Tell me why your school is a special place...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ours is terrible - you want all the reasons why???

sure, but name it. Without a school's name, it doesn't help anyone. How would someone taking a tour know what to look for?

Are people afraid that the administration or their friends at the school will know who is posting?

Oh, I'm not afraid to name it. Tyler. Horrid. Two years wasted.

What were all the reasons why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ours is terrible - you want all the reasons why???

sure, but name it. Without a school's name, it doesn't help anyone. How would someone taking a tour know what to look for?

Are people afraid that the administration or their friends at the school will know who is posting?

Oh, I'm not afraid to name it. Tyler. Horrid. Two years wasted.

What were all the reasons why?

It was probably a bad experience at Tyler due to the demographics at the school. Most likely tons of behavioral issues coming from the kids that come from low-income families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Van Ness Elementary School will be a special place once it opens this Fall. The fact that they have chosen exceptional leadership and that the school is being completely renovated will help out tremendously. Also, the Capitol Riverfront is a great place for an elementary school!

Is it true that it didn't get enough lottery applicants to fill all of its K seats? If so, that doesn't bode so well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ours is terrible - you want all the reasons why???

sure, but name it. Without a school's name, it doesn't help anyone. How would someone taking a tour know what to look for?

Are people afraid that the administration or their friends at the school will know who is posting?

Oh, I'm not afraid to name it. Tyler. Horrid. Two years wasted.

What were all the reasons why?

Oh my lord, I'm not sure I have time to detail everything, but here goes.

-Shame based discipline
-Recess constantly taken away as punishment despite DCPS policy expressly forbidding that
-physical violence between children as young as 1st grade very common
-only ONE social worker for the entire building; she spends entire days breaking up fights. Good luck if your kid has a 504/IEP and needs her services. (not blaming her in particular; there should be two SWs)
-there are hardly ANY children in spanish immersion with IEPs or behavior problems. They routinely (and illegally) refuse to provide services within Spanish and bounce kids into the regular program. It's the haves vs the have nots, and it's shameful.
-very inconsistent ability among teachers; some are really shining stars but many are dismal.

I could go on and on, but more detail will out me too easily.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Van Ness Elementary School will be a special place once it opens this Fall. The fact that they have chosen exceptional leadership and that the school is being completely renovated will help out tremendously. Also, the Capitol Riverfront is a great place for an elementary school!

Is it true that it didn't get enough lottery applicants to fill all of its K seats? If so, that doesn't bode so well.

They offered 15 OOB seats for K and filled 13 in round 1. Not sure how many in-bounds K students there will be (DCPS doesn't know either; they have to take anyone in-bounds who shows up through the whole school year...and there will surely be some kindergartners who arrive at Amidon on the first day of school only to be told they're now in-bounds for Van Ness instead!) or how many OOB applied for round 2.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ours is terrible - you want all the reasons why???

sure, but name it. Without a school's name, it doesn't help anyone. How would someone taking a tour know what to look for?

Are people afraid that the administration or their friends at the school will know who is posting?

Oh, I'm not afraid to name it. Tyler. Horrid. Two years wasted.

What were all the reasons why?

Oh my lord, I'm not sure I have time to detail everything, but here goes.

-Shame based discipline
-Recess constantly taken away as punishment despite DCPS policy expressly forbidding that
-physical violence between children as young as 1st grade very common
-only ONE social worker for the entire building; she spends entire days breaking up fights. Good luck if your kid has a 504/IEP and needs her services. (not blaming her in particular; there should be two SWs)
-there are hardly ANY children in spanish immersion with IEPs or behavior problems. They routinely (and illegally) refuse to provide services within Spanish and bounce kids into the regular program. It's the haves vs the have nots, and it's shameful.
-very inconsistent ability among teachers; some are really shining stars but many are dismal.

I could go on and on, but more detail will out me too easily.

What school are you moving your kid to next year? Van Ness?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ours is terrible - you want all the reasons why???

sure, but name it. Without a school's name, it doesn't help anyone. How would someone taking a tour know what to look for?

Are people afraid that the administration or their friends at the school will know who is posting?

Oh, I'm not afraid to name it. Tyler. Horrid. Two years wasted.

What were all the reasons why?

Oh my lord, I'm not sure I have time to detail everything, but here goes.

-Shame based discipline
-Recess constantly taken away as punishment despite DCPS policy expressly forbidding that
-physical violence between children as young as 1st grade very common
-only ONE social worker for the entire building; she spends entire days breaking up fights. Good luck if your kid has a 504/IEP and needs her services. (not blaming her in particular; there should be two SWs)
-there are hardly ANY children in spanish immersion with IEPs or behavior problems. They routinely (and illegally) refuse to provide services within Spanish and bounce kids into the regular program. It's the haves vs the have nots, and it's shameful.
-very inconsistent ability among teachers; some are really shining stars but many are dismal.

I could go on and on, but more detail will out me too easily.

That's awful, hopefully you can make your way into a better situation. Potomac Gardens feeds into Tyler, correct? After seeing the conditions that some children in this city live in, I can't blame them for being awful in school. Still wouldn't want my kid near them, but their stories are sad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ours is terrible - you want all the reasons why???

sure, but name it. Without a school's name, it doesn't help anyone. How would someone taking a tour know what to look for?

Are people afraid that the administration or their friends at the school will know who is posting?

Oh, I'm not afraid to name it. Tyler. Horrid. Two years wasted.

