Are there any full day preschools with good teacher: child ratios in Bethesda/Kensington area?

[Anonymous]

I’m new to the Bethesda/Kensington area and discovering that there are many lovely, high quality, play-based half day nursery school programs with small classes and good teacher: child ratios. But I need full time care for next fall for my child who will be 3 then, and I’ve been kind of dismayed by the few centers I have toured so far which are much more like traditional daycares (eg emphasis on work sheets, rote learning) and have really big classes and high student: child ratios. When our oldest was in preschool in DC her 3 year old class had 15 kids and 4 teachers which was such a good set up, most of whom were degreed. But I’m not seeing any programs with anything close that.

Are there any full day, year round programs that are play based and high quality, with low ratios in this area? I am willing to drive to Rockville, Garrett Park, or even could try parts of Chevy Chase.

[Anonymous]

https://www.templeemanuelmd.org/early-childhood-center/apply/

[Anonymous]

Acorn Hill

[Anonymous]

Oneness Family School (Montessori)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m new to the Bethesda/Kensington area and discovering that there are many lovely, high quality, play-based half day nursery school programs with small classes and good teacher: child ratios. But I need full time care for next fall for my child who will be 3 then, and I’ve been kind of dismayed by the few centers I have toured so far which are much more like traditional daycares (eg emphasis on work sheets, rote learning) and have really big classes and high student: child ratios. When our oldest was in preschool in DC her 3 year old class had 15 kids and 4 teachers which was such a good set up, most of whom were degreed. But I’m not seeing any programs with anything close that.

Are there any full day, year round programs that are play based and high quality, with low ratios in this area? I am willing to drive to Rockville, Garrett Park, or even could try parts of Chevy Chase.

4 teachers and 15 kids cannot be true. That ratio is basically 4:1, which is almost infant ratio of 3:1. A preschool could not make any money with four salaries with only 15 kids. That’s ridiculous. Furthermore, the ratio for MoCO for three is 1:10. Or 2:20. It gets children in the mode of being in large classrooms tk get them ready for PreK 1:12 or 2:24 before they go to Kindergarten, where it is 1:27. You are setting your child up for failure in a class of 4:15 at age 3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m new to the Bethesda/Kensington area and discovering that there are many lovely, high quality, play-based half day nursery school programs with small classes and good teacher: child ratios. But I need full time care for next fall for my child who will be 3 then, and I’ve been kind of dismayed by the few centers I have toured so far which are much more like traditional daycares (eg emphasis on work sheets, rote learning) and have really big classes and high student: child ratios. When our oldest was in preschool in DC her 3 year old class had 15 kids and 4 teachers which was such a good set up, most of whom were degreed. But I’m not seeing any programs with anything close that.

Are there any full day, year round programs that are play based and high quality, with low ratios in this area? I am willing to drive to Rockville, Garrett Park, or even could try parts of Chevy Chase.

4 teachers and 15 kids cannot be true. That ratio is basically 4:1, which is almost infant ratio of 3:1. A preschool could not make any money with four salaries with only 15 kids. That’s ridiculous. Furthermore, the ratio for MoCO for three is 1:10. Or 2:20. It gets children in the mode of being in large classrooms tk get them ready for PreK 1:12 or 2:24 before they go to Kindergarten, where it is 1:27. You are setting your child up for failure in a class of 4:15 at age 3.

Why so hostile?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m new to the Bethesda/Kensington area and discovering that there are many lovely, high quality, play-based half day nursery school programs with small classes and good teacher: child ratios. But I need full time care for next fall for my child who will be 3 then, and I’ve been kind of dismayed by the few centers I have toured so far which are much more like traditional daycares (eg emphasis on work sheets, rote learning) and have really big classes and high student: child ratios. When our oldest was in preschool in DC her 3 year old class had 15 kids and 4 teachers which was such a good set up, most of whom were degreed. But I’m not seeing any programs with anything close that.

Are there any full day, year round programs that are play based and high quality, with low ratios in this area? I am willing to drive to Rockville, Garrett Park, or even could try parts of Chevy Chase.

4 teachers and 15 kids cannot be true. That ratio is basically 4:1, which is almost infant ratio of 3:1. A preschool could not make any money with four salaries with only 15 kids. That’s ridiculous. Furthermore, the ratio for MoCO for three is 1:10. Or 2:20. It gets children in the mode of being in large classrooms tk get them ready for PreK 1:12 or 2:24 before they go to Kindergarten, where it is 1:27. You are setting your child up for failure in a class of 4:15 at age 3.

Just because you are uninformed doesn’t mean other people are wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m new to the Bethesda/Kensington area and discovering that there are many lovely, high quality, play-based half day nursery school programs with small classes and good teacher: child ratios. But I need full time care for next fall for my child who will be 3 then, and I’ve been kind of dismayed by the few centers I have toured so far which are much more like traditional daycares (eg emphasis on work sheets, rote learning) and have really big classes and high student: child ratios. When our oldest was in preschool in DC her 3 year old class had 15 kids and 4 teachers which was such a good set up, most of whom were degreed. But I’m not seeing any programs with anything close that.

Are there any full day, year round programs that are play based and high quality, with low ratios in this area? I am willing to drive to Rockville, Garrett Park, or even could try parts of Chevy Chase.

