Moving from Arlington to Bethesda(ish) for job--best school clusters?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prepare to be disappointed by MCPS regardless of where you end up. It's an inflexible, unthinking bureaucracy, where all attention goes to the lowest common denominator.

We are in one of the best elementary schools in Bethesda and I'm appalled at the the level of education.

Which elementary school would that be?

ES is pretty crappy at most MCPS schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prepare to be disappointed by MCPS regardless of where you end up. It's an inflexible, unthinking bureaucracy, where all attention goes to the lowest common denominator.

We are in one of the best elementary schools in Bethesda and I'm appalled at the the level of education.

Which elementary school would that be?

ES is pretty crappy at most MCPS schools.

We have had experiences in 3 MCPS elementary schools and completely disagree. Curriculum is the same whether the school is in Bethesda, Silver Spring, or Gaithersburg. I wonder what you parents are complaining about with the curriculum. Sorry that your "genius" kid isn't taking algebra in 3rd grade.
There are great teachers everywhere and I find that most teachers are amazing. The differences are the families and the administration. By the way the school that I loved loved the most out of the 3 was a FOCUS school with the highest FARMS rate because of its highly engaging and phoneminal Principal. The one I liked the least was the wealthy school with the higher test scores but the Principal was just so unfriendly and awful that it negatively impacted the school and community engagement. If you're strictly going by the school with the highest test scores, all it's telling you is that your kid will be going to school with a lot of kids who have highly educated and high income parents. Nothing else. It doesn't tell the rest of the story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in a terrible school pyramid neighborhood. It has worked well for us as kids went to magnet schools, so I don't have any skin in this issue.

My advice to anyone who can afford it is to go to the Whitman Cluster. Burning Bush ES, Pyle MS and Whitman HS - would be the most desirable.

Who would most desire this, and on what basis?

Also, it's Burning Tree ES (named after the Bethesda country club), not Burning Bush ES (named after the famous vegetation on Mt Sinai).

Thanks for the correction to the name of the ES. Yes, I know it is Burning Tree...but pandemic brain!

Good question is being asked here...who would most desire this and on what basis? We all can agree that the all the MCPS schools get by and large the same resources from MCPS, but the cohort and parents add other resources to what is being offered to make this a great school.

It is very good for a bright student. Does not need to be magnet level smart. It is a good school for any student who needs extra support at school. It is a great school for the average student because the offerings are great and you are not lacking for choices. As a parent, you do not have to be super vigilant and seek out opportunities for your child elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prepare to be disappointed by MCPS regardless of where you end up. It's an inflexible, unthinking bureaucracy, where all attention goes to the lowest common denominator.

We are in one of the best elementary schools in Bethesda and I'm appalled at the the level of education.

Which elementary school would that be?

ES is pretty crappy at most MCPS schools.

We have had experiences in 3 MCPS elementary schools and completely disagree. Curriculum is the same whether the school is in Bethesda, Silver Spring, or Gaithersburg. I wonder what you parents are complaining about with the curriculum. Sorry that your "genius" kid isn't taking algebra in 3rd grade.
There are great teachers everywhere and I find that most teachers are amazing. The differences are the families and the administration. By the way the school that I loved loved the most out of the 3 was a FOCUS school with the highest FARMS rate because of its highly engaging and phoneminal Principal. The one I liked the least was the wealthy school with the higher test scores but the Principal was just so unfriendly and awful that it negatively impacted the school and community engagement. If you're strictly going by the school with the highest test scores, all it's telling you is that your kid will be going to school with a lot of kids who have highly educated and high income parents. Nothing else. It doesn't tell the rest of the story.

I think you mean "phenomenal" - i.e a good sales person who does good face-to-face. This is not necessarily a good administrator or leader of teachers. You see a good tour alone "doesn't tell the rest of the story".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prepare to be disappointed by MCPS regardless of where you end up. It's an inflexible, unthinking bureaucracy, where all attention goes to the lowest common denominator.

We are in one of the best elementary schools in Bethesda and I'm appalled at the the level of education.

Which elementary school would that be?

ES is pretty crappy at most MCPS schools.

We have had experiences in 3 MCPS elementary schools and completely disagree. Curriculum is the same whether the school is in Bethesda, Silver Spring, or Gaithersburg. I wonder what you parents are complaining about with the curriculum. Sorry that your "genius" kid isn't taking algebra in 3rd grade.
There are great teachers everywhere and I find that most teachers are amazing. The differences are the families and the administration. By the way the school that I loved loved the most out of the 3 was a FOCUS school with the highest FARMS rate because of its highly engaging and phoneminal Principal. The one I liked the least was the wealthy school with the higher test scores but the Principal was just so unfriendly and awful that it negatively impacted the school and community engagement. If you're strictly going by the school with the highest test scores, all it's telling you is that your kid will be going to school with a lot of kids who have highly educated and high income parents. Nothing else. It doesn't tell the rest of the story.

