Need advice on schools in Aspen Hill/Wheaton/Layhill area of Silver Spring (Bethesda: how much)

[vjgandhi]

Help! Moving to MD and considering buying a home Aspen Hill/Wheaton/Layhill area of Silver Spring. Don't know Maryland well. Anyone know the elementary schools in this area. Need advice on safety, quality of schools, demographics, gifted programs and good honest feedback. (i.e Glenallen or Stonegate elementary or others). Education is very important to us and this will be a deciding factor on whether to move to this area. Your help is appreciated.

[LynchburgLover]

Have you compared the test scores with other elementaries in Mont. Co?

We lived there briefly (but, admittedly, it was 20 years ago). Ours went to Barnsley for one year; spent the next 11 in private schools. If education is important to you, you may want to look at other parts of the County, ie., further out Georgia Avenue in Olney, west to Bethesda, Darnestown. I realize houses are expensive in certain parts of the County but that's directly corrolated to the schools' test scores.

Montgomery County has some excellent schools but choose districts carefully. Best of luck.

[John Warman]

Originally Posted by vjgandhi

Help! Moving to MD and considering buying a home Aspen Hill/Wheaton/Layhill area of Silver Spring. Don't know Maryland well. Anyone know the elementary schools in this area. Need advice on safety, quality of schools, demographics, gifted programs and good honest feedback. (i.e Glenallen or Stonegate elementary or others). Education is very important to us and this will be a deciding factor on whether to move to this area. Your help is appreciated.

I have lived in Aspen Hill since 1965. My sense of the place is that there are no bad schools at all, and that all are at least very good, although some may have programs you children will want more than others, magnet programs for science and such. The real test of how good an education your children get here will depend upon whom they choose as friends, and how much you encourage and cheer them on at home. Fortunately, we have a fine store of interesting friends for them to choose from. The neighborhood has a rich mix of cultures, because people from all over the world have come here. My children found it enriching. I expect yours will too.

[Fissure226]

There are two High school clusters that serve Aspen Hill. The Rockville High School Cluster and Parkland Middle School/Downcounty Consortium (DCC).

The DCC is 5 high schools, that a rising 9th grader could choose from, each having it's own academic specialties. In Aspen Hill, a child would end up at Parkland Middle School and go from there.

The boundary Squiggles through Aspen Hill. It's kind of complicated if you move to the DCC, but you children will have 5 high schools to choose from....http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/downcounty/

[bhojo]

The schools there are no good, the DCC is not best school cluster, only Blair is quite good and advanced, but almost everyone in the DCC tries to go there.