Seaton or Lee Montessori (Brookland) PK3

[Anonymous]

Thanks a lot for the info. It sounds a really nice school. Unfortunately school is not willing to arrange a tour to help us make a decision, but I guess we could check out the garden.

Anonymous wrote:

PK teachers use it on nice days and have lessons in there, and they often have parties there. My kids spent a ton of time out there. They really use it a LOT.

Aftercare does not (mostly because it's actually a very nice garden, so they want kids there only when teachers or parents are there so it doesn't get trashed. They also have a couple days after school when it's open, but the kids have to be with a parent.

*A couple days per week, usually Mondays and Thursdays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks a lot for the info. It sounds a really nice school. Unfortunately school is not willing to arrange a tour to help us make a decision, but I guess we could check out the garden.

Anonymous wrote:

PK teachers use it on nice days and have lessons in there, and they often have parties there. My kids spent a ton of time out there. They really use it a LOT.

Aftercare does not (mostly because it's actually a very nice garden, so they want kids there only when teachers or parents are there so it doesn't get trashed. They also have a couple days after school when it's open, but the kids have to be with a parent.

*A couple days per week, usually Mondays and Thursdays.

I'm sorry to hear that! And to be totally frank, we left the school later. But PK is really good.

[Anonymous]

May I ask what grade you left?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks a lot for the info. It sounds a really nice school. Unfortunately school is not willing to arrange a tour to help us make a decision, but I guess we could check out the garden.

Anonymous wrote:

PK teachers use it on nice days and have lessons in there, and they often have parties there. My kids spent a ton of time out there. They really use it a LOT.

Aftercare does not (mostly because it's actually a very nice garden, so they want kids there only when teachers or parents are there so it doesn't get trashed. They also have a couple days after school when it's open, but the kids have to be with a parent.

*A couple days per week, usually Mondays and Thursdays.

I'm sorry to hear that! And to be totally frank, we left the school later. But PK is really good.

[Anonymous]

For PK, do kids get screen time at seaton?

[Anonymous]

We had this same decision, but it was 8 years ago for my child who is now entering middle school. The reason I am responding is because I feel strongly that we should have stayed with Seaton. We were in at Seaton and left for Lee. Well, we transferred out of Lee after 1 year of pre-k. My child was doing the same things everyday because he preferred it and he was not self-directed enough to choose the difficult things. Now, I wasn’t expecting a lot of academics in PK3, but I don’t think he learned a thing. Fast forward and now he is above grade level heading into advanced classes in middle school. I would recommend DCPS over a charter school any day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had this same decision, but it was 8 years ago for my child who is now entering middle school. The reason I am responding is because I feel strongly that we should have stayed with Seaton. We were in at Seaton and left for Lee. Well, we transferred out of Lee after 1 year of pre-k. My child was doing the same things everyday because he preferred it and he was not self-directed enough to choose the difficult things. Now, I wasn’t expecting a lot of academics in PK3, but I don’t think he learned a thing. Fast forward and now he is above grade level heading into advanced classes in middle school. I would recommend DCPS over a charter school any day.

I agree with this. We only left bc we got a spot at a better DCPS.

[Anonymous]

very helpful! thanks for sharing the experience. why is that though?( underscored line) DCPS better regulated？

Anonymous wrote:We had this same decision, but it was 8 years ago for my child who is now entering middle school. The reason I am responding is because I feel strongly that we should have stayed with Seaton. We were in at Seaton and left for Lee. Well, we transferred out of Lee after 1 year of pre-k. My child was doing the same things everyday because he preferred it and he was not self-directed enough to choose the difficult things. Now, I wasn’t expecting a lot of academics in PK3, but I don’t think he learned a thing. Fast forward and now he is above grade level heading into advanced classes in middle school. I would recommend DCPS over a charter school any day.

[Anonymous]

We have a rising K and will be enrolling a PK3 at Lee Brookland next week. Lee has been an amazing experience for our rising K and they are really looking forward to school starting. He has always felt comfortable at school and his academic progress has been excellent (though he's 5 so it's not like he's writing novels, but he can read easy books and do basic multiplication). The staff are really special and it seems like every adult there knows him and takes the time to engage with him. The grounds are not as nice as those at Seaton (which are really special) but the playgrounds are great in a Montessori way.

