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I've been researching the areas along highway 270 for a possible relocation and have seen that the high schools don't seem very good anywhere south of Germantown. I'm speaking specifically of Gaithersburg and Rockville, which seem to have pretty low test scores and high dropout rates for such nice areas.
Do most people who value good education in those towns send their kids to private school? Or am I missing something about the public schools' boundary areas?
I've been researching the areas along highway 270 for a possible relocation and have seen that the high schools don't seem very good anywhere south of Germantown. I'm speaking specifically of Gaithersburg and Rockville, which seem to have pretty low test scores and high dropout rates for such nice areas.
Do most people who value good education in those towns send their kids to private school? Or am I missing something about the public schools' boundary areas?
I personally am a huge opponent of private schools... Unless you can afford to send your child to the most expensive and exclusive private schools you are essentially paying to take opportunities away from your child...
Public schools in Montgomery county as a whole are very good... Even the worse schools in Mo county are better than some of the better schools in other states... Some of the more negative statistics come from kids out of the rough neighborhoods in surrounding areas that go to school to get a meal and crap on other kids educations...
The good news is the school still has a lot to offer in terms of academic opportunities... Most Mo county schools have excellent AP programs, lots of foreign language options, access to tech centers, and a plethora of extra-curricular activities that private schools could never offer...
I would say the majority of folks (concerned involved parents) in my area kids are in private school, including mine. I'm in 20886, not a bad area, but the public schools are not what they were 20 years ago.
Rockville on the other hand public schools are decent.
I would say the majority of folks (concerned involved parents) in my area kids are in private school, including mine. I'm in 20886, not a bad area, but the public schools are not what they were 20 years ago.
Rockville on the other hand public schools are decent.
do you know anything about the southwest side of 270 - where the kids go to Quince Orchard? The are is more expensive, but also, the school does not have stellar stats.
do you know anything about the southwest side of 270 - where the kids go to Quince Orchard? The are is more expensive, but also, the school does not have stellar stats.
The quality of the schools in upper county does not have a direct relation with the price of homes. For example, most of the homes on the west side of 124 are priced in the 900+ to a couple million range. And the schools that serve that area are ...... Same for East Village and Avalon Farms where most homes cost 800++. As far as the southwest side of 270, their schools are better than across 270. For schools, I would look in Rockville, the areas off of Falls Road, in particular Copenhenger (sp) development, Laytonsville and Damascus. I've heard in the past that Urbana schools are decent, but that was a few years ago.
BTW, some of the private schools also have a lot to be desired.....
I personally am a huge opponent of private schools... Unless you can afford to send your child to the most expensive and exclusive private schools you are essentially paying to take opportunities away from your child...
Public schools in Montgomery county as a whole are very good... Even the worse schools in Mo county are better than some of the better schools in other states... Some of the more negative statistics come from kids out of the rough neighborhoods in surrounding areas that go to school to get a meal and crap on other kids educations...
The good news is the school still has a lot to offer in terms of academic opportunities... Most Mo county schools have excellent AP programs, lots of foreign language options, access to tech centers, and a plethora of extra-curricular activities that private schools could never offer...
News flash, it's not just kids from rough neighborhoods that only come to school to get a good meal and ruin it for children who really do want to learn. Enough said on that.
On another note, private does not always mean better. You just have to do your homework. I'm planning a move to DC and it has been quite scary trying to find a good county to move to in terms of housing and schools, but all of that is on paper (based on stats). During my search I decided to look up my childs' current school and to my surprise it wasn't ranked all that high either. I was surprised because I would have raved and sworn by this school. My point is, if you have time, try to see the school up close before you enroll your child....I would do that with private schools too because they aren't bound by the exact same laws and rules that public schools are. With children, we must always be careful.
When I was in public high school in southeast corner of MoCo (about 4 years ago) we always saw the bigger private schools as public schools with better drugs. That might just be the private schools in my part of the county, but all the public schools gave a good education to the kids that wanted one and my parents and I never saw any reason to pay some of the ridiculous tuitions.
A number of MoCo public high schools ranked in U.S News and World Report's list of 1500 top schools in the country. Several of them are in the 270 corridor where you're looking. The following are the listed schools with their national rankings in parentheses: Richard Montgomery in Rockville (39), Bethesda-Chevy Chase (56), Wooton in Rockville (59), Winston Churchill in Potomac (95), Walt Whitman in Bethesda (106), Walter Johnson in Bethesda (112), Rockville (212), Quince Orchard in Gaitherburg (302), Poolesville (313), Watkins Mill in Gaithersburg (401), Magruder in Rockville (490), Northwest in Germantown (513), Seneca Valley in Germantown (696), Gaithersburg (875). For more, go to the U.S. News website at America's Top Public High Schools | Newsweek Best High Schools | Newsweek.com.
In terms of test scores, they never tell the entire story. That said, in a casual glance through the fact sheets for the MoCo high schools, I couldn't find one that hadn't met its testing objectives as required by NCLB. Remember also that standardized tests do not look at higher order thinking skills -- the type of analysis required to write compelling reports, perform well in college, and function on the job. As well, many reading comprehension questions are actually written in a way that concrete thinkers rather than analytical thinkers are likely to perform better on the tests. If you look at the test scores for Gaithersburg H.S., the lowest of the highly-ranked schools listed above, the data actually looks pretty good. With 15.4% of their students requiring special education and 12.2% of their students labeled ESOL, they still have an 84% proficiency amongst all students in math, and 82.6% of their students are proficient in reading.
