Anonymous wrote:
We are thinking of falls church zoned to McLean. McLean itself gets too expensive

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP here. Thank you for this insights- this actually helps a lot. We have a much better idea where to go. Definitely not DCPS. Maybe MCPS, likely Fairfax too.

Anonymous wrote:I am surprised at all the posts saying DCPS is just as good as MCPS. We are also Asian and were at Key for a few years. Key is considered to be a very good DCPS elementary so we didn’t really question it. But as our kid got older, we started getting pretty unhappy with the quality of their work and teaching, and were not at all inspired by the principal so we moved to MCPS. No public school is perfect but the difference is night and day. The music teacher at Key was terrible. He basically gave the kids a coloring sheet with a musical instrument on it, refused to do singing with the lower elementary schools, and gave them recorders but didn’t teach them how to play it. In MCPS, they get real music instruction on instruments. My kids still talk about how no one except for him was allowed to touch the musical instruments. The art teacher was sweet but there was no art studio. She would hold lessons in their classrooms so the only supplies they had to work with were pencils and coloring pencils / crayons. In MCPS, they have so many different materials and real art instruction. The gym teacher at Key would put out sports equipment with no real instruction. Their current gym teacher puts so much thought into their lessons— there’s an actual gym curriculum. The kids love him. Looking back, Key was such a joke and I’m still upset about that level of incompetence from so many teachers. Some of the subject specific teachers were good but the class sizes started to get pretty big by the time we left. Also, the teacher communication is so much better now. At Key, we never knew when the kids were going to have a test and no study guides were sent home. The teacher even told me they didn’t want the kids to study at home. Now, we get study guides and more comprehensive updates so we better understand the work they’re doing.
My kids also now appreciate being around more Asian kids. I don’t think I (or they) realized how different they felt at Key and hadn’t accounted for the importance of this in their experience. We are overall much happier in MCPS but these things that I reference may not be as important to you. I just wanted to give you my perspective.

Glad it helped! We knew 2 families who felt similarly at Key. They moved to McLean and are very happy there if you want to consider there as well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP here. Thank you for this insights- this actually helps a lot. We have a much better idea where to go. Definitely not DCPS. Maybe MCPS, likely Fairfax too.

Anonymous wrote:I am surprised at all the posts saying DCPS is just as good as MCPS. We are also Asian and were at Key for a few years. Key is considered to be a very good DCPS elementary so we didn’t really question it. But as our kid got older, we started getting pretty unhappy with the quality of their work and teaching, and were not at all inspired by the principal so we moved to MCPS. No public school is perfect but the difference is night and day. The music teacher at Key was terrible. He basically gave the kids a coloring sheet with a musical instrument on it, refused to do singing with the lower elementary schools, and gave them recorders but didn’t teach them how to play it. In MCPS, they get real music instruction on instruments. My kids still talk about how no one except for him was allowed to touch the musical instruments. The art teacher was sweet but there was no art studio. She would hold lessons in their classrooms so the only supplies they had to work with were pencils and coloring pencils / crayons. In MCPS, they have so many different materials and real art instruction. The gym teacher at Key would put out sports equipment with no real instruction. Their current gym teacher puts so much thought into their lessons— there’s an actual gym curriculum. The kids love him. Looking back, Key was such a joke and I’m still upset about that level of incompetence from so many teachers. Some of the subject specific teachers were good but the class sizes started to get pretty big by the time we left. Also, the teacher communication is so much better now. At Key, we never knew when the kids were going to have a test and no study guides were sent home. The teacher even told me they didn’t want the kids to study at home. Now, we get study guides and more comprehensive updates so we better understand the work they’re doing.
My kids also now appreciate being around more Asian kids. I don’t think I (or they) realized how different they felt at Key and hadn’t accounted for the importance of this in their experience. We are overall much happier in MCPS but these things that I reference may not be as important to you. I just wanted to give you my perspective.

Glad it helped! We knew 2 families who felt similarly at Key. They moved to McLean and are very happy there if you want to consider there as well.

Anonymous wrote:PP here. Thank you for this insights- this actually helps a lot. We have a much better idea where to go. Definitely not DCPS. Maybe MCPS, likely Fairfax too.

