Anonymous wrote:I went to a big three and I now have kids in MCPS.

There is no comparison. A top private is so much better at the high school level. Send your kids to public elementary and then to private high school. I’m neutral on junior high - I’d say public except it’s harder to get in to private for high school. Maybe apply the oldest for junior high and then try to have the younger unrest ride her coat tails to get into high school.

Many of the privates are not comparable in math. We tried to move our MS child and they couldn't stay on the same math track as MCPS as MCPS let our child start Algebra in 6th.

Anonymous wrote:I went to a big three and I now have kids in MCPS.

There is no comparison. A top private is so much better at the high school level. Send your kids to public elementary and then to private high school. I’m neutral on junior high - I’d say public except it’s harder to get in to private for high school. Maybe apply the oldest for junior high and then try to have the younger unrest ride her coat tails to get into high school.

I’m surprised you can say that categorically. How do you think your private school education compares to the Blair magnet, for example?

I went to a big three and I now have kids in MCPS.

There is no comparison. A top private is so much better at the high school level. Send your kids to public elementary and then to private high school. I’m neutral on junior high - I’d say public except it’s harder to get in to private for high school. Maybe apply the oldest for junior high and then try to have the younger unrest ride her coat tails to get into high school.

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Anonymous wrote:We moved for the schools. We are in the BCC cluster, and it is fine but not great. Definitely stronger than the EOTP DCPS though. If I could do it over again I would have stayed in DC and done private.

I find this hard to believe. I had kids at fka Wilson, and know tons of BCC families and they all had the same experience/outcome wrt college. Also know a handful of families who moved to Maryland and then went private. So, they took a loss on housing and taxes.

DCPS => MCPS, we found a huge difference in math (Takoma Park schools). For math kids, MCPS was a great move, more options for sophisticated math in high school than friends in DC privates. For the other subjects, not sure.

This might be true for middle school but we left in elementary and I can only comment that my children were several grade levels ahead in math entering MCPS from DC. I was shocked at how low the math expectations were in mid elementary in MCPS. Then they speed through (appropriately) in middle school.

DCPS Amd MCPS use the same curriculum (eureka) and both follow CCSS.

This was neither this year, nor DCPS so that’s not relevant.

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Anonymous wrote:We moved for the schools. We are in the BCC cluster, and it is fine but not great. Definitely stronger than the EOTP DCPS though. If I could do it over again I would have stayed in DC and done private.

I find this hard to believe. I had kids at fka Wilson, and know tons of BCC families and they all had the same experience/outcome wrt college. Also know a handful of families who moved to Maryland and then went private. So, they took a loss on housing and taxes.

DCPS => MCPS, we found a huge difference in math (Takoma Park schools). For math kids, MCPS was a great move, more options for sophisticated math in high school than friends in DC privates. For the other subjects, not sure.

This might be true for middle school but we left in elementary and I can only comment that my children were several grade levels ahead in math entering MCPS from DC. I was shocked at how low the math expectations were in mid elementary in MCPS. Then they speed through (appropriately) in middle school.

DCPS Amd MCPS use the same curriculum (eureka) and both follow CCSS.

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Anonymous wrote:We moved for the schools. We are in the BCC cluster, and it is fine but not great. Definitely stronger than the EOTP DCPS though. If I could do it over again I would have stayed in DC and done private.

I find this hard to believe. I had kids at fka Wilson, and know tons of BCC families and they all had the same experience/outcome wrt college. Also know a handful of families who moved to Maryland and then went private. So, they took a loss on housing and taxes.

DCPS => MCPS, we found a huge difference in math (Takoma Park schools). For math kids, MCPS was a great move, more options for sophisticated math in high school than friends in DC privates. For the other subjects, not sure.

This might be true for middle school but we left in elementary and I can only comment that my children were several grade levels ahead in math entering MCPS from DC. I was shocked at how low the math expectations were in mid elementary in MCPS. Then they speed through (appropriately) in middle school.

We loved our DC charter but moved for middle school. We really missed the community at our charter school in particular. But we moved for 5th so that my oldest could be eligible for the middle school magnets. My child was (is) extremely strong academically so I was very confident they would get in and was right (This was before the lottery). Ditto my younger child, plus also both got high school magnet places.

