Can anyone shed light on what is likely to change at Norwood with new leadership?

[Anonymous]

From what I have read here (and on the website); and heard from my children's friends and parents at Norwood (soft with the 3 Rs), I most definetely will not send my children to Norwood. For my children, I prefer the emphasis on primary and secondary education be placed on academics ( the 3 Rs + computer education) and not "art and specials". I am more willing to outsource the latter if their school is weak in this area. I am well aware this view represents only one spectrum of the elementary and middle school marketplace.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ok, i'm a prospective parent. One reason i like Norwood is the real inclusion of "specials". I know my kid is smart, but i want her to like school, and particularly science, art, and music are big interests for her. How is Norwood failing to prepare in the core academics? On my tour, i saw groups of 6 or fewer kids working on reading in K. That seems good. Is it math? Are we talking about kids not being ready for a calculus-track in high school? Or just not accelerating them through to pre-calc in 8th? Because if i wanted a pressure-cooker environment, i would be looking elsewhere anyway. I want a place where my kid feels comfortable, challenged, and valued.

That teensy group might have an incompetent teacher, thus....
It is "reading riting and rithmetic", all are a problem.

We are talking about kids who are actually being hurt by ineffective teachers. There is one very good teacher in 4th grade, she works hard and does not put up with any nonsense from the kids. I like her because she is even willing to tell the parents (including myself) what the deal is. Other than that, well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is an interesting thread to me, because on so many other threads people seem to be criticizing "pressure cooker atmospheres" and homework loads. But on this one, one or more people seem to want to ratchet up the intensity (which honestly feels a little weird to me for an elementary/middle school).

My take-away is that everybody thinks they are an expert when it comes to schools and thinks they could do it better than the actual schools.

As a contributor to this thread, I respectfully disagree with your take. Or perhaps I just didn't articulate my position clearly. I don't want to ratchet up the intensity (another poster spoke of the issue with her DS & the age-inappropriateness of 4th grade science and how schools sometimes introduce age-inappropriate material in their quest for instructional excellence.) I would like Norwood to tighten up its instruction and curriculum, remove ineffective teachers (but a proper teacher evaluation process first must be put into place), and use the hours of the day more efficiently. Nowhere did I or anyone else say we sought to introduce a "pressure cooker atmosphere," increase the homework load or ratchet up the intensity. (Actually, I imagine a lot of the students whose teachers are not strong would find the pressure/stress decrease if the material were delivered by better teachers.)

But how long will that take.

[Anonymous]

But how are the teachers ineffective and how are they hurting kids? Everyone is just saying the curriculum is bad but can you give us real examples on how it is bad? How teachers are ineffective?

[Anonymous]

We have been very happy at Norwood. My oldest is already in HS and got into her first choice and is taking honors Math so she was indeed well prepared in math at Norwood. I hear a lot of people complaining about the math but I am not sure why exactly. I also think some teachers may need to go, but please that is at every school. As far as the new head and what will change, I am guessing that no major changes will take place in the first year. He needs to see how things are running for a while before he just comes in and makes broad changes. With that said, I think they are working on lessening the transitions for the little kids and fixing the daily schedule. That you may see right away. There really are no secrets about this, if you have a child at the school just head on in and ask any one of the administrators if they are planning on making any changes for next year. Schools change heads all of the time and it historically goes smoothly. You certainly cant please everyone, and you would be exhausted if you tried. For example: some people love the lower school transitions. They love their kids changing rooms, being able to get up, walk around, change the group of kids they are with every class, love the exposure to the "extras," and then you have the folks who think there kids are wasting time going from class to class. They want their children to spend more time in homeroom with the same group etc. I have heard both sides. I don't think the new guy will be able to please everyone and I certainly hope he doesn't try. I hope he does what he thinks is best for the school and for the children's education and then lets people decide whether it's the right place for them or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But how are the teachers ineffective and how are they hurting kids? Everyone is just saying the curriculum is bad but can you give us real examples on how it is bad? How teachers are ineffective?

