If you were moving specifically to be in a good middle/high school. Where would you look?

[Anonymous]

I'm looking at moving to MD before my son starts middle school next year, and wanted some thoughts on where to look. I'd rather not move too far out, since I work in the city, and need a neighborhood with relatively affordable housing. I'd love suggestions and thoughts on where to look. We're an interracial family and diversity is really important to me. I'd love to find a system to stay in through 12th grade so my son can make and keep a nice group of friends.

Some of the schools I'm considering: Westland/BCC (too much pressure?) Takoma/Blair (is Blair just too big if you don't do one of the special programs?) or ???/Eleanor Roosevelt (I hear fantastic things about E.R., but don't know which feeder Middle Schools to consider, ???/Richard Montgomery.

Thoughts on these? Other schools to look?

[Anonymous]

I was going to ask if Rockville is too far out for you. Montgomery is a decent high school. The area is very diverse, both ethnically and economically.

[Anonymous]

Rockville's pushing it, but I'm eager to learn more. Which middle schools feeding into Montgomery would you look at?

[Anonymous]

I think Julius West Middle is the only school that feeds into Montgomery.

Here is its School at a Glance, which you can get for any school in MoCo. It shows things like ethnic makeup, standardized test data, the % of kids receiving FARMS (free or reduced meals), mobility rate (how transient is the school population), suspension rate, etc.

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/03211.pdf

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the link! Those are certainly impressive statistics. I'll have to get in my car and see how far the drive actually is. It's not the morning commute I mind so much, as the thought that if something happened after school (there's no aftercare in middle school right?) I'd be 45 minutes away. Any other parents have thoughts on that?

[Anonymous]

We were concerned about Blair being "too big" for DD, who came from a much smaller private middle school, but so far she loves it. There are some other ways to make your own smaller groups besides the special programs. DD's in one of those, but she also joined a sports team and has made friends through it. Now she's looking to join some clubs, with the express interest of making more friends. Blair's a whole new world, for sure, but with the sports and clubs it's possible to make your own circles of friends.

[Anonymous]

For folks who can't afford to live in the close-in suburbs, check out Rosa Parks MS and Sherwood HS (Olney/Brookeville, MD). Great schools with some reasonably priced neighborhoods (and more expensive neighborhoods if you can afford them).

[Anonymous]

McLean or Great Falls, VA for McLean or Langley high schools. Not MD, I know, but worth throwing out there.

[Anonymous]

OP here, Thanks for the suggestion, I don't want to imply that the VA and Olney schools aren't lovely -- I'm sure they are, but as a single parent working in the northern part of DC, I'm not comfortable with being that far away (VA or far north suburbs) when my middle schooler's home alone after school. I'd really like to stay within a 30 minute radius.

Can anyone speak to the level of pressure on kids at Westland and BCC? In a lot of ways the BCC cluster seems like it would be a good fit for us. DS is really into drama and they have lots of it at the high school level. But I hear so much about the Bethesda schools being a pressure cooker, and I don't want that for him. Would we find less pressure at Takoma (non magnet) and Blair?

[Anonymous]

I think you would most likely find less pressure at TPMS and Blair, yes. I also think you'd find more single parents working full time than in Bethesda, and you'd be in a particularly supportive community. Blair has a good drama program.

[Anonymous]

Yes, Blair offers a range of "pressure levels". There's plenty of pressure at Blair if you want it, from either the science magnet or the CAP program (DC is in one of these), and I presume also in the AP classes. But there's also a middle ground for kids who don't want/need that kind of pressure.

[Anonymous]

10:41. Thinking about this, almost all the schools you've named have some pressure, if you look for it. Richard Montgomery has an IB program, Blair has two magnets, and so on....

On the other side of the coin, a kid can attend BCC or Whitman and just not take the IB or AP courses that the over-achieving kids are taking.

So it depends a bit on what exactly "less pressure" means to you. Does it mean possibly not doing the most challenging course available at a particular school? Or does it mean a great school that provides a great education, but is perhaps a little lower on the radar screen of the "over-achieving" kids & families?

[Anonymous]

There is another thread with comments about BCC, Whitman , etc. which might give you some insight to the pressure cooker idea.

I can only say that I don't think it's true for BCC. Good academics there, but not "pressure."

[Anonymous]

There's a less expensive part of western Silver Spring that feeds into BCC. If you go to the MCPS website they have a map and you can type in addresses to see where your kid would go to school for a given address.

The Newsweek HS ranking loves BCC. That's probably because Newsweek is all about Jay Matthews' "index", which looks at the number of AP and IB candidates in each school, so presto, schools like BCC and Richard Montgomery will naturally do better on that sort of ranking. I too have heard that BCC isn't as pressured as, say, Whitman. But that's second hand so take it with a grain of salt. We gave pretty serious consideration to moving to the BCC district.

[Anonymous]

If you want your child to go to a great college -- Whitman has great stats -- and it's pretty close to DC