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Old 06-07-2007, 07:22 AM
 
214 posts, read 1,002,547 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lost in traffic View Post
I would appreciate your input: we are moving from CA - hubby got a job at Goddard, Greenbelt. Our 2 kids go to one of the best public schools in our area, and we would like to keep it that way. So far, we narrowed down our choice for schools to either Bethesda or Ellicott City. Which one of these 2 is a better commute to Goddard? Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
There are very few public high schools in the nation that compare to those in Bethesda. The academic environment is really tough, and as a previous poster said, kids might not have time to just be kids. In my opinion though, I think that the schools really push the kids to do well and from meeting some recent grads, they are all well rounded and do have personal lives on top of being great achievers. Unlike many other areas too, fellow students also push each other to do well and they form bonds that way. All 3 Bethesda high schools are among the top in the nation: Whitman, R Montgomery, B-CC. Others in the immediate area are also among the top: Churchill (Potomac) and Wootton (Rockville). Below is an article from Bethesda Magazine that describes the situation better than I can:

Bethesda Magazine (http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/jan06/greatexpectations.php - broken link)

I've heard pretty good things too about schools in Howard county. One that comes to mind is River Hill High in Clarksville: River Hill High School - Clarksville, Maryland - MD - school overview. THis is somewhere around the Ellicot City area.

As far as the commute goes, I tend to think it might be easier to commute from Bethesda. But that's just my opinion. Either way, the traffic sucks... but probably not as bad as in California.

Last edited by middle-of-nowhere; 06-07-2007 at 07:43 AM..
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Old 06-08-2007, 03:00 PM
 
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Thank you so much for that Bethesda Magazine article. It opened my eyes on some things: since my kids are 4 and 8, we haven't gotten to the level of pressure to achieve that high school kids feel. And we live in a very good (= competitive?) school district. Maybe we should rethink out "best schools" requirement for choosing a place to live. Thanks again...
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Old 06-08-2007, 03:17 PM
 
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Montgomery County is, as a district, very very good -- even some of the "middling" MoCo schools would be considered standouts anywhere else. Some are not, but I would look at schools individually and not necessarily rule them out for not being known as "top tier." RE: pressure, we have friends who grew up in Bethesda and are raising kids in Silver Spring, who say they wanted to get their kids away from the pressure cooker atmosphere. I'm not sure that SS these days is so very relaxed either, but something to consider. There are a whole lot of striving, educated, wealthy people in the DC area who are extremely focused on helping their children succeed -- it can be a bit much.
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Old 06-08-2007, 03:35 PM
 
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Can you recommend good public schools in Silver Spring/Takoma Park area, or other areas closer to Greenbelt than Bethesda. One thing is looking at test scores online, and another is to hear from someone having kids in those schools. Thanks again
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Old 06-08-2007, 04:40 PM
 
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Hi lost in traffic, glad to hear you find the article useful. Regarding your question about other schools in Silver Spring and Greenbelt, here's one article a from last year about schools in general in the dc area:

Education Review: Top-Rated Public Schools (washingtonpost.com)

Montgomery Blair in Silver Spring, MD. is generally considered more diverse than the western MoCo schools in Bethesda. It would be of note also that the well established Magnet programs in Science and Arts are both based within the Blair campus... but I guess your kids don't have to worry about that until High School. The regular high school itself would generally be considered very good, but not cutthroat competitive. Silver Spring itself also, IMO, is a much better environment to raise kids because it's not homogeneous as Bethesda.

Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, MD, also featured in the above article, gets some attention for its magnet program in science in PG County. The regular high school itself should be pretty good too, and this is definitely as close as you can get to Goddard.

And what silverspringer said is definitely true. Even what some might consider middle-tier schools in Montgomery county are at the caliber of top rated schools in most of the country. The non-magnet part of Blair HS, by most measurable testing and college acceptance standards, is "better" than the top school in my new home state (Vermont). And for parent testimonials on individual schools and school districts, GreatSchools.net has a good database of that.
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Old 06-08-2007, 05:18 PM
 
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I would second the recommendation for Eleanor Roosevelt in Greenbelt. Anecdotally, this year's valedictorian won Intel's International Science and Technology Fair (had to read about it in the Wall Street Journal, instead of the local paper, but oh well). Also, I think they have over 20 AP courses.
Best of all your husband, will have bragging rights for best commute in the DC area.
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Old 06-13-2007, 12:15 PM
 
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I live in Columbia (Howard County). The commute to Goddard is roughly 35 minutes. Ellicott City would be 10-15 minutes further. Some of the schools in Columbia (and Ellicott City) are very good.

-Alan
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Old 06-13-2007, 02:12 PM
 
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Actually, Ellicott City is less than half an hour from Greenbelt and you can take the Beltway or Parkway, or even Rt 1. Traffic around Bethesda is miserable.
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Old 06-13-2007, 04:00 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jessy0780 View Post
Actually, Ellicott City is less than half an hour from Greenbelt and you can take the Beltway or Parkway, or even Rt 1. Traffic around Bethesda is miserable.
Thanks for your info.
I read in other threads that traffic is miserable on all of the above roads in rush hour, and the commute from Ellicott City will be more than an hour every day. Do you commute?
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Old 06-13-2007, 09:23 PM
 
Location: Maryland
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There are quite a few beltways. The worst is I-495. You probably will have to take I-95. It gets congested but I wouldn't say it's anything compared to 495. There are also 695 and 895. So, beltway, parkway....there are too many =)

I'm not sure if Ellicott City would be an hour away from Greenbelt though. Route 1 is ok...but just not the whole way because of all the lights.... Either have to change onto 175 or 32. But rush hour is rush hour no matter where. It's just on I 495, it's always rush hour =)
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