How is the new principal doing at Murch?

[Anonymous]

"09:34 you seem to have a lot of time on your hands. Why would someone not related to murch be doing on this forum?"

Because my kid will be going to the same junior high as most Murch kids and I'm curious about how Murch is educating them, to start. Why the attitude?

[Anonymous]

my point is just that if it was gossip, it should not have been brought up in this forum in the first place. simply that.

Can you give me your formula for knowing, on DCUM, what is a gossip and what is not? That was a funny statement.
Seriously, no one can verify anything here 100% seeing that everything is anonymous. It's a starting point perhaps. But , if this is the only place you come to get a sense of your school that is not a reliable format for accurate information. I agree with the person before you. Wouldn't you, since you are at the same school, simply talk to that person if it was so important to you? Personally I'd
Leave it alone unless more people leave.

what is so sacred about this forum that makes any topic not a viable place for it to be brought up?

[Anonymous]

People get so freaked out by empty comments. One person's truth is another person's lie - who cares that the poster said the school was chaotic? Maybe she thought so and you don't. As a Murch parent, I have a lot of concerns about the school, and see the chaos in the hallways, on the playground, and in the classrooms. But more importantly, I see serious problems in the curriculum, which is weak, and in the testing mentality (which weakens the curriculum). If you want more specifics, do some research. We are giving it one more year and hope that things turn around at DCPS.

[Anonymous]

To respond to the original intent of the post, I think the principal has done an incredible job with what he faced as the turbulent history of administrators at Murch. I have been in meetings with him, spoken to him on the playground, have come to him with concerns, (all addressed) and spoken to a good number of teachers. They think that because of his hiring, they had a fantastic year. Based on 19:15'S POST, my great experience may be someone else's not so great experience. Based on having been a Murch parent for 8 years, and having been through 4 other principals, I am excited about next year and the promise it holds for my children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To respond to the original intent of the post, I think the principal has done an incredible job with what he faced as the turbulent history of administrators at Murch. I have been in meetings with him, spoken to him on the playground, have come to him with concerns, (all addressed) and spoken to a good number of teachers. They think that because of his hiring, they had a fantastic year. Based on 19:15'S POST, my great experience may be someone else's not so great experience. Based on having been a Murch parent for 8 years, and having been through 4 other principals, I am excited about next year and the promise it holds for my children.

This. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To respond to the original intent of the post, I think the principal has done an incredible job with what he faced as the turbulent history of administrators at Murch. I have been in meetings with him, spoken to him on the playground, have come to him with concerns, (all addressed) and spoken to a good number of teachers. They think that because of his hiring, they had a fantastic year. Based on 19:15'S POST, my great experience may be someone else's not so great experience. Based on having been a Murch parent for 8 years, and having been through 4 other principals, I am excited about next year and the promise it holds for my children.

This. Thank you.

Same here. I will also add that I haven't seen any of the hallway chaos or teacher frustration mentioned by an earlier poster. Truly, the environment he/she describes is nothing like what I've seen in my time in the school or in my interactions with teachers.

[Anonymous]

19:15-- what do you see with the testing? I have been discouraged by the PACE tests but that is DCPS mandate not Murch. I have a child with an IEP and happened to see one of his PACE results at an IEP review. I was completely discouraged and freaked out that no one had ever told me how poorly DC was doing in them. The teacher's calmed me down. They don't teach to the test nor put much weight in the scores. They reassures me they see DC everyday and have a much better idea on how DC is doing rather than one test mandated by downtown.

I too haven't seen the chaos. We have been in 5 different schools (don't ask, multiple children and tend to move) and have to say that Murch is run the same if not better than the other schools, including other DCPS schools we have been in. I do think they could streamline their notes home (get away from paper and/or send home with only youngest child!).

