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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My oldest went to NBMS (before, during and after their large addition, and had the previous Principal as well as the current one), and we really liked the school. The current Principal is lovely and caring but definitely scatterbrained, which I can't complain about because we are also an ADHD family. My oldest had a resource class and extended time accommodations and most of his teachers were aware of them and very kind and attentive in general. Two of his resource teachers and his 8th grade English teacher really went above and beyond, but nearly all his teachers had a solidly "good" baseline.

My youngest is at Westland, and so far, I've been annoyed several times. First, they didn't seem to understand the need for outdoor lunches for those who wanted them. Parents had to insist. That was before Omicron variants became so prevalent that social distancing is practically useless. Then, they didn't want to place my child in an advanced math class, despite the fact that she came from a CES and qualified for it with an ad hoc test. I got the impression, talking to other parents, that the BCC cluster tries to dissuade families from taking accelerated classes, more so than other clusters. Maybe they don't want to bus 8th graders to high school in the morning because the downtown ride gets tricky in rush hour? Maybe they're worried about academic pressure in a way the WJ and WW clusters are not? Who knows. All I got from the school was hemming and hawing, and I felt the math director really wasn't up for the job. At NBMS, they were ready to bus my kid to the high school for advanced classes, no problem. They welcomed the notion that children sought academic challenge.

I come from schools that taught a classical education, with heavy emphasis on reading classical literature, and obviously most schools in the US aren't like that. Reading lists here are full of the most ridiculously-written, low-quality contemporary novels for the most part, designed to appeal to the reluctant reader. Westland, being an IB school (middle years programme), has assigned Rick by Alex Gino as their discussion book, and on another thread, this gender-inclusive book got some people upset. I don't care one way or another, I just wish they included some more challenging books. In general, and until you get to high school and AP or IB level classes, I have found with my oldest that MCPS has a pretty disappointing level of English (reading, writing, literature selection). However the STEM offerings are consistently good (I'm a scientist, BTW).

All in all, all this area's schools are good schools. I complained in this post, but I am aware that MCPS is one of the best large public school districts in the country, and that is particularly true of the Bethesda area.
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Your complaints are more MCPS based than school based.  I'm impressed you kids got books to read.  We've had two a year in MS.  Its appalling.  [/quote]

That's strange at our DCC MS the kids read a new book almost every month.[/quote]

"Book". Probably easy-readers.[/quote]

This.  Because there is no differentiation in MS ‘Advanced’ English.  Everyone is lumped together in the same terrible English class and the poor teacher is expected to teach a wide range of abilities.  Large class sizes mean zero feedback and the lessons have to be appropriate to the kids who read at the lowest level.

MS English is truly terrible in MCPS.  [/quote]

It’s not the large class size that prevents feedback. Teacher professional development in MCPS actually tells teachers not to give written feedback so students have nothing to argue about in terms of grading. There’s rubric for writing assignments and that is all the teacher is supposed to fill out as a teacher. [/quote]

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