been in general classrooms in the first place, and sometimes bullied the middle class or white kids, especially in the upper grades. Upside was that an average student looked gifted.

Now I'm the parent of a kid in a 7, and I am really unhappy with it. The teachers are poorly trained, and there is way too much pressure for the kids to perform at levels that aren't always developmentally appropriate, even for middle class kids. There is also a lot of other stuff I don't care for, but suffice to say I think my 3 was better than this 7.

So I suggest go and take a look and talk to the principal. Some of the 3's are pretty good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child was at a gs5 school and it was horrible. We moved to a school with a 9 rating and it was good, not perfect, but very good. Now we are at a school rated 7 and we like it better than the 9 school. I think it just depends, but I don't think I'd choose a school with a rating of 3, there must be a lot of problems throughout the whole school for it to have such a low score.

I'm the one who posted about being at a high-FARMS school that was really good. They get low scores because there are language issues so they don't test well, not because the school is bad. That was our experience.

I'm the pp you responded to. At our school that wasn't the issue. There were barely any ELL students and the school was more than 70% white. There wasn't a very good community at the school. I was one of the PTA moms and I volunteered at nearly every event with the same other moms. There were about 10 of us, but only about 5 of us always volunteered. We tried really hard to make a good community at the school and I made some nice friends with the moms, but I wanted a better school for my son. He wasn't happy there and hated school. He is really starting to like it right now at the 7 school.

[Anonymous]

Elementary school wouldn't bother me. It's not until they're older that peer groups really matter.

[Anonymous]

OP here - Thanks all for the insight. Sounds like I need to get myself over there and meet the principal, talk to my neighbors, etc! I've heard there are a low test scores at this school due to language issues of some of the students. It's extremely diverse. So I guess the question would be, do they do an adequate job of accommodating all types of students.