Pyle/Whitman or Westland/BCC cluster better fit?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would choose the BCC cluster to avoid Pyle, which is socially cliquey and a bit more moneyed. It's also far bigger and not as well run as Westland. I agree that Whitman is strong, but you're about to start middle, so HS is a ways off still.

Whitman is just Pyle part 2. 5 elementary schools feed into Pyle and only Pyle feeds into Whitman. So the 6th grade at pyle is the same 4 years later for the 9th grade at Whitman. Whitman is the same 5 elementary schools which are all very strong too.

Pyle is the number one rated middle school in Md most years too FYI

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DP. Before making any decision, you should know that Whitman has a far superior academic rep.


Whitman is #1 in MCPS rankings, #1 in Maryland rankings, and #104 in National Rankings.
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/maryland/districts/montgomery-county-public-schools/walt-whitman-high-school-9150

BCC is #5 in MCPS rankings, #8 in Maryland rankings, and #491 in National Rankings.
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/maryland/districts/montgomery-county-public-schools/bethesda-chevy-chase-high-school-9137

Notice the % meeting UofM standards to prep for college:

Whitman Profile:
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04427.pdf

BCC Profile:
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04406.pdf

Although Whitman did have a serious incident with it's students this year, those kids were not typical Whitman profile. They were from the Greentree Group Home in Bethesda. You can read about it here.

https://theblackandwhite.net/71161/news/three-whitman-students-charged-with-murder-after-bethesda-killing/

Subtract the group home and BCC is a tougher crowd overall.

https://foxbaltimore.com/news/local/bethesda-chevy-chase-high-school-student-attacks-assaults-security-guard-montgomery-county-public-jacob-moore

https://wjla.com/news/local/bethesda-chevy-chase-hs-student-jumped-in-school-bathroom-taken-to-er-for-injuries

Overall, I think the parents advocating Whitman are giving you good advice. About what the other parent says about "my kid says Whitman has the best drugs" - do you really want to take advice from an anonymous drug using family?

Personally, if I were in your shoes, I would go with Whitman.

Good luck!

These schools are segregated so there are few low-income students dragging down their test averages. For the low FARMS rate their stats are not all that impressive.

Say what you want but the scores are among the highest in the country. And the schools aren't segregated you nitwit they just draw form areas with high cost of entries so the wealth/achievement gap of minorities is manifested in those percentages and consistent in most expensive areas or super zip codes in the country. Some of that is a vestige of segregation but some of that is up to millionaire minorities buying homes too. It takes a measure of humility to spend over 1 mil for a small house to be the poor neighbor opposed to a huge house in a cheaper part of the city where you might just be the richest person on your street. Lots of new to money types chose the latter, this is one of the reasons that formerly poor people have the highest chances for negative mobility or economic recidivism.

[Anonymous]

You ought to be careful about moving to of these schools/clusters as a way to get into the desired schools. Depending on how the Board of Ed election turns out tomorrow, MCPS could see a lot of redistricting in order to try to even out schools across the county and make more equitable the distribution of what folks on this thread are pointing to as reasons why Whitman, BCC, Pyle, etc. have "the best" in the state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You ought to be careful about moving to of these schools/clusters as a way to get into the desired schools. Depending on how the Board of Ed election turns out tomorrow, MCPS could see a lot of redistricting in order to try to even out schools across the county and make more equitable the distribution of what folks on this thread are pointing to as reasons why Whitman, BCC, Pyle, etc. have "the best" in the state.

Well, you gotta pick a school at some point, don’t you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You ought to be careful about moving to of these schools/clusters as a way to get into the desired schools. Depending on how the Board of Ed election turns out tomorrow, MCPS could see a lot of redistricting in order to try to even out schools across the county and make more equitable the distribution of what folks on this thread are pointing to as reasons why Whitman, BCC, Pyle, etc. have "the best" in the state.

Well, you gotta pick a school at some point, don’t you?

No. The point is that you pick a neighborhood, house, apartment building, condo, etc. and you don't "pick a school". That's the kind of thinking that perpetuates the inequities across the county's schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whitman is the richest school in the county. It will not be down to earth. Bcc is a mix of very wealthy to a mix of everything else. Google the w schools. Many have had serious issues this year and student deaths. Very tragic.

Mcps employee says BCCis the wealthiest school in the county, not Whitman.

Actually the real richest school in the county is Churchill.

No it is not. It is BCC.

