Anonymous wrote:

The principal said that kids needed more time to play outside and should be able to get all the practice they need at school. Reality check for our neighborhood, most families have two parents who work. That means there aren't neighbor children to have over for playdates after school.

I personally think the principal made the change when parents started using homework as an example of what was wrong with the curriculum. The homework clued parents in that standards had been lowered. When parents complained using the only examples coming home, the homework, then poof - the homework stopped. This principal no longer works in MCPS by the way.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What criteria is used to decide which is "top?" If it's who sends the most students to Harvard, Princeton and MIT, according to polarislist.com, Blair is tops:

Montgomery Blair High School (Silver Spring), with a total of 21 sent to those three institutions 2015-2017:
Richard Montgomery High School (Rockville), with 20 students sent
Winston Churchill High School (Potomac), with 13 students sent
Thomas S. Wootton High School (Rockville), with 12 students sent
Walt Whitman High School (Bethesda), with 11 students sent
Walter Johnson High School (Bethesda), with 8 students sent
Poolesville High School (Poolesville), with 5 students sent
BCC (Bethesda), with 4 students sent
Einstein (Kensington), with 1 student sent
Gaithersburg High School (Gaithersburg), with 1 student sent

Of course, what's much more important is who turns out the happiest, most well adjusted students, not just the stressed out over achievers.

Ok.. but according to the list on that site, the top 10 schools in this order are: BLAIR, RM, CHURCHILL, WOOTTON. WHITMAN, WJ, POOLESVILLE, BCC, CLARKSBURG, NORTHWEST.

Clarksburg and Northwest each sent 3. Not at all far off from my previous list.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Incoming high school freshmen were the first guinea pig test group for 2.0. My child got through because we supplemented with workbooks and extra assignments at home. He had time to do so because his school experimented with the concept of no homework. Things did not improve much in middle school. He had about 1/4 the amount of homework than my older child because it just wasn't being assigned.

High school students who just graduated could have been affected in Algebra, Geometry, and Algebra 2. Those were also rewritten. My child who just graduated was part of the first guinea pig students for those courses as well in which central office was literally writing the courses while school was going on. It was a disaster in which our school staff rebelled and taught the old curriculum which did not match up with the central office tests. We hired tutors to get through those courses.

No homework in elementary school is not an experiment.

Anonymous wrote:

Incoming high school freshmen were the first guinea pig test group for 2.0. My child got through because we supplemented with workbooks and extra assignments at home. He had time to do so because his school experimented with the concept of no homework. Things did not improve much in middle school. He had about 1/4 the amount of homework than my older child because it just wasn't being assigned.

High school students who just graduated could have been affected in Algebra, Geometry, and Algebra 2. Those were also rewritten. My child who just graduated was part of the first guinea pig students for those courses as well in which central office was literally writing the courses while school was going on. It was a disaster in which our school staff rebelled and taught the old curriculum which did not match up with the central office tests. We hired tutors to get through those courses.

Anonymous wrote:

We have a neighbor who chose Georgetown Prep over the magnets.

To weigh the options and compare, you actually need to tour to see what is available. MCPS has dropped the ball while trying to write their own curriculum.

1. The curriculum fiasco is a catastrophe at the lower grades, but if we're talking about high school here, it's less of a problem because the curriculum was far less impacted by Erik Lang and his band of merry incompetents.

2. While I don't doubt your story about your neighbor, admission to the Blair magnet is highly competitive. No one should plan on getting in, or assume their child would have been admitted, as some others on this thread are doing. However, I'm not surprised that a young man who would be competitive for SMAC would also be competitive for an elite private. I hope they had a good experience.

Anonymous wrote:What criteria is used to decide which is "top?" If it's who sends the most students to Harvard, Princeton and MIT, according to polarislist.com, Blair is tops:

Montgomery Blair High School (Silver Spring), with a total of 21 sent to those three institutions 2015-2017:
Richard Montgomery High School (Rockville), with 20 students sent
Winston Churchill High School (Potomac), with 13 students sent
Thomas S. Wootton High School (Rockville), with 12 students sent
Walt Whitman High School (Bethesda), with 11 students sent
Walter Johnson High School (Bethesda), with 8 students sent
Poolesville High School (Poolesville), with 5 students sent
BCC (Bethesda), with 4 students sent
Einstein (Kensington), with 1 student sent
Gaithersburg High School (Gaithersburg), with 1 student sent

Of course, what's much more important is who turns out the happiest, most well adjusted students, not just the stressed out over achievers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What criteria is used to decide which is "top?" If it's who sends the most students to Harvard, Princeton and MIT, according to polarislist.com, Blair is tops:

Montgomery Blair High School (Silver Spring), with a total of 21 sent to those three institutions 2015-2017:
Richard Montgomery High School (Rockville), with 20 students sent
Winston Churchill High School (Potomac), with 13 students sent
Thomas S. Wootton High School (Rockville), with 12 students sent
Walt Whitman High School (Bethesda), with 11 students sent
Walter Johnson High School (Bethesda), with 8 students sent
Poolesville High School (Poolesville), with 5 students sent
BCC (Bethesda), with 4 students sent
Einstein (Kensington), with 1 student sent
Gaithersburg High School (Gaithersburg), with 1 student sent

Of course, what's much more important is who turns out the happiest, most well adjusted students, not just the stressed out over achievers.

Ok.. but according to the list on that site, the top 10 schools in this order are: BLAIR, RM, CHURCHILL, WOOTTON. WHITMAN, WJ, POOLESVILLE, BCC, CLARKSBURG, NORTHWEST.

Clarksburg and Northwest each sent 3. Not at all far off from my previous list.

We have a neighbor who chose Georgetown Prep over the magnets.

To weigh the options and compare, you actually need to tour to see what is available. MCPS has dropped the ball while trying to write their own curriculum.

Anonymous wrote:What criteria is used to decide which is "top?" If it's who sends the most students to Harvard, Princeton and MIT, according to polarislist.com, Blair is tops:

Anonymous wrote:What criteria is used to decide which is "top?" If it's who sends the most students to Harvard, Princeton and MIT, according to polarislist.com, Blair is tops:

Montgomery Blair High School (Silver Spring), with a total of 21 sent to those three institutions 2015-2017:
Richard Montgomery High School (Rockville), with 20 students sent
Winston Churchill High School (Potomac), with 13 students sent
Thomas S. Wootton High School (Rockville), with 12 students sent
Walt Whitman High School (Bethesda), with 11 students sent
Walter Johnson High School (Bethesda), with 8 students sent
Poolesville High School (Poolesville), with 5 students sent
BCC (Bethesda), with 4 students sent
Einstein (Kensington), with 1 student sent
Gaithersburg High School (Gaithersburg), with 1 student sent

Of course, what's much more important is who turns out the happiest, most well adjusted students, not just the stressed out over achievers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know this is dumb but... What do y'all think? I'd say-

Whitman
Churchill
WJ
BCC
Wootton
Poolesville
QO
RM
Sherwood
Clarksburg

Magnet MCPS anything
Private school HS
Catholic school HS
.
.
.
.
.
W schools

I actually don't think so.
The W's are equal to the top privates but they both (W's & privates ) are way behind the Magnets.

+1

I have a kid at Whitman and a kid at the Blair magnet, and the Blair experience (magnet and non-magnet classes alike) kicks the Whitman experience’s ass.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

New PP chiming in. I have had several children go through Churchill cluster schools. High school standards were not what I had as an MCPS student and school standards in the elementary and middle school were lowered from 2.0. I toured the privates close to our house - Georgetown Prep (Catholic) and Bullis (non religious) - and I was amazed at their class offereings and resources. If you can swallow the price tag, these two schools are far beyond anything in MCPS.

Given how much they cost, one would surely hope that they offered something for the money.

Anonymous wrote:

New PP chiming in. I have had several children go through Churchill cluster schools. High school standards were not what I had as an MCPS student and school standards in the elementary and middle school were lowered from 2.0. I toured the privates close to our house - Georgetown Prep (Catholic) and Bullis (non religious) - and I was amazed at their class offereings and resources. If you can swallow the price tag, these two schools are far beyond anything in MCPS.