Info about Elementary schools & life in Silver Spring?? (Bethesda: real estate, apartments)

[Vittorio]

Hello everyone,

We -my 2 children : 2 and 6 years old- and my husband will relocate in Maryland next Summer from NC.
My husband will be working in Greenbelt.
We are looking for a place to live with good public schools and a safe and family oriented community.
After my researches, Montgomery County seems to be the best place for schools, so we are looking there - Besthesda seems really nice too, but there is almost nothing under $1M- so we are thinking more of Silver Spring.
I would like your advice about the elementary schools there but also about Silver Spring itself : which neighborhoods are the best for a family with young children, close to the metro if possible; which neighborhoods are the safest and which elementary schools would you recommend to me? How is life in Silver Spring? How do you like it?
Thank you for your answers

[goldenage1]

Silver Spring is a large and diverse area. If you prefer to be close to Metro, look in 20901 or 20902 or 20910. However, if you prefer safer neighborhoods, look further out, like 20906 or 20904.
Since I never know what anyone means by "family-friendly", please define what you are looking for a little better. There seem to be kids everywhere, except in the very urban area in Downtown Silver Spring.
BTW, I lived in the Kemp Mill area of 20902, and I liked it. There are parks, playgrounds and bike trails. Many kids attended private religious schools. The public elementary schools were less select and had some challenges.

[goldenage1]

Originally Posted by Vittorio

which elementary schools would you recommend to me?

As I haven't had kids in elementary school, I rely on schooldigger.com . The elemenatry schools which get 4 out of 5 are Cloverly ES in 20905, Westover in 20904, Oakland Terrace in 20902, and Sligo Creek in 20910. Other elementary schools get 1 and 2's . As I mentioned the close-in parts of Silver Spring have challenges with the numbers of minority kids.

You might also consider these schools: Cashell in Rockville (which gets 5 of 5), and Sherwood in Sandy Spring.

[goldenage1]

Both Westover and Cloverly get 8 out of 10 ratings from Greatschools.org . In addition, you get a lot of house for the money, compared to locations closer to downtown Silver Spring. Cloverly has a an almost rural feel, but you are not far from the library, swim center and ball fields on New Hampshire.

[Samoi137]

Have you narrowed down what part of SS? SS is not, of course, an actual city but a large, unincorporated part of Montgomery County. I lived in two places in SS: a townhouse near "downtown" SS, inside the Beltway, and in a single family home about a mile from the Glenmont Metro station, a few miles outside the Beltway. I did some substitute teaching while at the latter, and some of the schools seemed good but I was there as a teacher, not a parent. I assume you've looked at ads and Web sites and/or talked with a realtor to see what areas you might be ble to afford. I assume your husband would need to drive to work.

[jniter]

Hi, I just relocated to the area and am in a similar conundrum of trying to navigate the neighborhoods, real estate (renting in my case) and schools (I have a 5 and 2 year old).

I have found a few websites useful.

First, the entire list of schools in Montgomery County, with links to their report cards. It will detail class ratios, budget, demographics, state passage rates, etc.
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/


Second, Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed you can type in a city, such as "Silver Spring, MD" and get an analysis of which neighborhoods are more expensive, which are safer, etc. I wish I could tell you that I've made heads or tails of all the data.

I would be careful using greatschools or schooldigger. There is some funny biasing going on in how they rate a school based on test scores. They heavily bias towards the highest passage rate in any category of test, not necessarily looking at the complete range of percentages of passing. Veirs Mill is a knockout 5 on schooldigger and a 10 on greatschools. If you look at their report card though, their kids are average compared to the state norm. So a lot of kids pass at proficient, not so many at advanced. Does that really matter? I don't know. I'm just saying...the data is misused and misrepresenting the full picture.

Good luck! I may start interviewing principals at this rate. Not because I'm trying to be manic, but because I detest a drill and kill environment. You can't really tell what is inside a school from test data. And I don't trust reviews on greatschools. 10 data points or less isn't enough.

That said, I like the Forest Glen area. Once inside it is pretty residential (get past all the apartments on Georgia) and it backs into Kensington, with its antique shops and pretty homes. It is zoned for Oakland Terrace Elementary School, which is very diverse and seems to rate well. Reviews are really inconsistent though. I'm trying to use contacts and find a teacher w/the inside scoop...

