How bad is Miner Elementary?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The yelling from staff that goes on during recess is troublesome. It sounds more like boot-camp than elementary school.

This thread is starting to sound harsher than a Ludlow-Taylor one. PP, the drill sergeant tactics are better than a lax attitude; with the former your kid will probably be safe, and with the latter there'll be chaos and your kid might get beat on - I'd take the drill sergeant atmosphere myself. There're usually very good reasons why teachers have developed certain practices.

There is a huge difference between drill sergeant tactics and a firm, but ultimately kind and respectful approach with high expectations for student behavior.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know anything about Miner's after-care? How does a prospective parent evaluate any after-care program for that matter?

[Anonymous]

"How bad is..." Is a terrible way to ask about a school.

[Anonymous]

Something on news just now about one of the teachers being arrested for sex abuse. Anyone have more info? ,
Any parents know the details?

[Anonymous]

Aftercare, seems to be getting better. A few of the staff come from Maury ES (which is a good school) right up the street from Miner. Call the school and ask for a tour of the program.

[Anonymous]

Is this the school you're talking about?

February 5, 2015



Minor Elementary School Teacher Arrested

600 Block of 15th Street, Northeast



(Washington, DC) – Detectives from the Metropolitan Police Department’s Youth Investigations Division announced that on Thursday, February 5, 2015, 33-year-old Leroy Damein Ware of Northeast, DC, a Minor Elementary School teacher, was arrested pursuant to a DC Superior Court arrest warrant and charged with Misdemeanor Sex Abuse of a Child.

[Anonymous]

Well, are you disturbed by alleged pedophiles?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Diversity is key...if there's no white kids in the school then it is doomed. How come DCPS headquarters hasn't figured that out yet? We need an all out blitz to recruit white kids to DCPS....I am open up for ideas

Are you serious? PLEASE go away.

I wish there were way to discuss the Hill schools without these kinds of racially clueless/hostile comments.

I live on the Hill and would totally consider Miner, Tyler, or Payne for Pre-K 3 or 4 if they were convenient and I was confident in the aftercare. (For me, aftercare is actually the sticking point with these schools.) With small classes and high ratios, the fact is that most pre-K classes are going to be good places as long as they have good teachers. There just isn't a need for "differentiation" for THREE YEAR OLDS - three year olds all pretty much have the same needs. If anything, the less advantaged 3 year olds might benefit from more exposure to books & pre-literacy activities, which would benefit all the kids.

I'll bite - this is true, about 3 year olds, but I'm not sure you should justify your "free daycare" if you wouldn't deign to attend the school after PK. So while you're parting yourself on the back for being racially sensitive, what you're really doing is advocating a scene that will pop up all over the city soon - a repeat of Ludlow-Taylor the last 5 years, where all the little kids are white and the rest of the school is black. How does this help - since you're so clued-in?

If Miner's upper-grades black kids started outperforming all those IB white kids at Brent and Maury on tests, as they did last year at Ludlow-Taylor, I'd be OK with that.

[Anonymous]

You might want to actually take a look at testing grade demographics at the respective schools before attempting to draw conclusions about race or anything else for that matter. Let's wait and see what happens this year and next under the higly-flawed PARCC.

[Anonymous]

I attended the open house today and was quite pleasantly surprised. Not IB, no connection to the school, but after today's visit I am definitely rooting for them to succeed. The facilities are big and new including a nice library and gym, the teachers and staff we met seemed very dedicated.

[Anonymous]

I have high SES African American friends whose daughter is in preschool. They are happy, but not planning on staying. They did say that their child is not being challenged academically, but is happy and feels sad. I will ask them about aftercare and report back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Diversity is key...if there's no white kids in the school then it is doomed. How come DCPS headquarters hasn't figured that out yet? We need an all out blitz to recruit white kids to DCPS....I am open up for ideas

This is technically true- but only because White kids tend to come from higher SES homes and be well "better" kids, since they tend to have received better parenting and live in more nourishing surroundings.

I find it incredible that DC has schools that almost 100% African American- what does that say to this community. We all know this is because the white/ hispanic parents will find another school if they possibly can. If we want to create a better city schools system we need to ensure no school is left behind, and that every group would consider each school. If a school is 100% African American, we need to change that STAT. Any ideas?

[Anonymous]

IIRC, DCPS didn't identify it as one of the 21 worst performing elementrary schools last year. That honor went to two other Ward 6 schools, namely, Amidon-Bowen and Tyler, both of which now feed to Jefferson, together with Brent and (eventually) Van Ness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, are you disturbed by alleged pedophiles?

Not if they are diverse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I attended the open house today and was quite pleasantly surprised. Not IB, no connection to the school, but after today's visit I am definitely rooting for them to succeed. The facilities are big and new including a nice library and gym, the teachers and staff we met seemed very dedicated.

I was unaware there was an open house today. How did you find out about it? Can you please share your other thoughts about the school. I work in the are and was considering that school for my prek3 and 1st grader.