JLKM Elementary vs. Bethesda or Chevy Chase Elementary

[Anonymous]

Please explain to me the difference? Is one set actually superior to the other in terms of teachers, curriculum and facilities for a child that doesn't have any special needs? The PARCC scores look comparable. Class size looks to be similar +/- 5 kids depending on the school year. Diversity depends on the school in both areas. Thoughts on this?

[Anonymous]

I doubt anyone has experience with all three, and few would have experience with two. All are good and as you said have comparable text scores when making apples to apples comparisons. For me, it would come down to where I want to live, and where I ultimately win a bid on a home.

There is certainly some differences at the high school level. In general, I'd say the more risk-averse folks would go with MoCo given this, whereas those who are less risk-averse/want to stay in the city/open to private will prefer DC.

[Anonymous]

Buy the house you want, OP. It will be fine in both places.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I doubt anyone has experience with all three, and few would have experience with two. All are good and as you said have comparable text scores when making apples to apples comparisons. For me, it would come down to where I want to live, and where I ultimately win a bid on a home.

There is certainly some differences at the high school level. In general, I'd say the more risk-averse folks would go with MoCo given this, whereas those who are less risk-averse/want to stay in the city/open to private will prefer DC.

PP again. I meant to add that we looked at homes in all three areas, and ultimately went with upper NW (a Deal-Wilson feeder but not a JKLM) because we won a bid there. We also liked the neighborhood more than another one close by in CCMD we were considering, and we had a slight preference for being in the city. However, I think life and schools would've been fine in MoCo too.

[Anonymous]

At the elementary school level, they are similar performance, but elementary school kids quickly become middle school kids so you'll want to check out the performance of the middle schools they feed to. Westland (where Bethesda and CCES feed to) is good, and now that they've opened a second middle school feeder for the BCC cluster, it's much less crowded than it used to be.

[Anonymous]

11:59 yet again. Deal Middle in DC is huge, but well-regarded. No personal experience yet (oldest in early elem.) but my neighbors say it's fantastic. They say it doesn't feel too big due to smaller "teams" that the kids are on.

[Anonymous]

I like Westbrook and Somerset ES more

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:11:59 yet again. Deal Middle in DC is huge, but well-regarded. No personal experience yet (oldest in early elem.) but my neighbors say it's fantastic. They say it doesn't feel too big due to smaller "teams" that the kids are on.

Its no bigger than the MoCo middle schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I doubt anyone has experience with all three, and few would have experience with two. All are good and as you said have comparable text scores when making apples to apples comparisons. For me, it would come down to where I want to live, and where I ultimately win a bid on a home.

There is certainly some differences at the high school level. In general, I'd say the more risk-averse folks would go with MoCo given this, whereas those who are less risk-averse/want to stay in the city/open to private will prefer DC.

I think they are quite similar. We have friends with kids at a variety of JKLM schools and at Bethesda, and they seem pretty similar. I'd say that MCPS parents seem to complain about class sizes more than DCPS parents, so maybe DCPS has the edge there. The SES of the schools' families are pretty similar, and that tends to be the biggest driver of school performance.

[Anonymous]

Thanks all -- to clarify, I'm just talking in terms of elementary to elementary, not taking into account anything about the later grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks all -- to clarify, I'm just talking in terms of elementary to elementary, not taking into account anything about the later grades.

Well, if you're renting that's fine. But most people ask these types of questions because they're buying a homes. We probably would have preferred DC for proximity to work, but chose MoCo so our kids would have good schools through HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please explain to me the difference? Is one set actually superior to the other in terms of teachers, curriculum and facilities for a child that doesn't have any special needs? The PARCC scores look comparable. Class size looks to be similar +/- 5 kids depending on the school year. Diversity depends on the school in both areas. Thoughts on this?

I actually believe DCPS has a stronger ES curriculum and PTA has ability to make more of an impact (MCPS won't let PTAs hire teacher aides or para-aids).

