basic question about CES

[Anonymous]

So is CES like AAP in Fairfax county--in other words, can you go to a CES as your base school and if your child isn't selected you can still go there in the regular gen ed program? The reason I ask is that we are moving for schools but kids are in early elementary; ideally we would just pick a school that is nearby that would give us the option to participate in CES if DC is accepted, or just go to that same nearby school if she is not. Is this how it works?

[Anonymous]

Your home/base school is determined by your physical address, OP. Check the MCPS website, enter any street address, and you will know to which school you belong.

If your child is accepted to a CES (elementary magnet), or a middle or high school magnet, they will be bused to the one that serves your area. Some bus rides are very long, you need to inquire about the bus route length. If the home school houses a CES, your child will just go to that one, and will not have to change schools.

A word about middle and high school magnets: in order to desegregate certain schools, and in an attempt to revitalize their lower-income neighborhoods, MCPS placed the middle and high school magnets there. Those schools do not perform as well as others in wealthier districts of Montgomery County, so if you don't want to live there, you'll have to accept long bus rides.

[Anonymous]

That’s only the case if you happen to live inbounds for a school with a CES program. Might want to look inbounds for one of these schools. (Chevy Chase Elementary immediately comes to mind.)

[Anonymous]

The CES programs can be placed into lower performing elementary schools so you could be trading down for the early elementary years on the relatively small chance that your child is accepted. I'm not sure if this is universally the case but it definitely is for our zoned CES school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Your home/base school is determined by your physical address, OP. Check the MCPS website, enter any street address, and you will know to which school you belong.

If your child is accepted to a CES (elementary magnet), or a middle or high school magnet, they will be bused to the one that serves your area. Some bus rides are very long, you need to inquire about the bus route length. If the home school houses a CES, your child will just go to that one, and will not have to change schools.

A word about middle and high school magnets: in order to desegregate certain schools, and in an attempt to revitalize their lower-income neighborhoods, MCPS placed the middle and high school magnets there. Those schools do not perform as well as others in wealthier districts of Montgomery County, so if you don't want to live there, you'll have to accept long bus rides.

Oh please - MCPS might have put magnets where they did for this reason but a lot has changed in 30+ years since that happened.

[Anonymous]

Some Elementary school have their own local enrichments programs open to just kids in their school as well. These are new programs in MCPS. These kids are not allowed to apply to the regional centers. Good for kids who would not have gotten a regional spot and not good for kids that would have. At some schools they accommodate 30% of the class in the enrichment programs so they are much easier to get into.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

A word about middle and high school magnets: in order to desegregate certain schools, and in an attempt to revitalize their lower-income neighborhoods, MCPS placed the middle and high school magnets there. Those schools do not perform as well as others in wealthier districts of Montgomery County, so if you don't want to live there, you'll have to accept long bus rides.

By “those schools” do you mean those elementary schools?

[Anonymous]

OP here--thanks, yes, we were looking at stuff in the CCES boundary so that is helpful to know--if DC gets in they get in, if not, that's still their local school, so no need to travel far either way. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

A thread earlier this spring had some detailed discussion about the effects flowing from the full separation of CES and regular students at CCES. Nothing is simple these days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Your home/base school is determined by your physical address, OP. Check the MCPS website, enter any street address, and you will know to which school you belong.

If your child is accepted to a CES (elementary magnet), or a middle or high school magnet, they will be bused to the one that serves your area. Some bus rides are very long, you need to inquire about the bus route length. If the home school houses a CES, your child will just go to that one, and will not have to change schools.

A word about middle and high school magnets: in order to desegregate certain schools, and in an attempt to revitalize their lower-income neighborhoods, MCPS placed the middle and high school magnets there. Those schools do not perform as well as others in wealthier districts of Montgomery County, so if you don't want to live there, you'll have to accept long bus rides.

Oh please - MCPS might have put magnets where they did for this reason but a lot has changed in 30+ years since that happened.

Not as much as you hope, PP. To be perfectly clear, none of the middle and high school magnets are in even decent school districts. This is not surmise, it's fact. The reason things haven't changed that much in 30 years is that Montgomery County is very segregated and that is hard to change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Your home/base school is determined by your physical address, OP. Check the MCPS website, enter any street address, and you will know to which school you belong.

If your child is accepted to a CES (elementary magnet), or a middle or high school magnet, they will be bused to the one that serves your area. Some bus rides are very long, you need to inquire about the bus route length. If the home school houses a CES, your child will just go to that one, and will not have to change schools.

A word about middle and high school magnets: in order to desegregate certain schools, and in an attempt to revitalize their lower-income neighborhoods, MCPS placed the middle and high school magnets there. Those schools do not perform as well as others in wealthier districts of Montgomery County, so if you don't want to live there, you'll have to accept long bus rides.

Oh please - MCPS might have put magnets where they did for this reason but a lot has changed in 30+ years since that happened.

Not as much as you hope, PP. To be perfectly clear, none of the middle and high school magnets are in even decent school districts. This is not surmise, it's fact. The reason things haven't changed that much in 30 years is that Montgomery County is very segregated and that is hard to change.

It hasn’t changed that they are all in the same district. MoCo only has one: MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So is CES like AAP in Fairfax county--in other words, can you go to a CES as your base school and if your child isn't selected you can still go there in the regular gen ed program? The reason I ask is that we are moving for schools but kids are in early elementary; ideally we would just pick a school that is nearby that would give us the option to participate in CES if DC is accepted, or just go to that same nearby school if she is not. Is this how it works?

OP, basically yes. You buy a home that feeds into the school that you want and your child gets to attend it, even if it's a CES. Whether your child participates in the CES program or not depends on her acceptance to the program. It is highly competitive though with a lower acceptance rate than AAP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here--thanks, yes, we were looking at stuff in the CCES boundary so that is helpful to know--if DC gets in they get in, if not, that's still their local school, so no need to travel far either way. Thanks!

If travel is a concern of yours, you should know that the kids in-bounds for CCES go to Rosemary Hills for K-2 so they do take the bus for those years.

[Anonymous]

CES is like AAP in some ways, but AAP is for around 15% of the population whereas CES is just the top 2%-3%. Also AAP selection are always contested by outside evaluations which anyone with $$$ can simply purchase. It's not really comparable.

[Anonymous]

CES no longer takes the top 2-3%. They take the kids who don't have a high scoring cohort at their home school. That means some 99% kids stay at their home school while some 92% kids at a different school get the CES invite. There are many threads discussing this, here just trying to get correct current info to OP.