Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The top students at WJ and BCC are just as good as the top at Whitman, Wootton and Churchill. The student body as a whole is a bit more spread out in achievement.

Correct, those are all great schools and student bodies. The work hard, play sports, take challenging classes and are generally respectful students.

And most are very wealthy kids who have every advantage possible.

Anonymous wrote:The top students at WJ and BCC are just as good as the top at Whitman, Wootton and Churchill. The student body as a whole is a bit more spread out in achievement.

Correct, those are all great schools and student bodies. The work hard, play sports, take challenging classes and are generally respectful students.

The top students at WJ and BCC are just as good as the top at Whitman, Wootton and Churchill. The student body as a whole is a bit more spread out in achievement.

This is a silly discussion. The top schools are Blair, Poolesville and RM if you are in the magnet or IB program. If your DC is not in those programs then look at Whitman, Wootton or Churchill. You can make an argument that WJ and BCC are good but not in the same league at the three W's. Anyone who tells you something else is delusional.

MCPS as a whole is screwed up - no longer a dstrict to be respected. Instead a district that is being used as an example of what NOT to do!!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A momentary break from the snark - I am in the WJ cluster and there are small, older homes here for $600k.

Which are being bought by developers or rich folks-torn down, and McMansions for 1.4 million being stuck in it's place!

You can buy an older home in Bethesda. The boomers made do. We called them "fixer uppers."

Anonymous wrote:School teacher's input. I would stay away from schools where the poverty percentile (FARMS) is greater than the national average. Unfortunately many of these children have more significant obstacles to contend with than school (gangs, domestic abuse, hunger, absentee parents due to incarceration/working two jobs/immigration, drug abuse, teen pregnancy, I could go on and on). The children's primary focus may be just on survival with so many competing factors. That being said, a very confident, self-assured student with strong family support and a sound moral compass would probably do just fine in this environment.

+1

- a teacher at a very low-performing HS with a terrible reputation!

Blair also feeds from some high SES neighborhoods so it isn't just the magnet. Poolesville as well. Same for RM...magruder doesn't have a magnet but rarely is in the same conversation with all these others...an odd group of lists to be sure.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Best schools of 2014 according to Newsweek

State Rank School
#1 Walt Whitman High School
#2 Thomas S. Wootton High School
#3 Poolesville High School
#4 Richard Montgomery High School
#6 Quince Orchard High
#10 Col. Zadok Magruder High
#12 Montgomery Blair High School

the comparison is flawed. Blair has a magnet program that pulls in students from across the county.

Poolesville is a whole school magnet.

RM has the IB program.

Blair without the magnet is one of the worst.

'

And the rest is high SES ....so only school that is great is Magruder.

School teacher's input. I would stay away from schools where the poverty percentile (FARMS) is greater than the national average. Unfortunately many of these children have more significant obstacles to contend with than school (gangs, domestic abuse, hunger, absentee parents due to incarceration/working two jobs/immigration, drug abuse, teen pregnancy, I could go on and on). The children's primary focus may be just on survival with so many competing factors. That being said, a very confident, self-assured student with strong family support and a sound moral compass would probably do just fine in this environment.

Anonymous wrote:Best schools of 2014 according to Newsweek

State Rank School
#1 Walt Whitman High School
#2 Thomas S. Wootton High School
#3 Poolesville High School
#4 Richard Montgomery High School
#6 Quince Orchard High
#10 Col. Zadok Magruder High
#12 Montgomery Blair High School

the comparison is flawed. Blair has a magnet program that pulls in students from across the county.

Poolesville is a whole school magnet.

RM has the IB program.

Blair without the magnet is one of the worst.

Best schools of 2014 according to Newsweek

State Rank School
#1 Walt Whitman High School
#2 Thomas S. Wootton High School
#3 Poolesville High School
#4 Richard Montgomery High School
#6 Quince Orchard High
#10 Col. Zadok Magruder High
#12 Montgomery Blair High School

In the MCPS website all I could find was 2012 data. Have we slipped down further from that.

Accouding to U.S. News & World Report

High School National Rank State Rank
Churchill 57 1
Whitman 84 2
Wootton 93 3
Poolesville 105 4
Walter Johnson 118 5
Bethesda-Chevy Chase 151 6
Richard Montgomery 187 7
Blair 255 12
Rockville 356 18
Einstein 482 21
Wheaton 826 28

According to Washington Post for the same year -

State ranking School
1 Poolesville
2 Richard Montgomery
3 Winston Churchill
4 Bethesda Chevy Chase
6 Walt Whitman
7 Walter Johnson
8 Thomas S. Wootton
9 Quince Orchard
14 Rockville Rockville MD
20 Sherwood Sandy Spring
21 Northwest
22 Montgomery Blair
29 Damascus
30 Albert Einstein
34 Wheaton Silver Spring


According to Newsweek -

Country ranking School
81 Poolesville
150 Winston Churchill
212 Thomas S. Wootton
299 Walt Whitman
365 Richard Montgomery
434 Bethesda-Chevy Chase
475 Walter Johnson
787 Northwest
992 Sherwood

One thing to consider.

All MCPS hs offer AP courses. Your kid can take the hardest courses at the worst performing school and that keeps him away from the disruptive and poor performing students. It is easier to be the top student in a poor performing school taking all AP classes and harder to be a top student in a hyper competitive school. It looks better on your college applications too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This is so, so not true. The teaching at Blair and Northwood is horrible. The principal at Blair wouldn't make it outside the DCC or NEC. The problem is that MCPS assigns the dregs to the poorer schools. These idiots want to move up the ladder and do things that are unthinkable outside the NEC and DCC.

What's the problem with the principal at Blair? I sincerely hope that you don't answer, "She tweets, she takes selfies, and she wants to dismantle the magnet program."

Not the PP. But she cannot spell and write proper English.

The same can be said for lots of posters on DCUM, who apparently have fancy, high-powered jobs.

The difference is that the Blair principal was an Engleesh techr (intentional bad spelling, ya'll).

So if you're a lawyer with several Ivy League degrees who earns $300,000 a year, it's fine to have lousy spelling and non-standard English, but if you used to be an English teacher and now you're the principal of Blair, it's just awful?