Anonymous
Post 08/19/2013 22:31     Subject: Re:West Bethesda Elem. Schools
Strange comment about Burning Tree and resale. Homes sell so quickly in that neighborhood. The school has a new principal and parents are happy. The superintendent of MCPS sends his own kids to Burning Tree, fwiw. They may all have similar curriculums, following MCPS guidelines, but they have different feels. Woodacres is much bigger, for sample. Burning Tree's scores are misleading because they include the inclusion/special Ed kids--Burning Tree has a special program, and those kids are not in the classrooms with the general population. Anecdotally, I have heard good things also about BRadley Hills and Carderock. Carderock is even smaller than Burning Tree. Bradley Hills is currently getting an entire new building. Visit the schools and you will see the differences. If I were choosing, and widening my net to not just include West Bethesda, I would consider Carderock, Burning Tree, Bradley Hills or Somerset.
Just one opinion though...
Anonymous
Post 08/19/2013 20:54     Subject: West Bethesda Elem. Schools
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I can tell you that if you are worried that your kid might have learning or behavioral issues, I would not send him to Bannockburn. In my opinion, the leadership at that school is lacking in intelligence and unable to handle anything other than a cookie cutter situation with a child. On the other hand, if you pay the big bucks to have testing and your IEP written up by an outside entity, the school will implement and follow through on it. They are just completely incapable of coming up with constructive ways of accommodating certain children. They rely on parents to spend lots and lots of money on outside professionals to come in and advise them on how to do their jobs. They have been known to call child protective services on parents out of frustration with not being able to deal with certain types of children when the parents can't afford to shell out the money to provide outside advisors to help the BES staff do their jobs. I would stay away if you have any possibility of having a child with ADHD or other behavior issues and you don't want aggravation.


Now THIS is some useful information.


It would be more useful if the PP said something about where the PP got this information from.
Anonymous
Post 08/19/2013 19:53     Subject: West Bethesda Elem. Schools
Anonymous wrote:I can tell you that if you are worried that your kid might have learning or behavioral issues, I would not send him to Bannockburn. In my opinion, the leadership at that school is lacking in intelligence and unable to handle anything other than a cookie cutter situation with a child. On the other hand, if you pay the big bucks to have testing and your IEP written up by an outside entity, the school will implement and follow through on it. They are just completely incapable of coming up with constructive ways of accommodating certain children. They rely on parents to spend lots and lots of money on outside professionals to come in and advise them on how to do their jobs. They have been known to call child protective services on parents out of frustration with not being able to deal with certain types of children when the parents can't afford to shell out the money to provide outside advisors to help the BES staff do their jobs. I would stay away if you have any possibility of having a child with ADHD or other behavior issues and you don't want aggravation.


Now THIS is some useful information.
Anonymous
Post 08/19/2013 19:05     Subject: West Bethesda Elem. Schools
I can tell you that if you are worried that your kid might have learning or behavioral issues, I would not send him to Bannockburn. In my opinion, the leadership at that school is lacking in intelligence and unable to handle anything other than a cookie cutter situation with a child. On the other hand, if you pay the big bucks to have testing and your IEP written up by an outside entity, the school will implement and follow through on it. They are just completely incapable of coming up with constructive ways of accommodating certain children. They rely on parents to spend lots and lots of money on outside professionals to come in and advise them on how to do their jobs. They have been known to call child protective services on parents out of frustration with not being able to deal with certain types of children when the parents can't afford to shell out the money to provide outside advisors to help the BES staff do their jobs. I would stay away if you have any possibility of having a child with ADHD or other behavior issues and you don't want aggravation.
Anonymous
Post 08/19/2013 18:13     Subject: Re:West Bethesda Elem. Schools
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
+1 They all teach the exact same thing (although not all in the same manner). They all have PE, art, music once a week. If you are looking for more you need to look at privates. I say this with one kid in public with the above and one in private with PE daily, art 2x/week and music 1x/week.


Wow, even that doesn't seem like a very impressive schedule. I had that in public school in the 80's.


Well, public school NOW has it all only once a week. You can only compare now to now. Who cares what you had in the 80's. That has no bearing on now and frankly not helpful.
Anonymous
Post 08/19/2013 18:03     Subject: West Bethesda Elem. Schools
You forgot Carderock Springs Elementary. It is actually on the west side of Bethesda (quite near the Potomac). It has a very new (green Eco-rated) school building and is, to my knowledge the only Bethesda elementary Yusuf is not over crowded (likely b/c of the new building). A great school!
Anonymous
Post 08/19/2013 17:53     Subject: West Bethesda Elem. Schools
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:You've kind of listed ALL the elementary schools in Bethesda, not the "schools of West Bethesda."

For example, people in Somerset like to think they live in Chevy Chase, not Bethesda, and they're almost right except they're on the wrong side of Wisconsin.

Anyway, Bradley Hills is thought to be uniformly awesome. Bethesda ES has the special needs know-how, in the event you are not correct about the ADHD thing.


