Anonymous wrote:My kids went through ES pre-2.0 and there was only ever 1 teacher conference per year. There are 2 1/2 days over Veterans Day..same as now. Teachers/parents could of course request more if there was an issue..I am VERY impressed that a teacher gave up there own time to schedule multiple conferences during the year for every child.. I would not expect to ever find another teacher like that I am sorry to say.

I agree-- we've only ever had 1 parent-teacher conference, which always seemed a shame to me as I would like more feedback when the teachers know the kids better, but I guess it is a lot of effort to schedule them for 25 kids.

Do parent-teacher conferences stop in MS or HS?

My kids went through ES pre-2.0 and there was only ever 1 teacher conference per year. There are 2 1/2 days over Veterans Day..same as now. Teachers/parents could of course request more if there was an issue..I am VERY impressed that a teacher gave up there own time to schedule multiple conferences during the year for every child.. I would not expect to ever find another teacher like that I am sorry to say.

You are not alone. I have a kindergartener in the BCC cluster. I, too, moved out of the District for the so-called wonderful schools. My child's kindergarten class has 25 kids, no aide, and one recess. Maybe this is the same in neighboring regions, I just don't know. I beginning to think that all the "greatness" of MCPS is simply the high-SES concentration. These are kids who are going to probably test well regardless of where they go to school. I could be wrong, but my sense is that MCPS used to be better. If I had to do it again, I'd move to Virginia where I hear the class sizes are smaller. I also detect a lot of racism, classism and other forms of snobbery in the county -- and I'm white. I agree with PP that no school will ever be a panacea and sometimes you will get stuck with poor teachers.

I agree though I think there are some great teachers. The problem is that the great teachers are struggling to deal with the nonsense of 2.0. The changes in 2.0 really benefit the worst teachers. We have two kids and it was very interesting how two different teachers handled the assessments and grade cards. One teacher was fabulous, let is slip several times how she hates the new grading system, gave us actual feedback on our child, and showed us work from our child that illustrated what she was reporting. It was very similar from what we experienced in the past.

The other teacher was the exact opposite. She would only hold one parent teacher conference the entire year as this is what is now prescribed under 2.0. You can ask a specific question later in the year but not request any general updates. At the one conference, she had no examples of our child's work or anything to show other than her sheet which matched the grade card. Her response was that under 2.0 unit testing is not done and written work is greatly reduced. The kids simply do activities in class and she observed. The principal confirmed that this is what 2.0 calls for and there is little to show the parents. This is just sheer laziness.

I used to teach and it was a lot of work to fairly and accurately assign granular grades and meaningful comments. Doing this forces you to have a clear set of criteria that you can follow, actually pay attention to the work the students are doing, and think about what the student should do to move to the next level. This "P" system would have saved me hours and hours of work. I can see why the bad teachers love it and the good teachers think its BS.

I can see why some principals like it because everyone is proficient, job done. I can see why MCPS likes it because they can reduce resources to support any differentiation, reduce resources for special needs kids, and not deal with kids that are smart but not super gifted. It also lets MCPS artificially inflate the performance of their schools.

Anonymous wrote:We are in the process of moving to MoCo for the schools and to improve our commutes (we are currently in NOVA and it is not working).

If you were moving to MCPS and had it to do again, how would go about selecting your school/neighborhood? More focus on the comments on DCUM? More focus on Greatschools? Visits? (do people do that?)

We have a 4 year old and a baby and I feel enormous pressure to get this decision right. Also, we are pretty limited, financially, for the area.

Honestly I would not stress too much about it, at least for elementary. It might make sense to pay attention to HS clusters, but there are a fair number of decent options there.

First, MCPS is MCPS-- the differences from ES to ES are not going to be drastic (for example, MCPS limits parental fundraising, unlike DC, so teacher-student ratios will be roughly similar, although some schools have more classes and are less likely to have a lot of variation from year to year than other schools, and some schools might be Title I schools with smaller ratios but more economic diversity).

Second, the big place where there are differences from ES to ES is in the SES level of the parents. On the one hand, there probably isn't too much you can do about this, since your housing budget will limit what neighborhoods you are looking at. On the other hand, it's not clear how much it matters. Yes kids in the high SES neighborhoods will have high tests scores, but that doesn't mean your kid will be more successful at that school than at another-- it is likely more a reflection of the families than of the school.

