Anonymous wrote:We left our neighborhood school for Heather Hills and it is one of my deepest regrets. Talk to current and former parents at HH to get a feel of the school. As others have mentioned test scores are not everything and HH has the test scores they have because they teach heavily to the test at the expensive of everything else.

They have had at least 3 principals in the last 6 years and terrible turnover among teachers. Nearly 50% left this school year. My kids have done both public and private. Our neighborhood Bowie school has been the best and HH was by far our worst experience and it had nothing to do with the work.

My child started and ended with a perfect 4.0. It is the belief of many that the TAG programs are harder. They are not. More work, perhaps but for us it boiled down to busy work with little value and we still had to supplement at home for the challenge we needed. All this to say, I wouldn't waste one second of my time planning a life around Heather Hills being a viable or good option.

Which neighborhood school ended up working out for you? We’ve heard Tulip Grove and Woodmore ES are great.

Anonymous wrote:We left our neighborhood school for Heather Hills and it is one of my deepest regrets. Talk to current and former parents at HH to get a feel of the school. As others have mentioned test scores are not everything and HH has the test scores they have because they teach heavily to the test at the expensive of everything else.

They have had at least 3 principals in the last 6 years and terrible turnover among teachers. Nearly 50% left this school year. My kids have done both public and private. Our neighborhood Bowie school has been the best and HH was by far our worst experience and it had nothing to do with the work.

My child started and ended with a perfect 4.0. It is the belief of many that the TAG programs are harder. They are not. More work, perhaps but for us it boiled down to busy work with little value and we still had to supplement at home for the challenge we needed. All this to say, I wouldn't waste one second of my time planning a life around Heather Hills being a viable or good option.

I agree 100% with this statement. I had 2 TAG kids go through our local ES and 1 went to a TAG ES in upper elementary. The older two had great teachers and were as challenged as the kid who went to TAG. All three ended up at a TAG middle school and were A students.
I think that the big difference in TAG vs comprehensive curriculum hits in middle school.

We left our neighborhood school for Heather Hills and it is one of my deepest regrets. Talk to current and former parents at HH to get a feel of the school. As others have mentioned test scores are not everything and HH has the test scores they have because they teach heavily to the test at the expensive of everything else.

They have had at least 3 principals in the last 6 years and terrible turnover among teachers. Nearly 50% left this school year. My kids have done both public and private. Our neighborhood Bowie school has been the best and HH was by far our worst experience and it had nothing to do with the work.

My child started and ended with a perfect 4.0. It is the belief of many that the TAG programs are harder. They are not. More work, perhaps but for us it boiled down to busy work with little value and we still had to supplement at home for the challenge we needed. All this to say, I wouldn't waste one second of my time planning a life around Heather Hills being a viable or good option.

My child goes to DKFI. I wasn't sold on French to be honest but it has been an amazing thing for them for many reasons. One of them is they have learned about the broader francophone world, especially west Africa. I have been very impressed with how much they now know about the world through their french education.

We also applied to Thomas Pullen which was our second choice but didn't get a lottery placement there. We have friends at Cesar Chavez who are very happy there so I wouldn't count that out without talking to folks (although you are right it is far from where you are).

I also wouldn't count out your neighborhood school. I don't live in Bowie so I don't know that school but for K and first many PGCPS do a good job. Our local elementary is rated low but everyone we know who did kinder or first there had great things to say about the teachers. The school overall did have issues but the teachers were awesome and their kids had good years there. Also small class sizes and lots of personalized attention.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you spoken to parents at Rockledge and asked for their experiences? It might be a better option than you think.
The immersion and CPA programs have an extended school day and those kids can have bus rides of well over an hour. If you aren't intending on them continuing through 8th grade, is it really worth contorting their life just to get 2 years at what might be a slightly better school?
If your kid goes to DKFI or Chavez and take the bus they could easily leave at 8:00 and only get home at 5:30.

I’ve gotten some not so great feedback but i could definitely ask others. Overall there’s not a lot of positive signs (looking at teacher retention, test scores relative to others in the area). But I’ll try to go to open house next year.

I get your worry about test scores but honestly for K and 1st, if your intention is to go to the TAG program in 2nd, I'd stay with your zoned neighborhood school. At that age, everything is really dependent on the teacher and the test scores really aren't going to be much of a concern.

100% agree!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you spoken to parents at Rockledge and asked for their experiences? It might be a better option than you think.
The immersion and CPA programs have an extended school day and those kids can have bus rides of well over an hour. If you aren't intending on them continuing through 8th grade, is it really worth contorting their life just to get 2 years at what might be a slightly better school?
If your kid goes to DKFI or Chavez and take the bus they could easily leave at 8:00 and only get home at 5:30.

I’ve gotten some not so great feedback but i could definitely ask others. Overall there’s not a lot of positive signs (looking at teacher retention, test scores relative to others in the area). But I’ll try to go to open house next year.

I get your worry about test scores but honestly for K and 1st, if your intention is to go to the TAG program in 2nd, I'd stay with your zoned neighborhood school. At that age, everything is really dependent on the teacher and the test scores really aren't going to be much of a concern.

You can apply to both. If you get a placement you have to make a decision and if you accept you lose your spot on the other program waitlists.
If you are in an immersion/CPA program and your child is TAG identified you can apply for the lottery for TAG center and transfer.

