Bancroft, Marie Reed or Bruce Monroe

[Anonymous]

I am searching for information, parents views of these schools. Anyone have any experience/knowledge of their bilingual program, staff, building, PTA, etc. I do realize that these are all low performing schools. I have a rising preschooler. No need to give input on the other DCPS and chartered bilingual schools as I have already researched them. Thanks

[Anonymous]

I know a family that left Bruce Monroe after pre-school because they weren't happy with it.

[Anonymous]

I have a 2nd grader at Bancroft and have been very happy there. She has had very good classroom teachers since she began there. They are finishing up a brand new playground and soccer field and have a pretty active PTA. They also have a nice library and there are quite a few afterschool programs for kids like drama, soccer, cheerleading, music club, etc. I'm also very happy with the bilingual piece (this was why we chose Bancroft). The negatives are a rather weak administration and low test scores (which are more likely a reflection of a lots of ESL students rather than poor quality of teacher- IMO).

[Anonymous]

We have a preschooler at Bancroft. So far, so good. She's in the complete Spanish immersion class, so she's learning lots of Spanish. We really like her two teachers and the student/teacher ratio is decent (8:1). Apparently one advantage of being in a low income school is that they get extra funding to keep the ratio low. Aftercare is fine--no special activities (these are 3 and 4 year olds, after all) but they do crafts and the caregiver reads books and takes them to the playground.

[Anonymous]

Bancroft. They now have 3 year old Spanish-only option like Tyler.

[Anonymous]

OP. Thank you all!! My thought was to look more at Bancroft. I live in Takoma and would have to drive my child to Bancroft. The street in kind of tight in the neighborhood. How is the morning during drop off?

[Anonymous]

12:41 here. Hmm, hard to say as we live nearby and walk to the school. But Newton Street does look pretty jammed in the morning. Would be good if someone who drops off can comment. If you have a preschooler you need to walk them inside, so you would probably have to find parking.

[Anonymous]

For what it's worth, the Bancroft waitlist for PS-3 was VERY long last year--our number was above 100, by far the worst of any DCPS we applied to.

[Anonymous]

I'm the 12:41 poster - I drop off my daughter in front of the school and traffic is not too bad (we are coming up via Mt Pleasant St). There seems to be more traffic coming up from the park (17th St ?), but it is moving. When she was younger I would park and walk her in and parking wasn't too bad (could usually get a spot within 1-2 blocks).