Are Other Upper School Students at Potomac Not Getting Tests and Papers Back for Weeks at a Time?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t we hear this kind of thing about other schools though? Are the Saint Albans academic awards pure meritocracy? Does Sidwell help every student with college equally? Is GDS not filled with children of Ivy grads? Et cetera.

Even if the case that a subjective selection is through its very nature (humans decide) intrinsically flawed, it is no different from what many schools do for a variety of reasons. I would want to know more about the selection process.

Stop deflecting.

Not trying to deflect and not a Potomac parent. Just think it’s a broader conversation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t we hear this kind of thing about other schools though? Are the Saint Albans academic awards pure meritocracy? Does Sidwell help every student with college equally? Is GDS not filled with children of Ivy grads? Et cetera.

Even if the case that a subjective selection is through its very nature (humans decide) intrinsically flawed, it is no different from what many schools do for a variety of reasons. I would want to know more about the selection process.

These are separate formal programs within the school that students apply for with applications and interviews in 10th grade. Only about ten are accepted into each program so about 30 students of a class of about 125 benefit. It is not open to all, and the criteria is not transparent. The students in these programs are fast tracked with combined and extra classes, have access to field trips (pre-Covid) and speakers, and receive additional mentoring on applying for research positions. I pay the same tuition as the parents of students in these programs even though their children are receiving a better, more tailored and enhanced experience than my child. If my child wants to participate and does not get accepted to one of these programs, the burden is on her to do research on her own, do her own projects, ask for help from teachers where as the students accepted do this as part of their coursework. In many ways, it creates a divide, and the halo effect of the programs carries over to other classes, college counseling and other opportunities. For example, the students in the science program are coached to produce research submitted to national competitions. These research opportunities make them more competitive for colleges and other programs. It is a micro Gladwell effect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Current parent of a senior at Potomac and while no school is perfect our experience at Potomac has been pretty great. I honestly believe that many - not all - of the parents complaining in this thread are ones who thought their kid was brilliant and going to be a straight A student in HS but, when he or she got to Potomac and isn’t, these parents freak out. They can’t handle it. They want to find anyone to blame.

The truth is Potomac US is very intense, very rigorous, and straight As are not common, especially when compared to public schools, even the best publics. The US students have to be very well organized and totally on their game every single day. Getting an A means a lot of work and perseverance. It’s not enough just to be smart.

- From parents whose kid is Not a Lifer & who have experience at other top privates in DC.

New to the US this year. In light of your experience at several schools, including Potomac, can you share whether you think the specific criticisms offered on this thread about lack of feedback, transparency and timeliness on assignments on the part of some teachers are warranted and, if so, is the problem any more widespread than at other comparable schools? We turned down several DC schools including in big 3 and hoping it was the right choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t we hear this kind of thing about other schools though? Are the Saint Albans academic awards pure meritocracy? Does Sidwell help every student with college equally? Is GDS not filled with children of Ivy grads? Et cetera.

Even if the case that a subjective selection is through its very nature (humans decide) intrinsically flawed, it is no different from what many schools do for a variety of reasons. I would want to know more about the selection process.

These are separate formal programs within the school that students apply for with applications and interviews in 10th grade. Only about ten are accepted into each program so about 30 students of a class of about 125 benefit. It is not open to all, and the criteria is not transparent. The students in these programs are fast tracked with combined and extra classes, have access to field trips (pre-Covid) and speakers, and receive additional mentoring on applying for research positions. I pay the same tuition as the parents of students in these programs even though their children are receiving a better, more tailored and enhanced experience than my child. If my child wants to participate and does not get accepted to one of these programs, the burden is on her to do research on her own, do her own projects, ask for help from teachers where as the students accepted do this as part of their coursework. In many ways, it creates a divide, and the halo effect of the programs carries over to other classes, college counseling and other opportunities. For example, the students in the science program are coached to produce research submitted to national competitions. These research opportunities make them more competitive for colleges and other programs. It is a micro Gladwell effect.

So either DC didn’t apply to the program, in which case you have no legit complaint, or
DC did apply but was not up to snuff, so you have no legit complaint.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t we hear this kind of thing about other schools though? Are the Saint Albans academic awards pure meritocracy? Does Sidwell help every student with college equally? Is GDS not filled with children of Ivy grads? Et cetera.

Even if the case that a subjective selection is through its very nature (humans decide) intrinsically flawed, it is no different from what many schools do for a variety of reasons. I would want to know more about the selection process.

These are separate formal programs within the school that students apply for with applications and interviews in 10th grade. Only about ten are accepted into each program so about 30 students of a class of about 125 benefit. It is not open to all, and the criteria is not transparent. The students in these programs are fast tracked with combined and extra classes, have access to field trips (pre-Covid) and speakers, and receive additional mentoring on applying for research positions. I pay the same tuition as the parents of students in these programs even though their children are receiving a better, more tailored and enhanced experience than my child. If my child wants to participate and does not get accepted to one of these programs, the burden is on her to do research on her own, do her own projects, ask for help from teachers where as the students accepted do this as part of their coursework. In many ways, it creates a divide, and the halo effect of the programs carries over to other classes, college counseling and other opportunities. For example, the students in the science program are coached to produce research submitted to national competitions. These research opportunities make them more competitive for colleges and other programs. It is a micro Gladwell effect.

