Hillcrest Elementary School

My daughter is finishing fifth grade at Hillcrest and we are ready to say goodbye. There were a handful of awesome teachers but many were sub-par. The 3rd grade team needs a total overhaul. Too much focus on MSA. It would be nice of the principal would visit the classrooms.
--Submitted by a parent

The school has great MSA scores, but a lousy environment and too much focus on the MSAs rather than an education. The MSA focus is bordering on obsession. We have been at this school for several years now. We are utterly frustrated by the out of touch administration that views the parents hostilely, the horrible overcrowding, the over-emphasis on the MSAs and uneven teaching. The overcrowding has become a big issue even with a new addition to the school. With over 700 kids-which is more than the middle school has--it became clear to us at conferences that our child's teacher has absolutely no idea what the child is like beyond a set of scores in the gradebook because of the class size. There are around 34 kids in our childs reading class. The language arts homework for 3 years has had NO connection or relevance to what is being done in class. My child has in fact had the exact same homework in language arts every day for the entire year. So it's pretty tough to help them if they are stuck on something learned in class. If you want good MSA scores it's great, but not if you want broader skills and learning"
--Submitted by a parent

Unfortunately, leadership is lacking at this school and the teaching my child received was very uneven. Personal experience with some teaching staff was extremely unprofessional. This school's rigid policies don't allow any choice or options when teachers aren't meeting your child's need. The principal is doing very little to recruit the best new teachers.
--Submitted by a parent

Great School! We have 2 children at Hillcrest. They both attend GT classes. They love to read and love to go to school. The teachers are wonderful. Ms McVey, the principal, does a great job. The parents are very involved and have created an after school program teaching French, Spanish, Art, Drama, Chess and Song writing.
--Submitted by a parent

Our child attends third grade at Hillcrest Elementary School in Catonsville, MD. We are quite pleased with her progress at this school. The teachers and the Prinicipal ensure good discipline and a healthy study environment in the campus. They seem to take an active interest in her overall performance and provide timely feedback regarding her strengths and weaknesses. The school appears to have a good measure of extra curricular activities besides the regular academic curriculum although I don't how it compares to other schools in this regard. Our daughter is excited to attend school and shows a keen interest in school related activities. On the occassions when we (the parents) felt that she was slacking, we communicated with her classroom teacher(s) and they were prompt in explaining to her her responsibilities and expectations. Overall, we would rate tihs school very highly.
--Submitted by Shailaja Somaraju, a parent