Reply to Rockville schools

Forum Index » Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)

Reply to "Rockville schools"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Hi everyone. Can you rank for me what you think are the best Rockville clusters? Best meaning not great schools rankings but in terms of whichever ones have great/involved commumities, safe areas, decent class sizes, reputations for having good teachers etc? So many neighborhoods and schools to choose from and Id like to hear from those who live there, work there  or know people who live/work there. Thanks![/quote]

Wow...so lets look at clusters with a significant (though not necessarily majority) population WITHIN the Rockville City limits AND are in the city of Rockville:

Rockville High School
Richard Montgomery High School
Thomas Wootton High School

There are also other high schools that pull from Rockville City limits, but the school is not in the city limits:

Gaithersburg High School
Walter Johnson High School

For the sake of this discussion, I won't get too much into Walter Johnson or Gaithersburg, because both barely pull from Rockville City limits and NEITHER is within the city limits; however, you may want to consider them, as they are vicinity schools.

Back to the original 3....

Rockville High School:
There is only 1 middle school--Wood--and 5 elementary schools. Overall, the cluster has a small-town feel. High School population is very small, and they all went to middle school with each other. The demographics are generally middle class and well diverse. This is a very representative population of Montgomery County averages. Some of said that there are recent changes in the negative--partly due to new principle who came from a Potomac middle school and doesn't know so well how to deal with the different demographics from that school. Education is pretty solid still though, and housing is affordable. AP classes are offered--as is an opt-in, limited IB program.

Richard Montgomery High School:
There is only 1 middle school--Julius West--and 4 elementary schools. A 5th elementary school is being built to open fall 2018. Similarly to Rockville, the students all go to the same middle school, but this is a BIG cluster, so not the same small-town feel to it. All the elementary schools are WAY overcrowded except 1. The opening of the new elementary school will put the region at its capacity again though. Richard Montgomery has the first county IB program. All students actually begin participating in it from 6th grade in middle school. This is something to look into. Academics are strong and the program is hard--especially after 10th grade. College Gardens ES requires children to start an IB program in kindergarten. There are numerous AP offerings in the high school. Overall, the demographics of this school are equally mixed as Rockville, but with a greater spread of SES. That is, the average of the school fits the average of Montgomery County very well, but there are more richer demographics and poorer ones here than in Rockville.

Thomas Wootton High School:
There are 2 middle schools--Frost and Cabin John--but only Frost feeds everybody into Wottoon. Students from Cabin John split--some go to Wootton and others go to Churchill. There are 6 elementary schools The high school and middle schools operate at about capacity. The elementary schools are often significantly below capacity. There are considerations to merge students from other clusters into this one to increase elementary capacity in this cluster and reduce it in others--other Rockville schools are unaffected by this currently. The school has high academic standards and performance. Some may say this increases pressure. Demographics are generally biracial--Asian and White--not diverse. There is also generally high SES for facilities that attend the schools in the cluster--much more disposable income and very few FARMs. AP classes are offered and generally pretty good. There is a lot of competition though among students.[/quote]

We're in the Rockville HS cluster and I think that's pretty accurate.  And, nice of the PP to give such a detailed breakdown.

We couldn't afford a house in the Richard Montgomery cluster, so we're in Rockville.  Only in MS, but if you have a choice (and can afford it), I'd go with the RM cluster over Rockville HS.  [/quote]

NP here.  I grew up in the Wootton cluster and now live in the Rockville cluster.  The above descriptions are very accurate.  Quite honestly, if we had not chosen to go private, we would have moved to either the Wootton or RM clusters.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics