Reply to Seems like MCPS is a mess

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Moving to the area soon and had been thinking MoCo for the schools but this forum paints a bleak picture. Would any of you prefer a VA district to MCPS?[/quote]

Don't go by DCUM. You will be better off talking to real people.[/quote]

Agreed. Also, don't move ANYWHERE "for the schools". Find an area you like, with a residence you can afford, with transportation options that work for you. [/quote]

This.  [i]Consider[/i] the schools once you narrow it down to what else works.  Don't depend on the schools being exactly as advertised, either to the good or the bad.  Almost all area school systems end up with better performance in wealthier areas; some of that is peer cohort, both influence on a student and logistics of teaching/administering at a particular school.

Long ago, MCPS was the best in the area, but was eclipsed by FCPS back in the 80s, if not the 70s.  It still maintained at a reasonably high level, but demographic and political changes have had impacts, and there's a lot of discontent from the now much greater heterogeneity (coming from all angles).  Still considered very good when viewed nationally.

FCPS, itself, has changed, but perhaps not as much.  The counties that used to be considered exurban (Loudoun, Howard) have in the past 3 decades attracted much more UMC development than was the case for them earlier, not entirely unlike MoCo in the 50s-70s and Fairfax in the 60s-80s, each corresponding with an unsurprising rise in education standard.

DC, which was a disaster, got better with gentrification over the past 20 years or so, but still isn't where the suburban counties are, as a whole.  [b]Arlington, which hollowed out in the 70s/80s from a quality of education perspective[/b], rebounded afterwards with similar gentrification.  To some degree, the same goes for Alexandria city.  (Note, as a good amount termed Alexandria is in Fairfax County instead of Alexandria City, and there are variations, there.)  PG, which was terrible, has improved considerably.  I'm not as familiar with Anne Arundel or Frederick, but I would imagine something of the same developing exurban paradigm.

The only one that may not have developed that way is Prince William, and I can't claim familiarity, there, but I would guess the quality of education is still considerably dependent on economic status, and there are UMC communities there, as well.[/quote]

I’ve got to correct this misinformed version of history.

Arlington didn’t hollow out and the schools were not abandoned due to quality issues. Like most older, inner-ring D.C. suburbs they shrank in size, but no high schools were closed unlike in FCPS and MCPS, which closed a number of them.

By the late 70s/early 80s most young families who didn’t need to be near D.C. preferred the newer, larger, and less expensive housing further out in Fairfax County. The birth rate was also low in the mid to late 70s. Yet, W-L and Yorktown high schools both won Blue Ribbon awards during that era when they were much smaller high schools under 1000 students, so the education itself did not suffer. The schools began to grow again by the early 90s as neighborhoods gentrified and empty nesters moved out. After about 35 years of growth the schools are approaching the size they had in the 1950s and 60s.

There is a certain amount of snobbery on these boards. Some people used to claim that B-CC HS was practically abandoned, was a bad school, etc., in the 80s-90s, which isn’t true. It was in a run down (but historic) building and more ethnically and socio-economically diverse than many MCPS schools at the time, and so not a good school to some. But it punched well above its weight, had good test scores, and had its boosters from the surrounding affluent community. In the 90s some of those parents started a foundation to support the school.

Also, PG schools were not terrible back then. Most people would argue they were stronger overall then (through the mid 90s).

To respond to OP, MCPS schools are fine. I’d look at the closer in neighborhoods in Bethesda and Chevy Chase. The schools there are great, and the neighborhoods are a healthy mix of suburban and urban amenities. Metro subway access is also nice. [/quote]

I don't think Arlington got terrible, just that there was that period where it wasn't as good as it became beginning about 20 years ago (and might have been 20 years beforehand).  I agree that Arlington did a better job than MCPS in keeping their school facilities open/available.

After about 1980, though, I don't think comparable housing was less expensive in McLean, further out but where many family types wirh the considerations you mention then settled, than in next-door Arlington.  There was a rebound in the late 90s and beyond, with the re-gentrification you mentioned.  The biggest changes seemed to be south of Lee Hwy or the Orange Line, depending, all the way to the Alexandria border, with some areas (e.g., Arna Valley) getting complete makeovers and others having more gradual uplift.  Washington-Lee benefitted from a completely new structure 20 years back, though that was after the Blue Ribbon you noted where I'd suggested hollowing; Yorktown was about the most insulated catchment.  Perhaps my impressions are colored by my particular experience in the area, or are distorted from age...who knows.

You're probably right that PG wasn't all bad, and probably much better than I give it credit.   It was pretty segregated, though, between close in and farther out (as might be said about most, but with more clear effect), and it certainly was considered behind, overall, except for DC.  Money...[/quote]

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