What makes MoCO so great?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-income_counties_in_the_United_States

Howard is a richer county in terms of median income. But the Bethesda and Potamac area is probably richer than anywhere else in the DC metro area.

Well, and those are the areas people are usually talking about when they say they are moving to MOCO "for the schools."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-income_counties_in_the_United_States

Howard is a richer county in terms of median income. But the Bethesda and Potamac area is probably richer than anywhere else in the DC metro area.

Well, and those are the areas people are usually talking about when they say they are moving to MOCO "for the schools."

If that's the case, then the answer is easy. "Because it is rich."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If I am moving out of the city now, I will go to Fairfax.

If you think Fairfax schools are better than MoCo then you are seriously misguided.

They have TJ, higher test scores, and fewer bottom-of-the-barrel schools than MoCo.

But isn't the thread supposed to be about how MCPS compares to DCPS, not some effort to find common ground among the VA bashers?

[Anonymous]

We were at a highly regarded MCPS but did not like it due to overcrowding issues primarily. We've since moved to DC and think our public here is WAY better than our MC one. The DC school is so much smaller, 2-3 sections per grade instead of 5-6. We've liked the teachers better and feel that there are more resources overall. I think that there's this perception that DCPS is sub par, so everyone heads for the suburbs, leading to huge overcrowding problems in the schools. Meanwhile they've left some gems in their wake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were at a highly regarded MCPS but did not like it due to overcrowding issues primarily. We've since moved to DC and think our public here is WAY better than our MC one. The DC school is so much smaller, 2-3 sections per grade instead of 5-6. We've liked the teachers better and feel that there are more resources overall. I think that there's this perception that DCPS is sub par, so everyone heads for the suburbs, leading to huge overcrowding problems in the schools. Meanwhile they've left some gems in their wake.

I often wonder, if everyone is moving to MOCO for the schools, how is there *not* overcrowding? I mean, unless they're opening a bunch of new schools, it seems like there is this huge migration to MOCO. I can't imagine that the current schools can absorb all of that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were at a highly regarded MCPS but did not like it due to overcrowding issues primarily. We've since moved to DC and think our public here is WAY better than our MC one. The DC school is so much smaller, 2-3 sections per grade instead of 5-6. We've liked the teachers better and feel that there are more resources overall. I think that there's this perception that DCPS is sub par, so everyone heads for the suburbs, leading to huge overcrowding problems in the schools. Meanwhile they've left some gems in their wake.

I often wonder, if everyone is moving to MOCO for the schools, how is there *not* overcrowding? I mean, unless they're opening a bunch of new schools, it seems like there is this huge migration to MOCO. I can't imagine that the current schools can absorb all of that.

MoCo opens new schools, and some people who are there already leave. You can't assess it simply by ruminating about the number of yuppies who leave DC.

[Anonymous]

The problem with MCPS isn't just capacity its ratios. You can have a school that is under capacity meaning more students can enroll based on the facility size but if the class numbers don't come out a certain way you can still have huge classes. If there is lower enrollment one year, MCPS will re-assign one teacher to another position or a noter school and move from 4 classes to 3 classes. Even though enrollment is lower, your child will end up in a class with 27-28 kids. Staffing and aides are also dependent on enrollment. If enrollment is low enough to know from 4-3 or 3-2 classes, staff is cut too. Even though the kids really need the extra staff because there are 28 kids in a class, its not available.

[Anonymous]

MoCo struggles with the same problem almost all schools do with lots if poor children. No one has the silver bulletin on how to best help those kids. What many in my part of the county worry about is whether the school can walk and chew gum though if we send them our middle class kids. If the county devoted more time to making sure middle class families could have confidence in using the local school then they would not get so rattled by the avg test scores and would stick around to help pull up the academic envitoemt at the school as a whole and help make more active PTAs. The county's lack of focus in the eastern parts on trying to actively reassure and draw in middle class families is hurting those schools and will make the situation worse over time.

