Upper NW DC or Takoma Park schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are looking to move from NE dc, in part to get a bit more space, but largely to get a more established school and feeder for my elementary age kids. We haven’t found a part of Bethesda that really gets us going, but we like parts of upper NW and Takoma park MD, but I’m finding it hard to really dig in to compare the schools meaningfully. Does anyone have a sense of how the schools match if we are zoned for Murch (or nearby)/Deal/Jackson Reed vs Takoma Park Elementary, Piney Branch, TPMS, and Blair. FWIW, my kids smart and slightly above grade average, but odds are they are just average smart kids, not like, geniuses. One kid is a bit sensitive/anxious so I’m hoping to avoid a pressure cooker situation. We value places where there will be diversity, and the opportunity to challenge themselves academically, with a cohort of smart kids who care about schools and families who will make sure the school and administrators don’t drop the ball when issues arise.

So, what do you think, which would you choose???

Murch then worry about the rest later

Presumably they don’t want to move twice so would rather worry about it and work it out now.

Yep! OP here and yes, we are hoping to move once.

To the PP airing concerns about the math curriculum in MCPS, I’d love to hear if others had this impression. My eldest is in 1st grade and they are adding and subtracting under 100, and doing basic (like basic) multiplication and division concepts, and I’d be surprised if my EOTP title 1 school had more advanced math curriculum, but maybe…?

OP, I’m the PP who referenced the math curriculum. We moved to MCPS from a DC charter (also in NE) and both kids were WAY ahead of MCPS. It was most marked for my then 2nd grader who was then limited to working with adding and subtracting numbers under ten and TPES absolutely would not accelerate, regardless of extremely high MAP scores. It was a miserable couple of years and very boring and basic. Not only was the curriculum way behind the charter but it turned out that my kids were also just extremely strong in that subject. But, by 4th grade kids can join an accelerated program that has them working on 4/5 math in 4th and 5/6 math in 5th, completing three years of instruction in two. This helped, though my older child joined in fifth and had no issue going straight to 5/6 and still being significantly ahead due to his DC charter curriculum. Both are now in math, science magnet programs which are an opportunity that they wouldn’t have in DC. It’s been worth moving just for those options, despite the early elementary experience. You just have to wait for the other kids to catch up in 2nd grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We moved from NW DC to Takoma Park when DCs were in 1st and 3rd grade (we were at Janney). Very grateful we did. For us it was night and day, especially in math. Our friends who stayed in DC and stayed in public did not have the same math opportunities as DCs. For us, it worked out extremely well (DCs did end up going into TPMS and Blair and Wheaton magnets, but without moving I don’t think they would’ve had the foundation to do so).

When our children were 4 and 7, we also moved from NW DC to TKPK. Both kids attended the magnet program at TPES and later the CES program. This was before PBES had its local center. Both were also selected to attend the TPMS and Blair STEM magnets. We couldn't be happier with these schools and the opportunities for enrichment they had over the years.

[Anonymous]

Any opinions on whether there is a difference in elementary school in terms of outdoor/recess time? Or class size??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any opinions on whether there is a difference in elementary school in terms of outdoor/recess time? Or class size??

Class size is on the MCPS at a glance site, but I don’t think there is anything comparable for DCPS.

I wish I knew more about the ethos of outdoor time. I heard a rumor that kiddos in MCPS got 2 hours recess, but who knows. I know my PreK kid goes out for recess one time, for 30 minutes, and in aftercare they often don’t go out at all. SMDH

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any opinions on whether there is a difference in elementary school in terms of outdoor/recess time? Or class size??

Class size is on the MCPS at a glance site, but I don’t think there is anything comparable for DCPS.

I wish I knew more about the ethos of outdoor time. I heard a rumor that kiddos in MCPS got 2 hours recess, but who knows. I know my PreK kid goes out for recess one time, for 30 minutes, and in aftercare they often don’t go out at all. SMDH

This is school-by-school but there's no way any school has a two hour recess. Some principals prioritize outdoor time for the younger kids and arrange the schedule to get two recesses on most days, but I don't think it's a common model. However, our school's care provider seemed to spend a lot of time outside, so it ended up being enough for my kid if I signed them up for beforecare so they could run around before school, then have recess, then after school we'd stick around on the playground for a bit.

