Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a magnet student from Eastern. I haven’t been overly impressed. The lunch situation is bothersome to me (I get reports of non magnet kids not being kind to magnet kids at lunch) and lots of bad language.

If that cancels out the academic benefit, your child probably doesn’t have an educational need that the neighborhood school is incapable of meeting. That was the point of the magnets. To serve kids who had extraordinary need for enrichment and were being harmed by the insufficiency of their zones school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thank you for these responses. To answer some questions, we are looking for schools that have a large enough cohort of kids at and above grade level that there are classes and programs geared towards them (our local middle school has almost no kids at or above grade level) . If this criterion is met, we are ok with high farms. I hadn't thought about school within school issues. Sounds like sligo and ssims might be better than eastern. Was surprised to hear favoring ssims over eastern given that the latter feeds into Blair and the former into Northwood and Blair is generally considered to be better.

Eastern Middle has a middle school magnet to which you must apply. There are no seats set aside for local students (in contrast with TPMS which sets aside 25 seats in the magnet for kids who live in the TPMS district). So, if you are looking at "above grade level" at Eastern, it is largely not available to kids outside of the magnet. You can take above level math, but the teachers, IME, were not great (one taught an entire unit incorrectly and when her teaching errors were brought to her attention, just gave everyone As and pretended nothing was wrong). Science was truly terrible. Our experience was a few years ago, so not sure if they are teaching the same above level class outside the magnet at Eastern that was supposed to be available at some other middle schools.

That said, it was our experience that in 7th grade, a few seat in the magnet open up to local EMS kids when magnet students leave (move or decide to return to home school).

Northwood has a MCPS MCC/HS program where you can go to Northwood for 2 years and then take your last two years in all MCC classes -- that might be of interest to some above grade level students.

Now a magnet with an application and test.

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a magnet student from Eastern. I haven’t been overly impressed. The lunch situation is bothersome to me (I get reports of non magnet kids not being kind to magnet kids at lunch) and lots of bad language.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thank you for these responses. To answer some questions, we are looking for schools that have a large enough cohort of kids at and above grade level that there are classes and programs geared towards them (our local middle school has almost no kids at or above grade level) . If this criterion is met, we are ok with high farms. I hadn't thought about school within school issues. Sounds like sligo and ssims might be better than eastern. Was surprised to hear favoring ssims over eastern given that the latter feeds into Blair and the former into Northwood and Blair is generally considered to be better.

Eastern Middle has a middle school magnet to which you must apply. There are no seats set aside for local students (in contrast with TPMS which sets aside 25 seats in the magnet for kids who live in the TPMS district). So, if you are looking at "above grade level" at Eastern, it is largely not available to kids outside of the magnet. You can take above level math, but the teachers, IME, were not great (one taught an entire unit incorrectly and when her teaching errors were brought to her attention, just gave everyone As and pretended nothing was wrong). Science was truly terrible. Our experience was a few years ago, so not sure if they are teaching the same above level class outside the magnet at Eastern that was supposed to be available at some other middle schools.

That said, it was our experience that in 7th grade, a few seat in the magnet open up to local EMS kids when magnet students leave (move or decide to return to home school).

Northwood has a MCPS MCC/HS program where you can go to Northwood for 2 years and then take your last two years in all MCC classes -- that might be of interest to some above grade level students.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thank you for these responses. To answer some questions, we are looking for schools that have a large enough cohort of kids at and above grade level that there are classes and programs geared towards them (our local middle school has almost no kids at or above grade level) . If this criterion is met, we are ok with high farms. I hadn't thought about school within school issues. Sounds like sligo and ssims might be better than eastern. Was surprised to hear favoring ssims over eastern given that the latter feeds into Blair and the former into Northwood and Blair is generally considered to be better.

Eastern Middle has a middle school magnet to which you must apply. There are no seats set aside for local students (in contrast with TPMS which sets aside 25 seats in the magnet for kids who live in the TPMS district). So, if you are looking at "above grade level" at Eastern, it is largely not available to kids outside of the magnet. You can take above level math, but the teachers, IME, were not great (one taught an entire unit incorrectly and when her teaching errors were brought to her attention, just gave everyone As and pretended nothing was wrong). Science was truly terrible. Our experience was a few years ago, so not sure if they are teaching the same above level class outside the magnet at Eastern that was supposed to be available at some other middle schools.

That said, it was our experience that in 7th grade, a few seat in the magnet open up to local EMS kids when magnet students leave (move or decide to return to home school).

Northwood has a MCPS MCC/HS program where you can go to Northwood for 2 years and then take your last two years in all MCC classes -- that might be of interest to some above grade level students.

