NPS

[Anonymous]

If you have an annual NPS pass, all national parks are free.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid had an assessment for K and it was weird. They claim the assessment was going to be with humility, blah blah and the teacher my son had was horrible. She breezed through the questions in like 10 minutes. The admissions director seemed cold during the zoom. Just has me rethinking the school all together. The teacher had my son like a robot: Your name, last name, how old are you, birthday, etc. no easing into as you should do with your kids as they claim to be early childhood oriented. Sorry for the rant!

Trust your maternal instinct !

I can’t tell you how much school Admin wish covid hadn’t exposed how weak their classroom teacher class management style really is

They all wish they could go back to the days where you - the 40k a year paying parents - left after AM drop off and were blissfully unaware

or how often your kid has a Sub who is unlicensed and basically a warm body

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid had an assessment for K and it was weird. They claim the assessment was going to be with humility, blah blah and the teacher my son had was horrible. She breezed through the questions in like 10 minutes. The admissions director seemed cold during the zoom. Just has me rethinking the school all together. The teacher had my son like a robot: Your name, last name, how old are you, birthday, etc. no easing into as you should do with your kids as they claim to be early childhood oriented. Sorry for the rant!

Trust your maternal instinct !

I can’t tell you how much school Admin wish covid hadn’t exposed how weak their classroom teacher class management style really is

They all wish they could go back to the days where you - the 40k a year paying parents - left after AM drop off and were blissfully unaware

or how often your kid has a Sub who is unlicensed and basically a warm body

Ouch! Have you passed this feedback on to the school? The admin of any school last year was no doubt consumed by keeping the trains running on time, but curriculum and instruction are what make a school. Please let them know so that they can keep a firm hand on that wheel. They may be blissfully unaware (which I'm not excusing).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid had an assessment for K and it was weird. They claim the assessment was going to be with humility, blah blah and the teacher my son had was horrible. She breezed through the questions in like 10 minutes. The admissions director seemed cold during the zoom. Just has me rethinking the school all together. The teacher had my son like a robot: Your name, last name, how old are you, birthday, etc. no easing into as you should do with your kids as they claim to be early childhood oriented. Sorry for the rant!

Trust your maternal instinct !

I can’t tell you how much school Admin wish covid hadn’t exposed how weak their classroom teacher class management style really is

They all wish they could go back to the days where you - the 40k a year paying parents - left after AM drop off and were blissfully unaware

or how often your kid has a Sub who is unlicensed and basically a warm body

Ouch! Have you passed this feedback on to the school? The admin of any school last year was no doubt consumed by keeping the trains running on time, but curriculum and instruction are what make a school. Please let them know so that they can keep a firm hand on that wheel. They may be blissfully unaware (which I'm not excusing).

I have to strongly disagree but to each is own. Their teachers and curriculum are what make NPS special. No school is perfect. I’m sure zoom assessments weren’t ideal but as far as early childhood education, NPS has it figure it out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid had an assessment for K and it was weird. They claim the assessment was going to be with humility, blah blah and the teacher my son had was horrible. She breezed through the questions in like 10 minutes. The admissions director seemed cold during the zoom. Just has me rethinking the school all together. The teacher had my son like a robot: Your name, last name, how old are you, birthday, etc. no easing into as you should do with your kids as they claim to be early childhood oriented. Sorry for the rant!

Trust your maternal instinct !

I can’t tell you how much school Admin wish covid hadn’t exposed how weak their classroom teacher class management style really is

They all wish they could go back to the days where you - the 40k a year paying parents - left after AM drop off and were blissfully unaware

or how often your kid has a Sub who is unlicensed and basically a warm body

Ouch! Have you passed this feedback on to the school? The admin of any school last year was no doubt consumed by keeping the trains running on time, but curriculum and instruction are what make a school. Please let them know so that they can keep a firm hand on that wheel. They may be blissfully unaware (which I'm not excusing).

I have to strongly disagree but to each is own. Their teachers and curriculum are what make NPS special. No school is perfect. I’m sure zoom assessments weren’t ideal but as far as early childhood education, NPS has it figure it out.

They lost nearly 1/3 of their teachers this year. How is that having it figured out!

[Anonymous]

I am not sure that is an accurate figure.