Wow, that’s BS. I read about these programs and how selective they are. But I assumed selective meant “apply and have good grades and teacher recs” not that they cap the program so stringently. Yeah if I’m paying $40-50k for tuition I wouldn’t want my qualified child to be excluded due to artificial space constraints. I could go to public school for that!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t we hear this kind of thing about other schools though? Are the Saint Albans academic awards pure meritocracy? Does Sidwell help every student with college equally? Is GDS not filled with children of Ivy grads? Et cetera.

Even if the case that a subjective selection is through its very nature (humans decide) intrinsically flawed, it is no different from what many schools do for a variety of reasons. I would want to know more about the selection process.

These are separate formal programs within the school that students apply for with applications and interviews in 10th grade. Only about ten are accepted into each program so about 30 students of a class of about 125 benefit. It is not open to all, and the criteria is not transparent. The students in these programs are fast tracked with combined and extra classes, have access to field trips (pre-Covid) and speakers, and receive additional mentoring on applying for research positions. I pay the same tuition as the parents of students in these programs even though their children are receiving a better, more tailored and enhanced experience than my child. If my child wants to participate and does not get accepted to one of these programs, the burden is on her to do research on her own, do her own projects, ask for help from teachers where as the students accepted do this as part of their coursework. In many ways, it creates a divide, and the halo effect of the programs carries over to other classes, college counseling and other opportunities. For example, the students in the science program are coached to produce research submitted to national competitions. These research opportunities make them more competitive for colleges and other programs. It is a micro Gladwell effect.

Wow, that’s BS. I read about these programs and how selective they are. But I assumed selective meant “apply and have good grades and teacher recs” not that they cap the program so stringently. Yeah if I’m paying $40-50k for tuition I wouldn’t want my qualified child to be excluded due to artificial space constraints. I could go to public school for that!

And understand this as well: they know full well who they will admit and who they won't ahead of time. Kids are put into buckets very early on and left out of advanced classes the rest of US, given Bs and Cs regardless of the quality of work by many teachers. They need the very top kids to stand out fully, so the rest are left looking mediocre not matter how hard they try.

[Anonymous]

Even the “mediocre” at Potomac are still doing well with college admissions so they do still advocate for those kids too. Maybe Covid helped with the test optional also, but a lot of kids are punching way above their weight these past 2 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child has had at least 6 teachers who consistently return work weeks or months late.

Ditto. Potomac Parent.

[Anonymous]

I went to a private K-8 that made these decisions about who would score well and who would not. It was very demoralizing, they did share who scored where on standardized exams where I scored at the top, but was treated with less than by the teachers who had previously taught at a ‘gifted’ school that I had not attended. I was always confused why some of teachers and admin treated me with such scorn and so critical of my work, compared so some of the others. But this explanation makes sense as to what may have been going on. Moving to another HS was very helpful for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can't speak to US, but in IS the grades come back in a jiffy--including lengthy essays/papers in English, History etc. So it seems that Potomac knows how to do this in a timely fashion, and maybe just needs to administer common protocols across the various divisions.

This seems like a fairly tame request to bring up to administration. I don't think you need to be fearful of bringing this type of thing up to the divsion head. It's certainly not going to get solved by complaining here.

Any issue I have brought to administration within iS has been dealt with pretty swiftly (and trust me--we are nobodies with zero influence)...I have found admin pretty responsive to parent concerns.

I’m an IS parent and have had a totally different experience - particularly DC’s English class. For two years DC’s English grades came rolling in during the last weeks of the semester - some for assignments given in the beginning of the semester. I was shocked both years by the total lack pf transparency in grading and when I’d ask DC how she was doing her truthful answer was, “I have no idea.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Guys this thread is so distasteful. Don’t you have a parent listserv? I can’t believe parents would start a public thread to vent about their school and name teachers.

NP-no, nothing like that exists. There are lot of threads about Potomac lately because parents are frustrated and are dealing with admin who either ignore issues or give lip service and nothing changes. Potomac has a real problem with a lack of consistent standards and accountability.

In the division leading to the US, it is so much worse- no grade transparency at all and grades not released until the end of term. The midpoint update is just qualitative observations. Some teachers never returned HW at all and we had teachers who didn't return tests at all or until end of term. I don't know why it is such a mess but honestly teacher morale doesn't seem to be great either. There seem to be a lot of admin with vague responsibilities. Perhaps teachers are tasked with a lot of useless meetings or are overloaded with covid and backfill tasks?

Anyone with a business background who pays attention quickly observes signs of mismanagement. Communications from the school to parents focus on fundraising and feel-good features highlighting talents of exceptional kids who largely became excellent outside of school.

Parents who have been around a long time stop donating, stop volunteering, and simply try to help kids deal with the challenges. Many of us have had too many experiences where we advocate and either nothing changes or worse, worry about downstream implications for the kid. It's not a healthy dynamic and I do regret not trusting my concerns sooner and moving DC out.