I don’t have any regrets but I do still miss the school community. MCPS is huge and impersonal. Joining elementary after kindergarten and not sending kids to aftercare has left us feeling very detached from the elementary and it’s hard to make parent connections at middle school anyway. It took a shift in my thinking to get used to being part of a huge public school system where your kids are just numbers vs being part of a welcoming charter where all parents and staff know your kids. (This may have been different if we’ve been at a different, smaller elementary.)

Overall though there are many more opportunities in MCPS. My kids would never have had the opportunity for band or for many electives like TV studio, even middle school and high school sports options are better.

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Anonymous wrote:MCPS elementary schools (near DC - further out may be different but I don't know) have big class sizes. 23 kids is very common in K with 1 teacher and a floating aid shared among several K classes. We moved to MD for the schools and are still doing private elementary to get a smaller class. Not sure what we will do for middle school as it seems bad everywhere but am excited to have excellent high schools in MCPS.

That's not true. I live 50 years from the DC line and my kids ES was a focus school and typically had 15-16 kids in their K-2 classes.

^ yards not years

Focus schools and Title 1 have smaller classes. In other schools you an have up to 27 in K.

Right, but none of that has to do with being an MCPS school near the DC line. We're in Silver Spring, inside the Beltway, and our first grader's class is 13 kids. If you want a small class look for a Focus on Title I school; they're not hard to find.

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Anonymous wrote:MCPS elementary schools (near DC - further out may be different but I don't know) have big class sizes. 23 kids is very common in K with 1 teacher and a floating aid shared among several K classes. We moved to MD for the schools and are still doing private elementary to get a smaller class. Not sure what we will do for middle school as it seems bad everywhere but am excited to have excellent high schools in MCPS.

That's not true. I live 50 years from the DC line and my kids ES was a focus school and typically had 15-16 kids in their K-2 classes.

^ yards not years

Focus schools and Title 1 have smaller classes. In other schools you an have up to 27 in K.

Anonymous wrote:The admin do not give a F about anything, so the admissions secretaries, principals, counselors -you will be lucky if you find a good one. Most of them are really unhelpful, to an extreme degree.

I’m sure they will keep it for equity. And while it was times with the pandemic, they had been planning for a three-year trial before that. It’s not because of the pandemic aa they could have hd CogAT for past two years and chose not to

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Anonymous wrote:MCPS elementary schools (near DC - further out may be different but I don't know) have big class sizes. 23 kids is very common in K with 1 teacher and a floating aid shared among several K classes. We moved to MD for the schools and are still doing private elementary to get a smaller class. Not sure what we will do for middle school as it seems bad everywhere but am excited to have excellent high schools in MCPS.

That's not true. I live 50 years from the DC line and my kids ES was a focus school and typically had 15-16 kids in their K-2 classes.

^ yards not years

Anonymous wrote:MCPS elementary schools (near DC - further out may be different but I don't know) have big class sizes. 23 kids is very common in K with 1 teacher and a floating aid shared among several K classes. We moved to MD for the schools and are still doing private elementary to get a smaller class. Not sure what we will do for middle school as it seems bad everywhere but am excited to have excellent high schools in MCPS.

That's not true. I live 50 years from the DC line and my kids ES was a focus school and typically had 15-16 kids in their K-2 classes.

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Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS magnet change anybodys answers?

It's very hard to get kids into magnet programs. Too few programs, too may kids. Plus the lottery.

Do not move expecting magnets. For MS and ES it's now by lottery among kids who qualify.

The lottery of the upper 15% that started with the pandemic ends this year. We don't know how the selection for ES and MS will work next year.

The admin do not give a F about anything, so the admissions secretaries, principals, counselors -you will be lucky if you find a good one. Most of them are really unhelpful, to an extreme degree.

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Anonymous wrote:MCPS elementary schools (near DC - further out may be different but I don't know) have big class sizes. 23 kids is very common in K with 1 teacher and a floating aid shared among several K classes. We moved to MD for the schools and are still doing private elementary to get a smaller class. Not sure what we will do for middle school as it seems bad everywhere but am excited to have excellent high schools in MCPS.

Hmm. We live inside the beltway, about 2 miles from the DC line, and my kid had 15 in her K, 17 in her first grade class… public school.

My kids’ K classes had 28 kids and one teacher, and then 27/1 teacher. No aides. It turned out ok but I wish I’d known this going into MCPS.