This is a stupid argument.
BCC does pull from some more working class areas. Churchill has no working class areas that are inbounds I think.
Average home price in 20854 is something like 1.3 mil. In the BCC zip code it's under a mil. Are the very wealthy families in BCC as wealthy or wealthier than some at Churchill? Sure but again this is a stupid debate.

I work in the school district and bcc is the wealthiest. You don’t have to like it but it is what it is.
You make up a large part of the “stupid debate.”

I have no stake in this argument but BCC has a higher FARMS percentage than the other schools.
What do you mean BCC is the wealthiest? How are you measuring that because if you measure by FARMS it is not 10-11% versus less than 5% for Churchill.
Why does it matter that you work in the school district?

NP-working in the school district is relevant as they likely have access to that information.
The farms rating does not correlate with the amount of wealth of individuals or money the school receives.

The only wealth-related information MCPS has access to are the FARMS and Ever-FARMS rates.

DP-Farms is not the only factor in determining a school’s wealth. School receive monies from through various entities.

If you're talking about PTSA and foundations, that is a separate issue.

I’m talking about what school has the most wealth. You know what is being talked about.

The most wealth is at Churchill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whitman is the richest school in the county. It will not be down to earth. Bcc is a mix of very wealthy to a mix of everything else. Google the w schools. Many have had serious issues this year and student deaths. Very tragic.

Mcps employee says BCCis the wealthiest school in the county, not Whitman.

Actually the real richest school in the county is Churchill.

No it is not. It is BCC.

This is a stupid argument.
BCC does pull from some more working class areas. Churchill has no working class areas that are inbounds I think.
Average home price in 20854 is something like 1.3 mil. In the BCC zip code it's under a mil. Are the very wealthy families in BCC as wealthy or wealthier than some at Churchill? Sure but again this is a stupid debate.

I work in the school district and bcc is the wealthiest. You don’t have to like it but it is what it is.
You make up a large part of the “stupid debate.”

I have no stake in this argument but BCC has a higher FARMS percentage than the other schools.
What do you mean BCC is the wealthiest? How are you measuring that because if you measure by FARMS it is not 10-11% versus less than 5% for Churchill.
Why does it matter that you work in the school district?

NP-working in the school district is relevant as they likely have access to that information.
The farms rating does not correlate with the amount of wealth of individuals or money the school receives.

The only wealth-related information MCPS has access to are the FARMS and Ever-FARMS rates.

DP-Farms is not the only factor in determining a school’s wealth. School receive monies from through various entities.

If you're talking about PTSA and foundations, that is a separate issue.

I’m talking about what school has the most wealth. You know what is being talked about.

The most wealth is at Churchill.

You would be wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You ought to be careful about moving to of these schools/clusters as a way to get into the desired schools. Depending on how the Board of Ed election turns out tomorrow, MCPS could see a lot of redistricting in order to try to even out schools across the county and make more equitable the distribution of what folks on this thread are pointing to as reasons why Whitman, BCC, Pyle, etc. have "the best" in the state.

Well, you gotta pick a school at some point, don’t you?

No. The point is that you pick a neighborhood, house, apartment building, condo, etc. and you don't "pick a school". That's the kind of thinking that perpetuates the inequities across the county's schools.

I can pick whatever school I want. You don’t dictate where and why someone chooses to live.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You ought to be careful about moving to of these schools/clusters as a way to get into the desired schools. Depending on how the Board of Ed election turns out tomorrow, MCPS could see a lot of redistricting in order to try to even out schools across the county and make more equitable the distribution of what folks on this thread are pointing to as reasons why Whitman, BCC, Pyle, etc. have "the best" in the state.

Well, you gotta pick a school at some point, don’t you?

No. The point is that you pick a neighborhood, house, apartment building, condo, etc. and you don't "pick a school". That's the kind of thinking that perpetuates the inequities across the county's schools.

I can pick whatever school I want. You don’t dictate where and why someone chooses to live.

Of course I don't. I didn't say I did. I simply said that there is some degree of likelihood that your attempt to "pick whatever school I want" doesn't actually work out because you can't technically "pick a school". You can pick a neighborhood, a house, a cluster, an apartment building that, today, will guarantee your kids go to a particular school but that guarantee is only as good as the Board of Ed's desire to redistrict schools. So, no, I don't dictate where and why someone chooses to live in a particular place. But the BoE sure does dictate where kids go to school depending on where they live. Not you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You ought to be careful about moving to of these schools/clusters as a way to get into the desired schools. Depending on how the Board of Ed election turns out tomorrow, MCPS could see a lot of redistricting in order to try to even out schools across the county and make more equitable the distribution of what folks on this thread are pointing to as reasons why Whitman, BCC, Pyle, etc. have "the best" in the state.

