Montgomery or Howard County School System (Columbia, Ellicott City: elementary schools, design, station)

[AandD]

Originally Posted by Khemistry

What are these websites??? Every credible source I've ever heard has always ranked Montgomery as the highest performing system in Maryland. And I'm talking about GreatSchools.net. I'm talking about Newsweek and The Washington Post and EducationWeek.

Actually Greatschools.net lists HC as higher.

[Khemistry]

Originally Posted by meatkins

schooldigger.com has Howard County Schools listed higher than MC and they based their ratings on test scores. Howard County wikipedia page also says HC usually ranks first testing and graduation rates. The graduation rate you can find here. Not saying MC is bad but facts are facts, HC is better.

Howard's wiki page does not state that at all. You are really reaching with that statement. Howards wiki page states, "Howard County consistently earns high marks in school performance metrics such as test scores and graduation rates. It gets high percentages at all levels of the Maryland School Assessments." Nothing in that quote even remotely suggests that Howard is at the very top in Maryland.

When I look at Newsweek's 2010 list of the Top 1500 High Schools in America, when I narrow down that list to show me the top high schools in Maryland... there are 8 high schools listed in Montgomery County before the first school shows up for Howard. When you look at the top 20 high schools in Maryland, only 2 schools are in Howard County, while 13 schools are in Montgomery. When you look at the top 40 high schools in Maryland, 16 are in Montgomery and the same 2 are in Howard, while no other Howard schools are added to the list.

I realize that I'm basically talking about 'high schools' and not the entire school system as a whole, but a lot of these so-called rankings are generally based on high school performance. Either way, Howard and MoCo are both great school systems, I just know that MoCo is generally a bit better or at least it largely has been in the past.

Ref: America's Best High Schools: The List - Newsweek

Originally Posted by AandD

Actually Greatschools.net lists HC as higher.

Actually, I meant to state that I wasn't referring to a website such as Greatschools.net/.org. Most reputable sites that are trusted news sources, such as 'Newsweek' and 'U.S. News & World Report', have placed Montgomery County Schools in the #1 position, when it comes to school systems in Maryland. Whether or not that has changed for 2010, that I can not state.

[jassis]

So basically both counties offer great schools with the exeption that MoCo has more options, since is a much larger area?

Thanks

[Khemistry]

Originally Posted by jassis

So basically both counties offer great schools with the exeption that MoCo has more options, since is a much larger area?

Thanks

That's pretty much the gist of it. And it depends on the age of your kids. If they aren't high school age, you can't lose with either school system. But if your kids are high school aged and they have a lot of potential, they might be a bit limited going to Howard Co. since they're aren't a lot of options for specialized programs catering to areas in which they excel. Even still, Howard is still a great bang for the buck. And if you're looking for 'diversity', you're definitely not going to get that in Howard. Montgomery has a lot of diversity, however.

[newhart]

When I look at Newsweek's 2010 list of the Top 1500 High Schools in America, when I narrow down that list to show me the top high schools in Maryland...

I have no idea what schools are on that list because I learned long ago that the results are basically meaningless. Are you aware of how Newsweek comes up with this list? It's based on the number of AP/IB tests given and the number of seniors in the school. It has nothing to do with how well the students do academically, or how well they do on the AP tests. Some schools require all students to take the test, some schools pay the test costs so that they will have more students taking the tests. There are a number of schools on that list that are considered subpar academically and are in danger of being closed, but they require that seniors take the test, so they make the list.

Here's a 2010 article that explains the list:

Why Newsweek's Best High School List is Useless.

[dkf747]

Originally Posted by jassis

So basically both counties offer great schools with the exeption that MoCo has more options, since is a much larger area?

Thanks

That's it exactly! The difference between #1 and #2 on a great school district list is so small as to be irrelevant. A kid going to either has a good chance at a good education.

[justtitans]

Originally Posted by Khemistry

Howard's wiki page does not state that at all. You are really reaching with that statement. Howards wiki page states, "Howard County consistently earns high marks in school performance metrics such as test scores and graduation rates. It gets high percentages at all levels of the Maryland School Assessments." Nothing in that quote even remotely suggests that Howard is at the very top in Maryland.

When I look at Newsweek's 2010 list of the Top 1500 High Schools in America, when I narrow down that list to show me the top high schools in Maryland... there are 8 high schools listed in Montgomery County before the first school shows up for Howard. When you look at the top 20 high schools in Maryland, only 2 schools are in Howard County, while 13 schools are in Montgomery. When you look at the top 40 high schools in Maryland, 16 are in Montgomery and the same 2 are in Howard, while no other Howard schools are added to the list.

I realize that I'm basically talking about 'high schools' and not the entire school system as a whole, but a lot of these so-called rankings are generally based on high school performance. Either way, Howard and MoCo are both great school systems, I just know that MoCo is generally a bit better or at least it largely has been in the past.

Ref: America's Best High Schools: The List - Newsweek



Actually, I meant to state that I wasn't referring to a website such as Greatschools.net/.org. Most reputable sites that are trusted news sources, such as 'Newsweek' and 'U.S. News & World Report', have placed Montgomery County Schools in the #1 position, when it comes to school systems in Maryland. Whether or not that has changed for 2010, that I can not state.

Hold on buddy, let's take the rose-colored glasses off. I don't know what wikipedia page you look at but the Howard County one states very clearly: "Howard County's schools frequently rank first in Maryland as measured by standardized test scores and graduation rates." I'm not the one who is making up these statements, if you have an issue with them taking it up with the people creating these articles, not me.

As far as, the US News Report, apparently my wife (an educator) informed me that those rankings really don't indicate much. They use information like the number of students taking AP courses, that manipulate statistics. Schools in PG County are also ranked on that list like Central and Laurel High and those schools aren't considered great schools. SchoolDigger uses AYP testing scores so the information is a bit more conclusive than those rankings.

Like I said several websites have supported what I have stated. Other people have shown it too. It's all about what you WANT to believe. I'm not saying MoCo schools are worse, but they clearly aren't better than HoCo based on the information out there.

[justtitans]

Originally Posted by newhart

I have no idea what schools are on that list because I learned long ago that the results are basically meaningless. Are you aware of how Newsweek comes up with this list? It's based on the number of AP/IB tests given and the number of seniors in the school. It has nothing to do with how well the students do academically, or how well they do on the AP tests. Some schools require all students to take the test, some schools pay the test costs so that they will have more students taking the tests. There are a number of schools on that list that are considered subpar academically and are in danger of being closed, but they require that seniors take the test, so they make the list.

Here's a 2010 article that explains the list:

Why Newsweek's Best High School List is Useless.

Didn't see this before I posted, but that's exactly what my wife told me and she's an educator.

[jcgpartyof5]

HoCo schools are always rated tops. I have three children in schools here and I do not think you can go wrong in Howard County.

[MDAllstar]

How do you compare an urban very diverse county of about 1,000,000 people with a rural non-diverse county of about 280,000?