Anonymous wrote:A huge number of us teachers are raising our kids in Silver Spring schools. No one -- and i mean no one -- knows the schools better than we do. We value our children's education probably more than other other profession. We would never let our kids go to schools that don't meet our expectations. And we don't.

DC is at a focus school in the SS area. About 1/3'rd of their class reads at +2 grade levels. Sure there are some kids who struggle too, but the point is there are plenty of high-achievers. The nice thing about these schools unlike schools in areas like Bethesda is there are more differentiated learning opportunities and class sizes are often much smaller.

Anonymous wrote:You want Bethesda

Not everyone wants Bethesda. When the OP says they want ad over spring we H must Bethesda lovers always chime in?

We all can't live in n Bethesda and some of us don't want to so take your love somewhere else.

A huge number of us teachers are raising our kids in Silver Spring schools. No one -- and i mean no one -- knows the schools better than we do. We value our children's education probably more than other other profession. We would never let our kids go to schools that don't meet our expectations. And we don't.

My son is in K and we moved from an SS elem school to a W school elem. While we loved our SS school, there are higher performers at the W school so the overall expectations are higher. We've been trying to play catch up for the past several months!

PP, the general curriculum is the same but the differentiation based on the needs of the kids data is different. The enrichment & acceleration is going to be vastly different in certain schools. The curriculum is general baseline but the perks and extras are *certainly* not the same.

To the poster’s original question, Silver Spring schools can be great for advanced kids. I’m in a carpool with a whole bunch of them from our home school who were chosen for the highly gifted center school (CES). Not spending their early years with the kids of Tiger Mothers from Potomac doesn’t seem to have hurt them. We love our neighborhood and have had small class sizes throughout.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually the higher expectations of a W school are precisely why we will stay in SS. My kid could meet them but I think the early years need more play time not more academic enrichment. He doesn’t need to do algebra at age six just because he can - there is time enough for that. We are trying to avoid the pressure cooker environment, and if that means he is a bit bored sometimes, so be it.

uh

You do realize that the curriculum is the same. Your kid will not be moving into algebra in kindergarten b/c s/he is at a W school.

What the other PPs were saying is that kids who are at a similar academic levels can move at a faster pace. If your little Jo Jo is on reading level S while the the majority of the class is on Z, Jo Jo will still be pushed - and pushed faster b/c there isn't a large group to remediate.

Uh. You do realize that many of us don't particularly care about our kindergartners (kindergarteners!!) being "pushed faster," right? Please say you get that.

-DP

Anonymous wrote:Actually the higher expectations of a W school are precisely why we will stay in SS. My kid could meet them but I think the early years need more play time not more academic enrichment. He doesn’t need to do algebra at age six just because he can - there is time enough for that. We are trying to avoid the pressure cooker environment, and if that means he is a bit bored sometimes, so be it.

uh

You do realize that the curriculum is the same. Your kid will not be moving into algebra in kindergarten b/c s/he is at a W school.

What the other PPs were saying is that kids who are at a similar academic levels can move at a faster pace. If your little Jo Jo is on reading level S while the the majority of the class is on Z, Jo Jo will still be pushed - and pushed faster b/c there isn't a large group to remediate.

Anonymous wrote:Actually the higher expectations of a W school are precisely why we will stay in SS. My kid could meet them but I think the early years need more play time not more academic enrichment. He doesn’t need to do algebra at age six just because he can - there is time enough for that. We are trying to avoid the pressure cooker environment, and if that means he is a bit bored sometimes, so be it.

+1

To answer the OP's question, at my kid's focus school in SS, I've observed teachers swapping kids for reading groups (room to room) and there were some kids reading well above the 2nd grade level when starting Kindergarten. So they accommodate.

Also, remember that learning to read is not linear, so some kids will enter Kindergarten not reading and be reading at a 2nd grade or higher level in a short period of time. Some kids are just not ready to read (maturity, attention span, etc.) until later, so there will be more peers as your child gets older.

