Anonymous wrote:moved to BCC from SWW and Deal to Westland. Big mistake. Larger class size in Moco. Some teachers are better but some are not. Deal was much better with high expectations for students. BCC is ok but had expected it to be significantly better than SWW.

OP here. What made you move? Was it a "grass might be greener" in moco switch for the schools? other reasons? was there something you didn't like about either SWW or Deal?

^^ OP here, I am also interested in the responses to the questions asked by 13:11.

Thanks for all the helpful insight everyone!

Anonymous wrote:moved to BCC from SWW and Deal to Westland. Big mistake. Larger class size in Moco. Some teachers are better but some are not. Deal was much better with high expectations for students. BCC is ok but had expected it to be significantly better than SWW.

PP, how do BCC and Wilson compare? SWW is an application only school and if you live in the Wilson area there is no guarantee that your child would get into SWW. A better comparison would be SWW and, say, Richard Montgomery application-only IB program. I have heard from a current parent that Wilson only allows the top 5% of the grade to take "honors" classes, whereas BCC doesn't gate-keep honors classes (as far as I understand).

moved to BCC from SWW and Deal to Westland. Big mistake. Larger class size in Moco. Some teachers are better but some are not. Deal was much better with high expectations for students. BCC is ok but had expected it to be significantly better than SWW.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We made the move last year. Yes, DC was behind at first but has since caught up. We liked our old school but moved for our house. We are very pleased with our new school and have no regrets.

just curious what grade? thanks for responding! you can even give a range if you prefer, like 1-2. 3-4. 5-6 or something...

Early elementary.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did. Thankfully, we did out-of-state tuition. We are back. I just ignore the DC threads where they are always hyping on how great MoCo and Fairfax is to DC (not so for elementary.) I have a friend that moved into DC from Fairfax and she says the education in her Fairfax school was behind what she is getting in DCPS (not charter.)

MoCo and Fairfax schools far outperform DCPS. DCPS is a struggling system with a weak superintendent who acknowledges that she's basically clueless as to how to educate middle or high school students.

This may only be a demographic distinction. It is not hard to do well with middle and upper income kids. Moco and Fairfax are finding their vaunted systems are also struggling with the same demographic issues DC has been facing for years. I would not claim DCPS is perfect, but I would not make the broad assumption you are making either.

Anonymous wrote:We made the move last year. Yes, DC was behind at first but has since caught up. We liked our old school but moved for our house. We are very pleased with our new school and have no regrets.

just curious what grade? thanks for responding! you can even give a range if you prefer, like 1-2. 3-4. 5-6 or something...

We made the move last year. Yes, DC was behind at first but has since caught up. We liked our old school but moved for our house. We are very pleased with our new school and have no regrets.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did. Thankfully, we did out-of-state tuition. We are back. I just ignore the DC threads where they are always hyping on how great MoCo and Fairfax is to DC (not so for elementary.) I have a friend that moved into DC from Fairfax and she says the education in her Fairfax school was behind what she is getting in DCPS (not charter.)

MoCo and Fairfax schools far outperform DCPS. DCPS is a struggling system with a weak superintendent who acknowledges that she's basically clueless as to how to educate middle or high school students.

Yeah, objective measures support that moco and ffx are better, true! But back OP, can people say if they stayed in dcps through es and then moved to, for example, mock? were the kids behind if you did this?

Anonymous wrote:We did. Thankfully, we did out-of-state tuition. We are back. I just ignore the DC threads where they are always hyping on how great MoCo and Fairfax is to DC (not so for elementary.) I have a friend that moved into DC from Fairfax and she says the education in her Fairfax school was behind what she is getting in DCPS (not charter.)

MoCo and Fairfax schools far outperform DCPS. DCPS is a struggling system with a weak superintendent who acknowledges that she's basically clueless as to how to educate middle or high school students.

Anonymous wrote:^^ I think it is school specific unless you are in a MoCo magnet. And it is not just the JKLM schools.

OP here, thanks to everyone's input. For this poster, could you elaborate more? Thanks!!

^^ I think it is school specific unless you are in a MoCo magnet. And it is not just the JKLM schools.

We did. Thankfully, we did out-of-state tuition. We are back. I just ignore the DC threads where they are always hyping on how great MoCo and Fairfax is to DC (not so for elementary.) I have a friend that moved into DC from Fairfax and she says the education in her Fairfax school was behind what she is getting in DCPS (not charter.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. It is Whitman. There are great teachers and plenty of opportunities for advanced classes, etc. Do wealthy kids hire tutors? Sure, they probably do. Doesn't change the fact that the school offers a great education to all its students.

Whitman is on par with all of the elite private schools in this area. In some areas it is better. Plain and simple.

Yeppers. Plain n' simple.

Why, MCPS takes pride in funneling all the best teachers and courses and facilities only to Whitman but not its other high schools. That's totally plausible.

You're an idiot, PP.

MCPS doesn't "funnel" the best to Whitman. If there's an opening, seasoned teachers interview w/ no guaranteed position. New teachers end up where the openings are.

I can say from experience that there are plenty of fossils at some of the "better" schools. But the kids learn regardless of their ancient ways. The best teachers can be found in the struggling schools b/c 1) they're forced to improve their methods each year, as these children are not "sitters and getters," and 2) many WANT to be there.

I'm so tired of people OUTSIDE of the system who think they know how the system functions.

And I can guarantee that you, PP, would not recognize extraordinary teaching if it bit you on the ass. A calm, quite classroom doesn't necessarily mean kids are learning.

Whitman is very, very good, perhaps the best public HS in the area. It isn't the end-all of high schools, however. And in one respect, it is tougher to get into good colleges because they have quotas from schools and therefore the competition is more intense.

We have a number of folks in our Silver Spring neighborhood who moved from Capital Hill for (i) more room, and (ii) better schools. Typically they move here either before K. Usually they say they originally planned to stay in DC for at least ES, but just couldn't get comfortable living in that area or going to the local schools.