Somerset's address is Chevy Chase. - grew up there


It really isn't. Somerset's address is somerset, but the mail will still get there if it says Chevy chase, or Bethesda or just "Maryland" as long as the correct zip code is used.

It's the "town of somerset," which is an incorporated government within Montgomery county. Carry on.


Somerset is in 20815 = Chevy Chase.

Their official address is: 5811 Warwick Place Chevy Chase, MD 20815 according to the MCPS website.

Bethesda zips are 20814,6,7.


Still no. Zip codes don't line up perfectly with municipal jurisdictions.
Anonymous
Post 08/19/2013 17:46     Subject: Re:West Bethesda Elem. Schools
Anonymous wrote:
+1 They all teach the exact same thing (although not all in the same manner). They all have PE, art, music once a week. If you are looking for more you need to look at privates. I say this with one kid in public with the above and one in private with PE daily, art 2x/week and music 1x/week.


Wow, even that doesn't seem like a very impressive schedule. I had that in public school in the 80's.
Anonymous
Post 08/19/2013 17:40     Subject: Re:West Bethesda Elem. Schools
Anonymous wrote:http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/

Data on all schools in MCPS, including test scores and enrollment. So now you can see real numbers instead of conjecture about one school being "bad" etc.

Personally, even the "worst" of the bunch seem to have 90%+ scores, so I dont' think it realy makes a difference. We certainly wouldn't pick one ES over another if the scores were 92% vs 95%.


OP here - I don't consider test scores to be a good indicator of the quality of a school. IMO, "quality" is something less tangible - how parents feel about the school, how collaborative the education process is, how approachable the teachers are, the sense of community at the school, etc. I know most of the privates will give us all of that. But given the great things I've always heard about MCPS, I'm hoping to find those qualities in a public school.
Anonymous
Post 08/19/2013 17:14     Subject: Re:West Bethesda Elem. Schools
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OP Here. I'm sure they're all good, but I'm wondering if anyone picked one over another or if there are other ways to distinguish among them. Since we are planning to move anyway, I want to take schools into account when targeting neighborhoods.

For example, we would prefer as much physical activity, music, art, etc. in their day as possible, as well as plenty of social studies and science, and not just math and reading drills and test prep. If any of the schools is particularly good or bad in that respect, we would love to know. (The answer may be that the county controls all of this and it's the same at all of the schools. I'm just wondering.)


It's all the same.


+1 They all teach the exact same thing (although not all in the same manner). They all have PE, art, music once a week. If you are looking for more you need to look at privates. I say this with one kid in public with the above and one in private with PE daily, art 2x/week and music 1x/week.
Anonymous
Post 08/19/2013 16:39     Subject: Re:West Bethesda Elem. Schools
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/

Data on all schools in MCPS, including test scores and enrollment. So now you can see real numbers instead of conjecture about one school being "bad" etc.

Personally, even the "worst" of the bunch seem to have 90%+ scores, so I dont' think it realy makes a difference. We certainly wouldn't pick one ES over another if the scores were 92% vs 95%.
Anonymous
Post 08/19/2013 16:37     Subject: West Bethesda Elem. Schools
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:You've kind of listed ALL the elementary schools in Bethesda, not the "schools of West Bethesda."

For example, people in Somerset like to think they live in Chevy Chase, not Bethesda, and they're almost right except they're on the wrong side of Wisconsin.

Anyway, Bradley Hills is thought to be uniformly awesome. Bethesda ES has the special needs know-how, in the event you are not correct about the ADHD thing.


Somerset's address is Chevy Chase. - grew up there


It really isn't. Somerset's address is somerset, but the mail will still get there if it says Chevy chase, or Bethesda or just "Maryland" as long as the correct zip code is used.

It's the "town of somerset," which is an incorporated government within Montgomery county. Carry on.


Somerset is in 20815 = Chevy Chase.

Their official address is: 5811 Warwick Place Chevy Chase, MD 20815 according to the MCPS website.

Bethesda zips are 20814,6,7.
Anonymous
Post 08/19/2013 16:37     Subject: West Bethesda Elem. Schools
Anonymous wrote: But overall these are among the best schools in the country, not just the local area.


Agreed, if by "best" you mean "least poor".
Anonymous
Post 08/19/2013 16:34     Subject: West Bethesda Elem. Schools
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:You've kind of listed ALL the elementary schools in Bethesda, not the "schools of West Bethesda."

For example, people in Somerset like to think they live in Chevy Chase, not Bethesda, and they're almost right except they're on the wrong side of Wisconsin.

Anyway, Bradley Hills is thought to be uniformly awesome. Bethesda ES has the special needs know-how, in the event you are not correct about the ADHD thing.


Somerset's address is Chevy Chase. - grew up there


It really isn't. Somerset's address is somerset, but the mail will still get there if it says Chevy chase, or Bethesda or just "Maryland" as long as the correct zip code is used.

It's the "town of somerset," which is an incorporated government within Montgomery county. Carry on.
Anonymous
Post 08/19/2013 16:25     Subject: West Bethesda Elem. Schools
avoid Burning Tree bad for resale