At least the new building looks nice. The building plans show special classrooms and even a special bus loop for the GTLD students.

Both my husband and I went to a top university, so that's about the level of expectation we have for our kids (and they say they have for themselves). However, I know my kids.

Although my younger kid will rise to any challenge presented (straight As in 5th grade CES and compact math, entered in both TPMS and Eastern lotteries), he will only work as hard as he's pushed, and would be more than happy to slack off if the school does not offer a rigorous program. If the "magnet level" math and history class still are taught as poorly and low-level as they were in 2019 (the first year they were offered), he will definitely not be getting into any good high school magnet, and will continue his slacking in high school.

On the other hand, if he's surrounded by friends who are ambitious and/or hard workers, then he will work hard, too. If OSMS has improved their classes for top students, and there's at least 10 or so other students in his grade who demand (and receive) good enrichment, then he'll probably be fine. He said the "next smartest kid" in his compact math class is going to OSMS next year, and that's one of his best friends.

As for the poster above who said "I don’t want my child surrounded mostly by those type of students," those are EXACTLY the SAME students that your child was surrounded by in elementary school if you live in that area, at least until 3rd grade if your child was accepted into the Pine Crest CES, and even the Pine Crest CES has at least 6 kids from the OSMS catchment area (Arcola, Kemp Mill, Glenallan). You had already made the choice to have your child surrounded by "those types of students" when you moved into your home.

I will say that the students I have met from Northwood and gotten to know are outstanding. Bright, hard-working, involved in the community, etc. I really hope my kid ends up at the MC2 program at Northwood. And I follow the Kennedy career center/counseling department on Twitter and they are constantly posting about kids who are getting admitted to elite schools. I don't think my smart kid is going to have problems getting into an elite college if they don't get into Blair or RM.

Not sure how helpful this is but my son attended Wheaton engineering and two of his good friends had gone to Lee. Both are in college now. The friend my son is still in contact with is doing very well as an engineering major at UMD and was a direct admit.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do many of the children in the surrounding neighborhood(s) attend other schools? I've always wondered why the school has the reputation that it does, as it is not located in an economically depressed neighborhood.

It's a Jewish neighborhood, fairly Orthodox, and therefore has a high percentage of kids in religious schools. This is the main reason.

In our actual experience with the school, the reputation was undeserved. Odessa taught my family that Great Schools and FARMS rates are not reasons to reject a school. If you are uncomfortable with immigrant families, or people who are socially not like you, or culturally different, it may not be the school for you. But those families also value education. Also have highly intelligent children. Also want them to succeed.

OP here. Do you know how many students actually succeed, which I consider to be getting into the competitive magnets, like Blair SMCS, Blair CAP, RMIB, and the Wheaton STEM magnets?

I completely ignore the other commenters talking about why they avoided the school. They have no actual experience and acted/speak based on a reputation, not real outcomes. There has been a shift since 2018 when the magnets started universal screening, and admitting "outliers" in 2019 and 2020, and then admitting by lottery in 2021 and 2022. That's why I asked about recent experience not rumors and reputation. Many of the top students were left out of the magnets, and not all can afford or want to attend a private school. Private schools around here are generally having many more applicants because of the changes in magnet admissions. At least one school we applied to has a waitlist this year (which we are on), and they said they have never had a waitlist in the past because they have never had so many applicants.

As for diversity and FARMS statistics, that still doesn't tell me anything about the school environment. My child went to an elementary school with a high FARMS rate (before being in the CES at the same school), and had a wonderful experience and still has friends who are not in the CES, but are very bright and were not accepted into the CES under the "outlier" admission system. I know for a fact that my child has several very bright CES classmates who are slated to attend OSMS next year, although he's not sure if any of them might end up at a magnet or attending a private school next year instead.

I don't have numbers for you. Our experience was recent, but not the most recent. I think the school would have numbers for you. It's a small school. Based on that alone, they're not sending dozens to magnet programs. But they send some. Most of the kids from OSMS go to Northwood or Kennedy, those being the zoned options. Both zoned options have programs that could challenge your smart kid, MC2 at Northwood and Regional IB at Kennedy, so, there is a path forward even if you don't get the path you wanted. I have friends at both of those programs whose kids are happy.

I appreciate you not taking the negative review of the poster who didn't send kids there seriously.

I really found the school very welcoming and nice. Our quirky kid florished there. Fwiw, I chaperoned one school trip with a class of kids that my kid wasn't in (kids that poster above was sneering at) and that may be why I had such a strong response to her offensive post. They were good kids. College bound. To dismiss them the way she did... I just have no patience for that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do many of the children in the surrounding neighborhood(s) attend other schools? I've always wondered why the school has the reputation that it does, as it is not located in an economically depressed neighborhood.

