Tax payer funded private school. MCPS is completely out of touch with what is happening in the system. The disparity between school districts is incredibly unfair and frustrating to those that have to deal with mediocre schools. Let's face it, not everyone can afford to live in Western Montgomery County.

It does seem like it would be more efficient to just have one MCPS summer school system rather than one offered to everyone and a bunch of school based systems. I will say that RM offering classes (which is a new thing) allowed by child to take a class when transportation issues prevented it at the MCPS sites.

While I admire that PTSA's can do so much at wealthy schools, I am very resentful that Wooten students are having curricular opportunities that are not available in other, less wealthy schools. Can anyone else shed light on this issue?

This isn't funded or organized by the PTA at all. Its brochure says that it is not affiliated with MCPS Summer School -which is a different MCPS program but the institute is coordinated by staff MCPS staff at Wootten not the PTA. Kids who decide to attend pay the fee, the PTA isn't paying for it.

Anonymous wrote:In math class, which actually involves a large amount of group work in Curriculum 2.0, classmates make a big difference. Remedial students and accelerated students have entirely different needs and skill sets. There is also the danger that remedial students could have behavioral issues. If taking Geometry with only other accelerated students wasn't an advantage, Wooton wouldn't be offering this opportunity. MCPS already offers its own summer school. In addition, I don't think that the Honors option for Geometry is offered by MCPS summer school over the summer.

How so?

In math class, which actually involves a large amount of group work in Curriculum 2.0, classmates make a big difference. Remedial students and accelerated students have entirely different needs and skill sets. There is also the danger that remedial students could have behavioral issues. If taking Geometry with only other accelerated students wasn't an advantage, Wooton wouldn't be offering this opportunity. MCPS already offers its own summer school. In addition, I don't think that the Honors option for Geometry is offered by MCPS summer school over the summer.

What difference does it make if a student takes a class with accelerated students or remedial students?

a better link for Richard Montgomery:
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/rmhs/students/SummerPrograms.aspx

Richard Montgomery HS offers Summer 2.0 only to RMHS students. http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/schools/rmhs/students/RM%20Summer%20School%20Flyer%20FINAL(1).pdf
I wonder why RMHS feels the need to offer these summer courses for credit if many of the same courses are offered through the county over the summer?

OP here - thanks for the tip about Churchill! I'm not at all opposed to PTSA's providing extra opportunities for students. I just didn't realize that this could extend to curricular offerings. I would have loved for my DC to have taken Geometry for credit over the summer. It is definitely NOT offered for MCPS credit at Montgomery College. It is offered in summer school, but with remedial classmates. Wooten seems to be offering something unusual here that could benefit other county students. I also am a little bit puzzled by Wooten offering an extra week preview of certain AP courses. Many county students would benefit from this option, and they have to take the same county assessments, which presume equal instruction.

FYI, Montgomery College offers very similar classes thru their youth summer/school year programs for similar prices.

But I agree this is gross.

And at Churchill (of course) it's called Summer Symposium.
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/schools/churchillhs/departments/signature/Brochure_2010.pdf

The brochure said it was not affiliated with MCPS summer school but didn't say who the sponsor is. Odd.
And why would it be limited to only Wootton students?
I'd be interested in finding out which other schools,have "summer institutes"

That's f*cked up.

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/woottonhs/news/news.aspx?id=473348

This is the link for Wooton's Summer Institute.

I just discovered today that Wooton High School has a private Summer Institute available only to its own students. Students are able to take College Application Boot Camp, Pre-Calculus Prep, Jump Start (intro to high school for incoming 9th graders), Research Projects, etc., all for a modest fee. In addition, students can take Honors Geometry for credit with classmates who are also accelerating their math curriculum rather than with classmates who are remediating (admission to the Honors Geometry summer institute is limited to those who have only A's and B's in Algebra 1). While I admire that PTSA's can do so much at wealthy schools, I am very resentful that Wooten students are having curricular opportunities that are not available in other, less wealthy schools. Can anyone else shed light on this issue?