Best Pyramid in PG County?
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Anonymous
| What’s the best, most sought after school pyramid (elementary, middle and high school) in PG County? No private schools please. Thx! |
Anonymous
| OP here, and no charter schools either, thx! |
Anonymous
|
There is no sought after pyramid. There are quite a few very good local elementary schools- University Park for example.
However, many students try for the lottery magnets (not charters) such as french/Spanish/Chinese immersion, Montessori, TAG or arts. These specialties are very good options and they also give preference into sought after middle schools. There are very few (no?) good middle schools that are not magnet middle schools. French immersion and Montessori go straight through middle school. TAG gives preference to the TAG middle school. Arts is a new application in 7th grade- highly competitive. High school has several options, most of which are also specialty programs. Eleanor Roosevelt is largely seen as the "best" school in PG, particularly the Science and Tech program which is test in (based on tests and grades). There are several other specialty programs at ERHS that are considered very good options. There are also science and tech programs for mid and south county at Flowers and Oxon Hill. Northwestern and Suitland have Visual and Performing arts programs which are considered quite good. There is the Health Sciences program at Prince Georges community college which is a middle college program where students graduate with a hs diploma and an AA degree. There is also a similar program with Aeronautical Science. There is the IB program at Parkdale and the French Immersion program at Central. I'm sure there are some schools and programs I'm missing, but in general, this is how it goes in PG. No pyramids. Lots of crossed fingers and applications. |
Anonymous
| The previous poster is spot on. |
Anonymous
|
So Bond Mill Elementary in West Laurel is one of the best elementary schools around this area. It's very well reviewed and the principal is noted for being particularly fantastic. It feeds into Martin Luthor King Middle school which is a good middle school. From local friends who sent their kids there, they were very satisfied with the education, but I don't hear a lot of the raving about it. Kids test pretty well there and it consistently gets about 7/8 on Great schools depending on the recent round of testing. The problem is that it feeds into Laurel High School which is a terrible school. If you are lucky, your kids can try to get into the magnet program at Eleanor Roosevelt HS, but that's very highly sought after and not all kids get into there.
Otherwise, I agree with the long poster. |
Anonymous
| So maybe the most sought after "pyramid" would be Greenbelt elementary to Greenbelt middle to ERHS gen pop. |
Anonymous
I would agree with this. Magnolia Elementary would also be an option. Another possibility is Tulip Grove, Whitehall or Yorktown ES / Ogle MS/ Bowie High School. Bowie has an excellent honors program that is only open to kids in the catchment area. The big thing to remember is that an elementary school may feed into 2 or 3 different middle schools. My kids go to Spellman and they feed into Gholson, Wirt and Charles Carroll Middle Schools depending on the students address. |
Anonymous
| OP here, thank you for the detailed information. I appreciate it! |
Anonymous
I wanted to be mad when I read this, but I can't find the lie here. My kids are at one of the Immersion schools, and the feeling I had when we were waitlisted... I think another posted is spot on with the Tulip Grove/Whitehall/Yorktown to Ogle to Bowie...that's the only pyramid in the county worth dealing with. The county fails at the middle school level. Many elementary schools are (more than) fine, but then you have to worry about middle school. |
Anonymous
| This thread is very informative, since I’m currently deciding if public school will be an option for my 4 year old DS. What is happening at the middle school level that makes for these abysmal schools? Where are all of the children from these decent elementary schools going? I’ve looked at test scores for numerous elementary schools, and there are quite a few with ~45-50% children at or above grade level. So why is this not following on to the middle school? |
Anonymous
| One of my children attended a PGCPS middle school. Based on my experience, the quality of teaching deteriorates in middle school, especially when it comes to math. It appears that teachers have less time to teach because they have to deal with a lot of standardized testing, more behavioral issues and other requirements. Also, many of them are burnt out and don’t want to be there, and they engage in power struggles with the students. Finally, it seems that PGCPS places its worst teachers in the lower-ranked middle and high schools. I’m talking unprofessional, vindictive, going toe-to-toe with parents and students, grading arbitrarily, losing classwork and homework, ignoring students who ask them for help, I could go on and on. They overshadow the average to good teachers. Many students don’t make the job easier, and many parents become less involved in middle and high school. So there is plenty of blame to go around. And middle school just seems to be a difficult period for students because they are at a difficult age. |
Anonymous
| Yeah. I'm not sure either what exactly it is, but somehow things seem to breakdown entirely at the middle school level in this county (outside of the magnet programs). Hyattsville Middle for example has students that come from several quite good elementary schools but somehow it just doesn't work. There are LOTS of behavior problems- kids get beat up, kids vandalize local neighbors, kids smoking weed in the bathrooms, skipping class, getting pregnant, ignoring teachers. I wish I were exaggerating, but these problems are pervasive. The arts program there is seen as good and it's highly competitive, but even that is no antidote to all the other problems that go on in that school. The principal seems powerless and the teaching for the most part is just ineffective. Why is this happening? The county needs to solve this problem asap! It is the number one road block to getting PGCPS on track. |
Anonymous
PP, I am curious as a parent with a child moving to MS in PGCPS next year. How does the county fail at the middle school level? What could the county do better? |
Anonymous
|
NP here but I will give my two cents.
1) PGCPS doesn't always feed ES into a single MS. Some ES go to 2 or 3 middle schools so kids are split up. 2) MS is HARD no matter what district you are in 3) PGCPS has spent a lot of resources on K-8 and High School specialty programs but have neglected MS options. They just opened up a new TAG MS center in Bowie which is promising but it isn't enough. 4) It is hard to recruit good teachers into failing middle schools. 5) They need to have more "School within a School" programs in the few MS that are under enrolled. (They did this at Tasker this school year with the TAG center) 6) Because kids come together from different towns for MS there isn't as much community involvement or ownership of the school. For example, at Spellman there is a lot of parental involvement and the Town and community groups within Cheverly support the local Elementary School but I have never heard of any group doing work at our zoned middle school (Gholson). IMO they should ditch the effort to make all Middle Schools 6-8 and leave 6th grade at elementary schools when they can. I think going back to having more K-8 schools would be even better. |
Anonymous
I forgot one more... 7) Some of the schools are at 140-150% capacity. It is nearly impossible to give a quality education in schools that are that overcrowded |