I have to say that that when I heard the new principal was a male I was very concerned. We have been at two school with male principals (neither DCPS) and majority female teachers. Both were very weak and unable to control the clique teachers. I don't see that at Murch at all. He seems to have won most of them over. If you want to get a good sense of how he is doing talk to any of the 5th grade teachers. All of them have been at Murch since the 1980s. They have seen it all. Besides being amazing at what they do they their insight into Murch and DCPS are priceless. None of them are leaving- nor have I heard of any teacher besides the art teacher leaving. The entire staff deals with a lot between the facilities, downtown (don't even get me started on that place), overcrowding and children with a wide range of abilities. They make it work. Of course it isn't perfect. But when we have had a problem I have found the Principal and staff very open to discussing what problems there may be. We feel very fortunate to have Murch, warts and all, as our IB school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I see serious problems in the testing mentality (which weakens the curriculum). If you want more specifics, do some research. We are giving it one more year and hope that things turn around at DCPS.

We too are giving dcps one more year and then leaving public altogether. Mostly, my wife and I fear the damage all this testing is doing to learning. Also, seems like too much going on this year. But that could just be because I am on the outside looking in. I was able to sit in at a few lsat and hsa meetings this year and I kept getting confused over all the goals and initiatives coming down the pipe, both from the district and inside the school. Would love to hear from some of our teachers about how they feel about all these new changes. Are they feeling overwhelmed at all? Do they need our support? I am curious what the person a few posts ago meant about chaos in the halls? The only thing I noticed in the halls was while picking up my DD for an doc appt. I noticed a teacher individually working with one chid in the hallway. She must have been gathering some kind of reading info, I suppose. But when I dropped my DD back off from the appt, (2 hours laster) the teacher was still outside, this time with some other child. Does this happen often? I know it's important I guess to know where your students fall in say reading and math, but I am concerned with how much time my DD is spending with lesser-trained or non-trained teachers while the main teachers do this individual hallway work. How often do they do this? Does anyone know? Over time, even if it's done twice a year, that's a whole lot of time with a substitute. We keep getting these vague reassurances from administration about not teaching to the test. My personal feeling is that teachers cannot help but to teach to the test, their jobs depend on it from what I've read. just google 'impact' and dcps and you'll see that a huge percent (more than 40 think) of their evaluation depends on these tests. Of course none of this is of any fault of the principal, it's a downtown thing. But hearing him at the 4th grade parent meeting a few nights ago made me feel he too was somewhat supportive of these tests. Can we parents do something about all this testing? I would really like to see more overall focus on increasing face to face time with our excellent qualified teachers.

[Anonymous]

Chaos poster here...did not realize this would be such an inflammatory word. My experience of chaos is when I am coming into the school and the lunch guy is shoving a child out the door, or children are being screamed at by teachers in the hallways, or I am told that there is a culture of stress in my child's classroom over learning, or I am being told by my child that the teacher screams all the time because there are poorly behaving children. Chaos for me is being on the playground in the morning and watching children on the playground who have no adult supervision, or where the ratio of students to caregivers seems like 1/50. I have heard from other parents about their experiences of similar and worse conditions, but I don't feel like it is right to share specifics. Perhaps the word I chose over-states my experience, although I have left my child at the school many times feeling uneasy.

I am discouraged that there has been so little protest over the amount of testing, particularly the addition of the PACE tests this year. In some grades the students are being given the PACE tests 5 times a year, the DC CAS or BAS three times a year (or is it 2?) and in the younger grades, they are also getting the Dibbels, which is a reading test, 3 times a year. The teachers I have spoken to about the testing have been extremely vocal about their dismay about the testing. They feel like they are being required to teach to the test, that their instruction time is being impeded by having to prepare the students for the test, and that they are being held accountable for the student's performance on all of these tests. Add to this the Impact process and you have stressed out teachers.


Ultimately, this discussion started out as an opinion generator, and that is all it is. My opinion of Murch is not a good one, and although we have given it many years, my opinion has not improved over time. I am glad that there are so many parents whose children are having a good experience, and that their opinion of the school is a good one. My opinion should not make you nervous or start off an attack if you are secure in your own experience. But it is noteworthy that the reaction people have to posters (or teachers) who are unhappy at Murch has been to go after them with blaming or dismissive statements.

[Anonymous]

I don't think anyone went after you, blaming you or was dismissive. I wondered about the testing and what you saw. PACE is new this year and I too have concerns over how much time is spent testing. I don't mind the DC-CAS (which is given once a year) but do feel that the PACE is ridiculous. That again is a downtown mandate, not a Murch mandate. Yes, teachers are definitely not happy about it but it is out of their control. I will tell you that they don't put much weight into the scores. My children don't seemed stressed by it. We are definitely not the family who stresses about scores/report cards/grades though. I think if you lead the charge against the PACE testing there would be a flock of parents supporting you.

