Researching Bethesda area independent schools

[Anonymous]

creditguy wrote:The fact that Norwood tracks these two statistics on it's website (racial not religiious diversity) is impresive and the stats themselves too.

Total Faculty/Staff of Color 29%
Students of Color and of Latinx/Hispanic/Spanish Origin: 39.9%

I plan to ask each of the schools if they track this figure.

Comments from the crowd on how each of the schools on my list fare in terms of racial and religious diversity and strides they are making with their DEI efforts?

If there are bigots out please remain silent; I don't care what you think.

For most schools DEI is a marketing buzz word, like STEM.

Ask what their board statement is and what there board DEI committee is currently discussing/implementing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:St. Andrews is more progressive and diverse than WES

OP was asking about pedagogy, not politics.

[Anonymous]

Grace Episcopal should be on your list.
https://geds.org/about-us/equity-diversity/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Grace Episcopal should be on your list.
https://geds.org/about-us/equity-diversity/

Great idea. My kid is at St. Andrews. I’d check out Grace (where some his amazing classmates went) and St. Andrew’s. I don’t know anything about ES at St.Andrews, but they have great new facilities and the kids that came from Grace Episcopal are an impressive bunch.

[Anonymous]

You might want to also add NPS. a lot of times parents apply for BVR and NPS as they are similar in approach.

[Anonymous]

Mclean School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grace Episcopal should be on your list.
https://geds.org/about-us/equity-diversity/

Great idea. My kid is at St. Andrews. I’d check out Grace (where some his amazing classmates went) and St. Andrew’s. I don’t know anything about ES at St.Andrews, but they have great new facilities and the kids that came from Grace Episcopal are an impressive bunch.

I agree with this poster. We were interested in both. Both are invested in racial, socio economic, and geographical diversity and the staff at both are able to answer general and specific questions with specific data.

Grace is more pedagogically progressive and SAES has more perks like buses, lunch, etc while delivering a strong program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Primary Day should be on the list too. A little more academically rigorous than a lot of those schools

I don’t know about the other schools you mentioned, but I can tell you from personal experience Primary day is not progressive nor diverse, it’s also not play based.

[Anonymous]

You need to go visit them this fall. The info sessions will dover a lot of your questions. And I'm sure you are aware that the odds of admission at several of these are very low so if you are totally set on private school you will need to cast a wide net.

[Anonymous]

Since you’re looking at early childhood development and academics, try to come away knowing exactly their approach to teaching math, reading, spelling, science and work habits.

We’ve been on a tour where all they talked about what mission and nothing else. Other schools covered their values plus their curricula and approach. When we looped back to the mission school to ask basic academic questions, it was clear it was not a focus. You assumed it would be but it wasn’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Since you’re looking at early childhood development and academics, try to come away knowing exactly their approach to teaching math, reading, spelling, science and work habits.

We’ve been on a tour where all they talked about what mission and nothing else. Other schools covered their values plus their curricula and approach. When we looped back to the mission school to ask basic academic questions, it was clear it was not a focus. You assumed it would be but it wasn’t.

I just want to echo this. Many of the DC progressive schools use methods to teach reading that are severely lacking. There is a thread on Lower School Reading that discusses this in depth. It is possible to have progressive and good academics but not everywhere.

We asked about phonics in the curriculum and were assured that it was a phonics based reading program. Turns out they used Units of Study and basically did not teach phonics or teach kids to read. After mega dollars in tutoring snd a change in schools we are on track.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know about the other schools you mentioned, but I can tell you from personal experience Primary day is not progressive nor diverse, it’s also not play based.

I agree that Primary Day's pedagogy is definitely not progressive. "Diverse" is in the eye of the beholder though. There are not a lot of URM students, but the student body isn't particularly white either. There's been an increasing number of kids of East or South Asian descent in the last several years. Over a third of our kid's second grade homeroom class was students of color. And in our experience it was fairly play-based in PK and K, and then got more heavily academic in the last two years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Primary Day should be on the list too. A little more academically rigorous than a lot of those schools

Would you describe Primary Day as following progressive and/or play based philosophy? That wan't my impression.

*Former PDS parent* - it's definitely not "play-based", but it isn't the academic pressure cooker others would have you believe about a school for PK-2. Starting the process over for 3rd grade can be daunting, but there's a LOT of support, and schools like Holton, Landon, GDS, and Sidwell have been tops when it comes to next school placements. Also, I was glad to have time to reevaluate my DD to find the right long-term fit for her instead of committing at kindergarten.

Downsides - not really racially diverse, although there's a lot of religious diversity. There's a new-ish HOS, so I don't know much about him, though many of the teachers have been there for a very long time (in a good way).

Overall it was a great experience for my daughter and the sense of community that is fostered is great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:St. Andrews is more progressive and diverse than WES

But they also want high academic standards.

This is both offensive and off-base. SAES is a terrific school. Our extremely bright child is thriving there and is learning a ton.

[Anonymous]

You’ll be lucky to get into Sidwell or GDS, although PK/ K is your best shot.