Chevy Chase ES leads up to one of two MS (300 kids per grade), and then BCC which is a very good HS with the IB program. Urban, open lunches, more SES diversity given location and housing stock.

Other Bethesda HS (Whitman, Walter Johnson) are not IB, and have larger 600 kids per grade MS. SOmething to think about since your kid will be 12 and get bombarded by a high grade/huge school. Across the board, MCPS has HUGE populous HSs, with 600-1000 per grade. There are few public HS with smaller grades, unless you go private. The pros are you wlll find your people and be pushed appropriately, the cons are you will not make the cut in the play or team sport unless you are very good. I don't know that dynamic at Deal or WIlson, those are both improving vastly, JLKM already have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:11:59 yet again. Deal Middle in DC is huge, but well-regarded. No personal experience yet (oldest in early elem.) but my neighbors say it's fantastic. They say it doesn't feel too big due to smaller "teams" that the kids are on.

Its no bigger than the MoCo middle schools.

Deal's 90 kid team/pod system is highly effective at creating a community and doing ability tracking for key subjects. MCPS no longer does ability tracking (protests may bring it back some day or subject by subject slowly), and does not have an effective team structure - my neighbor's 6th grader has a different set of 30-35 kids in each of her 7 classes. And then within each of those class is is one-third above avg, avg, and below avg students so good luck finding your people every 50 minutes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:11:59 yet again. Deal Middle in DC is huge, but well-regarded. No personal experience yet (oldest in early elem.) but my neighbors say it's fantastic. They say it doesn't feel too big due to smaller "teams" that the kids are on.

Its no bigger than the MoCo middle schools.

Deal's 90 kid team/pod system is highly effective at creating a community and doing ability tracking for key subjects. MCPS no longer does ability tracking (protests may bring it back some day or subject by subject slowly), and does not have an effective team structure - my neighbor's 6th grader has a different set of 30-35 kids in each of her 7 classes. And then within each of those class is is one-third above avg, avg, and below avg students so good luck finding your people every 50 minutes.

This may have been true previously, when Westland was the only middle school servicing the BCC district, but MoCo recently opened up Silver Creek Middle School and split up the Westland feeders. I believe both Westland and Silver Creek are smaller than Deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I doubt anyone has experience with all three, and few would have experience with two. All are good and as you said have comparable text scores when making apples to apples comparisons. For me, it would come down to where I want to live, and where I ultimately win a bid on a home.

There is certainly some differences at the high school level. In general, I'd say the more risk-averse folks would go with MoCo given this, whereas those who are less risk-averse/want to stay in the city/open to private will prefer DC.

I think they are quite similar. We have friends with kids at a variety of JKLM schools and at Bethesda, and they seem pretty similar. I'd say that MCPS parents seem to complain about class sizes more than DCPS parents, so maybe DCPS has the edge there. The SES of the schools' families are pretty similar, and that tends to be the biggest driver of school performance.

Do school tours asap, you only have a few weeks left. Ask good questions.

Check out the Janney class schedule, it covers more than our Bethesda ES one does (only has 90 mins math, 90 mins reading, 90 mins english, gym 1x a week, music 1x week, no dedicated science or social studies, it is within the reading units). DCPS has gym 3x a week, 50 minutes of each math, english, reading, science, social studies, and more frequent music and art plus has a FT teacher and FT para-aide in PK-2 for sure. Did I mention DCPS provides PK? MCPS does not.

Also ask how many county or state standardized tests are given each grade, each year.

Also ask if handwriting is given. and what the use of screens is in each grade level. Are you kids handwriting short stories in 1st or 2nd grade OR hen-pecking on a chromebook.

Also ask what the teaching style is. Is it responsive classroom, circle time, discussion-based? Or is it center based where the class is divided into 4 or 5 groups and every 20 minutes rotate around - and one center has the teacher the rest of the centers are worksheets, computer games, or a group project. Then decide what you like best for your particular child.