The most desirable elementary/ms/hs boundary neighborhoods and schools for motivated kids?

[Anonymous]

Not the pp you're quoting, but I agree with that PP wholeheartedly. I'll give you an example. Unit tests. It used to be that, after learning a certain amount of work in math, a unit test was given. The test was graded and a report was sent home. It said, for example, 15 out of 17 correct in computation; 13 out of 15 correct in algebraic functions, etc. It was very specific and very clear. The student knew exactly where he stood, as did the parents. Now, unit tests are gone. In their place, a few questions might be asked during class and the teacher decided whether or not the child "gets" the concept. Talk about subjective - to say nothing of the lack of testing retained knowledge and performing in a testing environment. Let's take the letter grades out of the argument. Something fishy is going on with the new way of grading in MCPS -- it simply appears that the schools do not want he students to be tested and graded accordingly. If I thought that they had some effective alternative, I might be able to buy in to what they are doing. But, a rational alternative hasn't been suggested. Instead, we have murky, subjective grading that simply looks like hide-the-ball.

+10000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you living under a rock? MCPS has terrible budget problems. Class sizes exploded in elementary schools several years ago. Overcrowding is a serious problem. They just announced delaying many projects that would relieve this. No one wants to talk about boundary changes but there is no other way to address some of these problems.

MCPS also underfunds gifted and special needs programs and services. They can only accommodate 3% of kids who test in the gifted range. Starr has a bad reputation for dealing with the gifted and talent community and a worse reputation with the special needs community. If the OP is hoping for entry into a HGC or magnet she needs to realize that its a lottery among those who qualify. You're better off in VA.

They are not lotteries. Why are you spreading disinformation?

[Anonymous]

Not the PP but there are two types of magnets in the county lottery based (immersion, Parkland) etc and test in magnets (Richard Montgomery, Blair, Poolesville,Clemente etc)....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you living under a rock? MCPS has terrible budget problems. Class sizes exploded in elementary schools several years ago. Overcrowding is a serious problem. They just announced delaying many projects that would relieve this. No one wants to talk about boundary changes but there is no other way to address some of these problems.

MCPS also underfunds gifted and special needs programs and services. They can only accommodate 3% of kids who test in the gifted range. Starr has a bad reputation for dealing with the gifted and talent community and a worse reputation with the special needs community. If the OP is hoping for entry into a HGC or magnet she needs to realize that its a lottery among those who qualify. You're better off in VA.

OK, I'm living under a rock. So please find me the newspaper article or the press release or whatever where MCPS announces that they are facing a hundred-plus million dollar operating budget shortfall for next year, and are going to have to cut. Also, please explain what "class sizes exploded" means. They used to be 15, and now they're 35? They used to be 23, and now they're 25? (And yes, overcrowding is a serious problem, and there is not enough money in the capital budget to do everything that MCPS would like to do. But that has nothing to do with class size.)

And where you say the admission to the test-in magnets is "a lottery among those who qualify", what does that mean? Lots of people are qualified, according to some standard (which standard?), and the admissions committee picks randomly? How do you know this?

[Anonymous]

The Washington Post says that class sizes in MCPS are declining, not "exploding".

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/class-sizes-growing-in-prince-william/2013/11/08/d1504112-48df-11e3-b6f8-3782ff6cb769_graphic.html

[Anonymous]

The test in magnets are very competitive and there is no lottery aspect.The other magnets are lottery.

[Anonymous]

In elementary, is not really the cluster that matters, but the school itself.
Go to the website, under schools, then schools at a glance, where you could find all the stats of each school.
One of the categories for teachers is years of experience. Those schools with low % of 0-5 years of experience are the good ones, since most teachers have experience. They will be able to take whatever is being thrown to them, adapt it and teach it without getting confused.
Those school with a large % of brand new teachers will have difficulty. It also depends on the number of school-based "specialists", who work from their offices and do not have classrooms. Most have been in the system for decades, and can get full retirement but choose not to. In order to balance their high salaries, the school hires young teachers straight out of college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In elementary, is not really the cluster that matters, but the school itself.
Go to the website, under schools, then schools at a glance, where you could find all the stats of each school.
One of the categories for teachers is years of experience. Those schools with low % of 0-5 years of experience are the good ones, since most teachers have experience. They will be able to take whatever is being thrown to them, adapt it and teach it without getting confused.
Those school with a large % of brand new teachers will have difficulty. It also depends on the number of school-based "specialists", who work from their offices and do not have classrooms. Most have been in the system for decades, and can get full retirement but choose not to. In order to balance their high salaries, the school hires young teachers straight out of college.

I used to think more experienced teachers were best, but not anymore. DD's first grade teacher had been teaching for 25 years when DD had her. She got flustered, had poor classroom management, wouldn't respond to e-mails, and was the total kill and drill type. DD is now in third grade with a second year teacher who is in all ways better than the veteran teacher from first grade.

[Anonymous]

Agree. My first grader has a first year teacher. She is amazing....one of the best we've seen and I have a middle schooler too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here-thanks for the suggestions-what I want most is a nurturing elementary on the smaller side but a middle and high school where There are a variety of academic and non academic opportunities-activities and clubs, honors courses/apps etc. and to the PP-no need to take offense by what I was saying-some kids are smart but not academic/more into other things, some need a lot of guidance and some are self motivated and driven and don't need as much hand holding. So as opposed to the kids that aren't self motivated or are not really into academics or academic oriented achievement. I have a child that is more motivated than they are bright (DC is smart enough but her work ethic is greater than her intelligence.) and a school that caters to that kind of student would be a better fit.

While I agree with the other suggestions, your post about nurturing elementary really suggests RHPS to me. LOVE K-2. The NCC and CCE from 3-6 (soon 3-5) is excellent too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here-thanks for the suggestions-what I want most is a nurturing elementary on the smaller side but a middle and high school where There are a variety of academic and non academic opportunities-activities and clubs, honors courses/apps etc. and to the PP-no need to take offense by what I was saying-some kids are smart but not academic/more into other things, some need a lot of guidance and some are self motivated and driven and don't need as much hand holding. So as opposed to the kids that aren't self motivated or are not really into academics or academic oriented achievement. I have a child that is more motivated than they are bright (DC is smart enough but her work ethic is greater than her intelligence.) and a school that caters to that kind of student would be a better fit.

It is public HS. All the top HS are going to offer the AP's, after school, sports activities that you want. The three highest rated HS's are Wootton, Whitman and Churchill.

The MS's for Wootton are Cabin John and Frost, for Whitman, Pyle and for Churchill, Cabin John and Hoover. Agree that MS can be tough for any kid.

Choose your neighborhood based on what you can afford and what type of community you want. The smallest elementary that fees into these schools is 7 Locks.(goes into Cabin John and Churchill)

The rest will run bet 450 and 550 for elementary. The MS's run around 1200.

These schools' results are driven more by ethnicity / SES than anything else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if the posters who say that MCPS is failing kids who are motivated and bright have any kids in HS? That is where the rubber meets the road and my motivated and bright kids are completely stressed out and burning the midnight oil. Let your little ones enjoy their childhood and quite obsessing about challenging the daylights out of them. It will all work out.

Thank you!