But also know the model is to hire young aides in each grade (to assist head teachers) and those folks do tend to leave after a couple years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid had an assessment for K and it was weird. They claim the assessment was going to be with humility, blah blah and the teacher my son had was horrible. She breezed through the questions in like 10 minutes. The admissions director seemed cold during the zoom. Just has me rethinking the school all together. The teacher had my son like a robot: Your name, last name, how old are you, birthday, etc. no easing into as you should do with your kids as they claim to be early childhood oriented. Sorry for the rant!

Trust your maternal instinct !

I can’t tell you how much school Admin wish covid hadn’t exposed how weak their classroom teacher class management style really is

They all wish they could go back to the days where you - the 40k a year paying parents - left after AM drop off and were blissfully unaware

or how often your kid has a Sub who is unlicensed and basically a warm body

Ouch! Have you passed this feedback on to the school? The admin of any school last year was no doubt consumed by keeping the trains running on time, but curriculum and instruction are what make a school. Please let them know so that they can keep a firm hand on that wheel. They may be blissfully unaware (which I'm not excusing).

Not at all unusual in privates.

I have to strongly disagree but to each is own. Their teachers and curriculum are what make NPS special. No school is perfect. I’m sure zoom assessments weren’t ideal but as far as early childhood education, NPS has it figure it out.

They lost nearly 1/3 of their teachers this year. How is that having it figured out!

[Anonymous]

A lot of places lost teachers; Please!🙄

[Anonymous]

We were accepted at NPS and are on the fence mainly because of how awful the playdate assessment was compared to the other schools. It had nothing to do with zoom as the other ones were on zoom. I was all in om NPS until we had the playdate. I was shocked. St. Patrick's was incredibly well done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were accepted at NPS and are on the fence mainly because of how awful the playdate assessment was compared to the other schools. It had nothing to do with zoom as the other ones were on zoom. I was all in om NPS until we had the playdate. I was shocked. St. Patrick's was incredibly well done.

Was it the structure or something else?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were accepted at NPS and are on the fence mainly because of how awful the playdate assessment was compared to the other schools. It had nothing to do with zoom as the other ones were on zoom. I was all in om NPS until we had the playdate. I was shocked. St. Patrick's was incredibly well done.

I felt the opposite last year. NPS did individual assessments with the kids. Very personal and allowed my shy kid, to only interact with the teachers her. St Patrick’s had 15 rising kindergarteners on zoom, read a book and started asking questions. Sent a box home with a jar and glitter to see who could correctly pour water and close the jar. Ridiculous!

Very cold interaction. Accepted but declined for NPS.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:NPS is constantly telling people "it is come as you are" "we are such a warm nurturing environment" "we have no bullies. we have core values". I feel like if all of this were true you wouldn't need to constantly say it. We would all just see it.

You do see it as a parent there. Core values are discussed regularly so young children internalize them. Not all things are for parents.

I didn’t see it as a parent there but that’s why we didn’t stay long. We’re also a family of color. I could see this as being a wonderful place for white children.

PP, what led you to leave the school? Did you find it unwelcoming? If you did, was it the students, the teachers, or the parents? What could the school have done better? Was attending a tough commute?

What did you do next? Was trying out a private, majority white school in ward 3 a mistake, or a useful experience?

We have young children at NPS. If they notice the race of their classmates, they have never mentioned it.

I’m curious too. I’m willing to commute for what best for my kid but I don’t want him in an uncomfortable situation as an AA kid. My friends whose daughter is AA and now attends Holton swears by NPS

We are another family of color who didn't stay long. Felt the school had a long way to go, but seems they've made some ground since.

What drove you away? The kids? Parents? Teachers? Too few AA families? Location? Unwelcoming vibe for you? For your child?