If you would like a qualitative ranking in addition to the U.S. News one, I recommend reading Jay Mathews. Mr. Mathews writes about education for the Washington Post, and sometimes names superior schools. I believe that he may have an annual top-10 list of some sort as well. If you are a concerned parent, it might be worth it to you to peruse the Post archive online. For articles older than 90 days, you'll have to pay a nominal fee.
I don't have children, nor have I worked in education for long, but I did intern at a MoCo public school this summer. From what I saw over a relatively short period of time, I was impressed. The county uses a standardized curriculum across all of its schools. Not only are the subjects and concepts to be covered prescribed, but teachers are provided with lesson plans that meet the curricular objectives. Teachers can then choose to go by the lesson scripts or adapt the content for their classes. The curriculum is very current with the best academic research on effective teaching. The best administrators, however, allow their teachers to adapt it to the needs of the different learners in their classes.
Another thing that bodes well for Montgomery County is its focus on teacher quality, which research shows is the single best determinant of student outcomes. In MoCo, it's not just the politicians, but the teacher union that has made a big issue over improving teacher quality. In fact, they've partnered with Johns Hopkins to work on professional development.
Even with the relatively large number of private schools in the metro area, most schools have an enrollment well under 1000, many under 500 (depending on the grades included at the school), so the vast majority of families are sending their children to public schools. As well, tuition at non-parochial independent schools in the metro DC area is now about $25-$30k/yr. As many affluent folks as we have, very few families can afford such costs.
A number of MoCo public high schools ranked in U.S News and World Report's list of 1500 top schools in the country. Several of them are in the 270 corridor where you're looking. The following are the listed schools with their national rankings in parentheses: Richard Montgomery in Rockville (39), Bethesda-Chevy Chase (56), Wooton in Rockville (59), Winston Churchill in Potomac (95), Walt Whitman in Bethesda (106), Walter Johnson in Bethesda (112), Rockville (212), Quince Orchard in Gaitherburg (302), Poolesville (313), Watkins Mill in Gaithersburg (401), Magruder in Rockville (490), Northwest in Germantown (513), Seneca Valley in Germantown (696), Gaithersburg (875). For more, go to the U.S. News website at America's Top Public High Schools | Newsweek Best High Schools | Newsweek.com.
In terms of test scores, they never tell the entire story. That said, in a casual glance through the fact sheets for the MoCo high schools, I couldn't find one that hadn't met its testing objectives as required by NCLB. Remember also that standardized tests do not look at higher order thinking skills -- the type of analysis required to write compelling reports, perform well in college, and function on the job. As well, many reading comprehension questions are actually written in a way that concrete thinkers rather than analytical thinkers are likely to perform better on the tests. If you look at the test scores for Gaithersburg H.S., the lowest of the highly-ranked schools listed above, the data actually looks pretty good. With 15.4% of their students requiring special education and 12.2% of their students labeled ESOL, they still have an 84% proficiency amongst all students in math, and 82.6% of their students are proficient in reading.
If you would like a qualitative ranking in addition to the U.S. News one, I recommend reading Jay Mathews. Mr. Mathews writes about education for the Washington Post, and sometimes names superior schools. I believe that he may have an annual top-10 list of some sort as well. If you are a concerned parent, it might be worth it to you to peruse the Post archive online. For articles older than 90 days, you'll have to pay a nominal fee.
I don't have children, nor have I worked in education for long, but I did intern at a MoCo public school this summer. From what I saw over a relatively short period of time, I was impressed. The county uses a standardized curriculum across all of its schools. Not only are the subjects and concepts to be covered prescribed, but teachers are provided with lesson plans that meet the curricular objectives. Teachers can then choose to go by the lesson scripts or adapt the content for their classes. The curriculum is very current with the best academic research on effective teaching. The best administrators, however, allow their teachers to adapt it to the needs of the different learners in their classes.
Another thing that bodes well for Montgomery County is its focus on teacher quality, which research shows is the single best determinant of student outcomes. In MoCo, it's not just the politicians, but the teacher union that has made a big issue over improving teacher quality. In fact, they've partnered with Johns Hopkins to work on professional development.
Even with the relatively large number of private schools in the metro area, most schools have an enrollment well under 1000, many under 500 (depending on the grades included at the school), so the vast majority of families are sending their children to public schools. As well, tuition at non-parochial independent schools in the metro DC area is now about $25-$30k/yr. As many affluent folks as we have, very few families can afford such costs.
What you've cited as the US News rankings are actually the Newsweek rankings, which are based on Jay Matthews' "Challenge Index" methodology. I believe that methodology focuses on the number of students at a school who take year-end AP and IB exams, but does not measure how well the students actually perform on those tests. As a result, many people think that index and the Newsweek rankings are somewhat misleading.
The US News methodology is a bit more nuanced, as it looks at actual student performance and also tries to factor into account how well a school serves its more disadvantaged students. Under that methodology, three Montgomery schools were classified as "Gold Medal" schools - Whitman (#44), Wootten (#54) and Churchill (#57). That is a very good showing - although not as good as the NoVa schools (NoVa had four "Gold Medal" schools, including Thomas Jefferson, the top ranked high school in the country, as well as eight more "Silver Medal" schools). Montgomery County did not have any Silver or Bronze Medal schools under the US News rankings, which unfortunately tends to reinforce the perception that there is a big gap between the top half-dozen or so Montgomery County high schools and the other schools in the county.
In any event, nice to see that you had a good experience as an intern and were impressed with the teachers and curriculum. Teachers don't receive enough recognition for their efforts.
Last edited by JD984; 08-10-2009 at 07:11 PM..
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Montgomery County Has Great Schools
