Reply to TKPK public schools vs. AUP/Tenleytown/Friendship Heights public schools

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Reply to "TKPK public schools vs. AUP/Tenleytown/Friendship Heights public schools"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]As new parents, I wouldn't get too hung up on what the current magnet or gifted programs are at the Takoma Park schools--it's just too far down the road, and things change. See which area you like better, especially looking at what you can get for your money. You posted in the MCPS forum, so there's a lot of responses about the Takoma Park schools and very little on the DC schools you're looking at.

A PP is spot on that the TPES feeds directly to PBES, there's no change in student population. MCPS generally is not great at teaching reading in the early grades, including at TPES, but it doesn't show up in test scores until third grade and the kids are at PBES.

TPES and PBES are big schools, with 9-10 classes per grade, which can be hard when kids end up not having friends from their prior class in their current class. Blair is also huge. I'm not sure how all that compares with the DC schools you're looking at.
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OP here. I cross-posted in the DC Public Schools forum, but the thread was taken down as duplicative. Speaking of this point, however, anyone have any thoughts on how Takoma Park schools compare to those West of the Park in DC?[/quote]

It depends on the WOTP school. But, speaking in generalities, here is why I chose Takoma Park over a WOTP DCPS school for my kids at the time when we were buying a house:

* Neighborhood schools. Most kids in TKPK and MCPS in general attend their local neighborhood school for ES. Because we don't have charter schools, the options are pretty much your local school or maybe language immersion if you "won" the lottery, but most TKPK kids go to TKPK schools. This makes the elementary school the center of the neighborhood if you have young children, which is nice.

* Similarly, most TKPK kids go to the same middle school. From my child's class, a handful of kids were selected for the Eastern Humanities magnet, but the vast majority of his peers went from PBES to TPMS. No one is applying out in 4th grade to get on the charter school track the way they do in DC.

* There are options for acceleration and differentiation within the public schools, starting in 1st grade for math at TPES. With the exception of dyslexia, which we've established no MCPS school does well, there are really excellent specialized programs for special needs, including an Asperger's Program at a nearby school, and a 2E program that a lot of bright kids with learning disabilities are able to access.

* We wanted the diversity of a Takoma Park school. This may be the biggest difference between the WOTP school listed in the OP (Janney in particular) and TPES/PBES. Janney is predominantly white. Deal isn't, but that's because Deal brings together a handful of predominantly white schools and some predominantly Black schools, creating an integrated middle school. TKPK schools are integrated from the start. [/quote]

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