Anonymous wrote:I have to disagree with some of the comments about Eastern. First, the principal appears to be very involved. He it at dropoff/pickup every day, not simply leaving it to others. He keeps parents informed and seems approachable. My kid attends the magnet and has made friends with kids outside the magnet through PE, science, and math. Yes, I hear about a few kids using bad language and being disrespectful to teachers. But frankly, I prefer the diversity that Eastern offers that we would not have at our home middle school. Also, you need not be in the magnet to take the sixth grade literature class that folks rave about. Further, my kid's alegebra class (which includes some nonmagnet students) has been fantastic. Even during the quarantine, their MIT grad teacher did a great job keeping the rigor up during the time at home.

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thank you for these responses. To answer some questions, we are looking for schools that have a large enough cohort of kids at and above grade level that there are classes and programs geared towards them (our local middle school has almost no kids at or above grade level) . If this criterion is met, we are ok with high farms. I hadn't thought about school within school issues. Sounds like sligo and ssims might be better than eastern. Was surprised to hear favoring ssims over eastern given that the latter feeds into Blair and the former into Northwood and Blair is generally considered to be better.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you all again. Seems like ssims in addition to takoma and sligo could be good options. Easten seems a bit less desirable. It is good to have more choices. For ssims, how are the various feeders? Sounds like sligo creek and forest knolls are well regarded. What about highland view and rolling terrace?

To a pp. We like takoma ms but houses (and taxes) may be too high!

Highland View is extremely well regarded, FWIW. The administration is apparently amazing, according to my friends who teach there. They are getting an expansion soon, which will help alleviate overcrowding, and the school culture just seems really great.

Sligo Creek ES is an interesting case. It is much less diverse than nearby schools, which is the result of both the presence of the French Immersion program and some pretty gerrymandered boundaries. The previous principal was not popular with teachers or parents, and the new principal seems well-meaning but is very much cut from MCPS bureaucratic cloth. Maybe he'll grow into the job - it's been a weird year.

Rolling Terrace is enormous, and hosts a relatively new dual language immersion program that is only available to kids in that school. I haven't heard much from parents at the school about how it's going but maybe someone will weigh in.

Both Highland View and Rolling Terrace receive additional funding to keep class sizes low, if that matters to you. Rolling Terrace is Title I, and Highland View is a Focus School.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SSIMS is great, and has an excellent principal.

Love SSIMS too, and Forest Knolls ES. Great teachers, administrators, and community.

The one negative about Forest Knolls was that it had been very, very overcrowded. But they just had a boundary rezoning to fix that. Starting this fall, homes south of Dennis Avenue will be rezoned to Montgomery Knolls for K-2 and Pine Crest for 3-5. These homes will remain zoned to SSIMS for 6-8. Details are here:

http://gis.mcpsmd.org/boundarystudypdfs/Knolls_BOEResolution.pdf

Also, the new Pine Crest principal is last year's principal intern at Forest Knolls.

There is a new principal at pine crest? That would be wonderful news!

Anonymous wrote:Thank you all again. Seems like ssims in addition to takoma and sligo could be good options. Easten seems a bit less desirable. It is good to have more choices. For ssims, how are the various feeders? Sounds like sligo creek and forest knolls are well regarded. What about highland view and rolling terrace?

To a pp. We like takoma ms but houses (and taxes) may be too high!

Anonymous wrote:The new principal at Eastern, Mr Johnson, is terrific! Teachers love him and he’s inclusive- used to be the head of the magnet there year ago, before Kerwin.

I’m not saying I would choose Eastern (non-magnet) over Sligo or SSIMS. I definitely wouldn’t. It is rough- More so than Sligo or SSIMS.

As for the school within a school feel, even though TPMS has the math magnet I think they do a good job of making it feel like one school- my kid can’t often tell who is “in” and who isn’t. It’s more obvious at Eastern, unfortunately, and that vibe is definitely there. Even with the immersion kids at SSIMS the school within a school vibe is not there.

Good luck, OP. If I got to choose? TPMS- great school culture, amazing principal, involved parents.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SSIMS is great, and has an excellent principal.

Love SSIMS too, and Forest Knolls ES. Great teachers, administrators, and community.

The one negative about Forest Knolls was that it had been very, very overcrowded. But they just had a boundary rezoning to fix that. Starting this fall, homes south of Dennis Avenue will be rezoned to Montgomery Knolls for K-2 and Pine Crest for 3-5. These homes will remain zoned to SSIMS for 6-8. Details are here:

http://gis.mcpsmd.org/boundarystudypdfs/Knolls_BOEResolution.pdf

Also, the new Pine Crest principal is last year's principal intern at Forest Knolls.