Others have commented on the school being disorganized and that was certainly true when our oldest started at Lee. We were close to leaving the first year. But, the new principal and director seem to have made a lot of progress and outsourcing the aftercare has been a great decision. This year the school seems more organized than before with classroom open houses scheduled before school starts and lots of messaging from the school about what to expect.

[Anonymous]

(Continuing from 11:19) Others have brought up the class sizes at Lee, and I agree they are too large. But, they aren't as bad as it seems. From what I've seen, classes will have ~ 28 kids with a teacher, assistant teacher, and 1-2 aides. Additionally, there are often specialists (e.g. reading) that come into the room to work with small groups. So while there are almost 30 kids in a class, there will typically be ~ 4 adults directing them.

[Anonymous]

I can only speak to Seaton, but can say the PK teachers are *excellent*, and many have been there for a very long time. For the PK years, it's very play-based and lovely. Once kinder hits it's an abrupt change to a more academic day (including screens) so if you're thinking longer term keep that in mind.

[Anonymous]

The season scores took a major dip this year

[Anonymous]

I have two kids at Lee (5th grade and 3rd grade) and while we have generally been happy with the school there are definitely some good teachers, and some not at all good teachers. I suspect this is the case at any school but our experience has been determined by the teacher and so that makes it difficult to advise anyone about which school to choose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The season scores took a major dip this year

Real talk about Seaton -- It used to be a complete gem and had two exceptionally good principals in a row who created a culture that differentiated well, utilized pull-outs, pushed for excellence all around, and I would have recommended it wholeheartedly to anyone. There has been a real change under the new principal and there are a lot of tensions (between teachers and the principal, and parents and the principal), and the academics are slipping. Some of the teachers and students are occasionally able to be exceptional, but the overall culture shifted away from that. You can see it in the scores this year.

This also coincides with the gentrification of the school in an unlikely way; 8 years ago there were maybe 20 gentrifier (read: families with parents who supplement like crazy) families and also it was an amazing school. now there are 100 gentrifier families and its a worse school. community cannot overcome academics.

It remains to be seen what will happen -- will the principal get better? will the teachers tensions resolve? will the sheer force of gentrifier families make it fine? It's a bit unknown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:very helpful! thanks for sharing the experience. why is that though?( underscored line) DCPS better regulated？

Anonymous wrote:We had this same decision, but it was 8 years ago for my child who is now entering middle school. The reason I am responding is because I feel strongly that we should have stayed with Seaton. We were in at Seaton and left for Lee. Well, we transferred out of Lee after 1 year of pre-k. My child was doing the same things everyday because he preferred it and he was not self-directed enough to choose the difficult things. Now, I wasn’t expecting a lot of academics in PK3, but I don’t think he learned a thing. Fast forward and now he is above grade level heading into advanced classes in middle school. I would recommend DCPS over a charter school any day.

Not OP. IMO it’s less about regulation — DC has one of the most tightly regulated charter sectors in the country — and more about standardization. (Which are two different things.) DCPS has standardized — in a good way — many aspects of curriculum, instruction, expectations for teachers etc. E.g. many DCPS schools now do a better job teaching reading than charters because DCPS (by and large) adopted a science of reading-aligned approach early on. DCPS is a big district with the advantages and disadvantages that brings. They can make a central decision and require things of all campuses, which on the one hand can be good. On the other parents and teachers can end up banging their heads against the wall when encountering inflexible bureaucratic rules. But I agree with OP: on average and at this point in time post-pandemic in DC, DCPS > charter — but that doesn’t mean ALL DCPS > ALL charters. I haven’t looked at the data but my guess would be DCPS has a bell curve that skews toward the middle — more consistently fine-to-good. And charter sector bell curve has “fat tails” — some really high performers and a lot of egregious low performers (that the PCSB will probably shut down soon, after their “pandemic pause” on closures due to 2 years of no test score data).

Just one person’s view