Eastern Middle and Silver Spring International Middle

[Anonymous]

We are looking to move to Silver Spring and were looking at schos that fed into Sligo and Takoma middle. We heardots of good things about the elementary schools we were considering and people seemed positive about the middle schools. We are expanding our search and would like feedback on the above two middle schools and their elementary feeders. We know all of these go to different high schools but that seems so far from now (10 years) that it isnt the top priority. TIA!

[Anonymous]

Lots of things to consider.

Do you plan for your kids to walk or bike to school? How do you feel about a light rail station outside the school?

How comfortable are you with a school that is 70% lower income, Latino?

Are you interested in language immersion? Humanities magnet? Or a comprehensive program?

How important is the state of the physical building to you? Would a crumbling building be a dealbreaker?

Do you want a large PTA? Would you be uncomfortable with a PTA that doesn’t reflect the school’s demographics?

[Anonymous]

SSIMS is great, and has an excellent principal.

[Anonymous]

As PP hints, the Eastern physical plant is a nightmare. The school is great, but the way MCPS has constantly pushed back needed renovations is shameful.

So, in terms of the physical buildings of the schools you are considering, Takoma is probably the nicest because they just got a big expansion, then SSIMS once they are done with that expansion, then Sligo and then Eastern.

As for the PTAs, none of those schools are going to have PTAs that match the student population but that's an issue in integrated schools everywhere - middle class and white/Asian families have the time and resources to do school engagement.

Of the four you are considering, only Sigo avoids the school-within-a-school dynamic, if that matters to you. Takoma and Eastern host the math and humanities magnets, respectively, and SSIMS hosts the advanced language sections for kids who did elementary school immersion in French or Spanish.

However, between SSIMS, Takoma, and Eastern, I think SSIMS has more opportunities for kids not in the "magnet" to benefit from the programs, as the IB Middle Years program is available to everyone.

Basically, you have good choices. Each of the schools you are considering has benefits and drawbacks, but none is a bad choice and none is head and shoulders better than the others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:SSIMS is great, and has an excellent principal.

Love SSIMS too, and Forest Knolls ES. Great teachers, administrators, and community.

[Anonymous]

Eastern can be tougher for avg kids not Academically driven. There are already clicks roaming the halls with no intention of graduating. If you kids can avoid them and be ignored by them they will do great. If they get involved there is risk. All schools have kids like that, eastern has more than most. Mom of two middle class kids who got two different results there. My one boy is having a lot of problems in HS with the crowd he met at eastern. He was never going to be a good student, but is dabbling in things that have long ranging damage as a 10th grader. Daughter is in a great college assuming it opens back up in the fall

[Anonymous]

I don't think the "school within a school dynamic" is evident at SSIMS. The kids in French and Spanish immersion are in their own language and social studies classes; for everything else they're in classes with the rest of the students. I've had 2 kids there (it's our home school), and they've had friends both in the immersion programs and not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eastern can be tougher for avg kids not Academically driven. There are already clicks roaming the halls with no intention of graduating. If you kids can avoid them and be ignored by them they will do great. If they get involved there is risk. All schools have kids like that, eastern has more than most. Mom of two middle class kids who got two different results there. My one boy is having a lot of problems in HS with the crowd he met at eastern. He was never going to be a good student, but is dabbling in things that have long ranging damage as a 10th grader. Daughter is in a great college assuming it opens back up in the fall

Sounds like parenting is the key to addressing this. The world is full of temptations that can derail a student. Even at home, you may allow negative influences to enter through the media your child consumes. It is natural that they will gravitate toward things that match their inner compass. As a parent, if you instill the correct values in your child, their inner compass will steer them away from cliques aimlessly roaming a middle school’s hallways. Clearly most parents at Eastern managed to do this. I have faith in OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eastern can be tougher for avg kids not Academically driven. There are already clicks roaming the halls with no intention of graduating. If you kids can avoid them and be ignored by them they will do great. If they get involved there is risk. All schools have kids like that, eastern has more than most. Mom of two middle class kids who got two different results there. My one boy is having a lot of problems in HS with the crowd he met at eastern. He was never going to be a good student, but is dabbling in things that have long ranging damage as a 10th grader. Daughter is in a great college assuming it opens back up in the fall

Sounds like parenting is the key to addressing this. The world is full of temptations that can derail a student. Even at home, you may allow negative influences to enter through the media your child consumes. It is natural that they will gravitate toward things that match their inner compass. As a parent, if you instill the correct values in your child, their inner compass will steer them away from cliques aimlessly roaming a middle school’s hallways. Clearly most parents at Eastern managed to do this. I have faith in OP.

