How in the world do you decide where to send your kids to public school?!

[Anonymous]

We’re in the midst of deciding between NW DC and close-in Montgomery County for public schools (live in DC now but need to move). We’ve looked at the scores, read tons of DCUM threads on the various schools, talked to lots of people and are still soo confused.

Everyone I talk to has a different opinion – some pushing hard for Mont. Co, others for the district. We’re looking at elem school for now but would like this to be a long-term house so have to seriously take middle school and high school into account. I’m feeling at my wits end and don’t know how to make this very big decision. Don’t know that this post will help, but would love any feedback from those with kids in DC or Bethesda schools. Thanks so much

[Anonymous]

Elementary schools are comparable, but few people would say that DC middle and high schools can compare with what MoCo can offer.
If you really want to move for the long term then bethesda is certainly the way to go.

[Anonymous]

I already live in DC with elementary age children. I feel like there are a lot of good options, and have been lucky in the OOB lotteries and charter lotteries. I also am hopeful that Latin and Deal will provide good choices for middle school. Also am hopeful that School w/o Walls, Banneker and/or Wilson will work for HS. Those grades are many years away, but I see the trend as positive.

But, it's a difficult endless time consuming dilema of applying, hoping, evaluating, second guessing. If I were starting from scratch, I'd probably pick MoCo. And there are certainly days when I threaten to just move.

So, if it is schools alone driving the decision, MoCo.

If you have lifestyle choices to be in DC, you can make it work, it's just work.

[Anonymous]

Go visit schools. I just went through this process. It was a lot of work but well worth it to check them out in person. I had very strong opinions based on my in-person impressions of physical plant, principals, school community, etc. Then of course if you really are going to move, you will quickly realize that other concerns will direct your eventual destination (commute, budget, etc).

[Anonymous]

Baaaaaaaad mommy here:

We chose DCPS because we do not like the suburbs and like all that DC has to offer apart from schools.

We moved in boundary for a good elementary. Deal is getting better all of the time. Wilson has been good-- and I know lots of happy parents and alums. Plus Walls, Banneker, etc.

So there are certainly good enough schools, and for us, there was no way we were going to double our commutes and give up all that DC offers us-- and the kids-- in order to get an uptick from pretty damned good to "best."

Flame away, but our choice was 1/2 schools and 1/2 our own lives.

[Anonymous]

I agree with 13:14. Visit the schools. I visited four and got a good sense for the principal's philosophy and personality, the physical space, the degree of crowding, whether kids were more energetic or orderly, etc.

[Anonymous]

There is hardly much lifestyle difference between Bethesda/Chevy Chase, MD and Upper NW DC neighborhoods! Please - DC is not very urban! You're talking maybe one mile more of a commute! Having grown up in a totally urban city, I always chuckle at these posts about Bethesda being so suburban compared to NW DC!!!!

[Anonymous]

Let me throw down some statements that you can either agree or disagree with - but let's take them as valid for the sake of this post.

1. Elementary schools in Upper NW are comparable to those in close-in Montgomery County
2. Middle Schools and High Schools in close in MoCo are comparable to Private Schools in DC

So if you agree that this is directionally valid - here is a link to an assessment that may be of interest: http://evernowchronicles.org

This study was done by the parent of a student who attended Lafayette elementary, Deal Junior High and Wilson High. He did a study on the kids who graduated from Lafayette in 2000 (6th graders) and enterd college in the fall of 2006. He said that the proportion of these students who went public and private in secondary school was about 50/50. His study found that there is no difference in the college and university rankings of the two groups – that the public and private school graduates were enrolled in colleges and universities of equal rank.

This does not say anything about anything other than where did the children wind up in college after graduating - but if you are concerned that by sticking with Deal / Wilson your child will not wind up at the same college he/she could have if you decided to move to close in MoCo [as a proxey for private in his study]. Then based on the results of this assessment, sticking with DC not a bad option.

