Reply to Thinking of moving from MoCo to HoCo

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]…from a schooling perspective. The commute distance to the city, museums etc are obviously things we are thinking off. We have 2 elementary aged kids and wondering whether about HoCo public education. For instance, they have Common Core but do they let kids work at a higher level? Do they have HGC with alternate curriculums?
Ay feedback would be much appreciated.[/quote]

IMO, I think Howard County is a better run school district.  The pros are:

They have a gifted and talented specialist (at least 2) at every elementary school.  I like that they practice equity and that GT students aren't shift across the county to other schools.  I think it's great that no matter where you purchase your home that your GT child will be offered GT services at their neighborhood school.  Also, Howard County doesn't cap students once they reach a certain level.  If your child has mastered a certain level, they will not be held back or prevented from moving ahead just because the other students can't catch up.   They also, offer advanced courses and college  programs at every high school.  Go to their website http://www.hcpss.org  Click on [b]"Academics"[/b] afterwards click on [b]"Gifted and Talented Program"[/b]  It will give you a better explanation of the GT services at the elementary and middle school levels.  In addition, it provides you with the list of courses and programs that they offer at the high school level.

Smaller classroom ratios

Counselors can provide a more personable experience since they don't have an abundance of students.

Additional support staff

[b]They do a much better job with their lower performing students  than Montgomery County.  So, the achievement gap isn't as big and the constant focus on it doesn't plague the school district.  If anything instead of lowering standards, they actually maintain high standards.    Montgomery County has lower standards which makes every one suffer.   
[/b]
Howard County is more green.  Many of the schools are environmentally built and the old ones will have renovations to make themselves more green.

The people are less pretentious and it will be easier for your child to make friends.  It's more family oriented atmosphere.

I know that some of the high schools have partnered with UMBC to offer college credit for some courses.

The cons will be commute times if you work in the DC area.  So, you may want to live in the southern part of the county.  Checkout elementary schools that feed into Atholton, River Hill, or Reservoir. The MARC train (Camden Line) from Laurel could take you to Union Station.

As far as museums go, you a choices of both Baltimore and Washington DC on the weekends.   There is even a newly built nature center "The Robinson Nature Center" in Columbia which is great too. [/quote]

MoCo did a study that showed that when the percentage of FARMs kids went over 20%, the kids did not reap any benefit of being in a high performing school.  HoCo has many fewer poor kids and they're not clustered together as much as in MoCo.  I imagine this might be causing some of the differences.  On the other hand, MoCo SAT scores are pretty similar even with a much larger percentage of minority and poor students, so they're doing something right.[/quote]

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