First let me say that the teachers and staff are all very nice to the students and thus, the students love coming to school. That is very important. My child has to be pulled away from the school. I stopped allowing aftercare because he would argue and not want to come home. That is touching and I know no other institution where my kid just loved it.
However, let's move on:
The curriculum is funny. Take spelling, they ask the kids to spell some odd (advanced) words. DC has never been asked to spell the basic words. DC does have trouble with the basics though.
Same with science. Yes it is nice and hands on and so on, but I am not sure those kids know what they are doing. The science teachers are nice, smart, motivated and they all have degrees in science. I am not sure that they get what should be expected from a 9 year old. It is strange to say that DC loves science, and his teacher (perhaps a crush ), but I don't think he really gets it. I will say that his vocaulary of scientific terms is greater because of the class.
Math: no one is happy with the new text, but it is supposedly better than the old one. The teachers are going by the book, so they are not asking the kids to do anything that is not age appropriate, but they really need more time to spend on it. The early grades aren't solidifying the basics. Math instruction needs an energy boost.
Spanish: good.
Readng. They need to teach the kids how to read. The teachers need to be taught how to teach kids how to read. All kids at Norwood eventually learn how to read.
Writing is fun, but maybe too much fun. Teachers could be a lot more critical.
Grammar is OK, good text in 4th grade.
Transitions: there are many. Partly because of the specials and partly because of the ability grouping. Each transition means that kids need to readjust and settle down.
PE: very good
Art: very good.
Music: excellent.
This school has a lot going for it. I know that my child is having a happy childhood in part because of Norwood. However, at some point, childhood ends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have been very happy at Norwood. My oldest is already in HS and got into her first choice and is taking honors Math so she was indeed well prepared in math at Norwood. I hear a lot of people complaining about the math but I am not sure why exactly. I also think some teachers may need to go, but please that is at every school. As far as the new head and what will change, I am guessing that no major changes will take place in the first year. He needs to see how things are running for a while before he just comes in and makes broad changes. With that said, I think they are working on lessening the transitions for the little kids and fixing the daily schedule. That you may see right away. There really are no secrets about this, if you have a child at the school just head on in and ask any one of the administrators if they are planning on making any changes for next year. Schools change heads all of the time and it historically goes smoothly. You certainly cant please everyone, and you would be exhausted if you tried. For example: some people love the lower school transitions. They love their kids changing rooms, being able to get up, walk around, change the group of kids they are with every class, love the exposure to the "extras," and then you have the folks who think there kids are wasting time going from class to class. They want their children to spend more time in homeroom with the same group etc. I have heard both sides. I don't think the new guy will be able to please everyone and I certainly hope he doesn't try. I hope he does what he thinks is best for the school and for the children's education and then lets people decide whether it's the right place for them or not.

Given your child is in HS now - I think the reason you don't understand why some parents have problems with math at Norwood is because your child was probably exposed to a totally different math curriculum than currently exists in the lower school.

[Anonymous]

You could be right. I hadn't heard they made changes to the math curriculum except for the latest ones in the last two years. I do have other Norwood kids, but they are not in the LS any more so you could be correct.

[Anonymous]

It is hard to imagine how the lower school math curriculum can be totally different now than in the past. There are only so many ways one can add, multiply and divide.

[Anonymous]

Many LS parent I know are complaining about math - whether it's public or private school. If everyone is complaining that math at "X" school isn't where it should be, someone please tell me where its being done well and should serve as the model for all other schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many LS parent I know are complaining about math - whether it's public or private school. If everyone is complaining that math at "X" school isn't where it should be, someone please tell me where its being done well and should serve as the model for all other schools.