Anonymous wrote:Have you spoken to parents at Rockledge and asked for their experiences? It might be a better option than you think.
The immersion and CPA programs have an extended school day and those kids can have bus rides of well over an hour. If you aren't intending on them continuing through 8th grade, is it really worth contorting their life just to get 2 years at what might be a slightly better school?
If your kid goes to DKFI or Chavez and take the bus they could easily leave at 8:00 and only get home at 5:30.

I’ve gotten some not so great feedback but i could definitely ask others. Overall there’s not a lot of positive signs (looking at teacher retention, test scores relative to others in the area). But I’ll try to go to open house next year.

Anonymous wrote:Here is advice from a longtime PG parent. Focus on finding your forever elementary school first. Testing in to TAG is not guaranteed even with a highly intelligent child. Getting a seat to a dedicated TAG center is also not guaranteed—ask me how I know (sigh). My advice is to find a K-5 or K-8 school you are happy with because TAG isn’t a sure bet.

We ended up having to unenroll our child from PG altogether because the TAG lottery didn’t work out for second grade. She’s now back in PG at a dedicated TAG center but that was an expensive year and lesson learned. In hindsight I should have lotteried for any language immersion or the zoned performing arts school in K—stay far away from the charters. That way, if the TAG testing or TAG lottery didn’t pan out she was still at the best option for schooling throughout elementary outside of TAG until her number comes up in the TAG center lottery. All-in-all play the long game. Hope this helps.

This is great advice thank you. That sounds like a hectic few years. I’m wondering if it would have been possible to enter the lottery for immersion AND TAG programs?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd disagree with you about French not being valuable, especially in the DC area but worldwide too. While Spanish is the language spoken by the most people in the world, French is the language spoken in the most places. Look up the francophonie organization. You'd be amazed at how many countries have French as one of their official languages or teach it routinely in their schools as a de facto second official language . DKFI is very well regarded and it's moving to Lanham so a little closer to Bowie for you. I believe they do tours very often at the moment. Definitely check it out. Some people end up in the high hundreds on the TAG wait-list .

In the last 7 or so years, almost everyone gets into the TAG centers for 2nd grade if enter the lottery . PGCPS reopens the lottery in August every year and I think that Heather Hills is almost always on the list. You can search this forum and there are posts about the late lottery.

In another recent forum post someone mention Glenarden woods having a long waitlist. But yes, hopefully heather hills is not the same.

Anonymous wrote:I'd disagree with you about French not being valuable, especially in the DC area but worldwide too. While Spanish is the language spoken by the most people in the world, French is the language spoken in the most places. Look up the francophonie organization. You'd be amazed at how many countries have French as one of their official languages or teach it routinely in their schools as a de facto second official language . DKFI is very well regarded and it's moving to Lanham so a little closer to Bowie for you. I believe they do tours very often at the moment. Definitely check it out. Some people end up in the high hundreds on the TAG wait-list .

In the last 7 or so years, almost everyone gets into the TAG centers for 2nd grade if enter the lottery . PGCPS reopens the lottery in August every year and I think that Heather Hills is almost always on the list. You can search this forum and there are posts about the late lottery.

Have you spoken to parents at Rockledge and asked for their experiences? It might be a better option than you think.
The immersion and CPA programs have an extended school day and those kids can have bus rides of well over an hour. If you aren't intending on them continuing through 8th grade, is it really worth contorting their life just to get 2 years at what might be a slightly better school?
If your kid goes to DKFI or Chavez and take the bus they could easily leave at 8:00 and only get home at 5:30.

I'd disagree with you about French not being valuable, especially in the DC area but worldwide too. While Spanish is the language spoken by the most people in the world, French is the language spoken in the most places. Look up the francophonie organization. You'd be amazed at how many countries have French as one of their official languages or teach it routinely in their schools as a de facto second official language . DKFI is very well regarded and it's moving to Lanham so a little closer to Bowie for you. I believe they do tours very often at the moment. Definitely check it out. Some people end up in the high hundreds on the TAG wait-list .

Here is advice from a longtime PG parent. Focus on finding your forever elementary school first. Testing in to TAG is not guaranteed even with a highly intelligent child. Getting a seat to a dedicated TAG center is also not guaranteed—ask me how I know (sigh). My advice is to find a K-5 or K-8 school you are happy with because TAG isn’t a sure bet.

We ended up having to unenroll our child from PG altogether because the TAG lottery didn’t work out for second grade. She’s now back in PG at a dedicated TAG center but that was an expensive year and lesson learned. In hindsight I should have lotteried for any language immersion or the zoned performing arts school in K—stay far away from the charters. That way, if the TAG testing or TAG lottery didn’t pan out she was still at the best option for schooling throughout elementary outside of TAG until her number comes up in the TAG center lottery. All-in-all play the long game. Hope this helps.

Hello parents, to put it simply my local ES (Rockledge) in Bowie is not somewhere I want to send my child in a few years. I'd love to send him to Heather Hills TAG if he can test in, in a few years but it does not start until 2nd grade. So I need to figure out K-1 schooling. I've seen the French immersion school gets great reviews while I suppose it's great to learn a 2nd language I don't think French is all that valuable. (Would prefer Spanish or Chinese). The Spanish immersion school in PGCPS doesn't seem strong academically and is also far. There's a bunch of Charters I don't know much about but generally it seems there's not a lot of great options.