Former public school teacher-

[FreedomBelle]

Previous posters: How have you settled into life - and schools in and around Silver Spring? Any updates?

My family may be moving to the area for work, and we have young kids (3 and 6), too. We really would to live to close to the eastern branch of the Red Line. While we are familiar with the area in a general way, we know very little about elementary schools in Montgomery County.

Thanks for any updates or new information!

[jniter]

Originally Posted by FreedomBelle

Previous posters: How have you settled into life - and schools in and around Silver Spring? Any updates?

My family may be moving to the area for work, and we have young kids (3 and 6), too. We really would to live to close to the eastern branch of the Red Line. While we are familiar with the area in a general way, we know very little about elementary schools in Montgomery County.

Thanks for any updates or new information!

Apparently City-Data got mad I mentioned a competitor, so I defer to their info:
http://city-data.com/city/Silver-Spring-Maryland.html
I personally find it harder to navigate, because you don't necessarily *know* the name of a neighborhood, which for Silver Spring is really important since it is so HUGE.

I have literally spent hours pouring over data and driving around neighborhoods.
School Service Area Maps
That is the link to a list of all the zoning maps for Montgomery County schools w/elementary schools at top and HS at the bottom. Alphabetical w/the caveat that if the school is named after a person, they alpha by the person's last name. Confusing, but whatever.

I actually really like the neighborhood I currently rent in. It's a shame that the commute for my husband is over 30 minutes, otherwise we'd look for a house here more seriously. Homes are more affordable than a lot of neighborhoods, and you can find some in the $300-475k range. You don't always get a garage, but then, a lot of homes in this area don't have garages.

I live in the zone for Rock Creek Valley Elementary School, which is technically a Rockville address, but it is very close to the border of Aspen Hill/Wheaton. RCV is very diverse (my son's kinder class has 1 kid of Caucasian decent...ONE), but the stats for the school are VERY GOOD. I personally find that MUCH MORE impressive than looking at a school in Bethesda or Potomac where the people are very affluent and well...more homogenous or Asian (no offense, I'm Asian). They receive special funding to keep class sizes small (not sure how the principal manages that, but she's awesome and received an award for her awesomeness in 2011), so my son's kinder class has only 14 kids. Well, it was supposed to be 16 but 2 kids decided to go to an immersion program. I digress. The school has a very active anti-bullying program, and kids are encouraged to be "peacemakers", actively praising kids for collaborating, compromising, etc. Not to say the discipline is fluffy, it isn't. It just isn't autocratic. And I've been very pleased w/what I've learned about the curriculum and philosophy on homework. The teachers put a lot of emphasis on concepts and ideas. Even in kindergarten, the reading HW asks the kids to predict what happens in stories, explain what a major character does, etc. (Don't worry, they don't write a lot, they draw their answers.) They emphasize WORDS in math, which I appreciate as a former math teacher.

I wouldn't say this area is super close to the E side of the Redline, but it is decently close. I know someone who jogs to the station to take the metro. I would personally drive, but he gets his workout in. I find the neighborhood reasonably convenient. It takes me 15 minutes to get to Rockville Pike for Target and all the shopping over there. 20 Minutes to Whole Foods if that is your flavor. Go in the other direction and you are 10-15 minutes (well...in good traffic) to Wheaton Mall and the Metro. They are really building up Wheaton and Costco just opened there. The main problem is that it is far from ALL the highways.

Beyond RCV and looking down the road, kids going to RCV feed into Earl B Woods MS, which is pretty good, and Rockville HS, which isn't bad either. They aren't off the charts like Wooten, but again...these schools are more diverse, less affluent, have more ESOL kids, so I give the staff a lot of credit. I'm also constantly amazed at some of the people I meet who are parents. Not affluent but certainly smart. The current PTA president is a PhD researcher at NIH. HA! The neighborhood is full is families w/young kids too.

If that sounds appealing to you, here is the link to their service map http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMap...ekValleyES.pdf. You have to be really careful about the street, because Montgomery County has some weird zones. And they rezone and build new stuff all the time. They are constantly evaluating school populations for "overutilization" (their words, not mine).

