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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am an alum of one of the schools in Roland Park and pretty much my entire family went to one of the Roland Park schools or McDonogh.  I think people are right to say that it is tough to do an apples to apples comparison with DC.  The biggest thing I would say is that the top kids from each school, despite the schools reputation for academic rigor, got into top schools.  These schools also do not have an abundance of applicants where they are rejecting hoards of students or can fill classes with kids guaranteed to get 1500s on their SATs (this is the impression I am starting to get from the DC schools). Each school really emphasized fit. And a lot of my friends seemed to go to one school over another simple because it was close by or they had a family member (like a cousin) already going there. When I was there in the aughts, this was what the rep was for each school:

The Roland Park 5

Gilman - old money, elitist, more
academically rigorous

Boys Latin - lax jocks, less academically rigorous with more
emphasis on smaller class sizes/saying they were a family
 
Friends - art types with more programs focused on dance, music, etc. also the only coed school in the Roland Park 5.  Emphasized quicker values.

Bryn Mawr - girl Gilman with a little less elitism and similar academic rigor

Roland Park Country School - girl Gilman with a little more focus on athletics with slightly less academic rigor

Catholic Schools (don’t know these reps as well)

Calvert Hall - large student body, opposite of elitist

Loyola - most elite catholic school (but not like in the same sense as gilman)

NDP - jocks

Maryvale - smallest student body catholic school

Burb Schools

Garrison Forest - wealthy (polo arena and boarders); skewed less academically rigorous

Park - Jewish artsy kids (I don’t think it ever had a religious affiliation unlike most the other schools, which is why it skews jewish)

St Paul’s - new money and skewed towards lax jocks

McDonogh - Similar to Gilman but coed and campus has more of a country feel due to location; felt less elitist and old moneyish/WASPy

There are other schools like St Tims and Oldfields that I really know nothing about.
[/quote]

Oughts is now 20 years ago! Having watched changes from the 1990s heyday where all the schools were bursting at the seams (it helped to be a lot more affordable back then), Friends is probably the only Roland Park school that may have a majority of its students living inside the city limits but even I doubt that. The other RP schools all draw the majority of their students from the counties. In "those days" so many north Baltimore kids headed to the county for privates as well as the RP privates, making it a wash altogether. As it is, all I'm commenting is that RP versus County is a bit of a misleading binary.

Park, by the way, is significantly less "Jewish" than it was 25 years ago. It's firmly progressive. I have several friends who are Park alums who send their children to other schools because even they thought they needed something a bit more balanced. [/quote]

I’m definitely seeing a trend where more people are opting for private schools again despite the exorbitant price tag. Several families I know who moved to the Dulaney or Towson area for public schools are now looking at private school.[/quote]

Interesting…  pontificating but wondering if it’s some combination of the below:

1. With baby boomers retiring, more people with young kids are being promoted to positions where they can afford tuition.  I have seen antidotal evidence of this with friends starting to make partner at the large law firms and get promoted with in the F1000 companies around the area (Under Armour and T. Rowe specifically).  Not to mention DC prices driving people into the area.

2. Population growth in the county starting to strain the public schools.  I think Delaney has to close on super hot days due to the lack of air conditioning?

3. More people electing to stay in the city that don’t want to risk getting rejected from City, Poly or School for the Arts.  I know we have no plans of moving out…

4. Since a lot of private schools started daycares, people sticking with them even after their kids qualify for public school rather than pulling them out.[/quote]

Another poster above mentioned the fact that teachers now have very little freedom to teach how they want, and have to adhere strictly to approved content and pacing. This has been our public school experience in the county as well and this is also why we moved to private. I don't know when this rigidity started, but I think this happened within the past few years. They don't use textbooks, even for math, and the district materials are ridiculous and full of mistakes. In my opinion, the pacing is terrible for kids who learn either faster or slower than average. The facilities aren't great either, but it's the curriculum that scared us off. Maybe the magnet schools are more flexible. I know very little about them but if anyone knows please chime in.[/quote]

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