[Anonymous]

HERE!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are looking to move from NE dc, in part to get a bit more space, but largely to get a more established school and feeder for my elementary age kids. We haven’t found a part of Bethesda that really gets us going, but we like parts of upper NW and Takoma park MD, but I’m finding it hard to really dig in to compare the schools meaningfully. Does anyone have a sense of how the schools match if we are zoned for Murch (or nearby)/Deal/Jackson Reed vs Takoma Park Elementary, Piney Branch, TPMS, and Blair. FWIW, my kids smart and slightly above grade average, but odds are they are just average smart kids, not like, geniuses. One kid is a bit sensitive/anxious so I’m hoping to avoid a pressure cooker situation. We value places where there will be diversity, and the opportunity to challenge themselves academically, with a cohort of smart kids who care about schools and families who will make sure the school and administrators don’t drop the ball when issues arise.

So, what do you think, which would you choose???

Murch then worry about the rest later

Presumably they don’t want to move twice so would rather worry about it and work it out now.

Yep! OP here and yes, we are hoping to move once.

To the PP airing concerns about the math curriculum in MCPS, I’d love to hear if others had this impression. My eldest is in 1st grade and they are adding and subtracting under 100, and doing basic (like basic) multiplication and division concepts, and I’d be surprised if my EOTP title 1 school had more advanced math curriculum, but maybe…?

DCPS and MCPS both use the same math curriculum (Eureka) so in younger grades should be the same. MCPS does offer compacted math where 3 years are compacted into 2 so some ES kids can get through math 6. But most are on the regular track, which is the same as DCPS.

[Anonymous]

Just curious OP—what did you decide? Having a similar debate! I recently heard a friend say their kids were very bored at piney branch, which bummed me out because I’d heard it was good, but maybe the nw dcps would have that issue too.

[Anonymous]

As an independent adult I would prefer Takoma park over every other area in the DMV but as a parent with school aged kids, no, absolutely not, not in a million years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As an independent adult I would prefer Takoma park over every other area in the DMV but as a parent with school aged kids, no, absolutely not, not in a million years.

Strange. On what basis are you making that statement? Are you actually familiar with the schools in Takoma park? If you “absolutely would not in a million years” send your kids to school in TKPK, then where would you send them that if so superior????

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Murch, Deal and JR also have a lot of diversity.

OP, I'd suggest visiting schools in both areas. If you can afford either, both offer great educations and a good quality of life.

We have one kid in Murch and one kid at JR and I largely concur (diversity at Murch is really more international than anything else though)

[Anonymous]

Why are these responses so wildly divergent? Are most people in the neighborhood happy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As an independent adult I would prefer Takoma park over every other area in the DMV but as a parent with school aged kids, no, absolutely not, not in a million years.

Strange. On what basis are you making that statement? Are you actually familiar with the schools in Takoma park? If you “absolutely would not in a million years” send your kids to school in TKPK, then where would you send them that if so superior????

yes the schools are shite and the schools in Bethesda are 100 % better performing I have neighbors who moved from TP to Bethesda exactly for this reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As an independent adult I would prefer Takoma park over every other area in the DMV but as a parent with school aged kids, no, absolutely not, not in a million years.

Strange. On what basis are you making that statement? Are you actually familiar with the schools in Takoma park? If you “absolutely would not in a million years” send your kids to school in TKPK, then where would you send them that if so superior????

yes the schools are shite and the schools in Bethesda are 100 % better performing I have neighbors who moved from TP to Bethesda exactly for this reason.

Ok. Lots of kids do exceptionally well in the schools here. Just like they do in Bethesda. They actually have more options for very advanced kids in Takoma Park. Really weird. I don’t love the elementary schools because they are so big, but no one, absolutely no one, who is actually familiar with them would describe them as “shite”. You are a troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are these responses so wildly divergent? Are most people in the neighborhood happy?

Yes, most people in the neighborhood are happy.