school safety silver spring (Germantown, Bethesda: high school, living in, vs.)

[banjoki]

Hello, we are moving to Maryland and will be living in Montgomery county, most likely Silver Spring or close by. I was wondering if there are any schools that are thought to be not safe. I have done extensive research on schools in terms of test scores, ranking, etc, but my main concern is that my kids have a safe environment to learn in. My husband will be working in Greenbelt and one reason we have leaned away from living there is that we hear that (high school excepted) the schools aren't very good and also many consider them to be unsafe. Any opinions on Silver Spring schools? Thanks.

[Marilyn Emery]

One thing you can do is see if there is an active PTA. If there is call the current officers and get their opinion. They will generally have a good feel of the issues facing the school.

[trying2moveup]

Silver Spring is a high needs area which means in school terms that they are high in FARMS rate (free and reduced lunch), very high on ESOL, are made up of alot of non-native English speaking families. They also get alot of extra $$ to pump into the schools because of this and have the IB program at the high school level (International Baccalaureate) - if you feed into the Montgomery Blair, Blake, or Springbrook clusters. It's very hard to say to someone not living here what the schools are all about - MoCo schools have a great reputation but the schools in Bethesda Chevy-Chase have a very different make up then the schools in Silver Spring or up County. generally thecloser you get to the DC line, the more improverished and "needy" the schools are. The farther towards NoVa, the "richer," the more upcounty - you have hit and miss depending on where you are (Darnestown vs. Germantown). Its confusing and these boards don't necessarily help out.