[Anonymous]

People have their own issues, and most schools are not perfect for every kid. But if you think about what MoCo is trying to do, it is pretty impressive if not perfect. It is a big school district with widely diverse economic and racial strata, and the district works hard to integrate those factors while not losing any focus. There are a lot of high achieving schools and there are a lot of diverse schools and some of those intersect, and if you look at the data, MoCo does better than most school districts in the country on those issues. Class sizes are large (but the data are pretty clear that class size does not matter much in performance) and there is a huge variation in the quality of high schools, and I would also add it typically treats parents as adversaries which is a huge mistake, but what the district accomplishes is pretty impressive. We attended one of those town based school districts in MA, and while sometimes they are terrific because so homogenous, racially and economically, they are also small which means stifling and lacking amenities that we take for granted. Again, MoCo is hardly perfect but in thinking about these things it is best not to think about your child and your school but look at the district as a whole and it is hard not to be impressed, though there is clear room for improvement.

[Anonymous]

Again, MoCo is hardly perfect but in thinking about these things it is best not to think about your child and your school but look at the district as a whole and it is hard not to be impressed, though there is clear room for improvement.

You must work for MCPS. I've looked deeper into what the entire district accomplishes and its not impressive at all. There are significant problems ranging from financial mismanagement to lack of planning and meaningful collection of assessment data against operational performance. The financial problems aren't the type that you hear from the crazy parents groups. Those issues are inconsequential. It lags behind other school systems in the area in terms of facilities and resources that go directly to students even though it collects more money. Its about a decade behind other school systems.

The performance in the MCPS schools that do not attract the highly educated and wealthier parents is more indicative of its performance which isn't stellar.

MCPS has antagonistic relations with many groups beyond just general parents. They have an acrimonious relationship with the county and state officials resulting from ill conceived, wasteful and arrogant past decisions and legal actions. They have a reputation for playing hard ball with special needs kids and spending more to fight appeals for services than providing services. Its a large insular system that continues to present itself as accountable to no one except itself.

[Anonymous]

I would find arguments like PP's at 9:21 more persuasive if they didn't so frequently start with "you must work for MCPS".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were at a highly regarded MCPS but did not like it due to overcrowding issues primarily. We've since moved to DC and think our public here is WAY better than our MC one. The DC school is so much smaller, 2-3 sections per grade instead of 5-6. We've liked the teachers better and feel that there are more resources overall. I think that there's this perception that DCPS is sub par, so everyone heads for the suburbs, leading to huge overcrowding problems in the schools. Meanwhile they've left some gems in their wake.

I often wonder, if everyone is moving to MOCO for the schools, how is there *not* overcrowding? I mean, unless they're opening a bunch of new schools, it seems like there is this huge migration to MOCO. I can't imagine that the current schools can absorb all of that.

There is only overcrowding in the "best" schools. The trick is to find the "quite good but not best" schools. They are still reasonably sized because the stampede has not found them yet. We've found some in Silver Spring but I'm not naming names

[Anonymous]

MCPS over promotes itself which is part of the organization's credibility problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS over promotes itself which is part of the organization's credibility problem.

Examples, please?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were at a highly regarded MCPS but did not like it due to overcrowding issues primarily. We've since moved to DC and think our public here is WAY better than our MC one. The DC school is so much smaller, 2-3 sections per grade instead of 5-6. We've liked the teachers better and feel that there are more resources overall. I think that there's this perception that DCPS is sub par, so everyone heads for the suburbs, leading to huge overcrowding problems in the schools. Meanwhile they've left some gems in their wake.

I often wonder, if everyone is moving to MOCO for the schools, how is there *not* overcrowding? I mean, unless they're opening a bunch of new schools, it seems like there is this huge migration to MOCO. I can't imagine that the current schools can absorb all of that.

There is only overcrowding in the "best" schools. The trick is to find the "quite good but not best" schools. They are still reasonably sized because the stampede has not found them yet. We've found some in Silver Spring but I'm not naming names

Aww come on, pretty please? Looking to buy a house in MoCo and likely SS but I have found the school search overwhelming. The best and worst are most obvious, but the majority in the middle are difficult to disentangle.