Tell me about Clemens Crossing/Atholton and Hammond ES/HS [Columbia]

[newhart]

I would personally choose Atholton over Hammond, but that is based on school performance and demographics alone and not the personal insight that you wanted. I agree that Kings Contrivance has some nice neighborhoods, but there are also a lot of rentals. We lived there many years ago and it's a very convenient location, but the Clemens Crossing area is nice as well. In your list of elementary schools, I would hesitate to choose Longfellow and Bollman Bridge simply because the free and reduced lunch rates (close to 50%) for these schools is among the highest in the county.

If you end up considering Ellicott City, you might be interested to know that the schools there are heavily Asian. Several of the elementary schools that feed into the northern EC high schools (Mt Hebron, Centennial, Marriotts Ridge) are approaching or are over 50% Asian. The eastern side of EC would be closer to I95 or the trains.

I agree with the above poster's recommendation to check out Fulton and Maple Lawn.

Thank you for the insightful comments. Would you say that Atholton, Howard, Hammond are currently perceived as more similar than different? Or do people tend to group Hammond in with Oakland Mills and Long Reach? (On paper, I see the similarities and differences - I'm just curious what the common perceptions are, or if the "culture" of certain communities is significantly different.)

My opinion is that Atholton and Howard are more similar and Hammond would be seen as lower.

I've heard many things about Centennial and River Hill being wonderful schools and academic powerhouses. But I've also heard they are pressure cookers or may be socially difficult for some kids. Is that a common perception?

That's possible for many. These schools attract highly academic families for a reason, that that feeds off of itself. My kids went to Centennial and had no problems. One of my kids is a brainiac super nerd, and Centennial was perfect, because there were a large number of similar students there. The quiz bowl teams and math teams are enormous and do very well. My other kids would have done fine at any school.

Surprisingly, Hammond high school seems to have slipped a lot academically from when I was in high school decades ago. Most of the other schools have remained pretty consistent academically, with Howard actually impressively jumping up a good bit. Howard was always near the bottom during my time but is now solidly in the middle of the pack. As mentioned previously, Howard’s big improvement is in large part due to Long Reach, which was districted to include the section 8 students from long reach and elkridge, and therefore, not surprisingly has the lowest test scores of all high schools.

Howard's improvement was also due to the advent of newer expensive housing on the east side of the county that began about 35 years ago. I've been here long enough to remember when the areas east of Rt 29 were considered to be blue collar with older and cheaper housing. If you valued education, EC west of 29 was the only place to go. Once the housing boom started along Rt 103, that changed everything.

[personone]

Originally Posted by newhart

I would personally choose Atholton over Hammond, but that is based on school performance and demographics alone and not the personal insight that you wanted. I agree that Kings Contrivance has some nice neighborhoods, but there are also a lot of rentals. We lived there many years ago and it's a very convenient location, but the Clemens Crossing area is nice as well. In your list of elementary schools, I would hesitate to choose Longfellow and Bollman Bridge simply because the free and reduced lunch rates (close to 50%) for these schools is among the highest in the county.

If you end up considering Ellicott City, you might be interested to know that the schools there are heavily Asian. Several of the elementary schools that feed into the northern EC high schools (Mt Hebron, Centennial, Marriotts Ridge) are approaching or are over 50% Asian. The eastern side of EC would be closer to I95 or the trains.

I agree with the above poster's recommendation to check out Fulton and Maple Lawn.



My opinion is that Atholton and Howard are more similar and Hammond would be seen as lower.



That's possible for many. These schools attract highly academic families for a reason, that that feeds off of itself. My kids went to Centennial and had no problems. One of my kids is a brainiac super nerd, and Centennial was perfect, because there were a large number of similar students there. The quiz bowl teams and math teams are enormous and do very well. My other kids would have done fine at any school.



Howard's improvement was also due to the advent of newer expensive housing on the east side of the county that began about 35 years ago. I've been here long enough to remember when the areas east of Rt 29 were considered to be blue collar with older and cheaper housing. If you valued education, EC west of 29 was the only place to go. Once the housing boom started along Rt 103, that changed everything.

That’s a good point. I graduated from High School in 99. Right around 2000, the DC area financial renaissance started (with Columbia and Howard County also receiving spill-over and benefiting). New, wealthy development in different parts of the county have definitely benefited some high schools.