Are you too experiencing a different DC culture than the one everyone complains about?

[Anonymous]

DC is the asshole capital of the WORLD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are in Silver Spring too - quarter mile from the Silver Spring downtown area and the Metro. They are putting a lot of money into the area - new transportation center, tons of new restaurants and shops, etc. We are inside the beltway, are zoned for Sligo Park ES/SS International Middle School/Northwood (in the Blair consortium too), great renovated house for $550k. They also have great language immersion classes that can get you into better MS/HSs. Very friendly. We love it.

Can you explain this statement? I'm a French Immersion parent (by the luck of the lottery; it is not a given and there is no preference for in-boundary ES children) and see zero advantage in terms of the FI program "getting you into better MS/HSs."

Do you have some objective basis/statistics for believing this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like we have lots of Silver Spring happiness. Where are my VA residents - anyone happy in Virginia?

Love Vienna. And my neighbor moved from Silver Spring to Vienna for the schools and because Silver Spring is kinda lower socioeconomically. I think lots of people who make $120K are happy. Enough to get by on a month in month out basis, not enough to save to pay for college for their kids, so not too much stress in that regard. It's a sweet spot of income. People making $400K are the unhappy strivers who are stressed out trying to save 4 mill for retirement and $250K for each kid for college.

I have no idea where you are getting your numbers, but will tell you that our HHI is $130K; we live in the "kinda lower socioeconomically" Silver Spring; and we have thus far saved $240K towards college for our two kids, ages 13 and 10. We fully expect to have something close to $200K each for them by the time they are ready to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are in Silver Spring too - quarter mile from the Silver Spring downtown area and the Metro. They are putting a lot of money into the area - new transportation center, tons of new restaurants and shops, etc. We are inside the beltway, are zoned for Sligo Park ES/SS International Middle School/Northwood (in the Blair consortium too), great renovated house for $550k. They also have great language immersion classes that can get you into better MS/HSs. Very friendly. We love it.

Can you explain this statement? I'm a French Immersion parent (by the luck of the lottery; it is not a given and there is no preference for in-boundary ES children) and see zero advantage in terms of the FI program "getting you into better MS/HSs."

Do you have some objective basis/statistics for believing this?

I am not this pp, but she's probably referring to the spanish immersion at rock creek forest, which some people see as a way to access the BCC cluster for MS/HS. Also, I would endeavor that some people think their home middle school is worse than SSIS, which houses the other immersion students that continue through middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I am not this pp, but she's probably referring to the spanish immersion at rock creek forest, which some people see as a way to access the BCC cluster for MS/HS. Also, I would endeavor that some people think their home middle school is worse than SSIS, which houses the other immersion students that continue through middle school.

Exactly. I'm not the PP either and I don't know this for sure, but I think if you get into some of the elementary immersion programs in MOCO, then you can go to certain MS and HS with immersion programs to continue your immersion. SSIS is one of them and I think you're correct that there is a BCC cluster school that has an immersion program that you can go to if you were in a particular immersion ES program.

As far as I know though, all the immersion programs are indeed lottery, so it's not like it's something you can plan for. That's why we bought where we did - school is decent all the way through high school (we're in SS too).

[Anonymous]

this is a good map for exploring different regions of the area. amazing diversity in some areas, and amazing segregation in others.

http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/explorer?view=raceethnicity&lat=40.6311&lng=-73.994&l=12

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:this is a good map for exploring different regions of the area. amazing diversity in some areas, and amazing segregation in others.

http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/explorer?view=raceethnicity&lat=40.6311&lng=-73.994&l=12

This is absolutely fascinating. I love the diversity in Silver Spring! Also neat map that shows private school enrollment for ES kids. Thanks for posting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this is a good map for exploring different regions of the area. amazing diversity in some areas, and amazing segregation in others.

http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/explorer?view=raceethnicity&lat=40.6311&lng=-73.994&l=12

This is absolutely fascinating. I love the diversity in Silver Spring! Also neat map that shows private school enrollment for ES kids. Thanks for posting.

big differences in Vienna and Silver Spring regarding racial breakdown, if that is important to you either way.