I think it has to do with the dream act

We are in the process of moving to MoCo for the schools and to improve our commutes (we are currently in NOVA and it is not working).

If you were moving to MCPS and had it to do again, how would go about selecting your school/neighborhood? More focus on the comments on DCUM? More focus on Greatschools? Visits? (do people do that?)

We have a 4 year old and a baby and I feel enormous pressure to get this decision right. Also, we are pretty limited, financially, for the area.

You are not alone. I have a kindergartener in the BCC cluster. I, too, moved out of the District for the so-called wonderful schools. My child's kindergarten class has 25 kids, no aide, and one recess. Maybe this is the same in neighboring regions, I just don't know. I beginning to think that all the "greatness" of MCPS is simply the high-SES concentration. These are kids who are going to probably test well regardless of where they go to school. I could be wrong, but my sense is that MCPS used to be better. If I had to do it again, I'd move to Virginia where I hear the class sizes are smaller. I also detect a lot of racism, classism and other forms of snobbery in the county -- and I'm white. I agree with PP that no school will ever be a panacea and sometimes you will get stuck with poor teachers.

Anonymous wrote:Everyone I know is very happy with Chevy Chase Elementary.

New PP. Agree with the other PP that not everyone is happy at CCES. Principal is extremely difficult and is having a negative impact on the school. I have had direct experience with her as well as hearing from many parents. In addition, I was also advised by a number of education professionals outside MCPS that this principal is extremely difficult/unprofessional and to avoid the school if possible. I am now sorry I didn't listen.

Do agree that there are some good teachers there, but there are also some truly awful ones. Overall curriculum has been weakened and principal does not use the flexibility she has to serve the student's best interests.

Anonymous wrote:I think its all relative too. Watch a documentary like "Waiting for Superman" and you will get some new perspective. At its worse, our MCPS elementary is "ok" we don't know "terrible" so we complain. Sure, I wish the classes were smaller, the school was less crowded, and my kid was more challenged, but they are learning and happy and for that I am grateful.

Yes, when I complain about MCPS to my friends elsewhere, and then they tell me what's going on in their schools, I always feel ashamed to be complaining about MCPS.

I am not sure it matters but I can assure you not everyone is happy with Chevy Chase ES. I was reading the Ritchie Park thread a bit ago and thought, oh, that is just like our experience at Chevy Chase. Terrible principal, punitive environment, lots of poor teachers (and some outstanding ones mixed in). People have different experiences obviously and a lot turns on the particular teacher or teachers.

A lot depends on the specific teacher relating to a specific child. In 1st grade, my son had a lovely teacher who turned out to be a disaster - could not manage the large class, could not take the time to understand my son's inattention and did not see that he was also way ahead and bored. In 2nd grade, his teacher is much more observant and responsive to his needs.

I completely agree that the classes are too large for most teachers to handle, especially in 2.0 where teachers are supposed to bear the brunt of differenciation and acceleration! However, that might also be worse for the younger kids who really cannot be expected to be disciplined. Maybe it gets better in the higher elementary grades, just because the students are more mature (and in my son's 2nd grade class, the 27 or so students are quiet and well behaved, probably also because of the teacher).

We're at Bethesda Elementary School. We moved because we liked the area (close to downtown and good schools, walk-friendly neighborhood) and we thought the school was good. It's been an overall positive experience so far. Of course, I had expected to supplement at home, and I do.

We've put 3 through Cashell ES. Can't imagine a private school would be any better then Cashell. Great teachers, supportive PTA, good admin.....

Whitman cluster, very pleased with the schools. High achieving kid who has been quite challenged.

Sounds like it isn't a good fit for you OP so definitely look at other options.

I think its all relative too. Watch a documentary like "Waiting for Superman" and you will get some new perspective. At its worse, our MCPS elementary is "ok" we don't know "terrible" so we complain. Sure, I wish the classes were smaller, the school was less crowded, and my kid was more challenged, but they are learning and happy and for that I am grateful.

I hear you OP. However, to put it into perspective, I've also heard friends/family complain about private school, catholic school, public schools in VA. I guess my point is that we often move for the schools (or pay a lot of tuition for private schools) and inevitably none of these schools turn out exactly has we had hoped. I'm not minimizing your concerns, some of which I share, but I'm just saying that the grass always seems greener somewhere else when it comes to schools.