Well, you gotta pick a school at some point, don’t you?

No. The point is that you pick a neighborhood, house, apartment building, condo, etc. and you don't "pick a school". That's the kind of thinking that perpetuates the inequities across the county's schools.

I can pick whatever school I want. You don’t dictate where and why someone chooses to live.

Of course I don't. I didn't say I did. I simply said that there is some degree of likelihood that your attempt to "pick whatever school I want" doesn't actually work out because you can't technically "pick a school". You can pick a neighborhood, a house, a cluster, an apartment building that, today, will guarantee your kids go to a particular school but that guarantee is only as good as the Board of Ed's desire to redistrict schools. So, no, I don't dictate where and why someone chooses to live in a particular place. But the BoE sure does dictate where kids go to school depending on where they live. Not you.

Neither do you. Don’t tell anyone to not pick a school “in case” it may change. You have to pick. You deflected that you want people to choose schools that are not desirable for them bc your hypocrisy in your attempts to guilt trip others into picking poorer schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DP. Before making any decision, you should know that Whitman has a far superior academic rep.


Whitman is #1 in MCPS rankings, #1 in Maryland rankings, and #104 in National Rankings.
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/maryland/districts/montgomery-county-public-schools/walt-whitman-high-school-9150

BCC is #5 in MCPS rankings, #8 in Maryland rankings, and #491 in National Rankings.
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/maryland/districts/montgomery-county-public-schools/bethesda-chevy-chase-high-school-9137

Notice the % meeting UofM standards to prep for college:

Whitman Profile:
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04427.pdf

BCC Profile:
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04406.pdf

Although Whitman did have a serious incident with it's students this year, those kids were not typical Whitman profile. They were from the Greentree Group Home in Bethesda. You can read about it here.

https://theblackandwhite.net/71161/news/three-whitman-students-charged-with-murder-after-bethesda-killing/

Subtract the group home and BCC is a tougher crowd overall.

https://foxbaltimore.com/news/local/bethesda-chevy-chase-high-school-student-attacks-assaults-security-guard-montgomery-county-public-jacob-moore

https://wjla.com/news/local/bethesda-chevy-chase-hs-student-jumped-in-school-bathroom-taken-to-er-for-injuries

Overall, I think the parents advocating Whitman are giving you good advice. About what the other parent says about "my kid says Whitman has the best drugs" - do you really want to take advice from an anonymous drug using family?

Personally, if I were in your shoes, I would go with Whitman.

Good luck!

These schools are segregated so there are few low-income students dragging down their test averages. For the low FARMS rate their stats are not all that impressive.

Say what you want but the scores are among the highest in the country. And the schools aren't segregated you nitwit they just draw form areas with high cost of entries so the wealth/achievement gap of minorities is manifested in those percentages and consistent in most expensive areas or super zip codes in the country. Some of that is a vestige of segregation but some of that is up to millionaire minorities buying homes too. It takes a measure of humility to spend over 1 mil for a small house to be the poor neighbor opposed to a huge house in a cheaper part of the city where you might just be the richest person on your street. Lots of new to money types chose the latter, this is one of the reasons that formerly poor people have the highest chances for negative mobility or economic recidivism.

So your saying people pay extra to ensure their children are not in school with poors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - thanks everyone for your feedback. I wonder which one is more desirable, an AP program (Whitman) or an IB (BCC). Any views?

09:06 again.

Views differ on this. If your kids wish to go to certain European universities, then perhaps a full IB diploma might be advantageous. Then again, the UK and Canada's most American-friendly universities know US applicants usually take AP exams, and have admission requirements tailored to them.
If your children wish to enroll in American universities, I believe (but others may disagree) that AP is best. The reason for this is that the IB grading system is NOT an American one originally: it's a European-based grading system and therefore, it takes a lot to have a high score. Americans tend to grade higher - the goal is the A, or a 5/5 on an AP exam. IB does not work like that, and yet, a lot of American colleges don't know this, and expect very high scores, which puts IB candidates at a very slight disadvantage during the application process. Currently American admissions are based on GPA, various test scores (even with the test optional system), course selectivity (whether a student was able to take their school's most challenging course offerings), extra-curriculars, and essays. Given this multi-pronged admission system, IB or AP will not make an enormous difference to a student's admission chances, provided students take a few APs, or a few IB classes, or both.