It's a Jewish neighborhood, fairly Orthodox, and therefore has a high percentage of kids in religious schools. This is the main reason.

In our actual experience with the school, the reputation was undeserved. Odessa taught my family that Great Schools and FARMS rates are not reasons to reject a school. If you are uncomfortable with immigrant families, or people who are socially not like you, or culturally different, it may not be the school for you. But those families also value education. Also have highly intelligent children. Also want them to succeed.

OP here. Do you know how many students actually succeed, which I consider to be getting into the competitive magnets, like Blair SMCS, Blair CAP, RMIB, and the Wheaton STEM magnets?

I completely ignore the other commenters talking about why they avoided the school. They have no actual experience and acted/speak based on a reputation, not real outcomes. There has been a shift since 2018 when the magnets started universal screening, and admitting "outliers" in 2019 and 2020, and then admitting by lottery in 2021 and 2022. That's why I asked about recent experience not rumors and reputation. Many of the top students were left out of the magnets, and not all can afford or want to attend a private school. Private schools around here are generally having many more applicants because of the changes in magnet admissions. At least one school we applied to has a waitlist this year (which we are on), and they said they have never had a waitlist in the past because they have never had so many applicants.

As for diversity and FARMS statistics, that still doesn't tell me anything about the school environment. My child went to an elementary school with a high FARMS rate (before being in the CES at the same school), and had a wonderful experience and still has friends who are not in the CES, but are very bright and were not accepted into the CES under the "outlier" admission system. I know for a fact that my child has several very bright CES classmates who are slated to attend OSMS next year, although he's not sure if any of them might end up at a magnet or attending a private school next year instead.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do many of the children in the surrounding neighborhood(s) attend other schools? I've always wondered why the school has the reputation that it does, as it is not located in an economically depressed neighborhood.

It's a Jewish neighborhood, fairly Orthodox, and therefore has a high percentage of kids in religious schools. This is the main reason.

In our actual experience with the school, the reputation was undeserved. Odessa taught my family that Great Schools and FARMS rates are not reasons to reject a school. If you are uncomfortable with immigrant families, or people who are socially not like you, or culturally different, it may not be the school for you. But those families also value education. Also have highly intelligent children. Also want them to succeed.

Except that’s not quite the case at this school. Yes there are some families that value education there, but far more children there are not college bound kids. And that’s fine, I’m not saying they should all go to college but I don’t want my child surrounded mostly by those type of students. I would prefer more college bound kids. Also, the school is not diverse. Look at the racial and SES make up of the students. It’s not evenly balanced among all races. Also, more kids are FARMS than not. Again, I don’t have any problem with low income students but I don’t want that to be the majority of the kids.

Right. You're not comfortable with those kinds of people.

It would be nice if you could admit that and leave it at that, instead of going on to say that you aren't comfortable with those kind of people because they don't value education or go to college, which are things you don't know.

When did your family come to the US? Just curious.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do many of the children in the surrounding neighborhood(s) attend other schools? I've always wondered why the school has the reputation that it does, as it is not located in an economically depressed neighborhood.

It's a Jewish neighborhood, fairly Orthodox, and therefore has a high percentage of kids in religious schools. This is the main reason.

In our actual experience with the school, the reputation was undeserved. Odessa taught my family that Great Schools and FARMS rates are not reasons to reject a school. If you are uncomfortable with immigrant families, or people who are socially not like you, or culturally different, it may not be the school for you. But those families also value education. Also have highly intelligent children. Also want them to succeed.

Except that’s not quite the case at this school. Yes there are some families that value education there, but far more children there are not college bound kids. And that’s fine, I’m not saying they should all go to college but I don’t want my child surrounded mostly by those type of students. I would prefer more college bound kids. Also, the school is not diverse. Look at the racial and SES make up of the students. It’s not evenly balanced among all races. Also, more kids are FARMS than not. Again, I don’t have any problem with low income students but I don’t want that to be the majority of the kids.

Anonymous wrote:Do many of the children in the surrounding neighborhood(s) attend other schools? I've always wondered why the school has the reputation that it does, as it is not located in an economically depressed neighborhood.

It's a Jewish neighborhood, fairly Orthodox, and therefore has a high percentage of kids in religious schools. This is the main reason.

In our actual experience with the school, the reputation was undeserved. Odessa taught my family that Great Schools and FARMS rates are not reasons to reject a school. If you are uncomfortable with immigrant families, or people who are socially not like you, or culturally different, it may not be the school for you. But those families also value education. Also have highly intelligent children. Also want them to succeed.