[Anonymous]

Know that whatever choice you make isn't necessarily forever. We spent hours and hours finding a decent house in what we thought was the right close-in public school district for our daughter . . . and, after two years of OK, and one year of high-intensity tussling with the school over various issues, we made the move to private.

In public, I felt like most of the people we were trying to work with in the effort to engage my daughter inside the classroom were not on our side at all. we're affluent, tho not rich; we value education; we read aloud; we do all the right educational things with our kids -- the predominant attitude seemed to be that she'd be just fine so I should stop bugging them about how bored she was in class and about how she kept telling me she didn't want to go to school. She wasn't -- and frankly, shouldn't have been -- identified as gifted; she isn't special needs. WIthout a label requiring state-mandated attention, she was just getting lost in the mix.

In the two years she's been in a local private school, and not a super-fancy one, where the teachers and administrators seem to be more on the side of the parents (and I don't care if that's because we're paying tuition -- I care about the stress reduction in my and my daughter's life), she has flourished. I no longer get the Sunday night whining about how she hates school. Instead, she loves it.

Anyway. Very long story to say: Things change and you can't anticipate what the next three years will bring, so buy a house that you love in a neighborhood that you love, and the school stuff will work itself out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let me throw down some statements that you can either agree or disagree with - but let's take them as valid for the sake of this post.

1. Elementary schools in Upper NW are comparable to those in close-in Montgomery County
2. Middle Schools and High Schools in close in MoCo are comparable to Private Schools in DC

So if you agree that this is directionally valid - here is a link to an assessment that may be of interest: http://evernowchronicles.org

This study was done by the parent of a student who attended Lafayette elementary, Deal Junior High and Wilson High. He did a study on the kids who graduated from Lafayette in 2000 (6th graders) and enterd college in the fall of 2006. He said that the proportion of these students who went public and private in secondary school was about 50/50. His study found that there is no difference in the college and university rankings of the two groups – that the public and private school graduates were enrolled in colleges and universities of equal rank.

This does not say anything about anything other than where did the children wind up in college after graduating - but if you are concerned that by sticking with Deal / Wilson your child will not wind up at the same college he/she could have if you decided to move to close in MoCo [as a proxey for private in his study]. Then based on the results of this assessment, sticking with DC not a bad option.

One cannot read anything into this study about schools at all since the choice between public and private coming from a high quality elementary in a middle class school district like Lafayette is not at all random, parents are chosing what they feel is best for their child and to the extent that the parents made the 'right' choice then the outcomes might not be too different. In statistical terms, there is 'selection' bias. For this study to be valid, kids would need to have been randomly assigned to schools. Also because of sample size, all the privates were lumped together and I don't think anyone on ths board would agree that all the privates are equal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is hardly much lifestyle difference between Bethesda/Chevy Chase, MD and Upper NW DC neighborhoods! Please - DC is not very urban! You're talking maybe one mile more of a commute! Having grown up in a totally urban city, I always chuckle at these posts about Bethesda being so suburban compared to NW DC!!!!

I agree. being within walking distance of downtown Bethesda means that we have much greater access to shops and restaurants than anywhere in NW DC. We are on the metro so an easy journey to the zoo, museums etc.

For us, we wanted a (small) yard and a nice neighbourhood, close to metro and restaurants, with a short commute. We could find all this stuff in Bethesda and NW DC, so we went with the neighbourhood that had great schools all the way through. Of course, we may find out that the schools aren't right for our kids and we have to go private or move or try for magnet programs or whatever, but I don't feel we have made much of a sacrifice to live here. I love the neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

One cannot read anything into this study about schools at all since the choice between public and private coming from a high quality elementary in a middle class school district like Lafayette is not at all random, parents are chosing what they feel is best for their child and to the extent that the parents made the 'right' choice then the outcomes might not be too different. In statistical terms, there is 'selection' bias. For this study to be valid, kids would need to have been randomly assigned to schools. Also because of sample size, all the privates were lumped together and I don't think anyone on ths board would agree that all the privates are equal.