Without blowing my cover completely my child eats breakfast most mornings. I haven't noticed the lunch guy (who is very nice -- have you ever talked to him?) shoving children. Yes, the start and end of school is completely chaotic. Though I think that is pretty standard for schools. My kids like to go early because they do get to play and run around like mad before school How old is your child? Perhaps getting there on the later side may be better for your child.

Have you ever been in a school with a lunch room? OMG. How do children ever survive that? We were very pleased that Murch doesn't have a lunch room because that was a huge stress for my children in their old school. I guess you sort of have to figure out what works for you. If Murch isn't for your child then you need to do what is right.

If your child's classroom was stressful (we have never had a classroom like that in any school we have been in) did you talk to teacher or the Principal? Not all children are the same. I would never put up with screaming by the teacher (that is for me to do to my children, not a teacher). But unless you speak up the Principal may not even know that it is going on. I wish you would say what grade you are talking about without specifics. I have more kids coming through Murch so I would like to avoid any screaming teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only thing I noticed in the halls was while picking up my DD for an doc appt. I noticed a teacher individually working with one chid in the hallway. She must have been gathering some kind of reading info, I suppose. But when I dropped my DD back off from the appt, (2 hours laster) the teacher was still outside, this time with some other child. Does this happen often? I know it's important I guess to know where your students fall in say reading and math, but I am concerned with how much time my DD is spending with lesser-trained or non-trained teachers while the main teachers do this individual hallway work. How often do they do this? Does anyone know? Over time, even if it's done twice a year, that's a whole lot of time with a substitute.

Most likely you saw the teacher on an assessment day. In the younger grades, at least, 3-4 times a year the teachers spend a day evaluating their kids one-on-one in reading and/or math. They tend to do this in the hallway or some other space away from the rest of the class.

[Anonymous]

I am too very surprised at murch parents, who are usually very vocal about things, but in this case we seem to just follow along with these tests and not protest more. Perhaps a lot of them hang on the 'scores' as if they actually mattered. But I personally feel they don't tell you much about future success in the real world. Do some research on value-added measures in connections with high stakes tests and you'd be surprised at what you find. Tests connected to high stakes are highly unreliable because they are just that, high stakes. For the person who did not have issues with the cas. The DC CAS is 2 weeks long. Parents, let me repeat, two weeks long. Most specifically, it's about 6 days of 1.5 to 2 hours long each day for 2 weeks. Not only that but my kindergartener told me that she did not get to go out most of those days, so it obviously affects everyone whether they are in tests or not. That is way too long for young children. Whether or not the kids get stressed about it, it's a total waste of valuable time and school money. And for the person who said that the interim assessments don't count?, then why even do them then? whether it stresses our kids out or not should not be the barometer that justifies a test. It all ultimately takes valuable time away from real learning they could be doing. We already have about 14 four day weeks our of 30 something. The school system is paid for by us, taxpayers. We should be able to put a stop to this growing madness if we put our voices together. A parent reminded me the other day that we are an autonomous school. What do we know about this special school status? Could we use our autonomous status to choose to have our children assessed in alternate ways that do not require our kids to sit filling in bubbles for 2 weeks every year? I am interested in my daughter's lessons being engaging and meaningful, not being solely directed by what will be tested on some circle the answer test.

[Anonymous]

I will follow anyone who 'leads the charge' against over-testing. My DD is in 2nd grade next year and I would love for this not to be a part of her year. Thanks for reminding us that the schools belong to us, not downtown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: 3-4 times a year the teachers spend a day evaluating their kids one-on-one in reading and/or math. They tend to do this in the hallway or some other space away from the rest of the class.

a day? the whole day four times a year.

[Anonymous]

Testing is an issue that is out of the school's control. If you have a problem with it, you need to become informed on education research and get involved on a macro-policy level with DCPS and national education groups because that is where the testing policies are being developed. Attacking an individual school is not going to change anything.