Reply to Eastern Middle School or Takoma Park Middle School

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]May I suggest you search through previous posts?  There's a lot about both, especially Eastern, although be forewarned -- some people have preconceived ideas about what it means to attend a diverse school.

My child is an 8th grader at Eastern and it's been a great experience.  He doesn't feel unsafe and has both magnet and nonmagnet friends.

People are going to post about the social environment but I have another child at a Bethesda MS and honestly, there's plenty of rude and inappropriate middle school stuff that goes on there too.  Don't believe me?  Check a Tilden MS kid's instagram account and you will see :)

Most of the magnet teachers are very engaged and some are really extraordinary.  Quality of the nonmagnet teaching has been very good for math and so-so for science.

All that said, be sure to inquire about music classes.  My understanding is that magnet kids, at least in 6th grade, must take an extra period after school to do band or orchestra.  And there's not much of an opportunity for computer in the sense of programming, but DC has done a lot of work on the Mac using Final Cut Pro and other tools to create videos. This year, 8th grade, is really heavy on video production and DS has become a pretty skilled videographer and editor.

All kids do a long research paper in 7th grade which involves lots of research at the library at UMCP, many drafts, peer reviews, etc.  At the end your child will, ideally, have a paper that could be handed in to a freshman-level college course for a good grade.  It's quite an achievement.    I am impressed by the technical and creative writing skills that DC has acquired and I think he will do really well in high school and beyond because of it.

Good luck with your decision!  Both are great programs.[/quote]
I agree with this poster.
DS was in a similar situation - accepted to both TPMS and Eastern and our home school in Bethesda has a good rep.  So three good choices but he ultimately picked Eastern and we have been happier than we could have imagined.  I was so apprehensive about the social environment but ds is happy and thriving.  The teaching staff is great - very caring.  DS does not feel unsafe at all and loves going to school.  The facility is really rundown and I think it is shame that MCPS does not allocate some funds to refurbish it.  We did look at both academic programs and felt that Eastern's was more cohesive and better structured than Takoma's.  Takoma is a better facility and yes they do get to take an elective.  However, ds loves the media class and is learning a lot of cool stuff so he does not really miss an elective.  My child takes instrument lessons privately so that was not an issue for us.  I don't think your child can go wrong in either program.  We allowed our child to make the decision based on which program he was more excited/passionate about and he picked Eastern.  I will say, there is a huge difference in the curriculum and pace of instruction and level of expectations in the magnet programs and the advanced level courses in a regular middle school so that was a clearer choice for us.[/quote]

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