The expectations are hugely different and the peer group is also. Everything from field trips to parental involvement. People sell Focus schools on here like the small class size makes up for any shortcomings, but that was not our experience. YMMV

+3 We didn't expect a big change and were very surprised at how much more advanced it was in the W ES school. We moved for a shorter commute into VA and better high schools. Happily surprised at how much better the ES is here. I laugh when people here complain about the smallest things. They have no idea what its like to be in a school on the east side.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People are not going to like this, but moving from a Focus or Title I school to a higher performing school can be like night and day. We went from a Focus school, that we really liked with smaller classes to a school in the Wootten cluster. The expectations for our kids were just much higher because of the peer group. Therefore, the teachers were teaching to them as opposed to the significant number of kids struggling at our old school. I know this is not a popular opinion in this board,

+100

The expectations are hugely different and the peer group is also. Everything from field trips to parental involvement. People sell Focus schools on here like the small class size makes up for any shortcomings, but that was not our experience. YMMV

Parent here who moved her kids during ES from a FOcus school to a W school. The only semi-positive thing at the new school is a higher number of kids with higher expectations (not from teachers, but from parents). Biggest negative- huge class sizes and I mean, huge. My kids had so much more one-on-one at the Focus school and were challenged appropriately at their level. Not so much in the new school. By the way, my kids did awesome at their old school and continue to do so at their new one. It's not like our expectations for them increased at the new school.. If I could redo it again, I wouldn't have moved my kids till middle school when peer group becomes much more important.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People are not going to like this, but moving from a Focus or Title I school to a higher performing school can be like night and day. We went from a Focus school, that we really liked with smaller classes to a school in the Wootten cluster. The expectations for our kids were just much higher because of the peer group. Therefore, the teachers were teaching to them as opposed to the significant number of kids struggling at our old school. I know this is not a popular opinion in this board,

+100

The expectations are hugely different and the peer group is also. Everything from field trips to parental involvement. People sell Focus schools on here like the small class size makes up for any shortcomings, but that was not our experience. YMMV

No, it's just that some of us don't care about having massive peer groups and a crap ton of parental involvement. I mean, good for you? My kid has friends and parents volunteer for field trips and class parties. I don't need my kids to feel pushed by their peers to excel from the moment they enter kindergarten. Nor do I need them taken to the Library of Congress on field trips in first grade. Early elementary kids are still *very* young, and I'll take the smaller classes and less intense academic focus for my seven year old, thanks.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People are not going to like this, but moving from a Focus or Title I school to a higher performing school can be like night and day. We went from a Focus school, that we really liked with smaller classes to a school in the Wootten cluster. The expectations for our kids were just much higher because of the peer group. Therefore, the teachers were teaching to them as opposed to the significant number of kids struggling at our old school. I know this is not a popular opinion in this board,

+100

The expectations are hugely different and the peer group is also. Everything from field trips to parental involvement. People sell Focus schools on here like the small class size makes up for any shortcomings, but that was not our experience. YMMV

No, it's just that some of us don't care about having massive peer groups and a crap ton of parental involvement. I mean, good for you? My kid has friends and parents volunteer for field trips and class parties. I don't need my kids to feel pushed by their peers to excel from the moment they enter kindergarten. Nor do I need them taken to the Library of Congress on field trips in first grade. Early elementary kids are still *very* young, and I'll take the smaller classes and less intense academic focus for my seven year old, thanks.

Actually the higher expectations of a W school are precisely why we will stay in SS. My kid could meet them but I think the early years need more play time not more academic enrichment. He doesn’t need to do algebra at age six just because he can - there is time enough for that. We are trying to avoid the pressure cooker environment, and if that means he is a bit bored sometimes, so be it.

Anonymous wrote:People are not going to like this, but moving from a Focus or Title I school to a higher performing school can be like night and day. We went from a Focus school, that we really liked with smaller classes to a school in the Wootten cluster. The expectations for our kids were just much higher because of the peer group. Therefore, the teachers were teaching to them as opposed to the significant number of kids struggling at our old school. I know this is not a popular opinion in this board,

+100

The expectations are hugely different and the peer group is also. Everything from field trips to parental involvement. People sell Focus schools on here like the small class size makes up for any shortcomings, but that was not our experience. YMMV