New poster, but this is the most condescending response ever. Please ignore them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think the "school within a school dynamic" is evident at SSIMS. The kids in French and Spanish immersion are in their own language and social studies classes; for everything else they're in classes with the rest of the students. I've had 2 kids there (it's our home school), and they've had friends both in the immersion programs and not.

This is also our experience. Also our home school and my child is in the Spanish immersion program but has many friends in both immersion programs and kids that are not.

My child's best friend is at TPMS magnet program and loves it. Mostly friends with magnet kids but also has some friends from the neighborhood/IB kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SSIMS is great, and has an excellent principal.

Love SSIMS too, and Forest Knolls ES. Great teachers, administrators, and community.

The one negative about Forest Knolls was that it had been very, very overcrowded. But they just had a boundary rezoning to fix that. Starting this fall, homes south of Dennis Avenue will be rezoned to Montgomery Knolls for K-2 and Pine Crest for 3-5. These homes will remain zoned to SSIMS for 6-8. Details are here:

http://gis.mcpsmd.org/boundarystudypdfs/Knolls_BOEResolution.pdf

Also, the new Pine Crest principal is last year's principal intern at Forest Knolls.

[Anonymous]

Op here. Thank you for these responses. To answer some questions, we are looking for schools that have a large enough cohort of kids at and above grade level that there are classes and programs geared towards them (our local middle school has almost no kids at or above grade level) . If this criterion is met, we are ok with high farms. I hadn't thought about school within school issues. Sounds like sligo and ssims might be better than eastern. Was surprised to hear favoring ssims over eastern given that the latter feeds into Blair and the former into Northwood and Blair is generally considered to be better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SSIMS is great, and has an excellent principal.

Love SSIMS too, and Forest Knolls ES. Great teachers, administrators, and community.

The one negative about Forest Knolls was that it had been very, very overcrowded. But they just had a boundary rezoning to fix that. Starting this fall, homes south of Dennis Avenue will be rezoned to Montgomery Knolls for K-2 and Pine Crest for 3-5. These homes will remain zoned to SSIMS for 6-8. Details are here:

http://gis.mcpsmd.org/boundarystudypdfs/Knolls_BOEResolution.pdf

Can someone help translate this document. For a kid starting K in a few years, they follow the new boundaries. If they are at forest Knolls they go to ssims and Northwood. If they are at Montgomery Knolls and pine crest they go to eastern and Blair? It is hard to see the markers to understand the new boundary.

Also, the new Pine Crest principal is last year's principal intern at Forest Knolls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thank you for these responses. To answer some questions, we are looking for schools that have a large enough cohort of kids at and above grade level that there are classes and programs geared towards them (our local middle school has almost no kids at or above grade level) . If this criterion is met, we are ok with high farms. I hadn't thought about school within school issues. Sounds like sligo and ssims might be better than eastern. Was surprised to hear favoring ssims over eastern given that the latter feeds into Blair and the former into Northwood and Blair is generally considered to be better.

I think there are parts of the SSIMS zone that do feed into Blair, for what its worth. Maybe everything zoned for Rolling Terrace?

Any of those schools will have a cohort of high achievers and what I've found is that the "advanced" kids end up de facto having schedules that bring them together a lot because they are all in the same math class, and the same humanities class, and they tend to cluster around the same electives, which means there are only so many ways the schedule can break out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thank you for these responses. To answer some questions, we are looking for schools that have a large enough cohort of kids at and above grade level that there are classes and programs geared towards them (our local middle school has almost no kids at or above grade level) . If this criterion is met, we are ok with high farms. I hadn't thought about school within school issues. Sounds like sligo and ssims might be better than eastern. Was surprised to hear favoring ssims over eastern given that the latter feeds into Blair and the former into Northwood and Blair is generally considered to be better.

There’s some bias on this board toward Blair because of the STEM magnet and CAP. But Northwood has the prestigious Middle College program that allows students to earn an associate’s degree before their HS diploma. Come fall, I will have a 9th grader in MC2 at Northwood and a 9th grader in the comprehensive program at Blair. I expect both will do well. If the Blair freshman struggles more initially, I suspect it will be because he is new to MCPS and came from a tiny private school. I also had an older child graduate from comprehensive at Blair and except for one math class and one French class, the students in her classes were motivated.

Eastern offers both on level and advanced classes. However, as everywhere else in MCPS, advanced isn’t really advanced. It is what every other school system in the DMV would consider on level. Most MS in MCPS dropped their on level classes around 6 years ago and just did mixed ability under the title advanced. Eastern fought to keep on level courses in order to offer additional support to students who need remediation, but may not have an IEP or 504. A few other schools have done this as well.