Shepherd Elem?

[Anonymous]

Why don't you look it up or call the school yourself.

[Anonymous]

I have talked to the principal and checked the budget.

Shepherd doesn't have a dedicated IB coordinator. Nor does Cooke.

Prove otherwise.

We're waiting.

[Anonymous]

If you already know the answers to your own questions, why keep asking? What is it you are trying to prove?

[Anonymous]

How about instead of constantly finding the error in the system, promote ways to assist the schools that are working hard to educate our students regardless of the hurdles and challenges that they face on a constant basis. Shepherd, Cooke, Deal and Thompson are all working to ensure that IB happens in the district. Have a little faith and put your efforts where your mouth is. If you’re worried about a coordinator and the lack of one in any of the schools...how about finding out what a coordinator does and volunteering instead of complaining that you can't see it in a budget or line item. In any school budget you won't see mentor, confidant, nurse, social worker, referee, inspirational leader, mother, father and friend denoted out either. However we all know that just because you can't see it in an online document or because it isn't laid out for everyone to identify doesn't mean it can't happen or isn't there. All of the schools have coordinators and a dedicated teacher who does the work on top of everything else in her fold and makes it happen DOES COUNT!!!

Finally, the first thing that everyone should know about IB is the integration of the learning profile throughout the learning community. If we all try to add elements of it to our daily interactions we would all be better off.

Just my two cents...

[Anonymous]

Great. You volunteer full time at one of these schools so IB happens. Do let us know which school you choose. (Cooke has the highest proportion of free and reduced price students, so it could be argued they are the most needy.)

As for me, I think the Chancellor should follow through on what was promised and actually pay for a position.

For the record, the nurse is included in the budget (Health Dept) at DCPS as is a social worker. Mentors work one hour a week through Everybody Wins.

IB coordinator is a skilled position, it requires costly training, and you need a minimum of 20 hours a week to ready the detailed IB application and curriculum.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Yes. You are correct. All professional positions should be listed in the budget. If not, it is question mark.

[Anonymous]

I think this anti-IB poster (who shows up on any discussion of HD Cooke) has some ax to grind over IB issues, or is just intentionally spreading falsehoods about the program b/c they want to validate their own decision to move to outer suburbia.

[Anonymous]

agreed. it's really annoying.

[Anonymous]

What, you don't like the fact that the Chancellor isn't supporting IB? Call her. You are DCPS parents, right?

IB is great. Shepherd is a great school, though my kids go to one of the other "IB" wanna-be schools. We have a grant to pay for our coordinator.

Truly, most of the posting on this thread smells of Reston Town Center.

[Anonymous]

So.... what does Reston Town Center smell like?

Anyways, let's stop the back and forth about IB, funded/unfunded, whatever... That horse has been beat to death! ! !

Back to the original question, "Can anyone else weigh in on their thoughts about how Shepherd is???"

[Anonymous]

http://shepherd-elementary.org/school-life/program_ibp.aspx

The link above to Shepherd's website goes through FAQ regarding the program, IB and Foreign Language, issued in November or December 2008.

My children were at Shepherd the past 3 school years, and are going charter next year.

The past 3 years have been characterized by excessive principal turnover (7 or 8, including interims, seems to have settled down to Mrs. Miles who started October 2008 and did return several weeks after her Spring 2009 maternity leave), lack of comprehensive approach to foreign language instruction (seems to have settled down to an "exposure" goal, not "fluency" with several "special" classes per week), and in the midst of this disappointed parents (many of whom have pulled their kids to other schools, charters like Stokes for French instruction, parochials, and moved to Md and Va) and classroom teachers who have resisted change and continued to teach using their tried and true (and many times wonderful) methods.

It's a little soon to know what the school will be in three or four years, hopefully with steady leadership and a successful IB application it will be good.

The school has many wonderful things: many great classroom teachers, a good sense of community, great art and music teachers. Children are very polite. The PTA has been unable to sustain a level of donations to hire support staff for the classrooms. The good to great, that happens with "West of the Park" schools, probably won't happen at Shepherd, in part because parents can't afford to hire extra aides for every grade level.

Limitations: poor supervision during aftercare, language instruction will not result in fluency, overemphasis (to my taste) on test preparation. For example, during the 4 or 5 weeks a year that DC-BAS/ DC-CAS tests are adminstered, there are no "specials" -- no art, music, PE, or foreign language -- because those teachers are proctoring exams.

My extroverted child loved Shepherd. My more introverted said after two days at summer camp: "It's a good camp, they help you finish your projects. If you don't finish your work, you don't have to go to time-out."

My experience at Shepherd was very mixed. I expect there are many better schools available in both DCPS, and charters, however, there are also many worse schools. How well it goes for an individual child depends mainly on the child and the classroom assignment. How the school is viewed in several years depends on Mrs. Miles' leadership and and budgetery support from DCPS.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

How can Shepherd have a successful IB application/program if the language program is only a few times a week? I thought IB programs required the development of language fluency?

[Anonymous]

The IB Primary Years Programme and Middle Years Programme are not terribly compelling. In fact, there isn't much substance. It's only the IB Diploma programme that is worth worrying about, and that's two years at the end of high school.

[Anonymous]

From the online summer edition of the Shepherd school newsletter

District of Columbia Comprehensive Assessment System
(DC CAS) Report

Each advisory students in grades 3rd through 6th grade are administered the District of Columbia Benchmark Assessment (DC BAS). These assessments are aligned with the DC CAS, the District’s comprehensive assessment and are designed to measure how well students have mastered the standards and objectives for their grade level. Three weeks ago our DC CAS test scores were released. Shepherd maintains its AYP status. Congratulations to teachers, students, parents, support staff, and key stakeholders for your helping us continue to move forward. This year’s results are below:

Reading: 77.78% (73.91% in 2008)
Females: 82.35% (81.82% in 2008)
Male: 74.12% (66.67 in 2008)

Math: 76.47% (63.77% in 2008)
Females: 77.94% (63.64% in 2008)
Male: 75.29% (63.89% in 2008)

[Anonymous]

Also from the newsletter, with apologies re: previous post, the smiling faces were actually "eight" followed by ")" in the original. Below [insider brackets are my additions ]

[excerpt from Principal's Corner]

IB
• All teachers received level 1 training
• Teachers implemented their first IB unit at the end of the school year
• Teachers worked collaboratively to complete Shepherd
Elementary Program of Inquiry (POI)
• Mona Maruca, our IB consultant, visited and provided the staff with informative feedback
• Several teachers visited local International Baccalaureate Schools
• Components of Application B were completed
• Grade levels began writing their remaining units


[From the IB Corner column]

Update, News and Notes:
This summer, teachers are coming in to work collaboratively on finishing the writing of their reflections on the trial PYP unit they implemented in the last few weeks of last school year, and they are continuing the writing of unit planners for the units of inquiry that they will implement this coming school year.

Ms. Miles [principal], Ms. Tucker [2008-09 IB Coordinator, working out of downtown office], and Ms. Moorefield [2008-09 Literacy Coach assigned fulltime to Shepherd] are working on several parts of the IB Application Part B, which is due December 1, 2009. Ms. Tucker is preparing Ms. Moorefield to take over the role of PYP coordinator for next year.