TPES
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Anonymous
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Wanted to get some perspective. We are a no-screens family hoping our child can receive a low pressure but meaningful education. We aren’t fans of testing, grades, or homework. We prioritize outdoor time. Both parents went to public school and did well but feel we sacrificed our childhoods for school and want to avoid that for our kids.
How crazy is MCPS going to make us feel? Is there anything we can do to have a better experience? Zoned to Takoma ES for kindergarten next year. |
Anonymous
Sorry for the typo, Takoma Park ES. |
Anonymous
You might be okay until 2nd or 3rd grade. After that, testing. Testing on screens. More screen time in 4th and 5th. Then major screen time in 6-12. |
Anonymous
My first grader has been doing testing on screens since the first month or two of kindergarten last year. She had a lot of screen time in class last year, and had just as much this year. |
Anonymous
| I would suggest you homeschool if you want to avoid testing and screens. That's pretty much all MCPS does, so it won't be a good fit for you. |
Anonymous
| Testing is helpful to get a baseline. Homework is good for reinforcement and grades tell you if your child is getting the concepts. Just keep them home and unschool them. |
Anonymous
| Can’t tell if this is a serious post or not. You want to send your kid to public school but don’t like or approve of everything that happens in a public school? |
Anonymous
Screens start even earlier. "tech" in classrooms. you're not going to be able to avoid this "curriculum" in schools. Even Kindergartners take a MAP-P or something test. The results show student's math skills which allows teachers to form small groups to work with students. That's Kinder: much more academic than morning and afternoon kindergarten that many of us dinosaur parents had. Lunch and recess one hour each day. PE once a week. |
Anonymous
| I cannot imagine you will be happy in public school. You might prefer a Waldorf experience. Besides screens, testing and homework, outside time during the school day is minimal at best. |
Anonymous
OP here. This is a serious post. We can’t homeschool and can’t afford most private schools. So this is what we have. I realize my views are outside of the norm but also feel that being on screens, testing, being given homework, and being graded this young are all detrimental to the experience of childhood and unnecessary. If any other parents hold similar views, how have you coped? I think you can opt out of homework? We would stay screen-free at home. |
KDavid
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Not sure if there is a similar program or network here, but in my old community of Shepherdstown, WV, there was a homeschooling co-op network where kids would essentially rotate between home school households based on parent availability. I believe you had to make yourself available a certain number of days a month to stay enrolled in the program. Households with dual working families would just have to use a PTO day or two a month to meet the requirement. |
Anonymous
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Just some experience with homework: It was designed to reinforce math topics in K-2 at least, and wasn’t part of the grading system. There was no ELA homework. In third, they had math homework and some spelling/vocab work. I don’t recall either of them being graded, either. My kid is in CES for 4th, which is a different experience.
There is a lot of county and state testing. That’s the reality of public schools. I don’t recall teachers really giving content tests or quizzes until we started seeing spelling tests in third grade, but I could be misremembering that. |
Anonymous
| A waldorf private sound like a fit for you as well. I think you may find that the crunchy pace of Takoma Park of years gone past is evolving as it moved into a faux-yuppie of very highly educated but middle income (think small firm lawyers, non-profits, teachers, pure feds). These parents will place a similar emphasis/drive on education with things like metrics & test scores esp when coupled to the area's perceived 2nd fiddle status to the western county's school offerings and how they feel that reflects on them. The like minded communities that don't embrace the rat race have migrated east of TP these days partially because they can't afford it. The ones with money do the private route often in more expensive areas. There is some still in TP that got in earlier or bought into the hype but I don't think they are the defining demographic anymore. Just look at the main street, the days of used book stores and bead shops is long gone. |
Anonymous
If you are looking to avoid testing, grades, and homework, that will be tough in public school. Have you looked into financial aid at a place like Washington Waldorf or similar private school? |
Anonymous
Grades: no grades in K or 1st anywhere in MCPS (see I.e. the K report card here: https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/siteassets/district/info/grading/2025-26-reportcards/es-reportcard-gr-k_redacted.pdf .,) In our experience grades have not been focused on much in 2nd or 3rd either although they exist, starting to pick up a little, although this may be school specific. Testing: for K-2, all schools do a brief computer-based MAP math test 3 times a year (along with the non-computer DIBELS reading assessment, which only takes a few minutes.). Testing picks up more in 3rd grade and above, but still hasn't been too overboard in my opinion. Homework: This may depend on school. The Eureka math curriculum has a workbook with homework pages. Our school has technically assigned these but it does not need to be turned in and teachers have generally been fine with us skipping it or some have even explicitly said it's fine to skip it. They're always going to tell you to do some pleasure reading for "homework" but presumably you'd do that anyway. Occasional projects, usually around 1-2 times a year for us in the early grades. Screens: Depends on lot on teachers and schools, but not going to be none. I'll let folks familiar with TPES answer this one. Outdoor time: not much. Recess is short. Sometimes you find a great teacher who finds ways to bring kids outside during class time a lot. Our before/aftercare has a lot of outdoor time, though, so the kids get a couple hours of it a day that way most days. |