Thoughts about Richard Montgomery HS?

[Anonymous]

Thinking about buying a home in that cluster. I know it's not Wootton but is it at least better than average?

[Anonymous]

Just like Blair, the magnet is super but that’s about it. Non magnet portion is like any other MCPS HS (not counting BCC and w schools).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just like Blair, the magnet is super but that’s about it. Non magnet portion is like any other MCPS HS (not counting BCC and w schools).

Disagree - the rest of the HS is actually pretty good based on discussions I've had with RM cluster students who passed on the magnet.

In any event though, if you live in the cluster and are a good student, you've got a nice path to the magnet program if you want it in 9th because 25 of the 125 seats are reserved for RM cluster students. For a high-achieving HS student, it's a better situation than going to Wootton IMHO.

[Anonymous]

I think wootton provides something in between magnet and non magnet. Not as rigorous as magnet but much more rigorous than non magnet program.

[Anonymous]

How old are your kids OP?

Be aware that the school is already overcrowded and there is a ton of overdevelopment scheduled for that cluster. There will be a boat load of new housing going up in the area, and there are no plans to alleviate the already overcrowded HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Be aware that the school is already overcrowded and there is a ton of overdevelopment scheduled for that cluster. There will be a boat load of new housing going up in the area, and there are no plans to alleviate the already overcrowded HS.

The development is taking place over decades, and is mostly luxury METRO-based development that will have few kids. It's really a non-issue when you factor in that two new HSs will open before that development ever fully builds out.

[Anonymous]

Just like Blair, the magnet is super but that’s about it. Non magnet portion is like any other MCPS HS (not counting BCC and w schools).

RM non-magnet is much, much nicer than Blair non-magnet. There are lots of UMC and MC neighborhoods feeding RM now unlike Blair where the majority of the non-poverty kids are being bussed in from other areas or a few neighborhoods in DTSS/TP.

Ritchie Park and College Gardens are the best elementary schools in the cluster.

[Anonymous]

I think wootton provides something in between magnet and non magnet. Not as rigorous as magnet but much more rigorous than non magnet program.

This is correct but Wootton carries an extra 100K premium over RM or QO because of the school's success. Wootton's super high scores and less vocal community will make it a target though for MCPS/DCC crowd so I would be worried about rezoning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I think wootton provides something in between magnet and non magnet. Not as rigorous as magnet but much more rigorous than non magnet program.

This is correct but Wootton carries an extra 100K premium over RM or QO because of the school's success. Wootton's super high scores and less vocal community will make it a target though for MCPS/DCC crowd so I would be worried about rezoning.

Although some people enjoy repeating this sort of thing it’s dishonest. Sure, Wootton is a great school by any measure but like most it has a high-performing group and an array of AP classes just like other HS. In Woottons case the high-achieving peer cohort is larger than most and it’s boundary includes few low-income students. This.results in higher test averaged but doesn’t mean AP classes are significantly different than those offered elsewhere

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just like Blair, the magnet is super but that’s about it. Non magnet portion is like any other MCPS HS (not counting BCC and w schools).

BCC is a GS 6 based on its PARCC scores and Whitman has a GS 4 for its test scores. Neither school is that impressive particularly since both are low FARMS. People stop repeating fairy tales and look at actual data

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Be aware that the school is already overcrowded and there is a ton of overdevelopment scheduled for that cluster. There will be a boat load of new housing going up in the area, and there are no plans to alleviate the already overcrowded HS.

The development is taking place over decades, and is mostly luxury METRO-based development that will have few kids. It's really a non-issue when you factor in that two new HSs will open before that development ever fully builds out.

People like to pretend that the high density units won't have more kids, but that never turns out to be true.

Overcrowding is definitely an issue for RM, as well as many other schools in the County.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I think wootton provides something in between magnet and non magnet. Not as rigorous as magnet but much more rigorous than non magnet program.


This is correct but Wootton carries an extra 100K premium over RM or QO because of the school's success. Wootton's super high scores and less vocal community will make it a target though for MCPS/DCC crowd so I would be worried about rezoning.


Although some people enjoy repeating this sort of thing it’s dishonest. Sure, Wootton is a great school by any measure but like most it has a high-performing group and an array of AP classes just like other HS. In Woottons case the high-achieving peer cohort is larger than most and it’s boundary includes few low-income students. This.results in higher test averaged but doesn’t mean AP classes are significantly different than those offered elsewhere

SES isn't everything. If it was then Whitman would score higher than Whitman on the testing category.

I think SES has a big impact on a school being a 4 or lower vs a school being a 7 or higher but above or below this it really is the quality of the educational environment. Schools with equal FARMS can have very different scores depending on the quality of the teachers and whether the school is over crowded. I've seen this myself with my kids scores. One year DD had the fabulous teacher who really was amazing. She was able to work with DD in a way that other teachers have not. She scored a high 5 on PARCC. The next year, she had a burned out teacher who decided to just retire early or transfer the following year and DD barely scored a 4. She LDs in that subject but is very bright. In talking with other teachers there are patterns where the better teachers get higher scores out of the kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How old are your kids OP?

Be aware that the school is already overcrowded and there is a ton of overdevelopment scheduled for that cluster. There will be a boat load of new housing going up in the area, and there are no plans to alleviate the already overcrowded HS.

No, it's "scheduled" for the Walter Johnson cluster, and "overdevelopment" means "housing that I oppose the building of."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thinking about buying a home in that cluster. I know it's not Wootton but is it at least better than average?

OP, when you say good school, what specifically do you mean? What makes a school a good school, in your opinion?

[Anonymous]

Just like Blair, the magnet is super but that’s about it. Non magnet portion is like any other MCPS HS (not counting BCC and w schools).


RM non-magnet is much, much nicer than Blair non-magnet. There are lots of UMC and MC neighborhoods feeding RM now unlike Blair where the majority of the non-poverty kids are being bussed in from other areas or a few neighborhoods in DTSS/TP.

Ritchie Park and College Gardens are the best elementary schools in the cluster.

LOLOLOL. Ritchie Park is a nightmare. I guess they are considered "good" by DCUM standards because the neighborhoods lobbied aggressively (and won) to push all their FARMS kids to other schools in the cluster. So FARMS is at 8%, but the principal and morale are still terrible.