4 teachers and 15 kids cannot be true. That ratio is basically 4:1, which is almost infant ratio of 3:1. A preschool could not make any money with four salaries with only 15 kids. That’s ridiculous. Furthermore, the ratio for MoCO for three is 1:10. Or 2:20. It gets children in the mode of being in large classrooms tk get them ready for PreK 1:12 or 2:24 before they go to Kindergarten, where it is 1:27. You are setting your child up for failure in a class of 4:15 at age 3.

Yeah this isn’t true. My child is in a full day program and at 3 there were 7 kids in his class with a main teacher and assistant. At 4 it is 9 kids 2 teachers. It exists but I agree with op hard to find. Unfortunately mine is in Vienna or I’d share! (Eastern ridge school for anyone else looking)

[Anonymous]

4 to 15 is not realistic. Our preschool (Rock Creek Montessori) has one classroom that's 2:18 another that is 2:14 and a toddler room that is 2:9. That's as good as I've heard.

[Anonymous]

My kids go to silver spring day school and there are two teachers and a parent volunteer at all times. My 2 year old daughters class is 3 to 9. My 4 year old sons class is 3 to 14. It’s lovely and play based and has extended day options.

[Anonymous]

Geneva Day School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:4 to 15 is not realistic. Our preschool (Rock Creek Montessori) has one classroom that's 2:18 another that is 2:14 and a toddler room that is 2:9. That's as good as I've heard.

This is actually a very realistic ratio for a good program. This was actually the staffing at my DD’s preschool class at the Gan which is in DC. The teachers overlapped times so one started later, one left earlier, etc. but there were just about always 3 teachers for 15 kids. The program was excellent. Part of the problem is that DC has better teacher: child ratios required for licensing does than Montgomery County/Maryland. So I guess my choice is either look for private school preschools with better ratios (trust me, they have them), or spend 90 minutes a day driving my kiddo to and from Cleveland Park.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m new to the Bethesda/Kensington area and discovering that there are many lovely, high quality, play-based half day nursery school programs with small classes and good teacher: child ratios. But I need full time care for next fall for my child who will be 3 then, and I’ve been kind of dismayed by the few centers I have toured so far which are much more like traditional daycares (eg emphasis on work sheets, rote learning) and have really big classes and high student: child ratios. When our oldest was in preschool in DC her 3 year old class had 15 kids and 4 teachers which was such a good set up, most of whom were degreed. But I’m not seeing any programs with anything close that.

Are there any full day, year round programs that are play based and high quality, with low ratios in this area? I am willing to drive to Rockville, Garrett Park, or even could try parts of Chevy Chase.

4 teachers and 15 kids cannot be true. That ratio is basically 4:1, which is almost infant ratio of 3:1. A preschool could not make any money with four salaries with only 15 kids. That’s ridiculous. Furthermore, the ratio for MoCO for three is 1:10. Or 2:20. It gets children in the mode of being in large classrooms tk get them ready for PreK 1:12 or 2:24 before they go to Kindergarten, where it is 1:27. You are setting your child up for failure in a class of 4:15 at age 3.

And there is something seriously wrong with you if you want your child to get 1/20th if an adult’s attention instead of 1/4th, and you feel that less supervision, attention, and support is what children need to thrive. High teacher: child ratios = low-quality programs.

[Anonymous]

My child attends a not fancy, not expensive child care center in Rockville. There are definitely 4 teachers (not aftercare - these are the 9-3pm teachers) for the group of 20. I am not sure how often, if ever they are all in the classroom at the same time but I know for sure there are often at least 3 teachers there with the whole group. We have been with this center for 3 years and it's clear they have more teachers than the required ratio, I don't know how others do it, but it does seem necessary to have some wiggle room if someone is sick (and I would imagine more than one teacher might get sick at the same time). For OP's purposes this is probably not what you are looking for since they do a lot (too many IMO) of worksheets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m new to the Bethesda/Kensington area and discovering that there are many lovely, high quality, play-based half day nursery school programs with small classes and good teacher: child ratios. But I need full time care for next fall for my child who will be 3 then, and I’ve been kind of dismayed by the few centers I have toured so far which are much more like traditional daycares (eg emphasis on work sheets, rote learning) and have really big classes and high student: child ratios. When our oldest was in preschool in DC her 3 year old class had 15 kids and 4 teachers which was such a good set up, most of whom were degreed. But I’m not seeing any programs with anything close that.

Are there any full day, year round programs that are play based and high quality, with low ratios in this area? I am willing to drive to Rockville, Garrett Park, or even could try parts of Chevy Chase.

4 teachers and 15 kids cannot be true. That ratio is basically 4:1, which is almost infant ratio of 3:1. A preschool could not make any money with four salaries with only 15 kids. That’s ridiculous. Furthermore, the ratio for MoCO for three is 1:10. Or 2:20. It gets children in the mode of being in large classrooms tk get them ready for PreK 1:12 or 2:24 before they go to Kindergarten, where it is 1:27. You are setting your child up for failure in a class of 4:15 at age 3.

DC preschool is publicly funded so they can afford better ratios. Also, preschools can make money this way as long as they have reasonably high tuition and don't serve infants and toddlers (most places run infant and toddler classes at a loss and divert some of the preschool tuition to make ends meet.)