Finland, Japan, and Singapore....
No just kidding.
WRT Norwood, it is not any worse than before, people are just now starting to understand how much good math instruction will mean for their children, so they expect more.
To define good instruction is tricky. Some people erroneously think it means high level and calculus by age 14. That is silly. I define it as thorough understanding and good foundations which often means factual knowledge. Also, can the child do word problems?
Norwood is weak on word problems. They expect the parents to do the drilling at home (not such a bad idea, but some drilling should be done in class quickly). But they do try to get the children to understand the topics. My complaint: still too many little alternative ways to do operations which serve as a distraction.
Math at Norwood is no worse than it was 10 years ago. They are now onto the common core, but maybe the books aren't the best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have been very happy at Norwood. My oldest is already in HS and got into her first choice and is taking honors Math so she was indeed well prepared in math at Norwood. I hear a lot of people complaining about the math but I am not sure why exactly. I also think some teachers may need to go, but please that is at every school. As far as the new head and what will change, I am guessing that no major changes will take place in the first year. He needs to see how things are running for a while before he just comes in and makes broad changes. With that said, I think they are working on lessening the transitions for the little kids and fixing the daily schedule. That you may see right away. There really are no secrets about this, if you have a child at the school just head on in and ask any one of the administrators if they are planning on making any changes for next year. Schools change heads all of the time and it historically goes smoothly. You certainly cant please everyone, and you would be exhausted if you tried. For example: some people love the lower school transitions. They love their kids changing rooms, being able to get up, walk around, change the group of kids they are with every class, love the exposure to the "extras," and then you have the folks who think there kids are wasting time going from class to class. They want their children to spend more time in homeroom with the same group etc. I have heard both sides. I don't think the new guy will be able to please everyone and I certainly hope he doesn't try. I hope he does what he thinks is best for the school and for the children's education and then lets people decide whether it's the right place for them or not.

The reason people are complaining about the math is because there are problems with the math. When these kids get to high school almost none of them will be on the fastest track. That may limit some of their science choices. The school introduced common core and then developed the curriculum on the fly.

Norwood used to have a reputation for producing great math kids and that is no longer the case. The new curriculum seems intent on creating less acceleration.

[Anonymous]

Have you all checked out the Common Core Math Workbook? You can go to Haiku or google it. It is actually pretty good and the word problems are quite tricky and probe the student's level of understanding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have been very happy at Norwood. My oldest is already in HS and got into her first choice and is taking honors Math so she was indeed well prepared in math at Norwood. I hear a lot of people complaining about the math but I am not sure why exactly. I also think some teachers may need to go, but please that is at every school. As far as the new head and what will change, I am guessing that no major changes will take place in the first year. He needs to see how things are running for a while before he just comes in and makes broad changes. With that said, I think they are working on lessening the transitions for the little kids and fixing the daily schedule. That you may see right away. There really are no secrets about this, if you have a child at the school just head on in and ask any one of the administrators if they are planning on making any changes for next year. Schools change heads all of the time and it historically goes smoothly. You certainly cant please everyone, and you would be exhausted if you tried. For example: some people love the lower school transitions. They love their kids changing rooms, being able to get up, walk around, change the group of kids they are with every class, love the exposure to the "extras," and then you have the folks who think there kids are wasting time going from class to class. They want their children to spend more time in homeroom with the same group etc. I have heard both sides. I don't think the new guy will be able to please everyone and I certainly hope he doesn't try. I hope he does what he thinks is best for the school and for the children's education and then lets people decide whether it's the right place for them or not.

The reason people are complaining about the math is because there are problems with the math. When these kids get to high school almost none of them will be on the fastest track. That may limit some of their science choices. The school introduced common core and then developed the curriculum on the fly.

Norwood used to have a reputation for producing great math kids and that is no longer the case. The new curriculum seems intent on creating less acceleration.

How can you make claims like this? How do you know how they are perceived at all the schools in the area? Are you an admissions director? Or the head of a math department at a HS? Do you have meetings with all of the other HS math heads to discuss this? Perhaps your child isn't doing well in math or one or even ten people have told you that there kids aren't prepared but how are you accounting for the hundreds who have graduated in the last few years and how do you know their math and science tracks in HS? I don't know if Norwood has a problem with math, but your broad brush claims seem absurd!

[Anonymous]

PP You do not seem to understand the point of an internet forum.