Norbeck Montessori in Rockville, MD

[Anonymous]

It is interesting how rumors begin. The reason why the school was going to move in the first place was because they lost their 30 year+ lease with the church they rent the property from. The owners were prepared to move, not into "an actual building" as mentioned above, but by bringing the modular classrooms to the new location. When it came down to the wire the church decided to renew their lease for many more years to come so they stayed put. Furthermore, enrollment has been down long befor the new director took over - all private schools have taken a hit since the economy went south - you'd know that if you did your homework. NOrbeck is now full, and has been for a while. Also, why is it always assumed that when someone has something positive to say about a school it has been planted by the staff? The families that attend Norbeck are very happy and the school has seen and made many positive changes.

[Anonymous]

My son went to Norbeck Montessori and it was a good school for pre-school, but I wish I had moved him for kindergarten. Their kindergarten program was not the best and their assessment that my son was ready for first grade was totally off track. His reading skills were not as great as they had told me they were, and that caused problems once he was in second and third grades. No one on the montessori or Catholic school side adequately informed me of the problems of moving from montessori education to traditional Catholic education, so that was a problem too.

BUT the staff there did recognize that the woman I'd hired to pick my son up everyday had some severe issues that she did a good job of hiding when I was around. As it turns out, this nanny was schizophrenic and decidedly dangerous. (I had hired her thru White House Nannies, and thought she'd been properly vetted.) The staff at Norbeck spotted her bizarre behavior and informed me of their concerns and I credit them for preventing a potentially bad situation later on. I'll always be grateful to them for protecting my son.

[Anonymous]

Truth is nobody spends that much time writing kind comments online. However a lot of schools spend a great amount of time trying to create a great image online because they think it will bring in more money. According to much research this school really has not been full except for the over enrollment of two year olds (not potty trained) they allow in hopes of one day being full again especially during the (summer program). The experience I had was that although (some) staff appeared to be competent they had too many extremely young children to attend to which made me question this specific Montessori environment questionable for my child and what I desire my child to achieve during his early educational experience...