What were all the reasons why?

Oh my lord, I'm not sure I have time to detail everything, but here goes.

-Shame based discipline
-Recess constantly taken away as punishment despite DCPS policy expressly forbidding that
-physical violence between children as young as 1st grade very common
-only ONE social worker for the entire building; she spends entire days breaking up fights. Good luck if your kid has a 504/IEP and needs her services. (not blaming her in particular; there should be two SWs)
-there are hardly ANY children in spanish immersion with IEPs or behavior problems. They routinely (and illegally) refuse to provide services within Spanish and bounce kids into the regular program. It's the haves vs the have nots, and it's shameful.
-very inconsistent ability among teachers; some are really shining stars but many are dismal.

I could go on and on, but more detail will out me too easily.

What school are you moving your kid to next year? Van Ness?

Ha! No. We are moving to MoCo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ours is terrible - you want all the reasons why???

sure, but name it. Without a school's name, it doesn't help anyone. How would someone taking a tour know what to look for?

Are people afraid that the administration or their friends at the school will know who is posting?

Oh, I'm not afraid to name it. Tyler. Horrid. Two years wasted.

What were all the reasons why?

Oh my lord, I'm not sure I have time to detail everything, but here goes.

-Shame based discipline
-Recess constantly taken away as punishment despite DCPS policy expressly forbidding that
-physical violence between children as young as 1st grade very common
-only ONE social worker for the entire building; she spends entire days breaking up fights. Good luck if your kid has a 504/IEP and needs her services. (not blaming her in particular; there should be two SWs)
-there are hardly ANY children in spanish immersion with IEPs or behavior problems. They routinely (and illegally) refuse to provide services within Spanish and bounce kids into the regular program. It's the haves vs the have nots, and it's shameful.
-very inconsistent ability among teachers; some are really shining stars but many are dismal.

I could go on and on, but more detail will out me too easily.

I'm so sorry. I wrote basically the same post about Tyler a year and a half ago. I had added that:

-Children constantly wandered the building with absolutely no supervision when they were supposed to be in class.
- The school security officer was constantly called into classrooms to discipline children (very young children) because the teachers weren't managing the class.
- I saw entire classes with their heads down on cafeteria tables being punished instead of going to recess.

I had hoped it had gotten better since I then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ours is terrible - you want all the reasons why???

sure, but name it. Without a school's name, it doesn't help anyone. How would someone taking a tour know what to look for?

Are people afraid that the administration or their friends at the school will know who is posting?

Oh, I'm not afraid to name it. Tyler. Horrid. Two years wasted.

What were all the reasons why?

Oh my lord, I'm not sure I have time to detail everything, but here goes.

-Shame based discipline
-Recess constantly taken away as punishment despite DCPS policy expressly forbidding that
-physical violence between children as young as 1st grade very common
-only ONE social worker for the entire building; she spends entire days breaking up fights. Good luck if your kid has a 504/IEP and needs her services. (not blaming her in particular; there should be two SWs)
-there are hardly ANY children in spanish immersion with IEPs or behavior problems. They routinely (and illegally) refuse to provide services within Spanish and bounce kids into the regular program. It's the haves vs the have nots, and it's shameful.
-very inconsistent ability among teachers; some are really shining stars but many are dismal.

I could go on and on, but more detail will out me too easily.

I'm so sorry. I wrote basically the same post about Tyler a year and a half ago. I had added that:

-Children constantly wandered the building with absolutely no supervision when they were supposed to be in class.
- The school security officer was constantly called into classrooms to discipline children (very young children) because the teachers weren't managing the class.
- I saw entire classes with their heads down on cafeteria tables being punished instead of going to recess.

I had hoped it had gotten better since I then.

Oh my god, that makes me so sad. Those poor, poor little kids. And I would not want mine in that kind of environment either. But my heart breaks for those little ones who just do not get a damn break.

[Anonymous]

Oh no. I have a college friend who has her child at Tyler. I wonder how she likes it.

[Anonymous]

We had a similar problem with recess being taken away at our DCPS elementary, as well as teachers being a little rough - -yelling, etc. -- when it came to discipline. Luckily, we raised it directly with the principal and the problems mostly ended. Changing the culture of a school is hard, but not impossible. It probably helped that more affluent parents are coming to our school and the new principal wants to keep them happy. We tend to be outspoken about when things are not going the way we want. I hope that there will be a similar outcome at Tyler for the sake of all the dear children. At that age, they deserve love and firmness.

[Anonymous]

I am high SES and I don't really mind teachers yelling or recess being taken away.

[Anonymous]

Changing the culture of a school is hard, but not impossible. It probably helped that more affluent parents are coming to our school and the new principal wants to keep them happy. We tend to be outspoken about when things are not going the way we want.

Changing the culture of a school is NOT your job as a parent, believe it or not. Are there things you have a right to object to? Absolutely. Bullying. Teasing. Fighting. But this attitude--that more affluent parents need to be "kept happy"--stinks. You need to learn to work with your community, not expect it to cater to you. There are ways to make a school a happy place... but a lot of them depend upon respecting the educators and administrators that are running your school. What I see at our school are a bunch of parents who seem to think they know more, and need to have their needs met. Their needs--not their kids' needs. What you need to remember is, this is not just about you, or even just about your kid.

[Anonymous]

How can punishing an entire class be a good thing? I find it hard to believe that something like that is beneficial.