I will say this -- I have never spoken ill of the school or even posted about it until now. I'm not writing to complain, but to offer a perspective that might be helpful and that's because your question. It's not my intent to criticize the school because we did thing it was a nice place with a lot of nice families and kids. At the time we were there, I would call it well meaning. The main challenge is that it's just too darn white and that creates a lot of blind spots for the school. It's a nice community overall. We were an affluent family of color. To be honest, I got the sense that many in the community assumed most of the families of color were on aid. I saw a lot of the problems stemming from lack of diversity overall and with implicit bias. For example, if there were three black kids in a grade, it seemed that the school would put one per class. That's diversity to benefit white kids, but for black kids, that makes them the "only" in their class. Does that make sense? I remember an incident in a younger grade where someone egged my child to do something, and only my child was reprimanded. Maybe bias, maybe not -- but I didn't like being in a place where I had to keep questioning it. My husband would stand in line at the pancake events and felt like people he had met on numerous occasions would look "through" him as though they didn't see him. He was the one who had to make the effort to remind. We moved to a different school and felt an immediate relief and a sense of belonging that we didn't experience at NPS. Again, it's not to criticize NPS. It was just that we didn't feel a sense of belonging and I was worried that my kid was going to be subject to implicit bias and that it would mess with self esteem. My biggest recommendations would to hire more diverse teachers and to really have the whole parent body (not just the diversity crowd) attend workshops on implicit bias/or equity and inclusion.

This is interesting. I think NPS has actually been putting many of the AA students together in one class, meaning that there is one section per grade that is particularly diverse. I am a current parent and a parent friend with a URM child was very upset by this and angrily contacted the school insisting that her kid not be put in that section on purpose. I appreciate that you see the separation of the AA kids as diversity to benefit white people and she instead was angered by the opposite. I do think NPS struggles with diversity and they are actively trying to work on that by hiring more minorities and really trying to attract more URM families. That said, it is such a white place, and it is a difficult hole to dig out of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NPS is constantly telling people "it is come as you are" "we are such a warm nurturing environment" "we have no bullies. we have core values". I feel like if all of this were true you wouldn't need to constantly say it. We would all just see it.

You do see it as a parent there. Core values are discussed regularly so young children internalize them. Not all things are for parents.

I didn’t see it as a parent there but that’s why we didn’t stay long. We’re also a family of color. I could see this as being a wonderful place for white children.

PP, what led you to leave the school? Did you find it unwelcoming? If you did, was it the students, the teachers, or the parents? What could the school have done better? Was attending a tough commute?

What did you do next? Was trying out a private, majority white school in ward 3 a mistake, or a useful experience?

We have young children at NPS. If they notice the race of their classmates, they have never mentioned it.

I’m curious too. I’m willing to commute for what best for my kid but I don’t want him in an uncomfortable situation as an AA kid. My friends whose daughter is AA and now attends Holton swears by NPS

We are another family of color who didn't stay long. Felt the school had a long way to go, but seems they've made some ground since.

What drove you away? The kids? Parents? Teachers? Too few AA families? Location? Unwelcoming vibe for you? For your child?

I will say this -- I have never spoken ill of the school or even posted about it until now. I'm not writing to complain, but to offer a perspective that might be helpful and that's because your question. It's not my intent to criticize the school because we did thing it was a nice place with a lot of nice families and kids. At the time we were there, I would call it well meaning. The main challenge is that it's just too darn white and that creates a lot of blind spots for the school. It's a nice community overall. We were an affluent family of color. To be honest, I got the sense that many in the community assumed most of the families of color were on aid. I saw a lot of the problems stemming from lack of diversity overall and with implicit bias. For example, if there were three black kids in a grade, it seemed that the school would put one per class. That's diversity to benefit white kids, but for black kids, that makes them the "only" in their class. Does that make sense? I remember an incident in a younger grade where someone egged my child to do something, and only my child was reprimanded. Maybe bias, maybe not -- but I didn't like being in a place where I had to keep questioning it. My husband would stand in line at the pancake events and felt like people he had met on numerous occasions would look "through" him as though they didn't see him. He was the one who had to make the effort to remind. We moved to a different school and felt an immediate relief and a sense of belonging that we didn't experience at NPS. Again, it's not to criticize NPS. It was just that we didn't feel a sense of belonging and I was worried that my kid was going to be subject to implicit bias and that it would mess with self esteem. My biggest recommendations would to hire more diverse teachers and to really have the whole parent body (not just the diversity crowd) attend workshops on implicit bias/or equity and inclusion.

This is interesting. I think NPS has actually been putting many of the AA students together in one class, meaning that there is one section per grade that is particularly diverse. I am a current parent and a parent friend with a URM child was very upset by this and angrily contacted the school insisting that her kid not be put in that section on purpose. I appreciate that you see the separation of the AA kids as diversity to benefit white people and she instead was angered by the opposite. I do think NPS struggles with diversity and they are actively trying to work on that by hiring more minorities and really trying to attract more URM families. That said, it is such a white place, and it is a difficult hole to dig out of.

