Regret public school for your kids?

[Anonymous]

To the teacher with 20 kids and two teachers. The term is "engagement". If you google that with "class size", you will find articles relating to why the group has to be small. 20 kids is too big. Is this an expensive private school?

[Anonymous]

If it were up to me, I would send both of my children to private school from Kindergarten through high school graduation.

We could afford to send ONE kid to private school; the problem is that we have two. They are a year apart (ages 5 and 4). We've decided to brave the public school system -- and let me tell you, we now live in Hyattsville/PG County, so it really is a matter of bravery -- and I am incredibly anxious about it. My oldest has been in the public school system since Monday, so it's premature for me to be judging it.

That said, both kids are going to private high school if we can swing it. Our family has a legacy going with DeMatha, so my son will likely go there. Not sure about my daughter.

I attended public school and I turned out okay. But then again, I didn't grow up in PG County.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Our local elementary in MoCo has over 700 students - about 300 over capacity. There are indeed over 100 kids per grade level, which in my view makes for a huge, bustling environment. Our local high school has nearly 4000 students. Beyond huge. Both well-regarded schools fyi.

I'm not sure it matters how many children are in each grade level -- just in each individual class.

It does! The halls are too crowded. The lunchroom is too crowded. How to get everyone a fair amount of gym time, art room time, music time. The field, uh playground (one piece of equip), is too crowded and full of trailer classrooms. These schools are packed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On our local MoCo listserv, a parent complained that Kindergarden recess was monitored by only 2 adults (both teachers), and there were 100 kids. That gave me real pause.

The discussion continued, and it appeared that public schools really depend on parent involvement to supplement teacher time like at recess through volunteer hours--- even though the public schools in our area generally have few SAHM's .

I'm all for parents being involved in education, but I was not expecting this!

100 kids in one school's kindergarden? Did I misread? Which one?

Wyngate has over 100 in K this year.

[Anonymous]

regarding the list of cites - most were not peer-reviewed. Just because it is on line, doesn't make it good research.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Our local elementary in MoCo has over 700 students - about 300 over capacity. There are indeed over 100 kids per grade level, which in my view makes for a huge, bustling environment. Our local high school has nearly 4000 students. Beyond huge. Both well-regarded schools fyi.

I'm not sure it matters how many children are in each grade level -- just in each individual class.

It does! The halls are too crowded. The lunchroom is too crowded. How to get everyone a fair amount of gym time, art room time, music time. The field, uh playground (one piece of equip), is too crowded and full of trailer classrooms. These schools are packed.

Yeah - its like living in NYC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about a charter school?

One of the nice things about charter schools is that they have enrollment caps. (And they actually have to live with them!)

I would strong recommend DC families to check out the charter school offerings! The ability to make decisions (curriculum, staffing, hours, academic programming, family involvement, etc.) at the school level and circumvent the DCPS bureaucracy makes a real quality difference: it's part of why charters are outperforming DCPS among poor, working, and lower-middle class students.

Originally conceived as an alternative to poor and failing schools, the charter movement has been such a success that some of the newest schools are attracting middle and upper-middle class families. Some of these families can afford private school and are rejecting their highly-regarded local DCPS schools in upper northwest in order to enroll their children in the dynamic new charter schools. There's an all-girls school, a Mandarin Immersion school, and a classical Latin school - all offerings which are generating interest among parents who hadn't originally considered charter schools for their children.

If you haven't toured a new charter school and are making attendance decisions for your family, you owe it to yourself to see why charter schools are the future of enriching and exciting education opportunities in DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about a charter school?

One of the nice things about charter schools is that they have enrollment caps. (And they actually have to live with them!)

I would strong recommend DC families to check out the charter school offerings! The ability to make decisions (curriculum, staffing, hours, academic programming, family involvement, etc.) at the school level and circumvent the DCPS bureaucracy makes a real quality difference: it's part of why charters are outperforming DCPS among poor, working, and lower-middle class students.

Originally conceived as an alternative to poor and failing schools, the charter movement has been such a success that some of the newest schools are attracting middle and upper-middle class families. Some of these families can afford private school and are rejecting their highly-regarded local DCPS schools in upper northwest in order to enroll their children in the dynamic new charter schools. There's an all-girls school, a Mandarin Immersion school, and a classical Latin school - all offerings which are generating interest among parents who hadn't originally considered charter schools for their children.

If you haven't toured a new charter school and are making attendance decisions for your family, you owe it to yourself to see why charter schools are the future of enriching and exciting education opportunities in DC.

Is this from a pamphlet?

[Anonymous]

No, PP. It was just my response to the spam from the WaPo trying to drive traffic to their site. I see that an administrator removed the spam itself to which I was responding. I was simply making lemonade out lemons, as it were.

I do happen to be a strong supporter of the school-choice movement for ideological reasons. Research on subject is of genuine interest to me. Charter schools have been around for 10 years and now enroll about 1/3 of DC (public) school children. I find that remarkable for a sociological and economic standpoint. That's all.

[Anonymous]

Just want to say that my daughter is in 1st grade at the neighborhood public school. We live in Montgomery County (Potomac). We love the school. We do not have huge class sizes. My daughter's class has only 17 children. I know this is atypical but the other grades are also reasonable. The teachers so far have been amazing. They recognize the pressue placed on the children. The kids are happy. The administration is caring. Parents are very involved. They're involvement makes it possible to provide programs that they might not ordinarily have access to. This involvement makes a huge difference. I don't mind volunteering my time if it enhances the education of my children. It communicates to my children that I'm invested.

We would have loved to go private but with 3 kids, the tuition was beyond our reach. So, we researched the schools extensively and then purchased a house in a neighborhood that fed into an excellent school. We don't regret our decision at all. Now that we're 2 years in, we don't feel that we would have been any happier with a private school. My point is that there are some wonderful public schools out there. Every school has a unique environment. Look around and you might just find a real gem. I really believe we have.

[Anonymous]

And we love our public school in Arlington -- class size is large but the teachers are very committed, the academics top-notch, and the school has a great parent community. No regrets about public at all. Plus, Arlington offers so many specialized programs at the elementary school level - who needs private?

[Anonymous]

We love our public school in Fairfax County. My DC has two teachers that are team teaching her class (21 students, 2nd grade) and the school principal looped all the 1st grade teachers to 2nd grade, so the teachers already knew their students, etc. (One teacher said they gained at least 6 weeks of instruction time at the start of the year thanks to looping.) We are very pleased!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We love our public school in Fairfax County. My DC has two teachers that are team teaching her class (21 students, 2nd grade) and the school principal looped all the 1st grade teachers to 2nd grade, so the teachers already knew their students, etc. (One teacher said they gained at least 6 weeks of instruction time at the start of the year thanks to looping.) We are very pleased!

Is your child at one of the 2 magnet schools, a school with foreign language immersion, or a school with high percentages of free lunch and esl [poverty indicators]? Which school because this is extremely different than most are experiencing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Is your child at one of the 2 magnet schools, a school with foreign language immersion, or a school with high percentages of free lunch and esl [poverty indicators]?

We are at a Title I school.

[Anonymous]

There were 34 kids in my first grade classroom. One teacher. What's the deal with the overcowding whining?