You can always take a look at course offerings at BCC and Whitman to get an idea of the differences. Core courses are required and bound to stay the same over the years, but there might be changes in languages and elective offerings, depending on the availability of teachers and waning/waxing interest in certain subjects.

Thank you so much, PP, for the thoughtful response. This was super useful. I really do not know what the future will bring. My kids might or might not go to college or university overseas. All three of us are dual citizens.

Yes, as the PP mentioned these courses are offered at most every MCPS high-school. They all have the same teachers and curriculum. The only exception is some special classes at magnet schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You ought to be careful about moving to of these schools/clusters as a way to get into the desired schools. Depending on how the Board of Ed election turns out tomorrow, MCPS could see a lot of redistricting in order to try to even out schools across the county and make more equitable the distribution of what folks on this thread are pointing to as reasons why Whitman, BCC, Pyle, etc. have "the best" in the state.

Well, you gotta pick a school at some point, don’t you?

No. The point is that you pick a neighborhood, house, apartment building, condo, etc. and you don't "pick a school". That's the kind of thinking that perpetuates the inequities across the county's schools.

I can pick whatever school I want. You don’t dictate where and why someone chooses to live.

Of course I don't. I didn't say I did. I simply said that there is some degree of likelihood that your attempt to "pick whatever school I want" doesn't actually work out because you can't technically "pick a school". You can pick a neighborhood, a house, a cluster, an apartment building that, today, will guarantee your kids go to a particular school but that guarantee is only as good as the Board of Ed's desire to redistrict schools. So, no, I don't dictate where and why someone chooses to live in a particular place. But the BoE sure does dictate where kids go to school depending on where they live. Not you.

Neither do you. Don’t tell anyone to not pick a school “in case” it may change. You have to pick. You deflected that you want people to choose schools that are not desirable for them bc your hypocrisy in your attempts to guilt trip others into picking poorer schools.

Oh, ok. I’ll just pretend on these threads where people are making one of the most significant choices in their lives (where to buy/rent a place to live) that their choice to prioritize school placement is a great, iron-clad idea because the school to which they’re assigned will never change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whitman is the richest school in the county. It will not be down to earth. Bcc is a mix of very wealthy to a mix of everything else. Google the w schools. Many have had serious issues this year and student deaths. Very tragic.

Mcps employee says BCCis the wealthiest school in the county, not Whitman.

Actually the real richest school in the county is Churchill.

No it is not. It is BCC.

This is a stupid argument.
BCC does pull from some more working class areas. Churchill has no working class areas that are inbounds I think.
Average home price in 20854 is something like 1.3 mil. In the BCC zip code it's under a mil. Are the very wealthy families in BCC as wealthy or wealthier than some at Churchill? Sure but again this is a stupid debate.

I work in the school district and bcc is the wealthiest. You don’t have to like it but it is what it is.
You make up a large part of the “stupid debate.”

I have no stake in this argument but BCC has a higher FARMS percentage than the other schools.
What do you mean BCC is the wealthiest? How are you measuring that because if you measure by FARMS it is not 10-11% versus less than 5% for Churchill.
Why does it matter that you work in the school district?

NP-working in the school district is relevant as they likely have access to that information.
The farms rating does not correlate with the amount of wealth of individuals or money the school receives.

The only wealth-related information MCPS has access to are the FARMS and Ever-FARMS rates.

DP-Farms is not the only factor in determining a school’s wealth. School receive monies from through various entities.

If you're talking about PTSA and foundations, that is a separate issue.

I’m talking about what school has the most wealth. You know what is being talked about.

The most wealth is at Churchill.

You would be wrong.

It's not wrong. There's more wealth at Churchill period.
Whitman, BCC are wannabes

[Anonymous]

OP here - thanks for the useful comments. If you read my original question, I am picking according to 1. strength of school and 2. proximity to downtown DC/ work. If I look at these two, the Whitman and BCC clusters are the best bet. I am not wealthy in DC-terms if you are only looking at only $$$$ income, but I am an educated international professional with smart kids, so obviously I am looking for like-minded kids/ parents, so we can feel like a good fit. So, I am not looking for wealth, but fit. As a single Mom, I NEED the schools to be strong and I WANT the kids who attend these schools to be similarly smart and ambitious. Not because I am snotty or snobby as someone suggested, but because those are my values and those are the values I want to install into my kids. I am tending towards the Pyle/Whitman cluster, I like the 20816 zip code; lots of green space, quiet, nice neighborhood; easy commute to downtown.