Anonymous wrote:I am surprised at all the posts saying DCPS is just as good as MCPS. We are also Asian and were at Key for a few years. Key is considered to be a very good DCPS elementary so we didn’t really question it. But as our kid got older, we started getting pretty unhappy with the quality of their work and teaching, and were not at all inspired by the principal so we moved to MCPS. No public school is perfect but the difference is night and day. The music teacher at Key was terrible. He basically gave the kids a coloring sheet with a musical instrument on it, refused to do singing with the lower elementary schools, and gave them recorders but didn’t teach them how to play it. In MCPS, they get real music instruction on instruments. My kids still talk about how no one except for him was allowed to touch the musical instruments. The art teacher was sweet but there was no art studio. She would hold lessons in their classrooms so the only supplies they had to work with were pencils and coloring pencils / crayons. In MCPS, they have so many different materials and real art instruction. The gym teacher at Key would put out sports equipment with no real instruction. Their current gym teacher puts so much thought into their lessons— there’s an actual gym curriculum. The kids love him. Looking back, Key was such a joke and I’m still upset about that level of incompetence from so many teachers. Some of the subject specific teachers were good but the class sizes started to get pretty big by the time we left. Also, the teacher communication is so much better now. At Key, we never knew when the kids were going to have a test and no study guides were sent home. The teacher even told me they didn’t want the kids to study at home. Now, we get study guides and more comprehensive updates so we better understand the work they’re doing.
My kids also now appreciate being around more Asian kids. I don’t think I (or they) realized how different they felt at Key and hadn’t accounted for the importance of this in their experience. We are overall much happier in MCPS but these things that I reference may not be as important to you. I just wanted to give you my perspective.

Anonymous wrote:I am surprised at all the posts saying DCPS is just as good as MCPS. We are also Asian and were at Key for a few years. Key is considered to be a very good DCPS elementary so we didn’t really question it. But as our kid got older, we started getting pretty unhappy with the quality of their work and teaching, and were not at all inspired by the principal so we moved to MCPS. No public school is perfect but the difference is night and day. The music teacher at Key was terrible. He basically gave the kids a coloring sheet with a musical instrument on it, refused to do singing with the lower elementary schools, and gave them recorders but didn’t teach them how to play it. In MCPS, they get real music instruction on instruments. My kids still talk about how no one except for him was allowed to touch the musical instruments. The art teacher was sweet but there was no art studio. She would hold lessons in their classrooms so the only supplies they had to work with were pencils and coloring pencils / crayons. In MCPS, they have so many different materials and real art instruction. The gym teacher at Key would put out sports equipment with no real instruction. Their current gym teacher puts so much thought into their lessons— there’s an actual gym curriculum. The kids love him. Looking back, Key was such a joke and I’m still upset about that level of incompetence from so many teachers. Some of the subject specific teachers were good but the class sizes started to get pretty big by the time we left. Also, the teacher communication is so much better now. At Key, we never knew when the kids were going to have a test and no study guides were sent home. The teacher even told me they didn’t want the kids to study at home. Now, we get study guides and more comprehensive updates so we better understand the work they’re doing.
My kids also now appreciate being around more Asian kids. I don’t think I (or they) realized how different they felt at Key and hadn’t accounted for the importance of this in their experience. We are overall much happier in MCPS but these things that I reference may not be as important to you. I just wanted to give you my perspective.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m one of the PPs.

I suspect that DCPS and MCPS are comparable at the ES level, with slight advantage to DCPS because of the immersion programs, the after school enrichments, and the ability of PTAs to fundraise for second teachers in classrooms and other support staff.

After that, it seems that aside from a few MS and a few HS in DC that are well known here, MCPS schools in Bethesda and Potomac are stronger.

I don’t think anyone here is arguing DC is better all the way through, unless (maybe) you do immersion all the way through or Walls/Banneker/Basis.

I am one the PPs that wrote about my experience with Key School, which is an elementary school. My point was that even at the elementary level at a highly regarded elementary school, the quality of DCPS resources and education is not as good.

Anonymous wrote:I’m one of the PPs.

I suspect that DCPS and MCPS are comparable at the ES level, with slight advantage to DCPS because of the immersion programs, the after school enrichments, and the ability of PTAs to fundraise for second teachers in classrooms and other support staff.

After that, it seems that aside from a few MS and a few HS in DC that are well known here, MCPS schools in Bethesda and Potomac are stronger.

I don’t think anyone here is arguing DC is better all the way through, unless (maybe) you do immersion all the way through or Walls/Banneker/Basis.

Anonymous wrote:I’m one of the PPs.

I suspect that DCPS and MCPS are comparable at the ES level, with slight advantage to DCPS because of the immersion programs, the after school enrichments, and the ability of PTAs to fundraise for second teachers in classrooms and other support staff.

After that, it seems that aside from a few MS and a few HS in DC that are well known here, MCPS schools in Bethesda and Potomac are stronger.

I don’t think anyone here is arguing DC is better all the way through, unless (maybe) you do immersion all the way through or Walls/Banneker/Basis.

Anonymous wrote:I totally agree with the benefit of walkability and always want that. The major issue is we are not able to have walkability AND Asian population. Walkability really exists in DC only, which has 5% Asians. At this moment, we are guessing that having Asian peers around is more important.

Happy to hear more about other parents' thoughts on this.

Anonymous wrote:Avoid DCPS at all costs.