Reply to Pls tell me about the RM school cluster

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[quote=Anonymous]I have one child at RM and one who is just finishing up at JW.

My feelings about these schools:

JW - It's overcrowded, and in general I think that middle school is the weak link of the US education system. That being said, both of my children had a pretty good experience at JW. They learned a lot, and they have great friends. I've never been concerned about their safety or about the quality of instruction. The one big unknown is that JW's longtime principal is retiring, so there will be a new principal next year.

RM - My daughter is not in the IB program, as she didn't like the prescribed nature of the curriculum. There seems to be the idea floating around that there are the smart IB kids and then everyone else at the school is uninterested in learning and possibly thuggish (not that I think that's what you're saying, but I've seen/heard this idea expressed a lot). In fact, RM has a robust AP program in addition to the IB magnet. My daughter is taking a variety of AP/honors classes, and she's thriving. Some of her friends are in the IB program, and some of them are mixing honors and AP classes like she is - it's not like there's no interaction between the two groups.

I don't know how statistics break out by IB/non-IB - I've never seen MCPS release the data that way.

Now certainly, there are some rougher kids at the school, but my daughter hasn't really had any interaction with them.

(Both kids have friends from the dreaded Twinbrook neighborhood, and they're normal, bright kids from functional, middle-class families.)

While I don't think either school is perfect by any means, I've been generally pleased with the level of education my children have received. My elder child will be off to college in a couple of years, and right now - at the very beginning of the admissions process - I'm not at all worried about her prospects.[/quote]

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