I think you mean "phenomenal" - i.e a good sales person who does good face-to-face. This is not necessarily a good administrator or leader of teachers. You see a good tour alone "doesn't tell the rest of the story".

Sorry but your assumption about me is wrong. I was on the PTA board in this school and in 1 of the other 2. I was very involved and aware of the school environment and how families and staff viewed the Principal. And you shouldn't discredit the importance of a good face to face. A Principal needs to be engaged and highly communicative with the school community..not just a good administrator.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prepare to be disappointed by MCPS regardless of where you end up. It's an inflexible, unthinking bureaucracy, where all attention goes to the lowest common denominator.

We are in one of the best elementary schools in Bethesda and I'm appalled at the the level of education.

Which elementary school would that be?

ES is pretty crappy at most MCPS schools.

We have had experiences in 3 MCPS elementary schools and completely disagree. Curriculum is the same whether the school is in Bethesda, Silver Spring, or Gaithersburg. I wonder what you parents are complaining about with the curriculum. Sorry that your "genius" kid isn't taking algebra in 3rd grade.
There are great teachers everywhere and I find that most teachers are amazing. The differences are the families and the administration. By the way the school that I loved loved the most out of the 3 was a FOCUS school with the highest FARMS rate because of its highly engaging and phoneminal Principal. The one I liked the least was the wealthy school with the higher test scores but the Principal was just so unfriendly and awful that it negatively impacted the school and community engagement. If you're strictly going by the school with the highest test scores, all it's telling you is that your kid will be going to school with a lot of kids who have highly educated and high income parents. Nothing else. It doesn't tell the rest of the story.

I think you mean "phenomenal" - i.e a good sales person who does good face-to-face. This is not necessarily a good administrator or leader of teachers. You see a good tour alone "doesn't tell the rest of the story".

Sorry but your assumption about me is wrong. I was on the PTA board in this school and in 1 of the other 2. I was very involved and aware of the school environment and how families and staff viewed the Principal. And you shouldn't discredit the importance of a good face to face. A Principal needs to be engaged and highly communicative with the school community..not just a good administrator.

Sure, it really helps to have a good face when there is so much BS going on behind the scenes. We've experienced that with a few Principals ourselves. However I'd never describe them as "phenominal" or even "phenomenal"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I hope you didn't hurt your back moving the goal posts or building straw men. I didn't say that any "horrible outcome" would befall a student at such schools. In fact, I explicitly said a kid can "get a good education at any MCPS school."

To the extent that you value things other than academics at a school and you believe that certain schools excel in those areas, that's great. You should go with what you prioritize. We were, however, discussing the academic component.

Please tell me more about student success on the AP Calculus A/B test due to the high level of intellectual discussion in class at Whitman or B-CC.

Intellectual discussion is only a piece of it. A class with stronger students is going to need to take less time going over concepts. It will be able to cover more material and in greater depth.

Since you cut off the thread, I'll again cite to actual data. Appendix B shows how students at each HS fair on the AP. https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/reports/2019/2018%20AP%20and%20IB%20Course%20Enrollment%20and%20Exam%20Participation%20and%20Performance.pdf

Do you really think that, simply because MCPS has the same curriculum throughout the county, there will be no differences between a class where 35 or 50% score above a 3 on the exam v. a school where 80 or 90% do?

Reasonable people can disagree over how much of a difference it makes and whether there are other advantages to schools where performance is lower. But to continue to argue that there is no difference doesn't make sense.

Maybe you can explain or describe what you think some of those differences might be, on a day-to-day basis? For example, in classes at School A (lots of scores above 3 at the end of the year), they [something], whereas in classes at School B (fewer scores above 3 at the end of the year), they [something else].

And again: AP classes are not the MCPS curriculum, they are the College Board AP curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I hope you didn't hurt your back moving the goal posts or building straw men. I didn't say that any "horrible outcome" would befall a student at such schools. In fact, I explicitly said a kid can "get a good education at any MCPS school."

To the extent that you value things other than academics at a school and you believe that certain schools excel in those areas, that's great. You should go with what you prioritize. We were, however, discussing the academic component.

Please tell me more about student success on the AP Calculus A/B test due to the high level of intellectual discussion in class at Whitman or B-CC.

B-CC not a W school.