Do many of the children in the surrounding neighborhood(s) attend other schools? I've always wondered why the school has the reputation that it does, as it is not located in an economically depressed neighborhood.

We were slated to go to Odessa after CES and had the same concerns you did. So many of his friends pulled out and went elsewhere and advised me also that it was a terrible school for kids like ours. I know there is bullying in every middle school but this place seemed way too rough for DC based on what current parents told me. We ended up going private and don’t regret it at all. We haven’t decided if we will continue private for high school next year but I felt like middle school should be a time to set him up academically for high school. He needed more rigor to prepare for The rigors of high school. I’m sure Odessa is a fine school for middle range kids but for the more academically inclined, it’s not enough.

They're doing okay without the supports. One subject will always be a particular struggle. I'm sorry to be vague, but the program is so small. I don't think anyone cares, but I'd rather not out them. They do now attend a resource class, which is helping give them a little extra support. It's not as much as they'd get at Northwood.

Anonymous wrote:My child was in the GTLD program at Shannon.

The program is for 2E kids, who are all brilliant. They'd probably be in your child's classes. The advantage there is an extra teacher in the class and a smaller class size. A lot of individualized attention.

I was very impressed with the school. It isn't wealthy. It doesn't have a lot of the resources wealthier schools do, but the teachers were all wonderful and engaged our child who is now attending a magnet. And they are not the only one from Shannon in it. A lot of kids also end up at Northwood's mc2 program. Northwood has the high school GTLD program.

My child was bullied for being smart in elementary school. That's how they ended up at Shannon and diagnosed 2E. They were not bullied at Shannon and I will forever be grateful to the school. I encourage you to tour and keep an open mind.

That's very encouraging! What magnet is your child in now? How are they doing without the GTLD program (unless they're at Northwood)?

My child is designated as 2e, but does not need to be in special classes for it. I heard there's a separate science class for the GTLD students at OSMS that has more hands-on experiments than the regular science classes, and that sounds more interesting than the regular class.

My child was in the GTLD program at Shannon.

The program is for 2E kids, who are all brilliant. They'd probably be in your child's classes. The advantage there is an extra teacher in the class and a smaller class size. A lot of individualized attention.

I was very impressed with the school. It isn't wealthy. It doesn't have a lot of the resources wealthier schools do, but the teachers were all wonderful and engaged our child who is now attending a magnet. And they are not the only one from Shannon in it. A lot of kids also end up at Northwood's mc2 program. Northwood has the high school GTLD program.

My child was bullied for being smart in elementary school. That's how they ended up at Shannon and diagnosed 2E. They were not bullied at Shannon and I will forever be grateful to the school. I encourage you to tour and keep an open mind.

DC is scheduled to go to Odessa Shannon Middle School (formerly Lee MS) next year. (Despite being in every lottery pool, we had no luck.) We have heard mostly bad things about the school in the past, so we're very nervous. DC is currently in a CES and is in compact math, and is hoping to eventually get into either the Blair SMCS magnet or another STEM magnet for high school.

3 years ago, when our older child was going to middle school, we were told by a Blair staff member that it was exceedingly rare for a Lee MS student to be invited to the SMCS magnet there, and that we should consider AOPS, test prep academies, and other outside of school activities to try to catch up because Lee did not adequately prepare students for the SMCS program. Our older child also shadowed a Lee MS student in the AIM 6 and HIGH classes in spring 2019, and found them to be WAY less challenging than even what they had been doing in their 5th grade CES and compact math. They also complained that the Lee students were not engaged in the class (DC answered more than most of the students actually in the class); many were doodling or sleeping during class. (Our older child got into TPMS 3 years ago after appealing, and will be in the Blair SMCS magnet next year. I can confirm that the TPMS 6th grade magnet math and HIGH classes in 2019-2020 were FAR more rigorous than what they had experienced at Lee MS in spring 2019.)

Does anyone know how many OSMS 8th graders got into the more competitive criteria-based high school magnets this year, e.g., Blair SCMS, RMIB, Wheaton Biomed, Wheaton Engineering?

Since they started the lottery system for getting into the Eastern/TPMS magnets, is there a decent-sized cohort "left behind" such that OSMS has more challenging classes now (than in 2019)?

Are there opportunities at OSMS for extra enrichment, science fair, extensive research projects, other advanced activities, etc.? (The after school LEGO robotics club there doesn't seem to be any more than the plug-and-play activity that's also offered at the elementary schools. It's not like a FIRST Robotics competition club.)

Is there any computer science class at OSMS that teaches more than just Scratch, e.g., extensive Python or Java coding?

Do the smart kids get bullied there?