Another neighborhood I like is Woodmoor, which according to City-Data is Indian Springs Village. The homes there are beautiful. It reminds me a lot of parts of South Kensington (not the huge mansions, but the "other" houses that are still nice). I don't know too much about the ES schools (Montgomery Knolls for k-2, Pinecrest for 3-5) or MS (Eastern MS) except what the data shows. Very diverse, struggles w/testing for the minorities. BUT you get zoned for Montgomery Blair HS, which is pretty amazing. Woodmoor is close to Colesville Pike and University Blvd. Don't know if that is close enough to the Redline for you.

Forest Glen has been rezoned for Flora Singer ES, which just opened this year. I have no idea what the school is like. Woodside is just south of the Beltway, pretty nice (once you get into the neighborhood and past Georgia Ave) and zoned for Woodlin ES which has a good reputation. Main issues are the MS and HS. My guess is the neighborhood draws from more urban parts of Silver Spring, so the school has to contend w/a really mixed bag of kids, which does pose a challenge for teaching, from my own experience.

HS is Silver Spring is an anomaly to me. In the South you have the Downtown Consortium Cluster (DCC) and in the North you have the NorthEast Cluster (NEC). You apply as an 8th grader to your HS of choice. If you pick the school you are zoned for, you obviously automatically get your pick. If you put another school at the top of your list, Montgomery County may say yes if there is room, they may say no. They specifically say on the website that they will control demographically so that no one specific group will "overutilize" any one school site. It is probably no accident that Montgomery Blair is almost evenly split amongst White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian.

Or you could take the philosophy my husband espouses. You can't predict what will happen in 10 years. Why worry about HS? You could always move. Very true. What schools you are zoned for tends to impact property value, and that's the only reason I personally pay attention to it. If you are looking to rent, then it doesn't really matter. You could always move!

Another neighborhood I liked is Silver Spring Park. It is very close to Downtown Silver Spring, has pockets of nice homes, very kid friendly. East Silver Spring ES. From what I can tell, the testing is mainly impacted by ESOL. Diverse school. From what I read in the reviews, the parents like the school and aren't so bothered by the less than stellar test scores. The draw is being zoned for Takoma Park MS and Montgomery Blair. Takoma Park MS has a magnet program you need to test into, and some say the environment is a little too competitive, but it has the test scores.

Indian Spring Terrace (close to Indian Spring Village but inside the Beltway) is nice and quaint. Zoned for Highland View ES, which is diverse and testing wise does alright. Again, impacted by ESOL. Even though it is so close to Indian Spring Village, it is zoned for different Silver Spring International MS (not bad), and Northwood HS (eh...).

I know this is very confusing and long. You can look at the neighborhoods and maps on City-Data or google them for other options, drive around, see what you think. What I've mainly learned is that finding a neighborhood zoned for a stellar (testing wise) school for ES, MS, and HS is darned near impossible in Silver Spring. You get that trifecta if you go down to Takoma Park, which might work for you Redline wise? You can look up the map for Pine Crest Elementary and drive around those areas and see what you think. Takoma Park ES is only for K-2, Pine Crest for 3-5. You have to be careful in Takoma Park, because part of it is in Prince Georges County, and some streets are nicer than others. It's a pretty unique but interesting place. I really like it, but it is just too South for my husband's commute. And well...pretty pricey.

Last piece of advice: If you are relocating from far away, I HIGHLY recommend renting first. Yes...there might be some risk of the housing market taking off, and it has already taken off in Bethesda and Potomac. This area is just REALLY HARD to understand without living here, driving around, and seeing for yourself what the neighborhood is about. We are renting and are SO GLAD we didn't jump on buying a house here. We had no idea the traffic would be so horrendous (this coming from someone who relocated from SILLICON VALLEY!) or that the school situation would be so confusing.

[jniter]

My neighborhood recommendations are more "urban" than Kemp Mill, etc. and you won't get a garage or maybe even driveway w/a place in those neighborhoods. I prefer being closer to the city...

Just a disclaimer.

The RCV ES area in Rockville is more suburban and a lot of homes do get a garage. Not all.

[jniter]

Apparently my specific area is English Manor and Aspen Knolls (but part of Aspen Knolls is zoned for Wheaton Elementary). Close by is Manor Park, which is zoned for Lucy Barnsley, which is pretty decent too. Also zoned for Earl B Wood MS and Rockville HS.