Yeah, and why isn't it? I mean, besides the obvious, that it doesn't start with a W. After all, Watkins Mill and Wheaton do start with a W but aren't W schools, while Churchill doesn't start with a W (and don't tell me that Churchill is short for Winston Churchill) but is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prepare to be disappointed by MCPS regardless of where you end up. It's an inflexible, unthinking bureaucracy, where all attention goes to the lowest common denominator.

We are in one of the best elementary schools in Bethesda and I'm appalled at the the level of education.

Which elementary school would that be?

ES is pretty crappy at most MCPS schools.

The reality is "best" just means fewer poor kids struggling with English so test averages are higher. It has 0 impacts on children not struggling with English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Prepare to be disappointed by MCPS regardless of where you end up. It's an inflexible, unthinking bureaucracy, where all attention goes to the lowest common denominator.

We are in one of the best elementary schools in Bethesda and I'm appalled at the the level of education.

Then perhaps it really isn't one of the best elementary schools...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I hope you didn't hurt your back moving the goal posts or building straw men. I didn't say that any "horrible outcome" would befall a student at such schools. In fact, I explicitly said a kid can "get a good education at any MCPS school."

To the extent that you value things other than academics at a school and you believe that certain schools excel in those areas, that's great. You should go with what you prioritize. We were, however, discussing the academic component.

Please tell me more about student success on the AP Calculus A/B test due to the high level of intellectual discussion in class at Whitman or B-CC.

B-CC not a W school.

Yeah, and why isn't it? I mean, besides the obvious, that it doesn't start with a W. After all, Watkins Mill and Wheaton do start with a W but aren't W schools, while Churchill doesn't start with a W (and don't tell me that Churchill is short for Winston Churchill) but is.

For one it's the furthest down county of any HS in the county. In fact, it was originally part of the DCC until wealthy parents got the boundary gerrymandered to keep out the poors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I hope you didn't hurt your back moving the goal posts or building straw men. I didn't say that any "horrible outcome" would befall a student at such schools. In fact, I explicitly said a kid can "get a good education at any MCPS school."

To the extent that you value things other than academics at a school and you believe that certain schools excel in those areas, that's great. You should go with what you prioritize. We were, however, discussing the academic component.

Please tell me more about student success on the AP Calculus A/B test due to the high level of intellectual discussion in class at Whitman or B-CC.

B-CC not a W school.

Yeah, and why isn't it? I mean, besides the obvious, that it doesn't start with a W. After all, Watkins Mill and Wheaton do start with a W but aren't W schools, while Churchill doesn't start with a W (and don't tell me that Churchill is short for Winston Churchill) but is.

For one it's the furthest down county of any HS in the county. In fact, it was originally part of the DCC until wealthy parents got the boundary gerrymandered to keep out the poors.

If you look at a map, Whitman is actually slightly further south than BCC. Why being (or not being) further south would matter isn't clear to me. And, if anything, if your retelling of the DCC history is accurate, that would seem to make BCC more aligned with what makes BCC a "W," not less, no?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prepare to be disappointed by MCPS regardless of where you end up. It's an inflexible, unthinking bureaucracy, where all attention goes to the lowest common denominator.

We are in one of the best elementary schools in Bethesda and I'm appalled at the the level of education.

Then perhaps it really isn't one of the best elementary schools...

That seems like an obvious inference!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

For one it's the furthest down county of any HS in the county. In fact, it was originally part of the DCC until wealthy parents got the boundary gerrymandered to keep out the poors.

It was NOT originally part of the DCC. That is factually incorrect.

(For a summary of the history of the DCC, see report pp 7-9: https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/olo/resources/files/2009-4.pdf )

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I hope you didn't hurt your back moving the goal posts or building straw men. I didn't say that any "horrible outcome" would befall a student at such schools. In fact, I explicitly said a kid can "get a good education at any MCPS school."

To the extent that you value things other than academics at a school and you believe that certain schools excel in those areas, that's great. You should go with what you prioritize. We were, however, discussing the academic component.

Please tell me more about student success on the AP Calculus A/B test due to the high level of intellectual discussion in class at Whitman or B-CC.

B-CC not a W school.

Yeah, and why isn't it? I mean, besides the obvious, that it doesn't start with a W. After all, Watkins Mill and Wheaton do start with a W but aren't W schools, while Churchill doesn't start with a W (and don't tell me that Churchill is short for Winston Churchill) but is.

For one it's the furthest down county of any HS in the county. In fact, it was originally part of the DCC until wealthy parents got the boundary gerrymandered to keep out the poors.

So whether you are a W school depends on where you are located? That is news to me.