We moved from another great upper NW school to CCES. In general I have been impressed with how the school is organized. The lack of PTA/parental engagement is a downside, however, and as some have noted, CCES has a defensive, unreceptive principal. Yet the teachers are great. I continue to hear good things about Westland and BCC, so I guess I'm glad we moved to give ourselves those options (and got a lot more space for the same money).

Anonymous wrote:I actually interned at Lafayette, and then taught at a school near Rosemary hills. I'd say they are actually quite similar schools, both lovely. The only thing is the 2 different school districts-- moco Vs dc. So Rosemary hills has maaannnny more materials than Lafayette. And resources. And if u do decide to stay post elementary, moco Middle and hs choices are nicer. Rosemary hills is also going through boundary changes which is tough. But really, Lafayette is realLy lovely, and on par w Rosemary. Good luck!!

Actually, RHPS is not going thru a boundary change itself, but in about 5 years there will be a new middle school and there will be boundary changes about which kids go to the new middle school. This is not likely to change the pattern about which kids go to RHPS, just where they will go when they finish either CCES or NCCES.

Upper NW schools are the best of the worse. Seriously, we moved both our Lafayette kids to private.
At Lafayette, both were literally at the top of their class according to ANet and DC CAS test scores. After they entered private, surprise, our kids were at the very bottom of their classes academically. The difference was noticible to our kids and their new classmates. My kids were embarrasses to be so far behind. Huge wake up call for all of us.
Living in upper NW does not shield us from the reality of the broken DCPS system.

Our experience with CCES was great. Teachers were great every year. People seem to find principal a little bit overbearing, but when I have approached her about things she has either fixed them or explained why she couldn't do what I wanted and offered an alternative that sought to address situation in another way. My kid is in middle school and told me that she misses the principal because she really kept things ship-shape. (My kid doesn't go to the cluster middle school, Westland, so that's not a slam on Westland.)

We were in DC and left. There were more middle and high school options both in terms of magnets and in terms of in school offerings. Upside of MCPS is that special ed is better (in terms of range of programs), downside is that it's probably easier to get special ed private placement paid for in DC. I find MCPS to be much better than DCPS in terms of systematic layout of curriculum and teaching.

We've been happy with CCES. I don't think the principals at Rosemary Hills (or CCES) are particularly outstanding, but our experiences with teachers has been very good.

I agree with the last poster that CCES has been underwhelming and seems to be getting worse with time, in part because of poor leadership. But Middle and HS are solid, and other than its size, people seem to like Rosemary Hills.

We find CCES overly focused on test-scores, teaching to the test, etc., and little to engage creativity or critical thinking Are there other MoCo communities you'd consider? There isn't a super strong sense of community around CCES. But it's a pretty area.

We love Rosemary Hills. Had some trepidations going in, but it's been such a great experience. Wonderful teachers and a really nice environment. We're in NCC zone, but I've heard only good things about both CCES and NCC for grades 3-6. I can't compare it to Lafayette, but I feel like we won the lottery. Even if they are equivalent schools at the elementary level, not having to stress about middle/HS is a huge bonus.

Don't know about Lafayette, but my kids are going to Rosemary Hills and we are very happy with it. Plenty of activities centered at the school there too...

OP again. BTW, K aide is paid for by the school. PTA pays for the "specials" teachers -- art, music, and some portion of PE.

OP here. Thanks for this info. We are definitely thinking long term -- this will be our house forever. And MoCo definitely wins when it comes to high school, most likely middle school too. 3 kids probably tips the scale to MoCo because private school would be SO pricey for all of them.

Hmmm. If only the real estate prices were signficantly different for what we're getting.

Anonymous wrote:DC still allows PTAs to hire staff, so the K aide is probably paid for by PTA.

Md doesn't allow staff to be paid for by PTA funds

Yes, your younger kids will be in much larger Ks. The school is a little over-crowded.

OP, Think about these houses for the long term (or however long you envision staying).

DC still allows PTAs to hire staff, so the K aide is probably paid for by PTA.

Md doesn't allow staff to be paid for by PTA funds

I actually interned at Lafayette, and then taught at a school near Rosemary hills. I'd say they are actually quite similar schools, both lovely. The only thing is the 2 different school districts-- moco Vs dc. So Rosemary hills has maaannnny more materials than Lafayette. And resources. And if u do decide to stay post elementary, moco Middle and hs choices are nicer. Rosemary hills is also going through boundary changes which is tough. But really, Lafayette is realLy lovely, and on par w Rosemary. Good luck!!

We're seriously considering two houses, one in Chevy Chase MD that feeds into Rosemary Hills and Chevy Chase Elem and one in DC that keeps us at Lafayette. We've had a good experience at Lafayette thus far, but DS is only in K. He has 23 kids in his class, plus an aide about 3/4 of the time. Even though the lack of buses drive me nuts sometimes, I do like the community feel that we get from trudging over there every day for dropoff/pickup. There are tons of activities (tennis, lego club, math club, Mad Science, etc) centered at the school, which makes things easy!

Can someone give me an insider's view of Rosemary Hills and Chevy Chase Elementary? If you've actually been at Lafayette as well. a direct comparison would be fabulous.

And yes, I know that I'm not really thinking beyond elementary school right now. If we stay in DC, we'll see what's up. We'd consider Deal and Blessed Sacrament, plus some other Catholic options. We've got two younger kids who will eventually come into the equation, too.