Schools in D.C. area

I have heard from several sources that Fairfax gets its reputation at the expense of anybody who doesn’t fit the mold and isn’t going to help boost their reputation. That is to say, a great deal of money and effort goes into the top quartile students. It means more of their students get more awards & scholarships, though you’d think they’d do the math and realize that getting a kid from the 70th to the 80th percentile doesn’t help the average nearly as much as getting a kiddo from the fourth to the fortieth, and they could make that kind of difference.
How bright is your daughter? Montgomery County has a GT/LD program that is great for some kids.
Either place you will have to be assertive, figure out what your kid needs and work to set it up.

If you are looking for private schools that provide assistance with dyslexia you may want to explore the Lab School in Washington, D.C.

Regards,

Fran Lunney
Co-director
Shoshone Summer Camp

(a 6 week program for dyslexic students near Yellowstone Park)

Visit our website www.shoshonesummer.com

For statistics on Montgomery County schools, go to http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/schools.cfm. To research DC area schools, go to the Washington post Web site at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/education/. Be aware that schools with magnet programs will skew school scores upward. Bethesda and Potomac are very expensive place to live and have the best schools. Silver Spring and Wheaton are the cheapest places to live but the schools are problematic, unless of course your children qualify for a magnet program. Usually, only the very highly gifted kids get into these programs.

Montgomery Mary

and avoid Prince George’s schools in general. Although there are some shining lights here and there in any system, PG has problems all over, and the new superintendent feels that she has to give everyone equal opportunity by tearing down the better programs that actually were achieving up to national standard — they were unfair because they offered better facilities, so everyone is going to get equally bad facilities.

I taught developmental (ie remedial) math at Montgomery College, and Montgomery schools are not what they like to make people believe; some programs are good but a lot of kids get lost. You have to be careful about the individual school and individual teacher in any system.

Cindy,

I attended school in Montgomery County, Md. at that time the County had an excellent reputation for good schools.

I did not require special help, but there were plenty of programs available for those who did. My friend who still have kids in MC schools on both LD and Gifted are very happy with the education their kids are getting.

Cindy,

PS Victoria is right. I went to school in Bethesda. Silver Spring may be dependant upon the school.

I would not send my child to a DC school.

I attended Montgomery County Schools from 7th-12th grade, after moving from Arlington County, VA.

I attended school in the Bethesda area. I was diagnosed with a specific learning disability (most probably NLD) and required minimal accomodations (and consult service with a resource teacher). My personal experience in high school was that the resource teacher with whom I was supposed to consult was a) *very* overworked and harried, and b) didn’t see me as needing attention even when my stress levels rose. To her credit, her classroom was packed with students with various problems (most of them ADHD) and it seemed to turn into a glorified study hall. I really don’t know about the other LD placements (there was an extensive system of LD special education classes at my school as well); they may have been better. But my mother has told me that she thought that for somebody like myself, Arlington was much more “on the ball” with documentation, took things more seriously (she felt she had to push to get me any services in Montgomery). That said, I really feel that I got a good education, and can’t speak specifically for anyone who might be “disabled enough” to get noticed by the system.

I presented on fluency and was able to tour the Lab School of Washington in Georgetown. I found it innovative, concerned, and a model for the instruction of LD students from k-12. Ken Campbell, Gainesville, Florida

Ken,

Does this Lab school have a website? I would love to check them out.

JanineKay

A book - now older, but interesting, written by the founder of the Lab School:

The Learning Disabled Child at Home and School