I disagree - the OP is thinking about moving to NW DC or close-in Montgomery County for public schools. It is not unreasonable to assume that they are going to consider purchasing a house that would feed into Lafayette / Janney / Murch elementary school. From looking at the study, the OP can see that for a small sample, kids who went the public school route through the DC public schools (Deal and Wilson), they came out at the same place as their elementary school peers who went private with regard to the colleges they were attending.

This is information that someone who is on the fence trying to understand if Deal / Wilson are real options - can see that yes they are. (or at least - yes they were for this set of children)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is hardly much lifestyle difference between Bethesda/Chevy Chase, MD and Upper NW DC neighborhoods! Please - DC is not very urban! You're talking maybe one mile more of a commute! Having grown up in a totally urban city, I always chuckle at these posts about Bethesda being so suburban compared to NW DC!!!!

I agree. being within walking distance of downtown Bethesda means that we have much greater access to shops and restaurants than anywhere in NW DC. We are on the metro so an easy journey to the zoo, museums etc.

For us, we wanted a (small) yard and a nice neighbourhood, close to metro and restaurants, with a short commute. We could find all this stuff in Bethesda and NW DC, so we went with the neighbourhood that had great schools all the way through. Of course, we may find out that the schools aren't right for our kids and we have to go private or move or try for magnet programs or whatever, but I don't feel we have made much of a sacrifice to live here. I love the neighborhood.

Totally disagree. I attempted Bethesda for a few months and hated it. Now I'm down in a neighborhood where I can walk to work on a nice day. It's hard to believe that any of the "DC is so provincial" set would find Bethesda comparable to close-in neighborhoods in DC. Sure, Bethesda and Spring Valley, AU Park, and most of CCDC are very similar. But living in Bethesda is NOT anything like living in the Adams Morgan part of the Oyster district. Not even close.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is hardly much lifestyle difference between Bethesda/Chevy Chase, MD and Upper NW DC neighborhoods! Please - DC is not very urban! You're talking maybe one mile more of a commute! Having grown up in a totally urban city, I always chuckle at these posts about Bethesda being so suburban compared to NW DC!!!!

I agree. being within walking distance of downtown Bethesda means that we have much greater access to shops and restaurants than anywhere in NW DC. We are on the metro so an easy journey to the zoo, museums etc.

For us, we wanted a (small) yard and a nice neighbourhood, close to metro and restaurants, with a short commute. We could find all this stuff in Bethesda and NW DC, so we went with the neighbourhood that had great schools all the way through. Of course, we may find out that the schools aren't right for our kids and we have to go private or move or try for magnet programs or whatever, but I don't feel we have made much of a sacrifice to live here. I love the neighborhood.

Totally disagree. I attempted Bethesda for a few months and hated it. Now I'm down in a neighborhood where I can walk to work on a nice day. It's hard to believe that any of the "DC is so provincial" set would find Bethesda comparable to close-in neighborhoods in DC. Sure, Bethesda and Spring Valley, AU Park, and most of CCDC are very similar. But living in Bethesda is NOT anything like living in the Adams Morgan part of the Oyster district. Not even close.

I kind of think you are both right. If you really want to be downtown and urban, as in Capitol Hill or Adams Morgan, then Bethesda probably isn't equivalent (we've lived in both places and, while I can see the attractions of both, I am mostly happy with downtown Bethesda). On the other hand, if you are talking any further out than Adams Morgan (like Eaton and Murch) then I think that Bethesda probably is just as urban/convenient.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
So, if it is schools alone driving the decision, MoCo.

If you have lifestyle choices to be in DC, you can make it work, it's just work.

Yes, that's the thing. You can go either way and do okay. In DC, you can do it, it just takes vigilance and work. But it's also okay if you don't want to do that.