You are clearly not an NPS parent. I am a AA parent and this is totally false. They do not put all the AA kids in one class. They are a work in progress in diversity but going in the right direction. I will say I have received nothing but a warm welcome from the community. To be honest, it’s mostly the white parents. I have two kids at the school and there are 5 AA kids in my child’s K class and there are 2 other K classes with multiple AA children. Same with my child’s upper grade class.

I get so sick of people saying they don’t feel welcome blah blah. I have been around my own kind, AAs and felt like I didn’t belong. I say your the school and talk to current parents. NPS may not be a good fit for some, but it’s been great for us.

[Anonymous]

*tour*not your

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NPS is constantly telling people "it is come as you are" "we are such a warm nurturing environment" "we have no bullies. we have core values". I feel like if all of this were true you wouldn't need to constantly say it. We would all just see it.

You do see it as a parent there. Core values are discussed regularly so young children internalize them. Not all things are for parents.

I didn’t see it as a parent there but that’s why we didn’t stay long. We’re also a family of color. I could see this as being a wonderful place for white children.

PP, what led you to leave the school? Did you find it unwelcoming? If you did, was it the students, the teachers, or the parents? What could the school have done better? Was attending a tough commute?

What did you do next? Was trying out a private, majority white school in ward 3 a mistake, or a useful experience?

We have young children at NPS. If they notice the race of their classmates, they have never mentioned it.

I’m curious too. I’m willing to commute for what best for my kid but I don’t want him in an uncomfortable situation as an AA kid. My friends whose daughter is AA and now attends Holton swears by NPS

We are another family of color who didn't stay long. Felt the school had a long way to go, but seems they've made some ground since.

What drove you away? The kids? Parents? Teachers? Too few AA families? Location? Unwelcoming vibe for you? For your child?

I will say this -- I have never spoken ill of the school or even posted about it until now. I'm not writing to complain, but to offer a perspective that might be helpful and that's because your question. It's not my intent to criticize the school because we did thing it was a nice place with a lot of nice families and kids. At the time we were there, I would call it well meaning. The main challenge is that it's just too darn white and that creates a lot of blind spots for the school. It's a nice community overall. We were an affluent family of color. To be honest, I got the sense that many in the community assumed most of the families of color were on aid. I saw a lot of the problems stemming from lack of diversity overall and with implicit bias. For example, if there were three black kids in a grade, it seemed that the school would put one per class. That's diversity to benefit white kids, but for black kids, that makes them the "only" in their class. Does that make sense? I remember an incident in a younger grade where someone egged my child to do something, and only my child was reprimanded. Maybe bias, maybe not -- but I didn't like being in a place where I had to keep questioning it. My husband would stand in line at the pancake events and felt like people he had met on numerous occasions would look "through" him as though they didn't see him. He was the one who had to make the effort to remind. We moved to a different school and felt an immediate relief and a sense of belonging that we didn't experience at NPS. Again, it's not to criticize NPS. It was just that we didn't feel a sense of belonging and I was worried that my kid was going to be subject to implicit bias and that it would mess with self esteem. My biggest recommendations would to hire more diverse teachers and to really have the whole parent body (not just the diversity crowd) attend workshops on implicit bias/or equity and inclusion.

This is interesting. I think NPS has actually been putting many of the AA students together in one class, meaning that there is one section per grade that is particularly diverse. I am a current parent and a parent friend with a URM child was very upset by this and angrily contacted the school insisting that her kid not be put in that section on purpose. I appreciate that you see the separation of the AA kids as diversity to benefit white people and she instead was angered by the opposite. I do think NPS struggles with diversity and they are actively trying to work on that by hiring more minorities and really trying to attract more URM families. That said, it is such a white place, and it is a difficult hole to dig out of.

I don't know the exact figures, but it appears way more diverse than ever. Grouping kids together seems to have a lot of pro arguments in the DEI community. NPS does have mechanism for parents to share their preferences on class placement if they have a strong insight about their childs needs. I've used it and they were responsive. Why not use it if you want your kid not grouped with that factor in mind?