Anonymous wrote:We cannot afford to live there, but I would pick Arlington County Public Schools (good CKLA curriculum in elementary now) or Falls Church City Schools.

My sense is that smaller public school systems are being more successful at this moment in time, but also those 2 systems have pretty solid curricula at the moment. If for elementary grades and if in APS, I would apply for the ATS lottery and pray my kids got in.

np.. we moved from a wealthy small public school district like Arlington because their "gifted" program was a joke. Too small to offer a real gifted program.

MCPS has a lot of issues, but one thing they do pretty well is offer different programs, including advanced "gifted" programs. Yes, I am fully aware that they changed the methodology for ES/MS magnet acceptances. But, at least there is a shot whereas being in a school district that has zero such programs means you have zero chances.

Even without such programs, at least some of the schools are big enough to have a decent number of cohort of high achieving kids. In our previous school district, it was so small that there was only one or two other kids who were maybe at DC's level. When we moved here, that cohort group expanded by a lot.

I am not a huge fan of MCPS in a lot of ways, but at minimum, they have some good programs and a large cohort of high achieving kids, thanks to a highly educated populace.

Anonymous wrote:So are FCC and APS the best districts overall, but then it really comes down to high school pyramid? Is JR that much different from BCC or Langley? Are those schools much different from APS and FCC high schools?

In this area, it is less about the district and more about the pyramid. I do think those 2 districts have better curricula and instruction overall.

Keep in mind that huge amounts of outside school academic supplementing goes on locally, particularly for math. Some supplement at home, some at a center, and some hire tutors. So school “statistics” are biased accidentally by wealthy families who supplement. This is true both of public schools and also private schools.

Anonymous wrote:Stay where you are and go private. Catholic schools can be great.

I’m in a Chicago North Shore suburb now but used to live in the DC area. Here, on the North Shore, each little affluent town has their own school district. Each district is small, highly resourced, and has high levels of community involvement with a student population that is ready and able to learn.

In MCPS the system is so huge and sprawling that everything is a mixed bag. Even in your top neighborhoods you have to deal with this giant centralized system that doesn’t prioritize the needs of high achieving students. It’s all about bring up the bottom. The middle schools across MCPS are like big warehouses.

This analysis is about right, I think. Both Fairfax County and Montgomery County have school systems that are just too large. If they were split into several separate districts, each of those new districts would perform better. It will not happen in my lifetime though.

So are FCC and APS the best districts overall, but then it really comes down to high school pyramid? Is JR that much different from BCC or Langley? Are those schools much different from APS and FCC high schools?

Anonymous wrote:DCPS is an utter disaster. Avoid at all costs.

FCPS is busy destroying its Advanced Academic Program with equity initiatives such as E3 Math, the new elementary LA curriculum, equity grading/ SBG, banning homework and trying to push the “pull out method” (which doesn’t work).

MCPS banned police and eliminated their SROs in schools. Now there are violent brawls in the hallways and they have to lock the students out of the school bathrooms (they have to just hold it).

The new elementary LA curriculum in FCPS doesn't seem to be that bad; my impression is it's an improvement over what they once had. E3 and most of their other projects are disastrous, though.

However, to be fair, all of the public school districts (*) in the area have some significant drawbacks. Good peer groups + supplementation can carry you a long way, though.

(*) A noticeable number of privates also have significant drawbacks, and, for both public and private, price, while not quite orthogonal to quality, is more loosely connected than most expect.

Stay where you are and go private. Catholic schools can be great.

I’m in a Chicago North Shore suburb now but used to live in the DC area. Here, on the North Shore, each little affluent town has their own school district. Each district is small, highly resourced, and has high levels of community involvement with a student population that is ready and able to learn.

In MCPS the system is so huge and sprawling that everything is a mixed bag. Even in your top neighborhoods you have to deal with this giant centralized system that doesn’t prioritize the needs of high achieving students. It’s all about bring up the bottom. The middle schools across MCPS are like big warehouses.

Anonymous wrote:DCPS is an utter disaster. Avoid at all costs.

FCPS is busy destroying its Advanced Academic Program with equity initiatives such as E3 Math, the new elementary LA curriculum, equity grading/ SBG, banning homework and trying to push the “pull out method” (which doesn’t work).

MCPS banned police and eliminated their SROs in schools. Now there are violent brawls in the hallways and they have to lock the students out of the school bathrooms (they have to just hold it).

You can ignore this crank, OP. The pp is just spewing horseshit.

There is a pattern where many families (not all) move to Fairfax or Montgomery from NW DC when their oldest kids are about to enter K or 1st grade.

My street (in one of those places) has several families that moved here from NW DC specifically to avoid DCPS schools, and the newer houses on my street are pricey (latest new house was sold for $3M+).

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the responses. The small district comment makes sense to me, ans we have considered falls church city, but does that apply to dcps which is smaller than mcps and fcps?

DCPS is not good. Look at the truancy rates and scores. The schools with higher scores are in high SES areas and there’s alot of outside supplementing happening. I can’t speak to the other districts, but I would move somewhere that privates are more affordable than DC so you have options if needed. All non- Catholic DC private options are all $$$ and very competitive at older grades. And for college you don’t have in-state tuition. If I had to do it again, I wouldn’t live here. If you look in our neighborhood (NW) there are so many little kids and not older kids because people have moved further out for the reasons I listed (among others).

I love DC but our public school experience has been eye-opening.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the responses. The small district comment makes sense to me, ans we have considered falls church city, but does that apply to dcps which is smaller than mcps and fcps?

No.

DCPS has its advocates on DCUM, who in a moment will sing its praises. However, colleagues with kids in DCPS and volunteers to DCPS all tell me there are some individual teachers or principals who try hard, but overall it is a mess - not unlike a much larger system. It has a surprisingly large bureaucracy.

DCPS has a lottery system.

Do you feel lucky? And are you willing to gamble with your child’s education on the line?

I know about a lottery, but we'd move to upper NW so it's that part of dcps compared to other school systems. We want to be at a good school but it does not need to be the best. But we do want our kids to be challenged.

It’s all the same school system.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the responses. The small district comment makes sense to me, ans we have considered falls church city, but does that apply to dcps which is smaller than mcps and fcps?

No.

DCPS has its advocates on DCUM, who in a moment will sing its praises. However, colleagues with kids in DCPS and volunteers to DCPS all tell me there are some individual teachers or principals who try hard, but overall it is a mess - not unlike a much larger system. It has a surprisingly large bureaucracy.

DCPS has a lottery system.

Do you feel lucky? And are you willing to gamble with your child’s education on the line?

I know about a lottery, but we'd move to upper NW so it's that part of dcps compared to other school systems. We want to be at a good school but it does not need to be the best. But we do want our kids to be challenged.