Wow, this is pretty terrible. We applied to both Langley and Potomac for K. Thinking now maybe we should stick to L even if we get in P? Having the same school all throughout is attractive, but the tuition money isn’t meaningless for us so we wouldn’t feel happy if we were getting this.

Side note: they sent us the fall alumni magazine. Recent alums and current students don’t seem that impressive…

Do what is best for your kid but know there are many Langley transfers to Potomac. Not so much the other way. There is a reason.

Langley is a great school. But, it’s not Potomac…I can only speak to Lower Mid and Is- but response time from admin has never been more than 24 hours. And often it’s same day. I have been able to forge personal relationships with each administrator (I am not a big donator). Grades don’t exist in lower and Middle but my kids get all their work back with qualitative comments in a timely fashion. Most work needs a parent signature to ensure child discusses errors with parent. In IS all tests come back graded and parents have to sign. So I have no idea what the PP is taking about that the division leading up to IS is non responsive. The write ups at report card time are literally page long essays (most recent one was 6 pages) with so much depth- not just check the box…

IS parent here. I have never been asked to sign anything related to DC since 5th grade math assessments. NOT ONE SINGLE THING. DC progress report this year consisted of a few scribbled generic sentences per class. Nothing like the narratives we received in LS and MS. DC is in 8th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Guys this thread is so distasteful. Don’t you have a parent listserv? I can’t believe parents would start a public thread to vent about their school and name teachers.

As a prospective family - I appreciate it. I never in a million years would’ve thought to even ask about this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Guys this thread is so distasteful. Don’t you have a parent listserv? I can’t believe parents would start a public thread to vent about their school and name teachers.

NP-no, nothing like that exists. There are lot of threads about Potomac lately because parents are frustrated and are dealing with admin who either ignore issues or give lip service and nothing changes. Potomac has a real problem with a lack of consistent standards and accountability.

In the division leading to the US, it is so much worse- no grade transparency at all and grades not released until the end of term. The midpoint update is just qualitative observations. Some teachers never returned HW at all and we had teachers who didn't return tests at all or until end of term. I don't know why it is such a mess but honestly teacher morale doesn't seem to be great either. There seem to be a lot of admin with vague responsibilities. Perhaps teachers are tasked with a lot of useless meetings or are overloaded with covid and backfill tasks?

Anyone with a business background who pays attention quickly observes signs of mismanagement. Communications from the school to parents focus on fundraising and feel-good features highlighting talents of exceptional kids who largely became excellent outside of school.

Parents who have been around a long time stop donating, stop volunteering, and simply try to help kids deal with the challenges. Many of us have had too many experiences where we advocate and either nothing changes or worse, worry about downstream implications for the kid. It's not a healthy dynamic and I do regret not trusting my concerns sooner and moving DC out.

Wow, this is pretty terrible. We applied to both Langley and Potomac for K. Thinking now maybe we should stick to L even if we get in P? Having the same school all throughout is attractive, but the tuition money isn’t meaningless for us so we wouldn’t feel happy if we were getting this.

Side note: they sent us the fall alumni magazine. Recent alums and current students don’t seem that impressive…

Do what is best for your kid but know there are many Langley transfers to Potomac. Not so much the other way. There is a reason.

Langley is a great school. But, it’s not Potomac…I can only speak to Lower Mid and Is- but response time from admin has never been more than 24 hours. And often it’s same day. I have been able to forge personal relationships with each administrator (I am not a big donator). Grades don’t exist in lower and Middle but my kids get all their work back with qualitative comments in a timely fashion. Most work needs a parent signature to ensure child discusses errors with parent. In IS all tests come back graded and parents have to sign. So I have no idea what the PP is taking about that the division leading up to IS is non responsive. The write ups at report card time are literally page long essays (most recent one was 6 pages) with so much depth- not just check the box…

IS parent here. I have never been asked to sign anything related to DC since 5th grade math assessments. NOT ONE SINGLE THING. DC progress report this year consisted of a few scribbled generic sentences per class. Nothing like the narratives we received in LS and MS. DC is in 8th grade.

All I can say is that this is vastly different than our experience. We have multiple kids at the school so different teachers each with the same experience. Starting in 4th, I have had to sign all major math tests and review DCs explanation of what they got wrong. In IS we received small write ups from the teachers along the way if my DC did something good or not so good (delivered by the advisor--I think they are called academic notices). The report cards have been like a novel--with a paragraph for each subject. 2-3 sentences on generally what they are doing, and then detail on what my DC specifically was doing/performing. Our 30 minute conference with the advisor was in depth with examples of work. I've also requested separate time with specialists which has been equally productive. Maybe there is just variation by teacher or academic track. No idea. All I can speak to is our experience. In particular English has been incredibly strong for my DC. While I don't have to sign anything there, my child shows me the assignments (at my request) and the progress has been very strong (and the ERB score jumped noticably in IS).

[Anonymous]

The prior posts are garbled to the extent that they are unclear whether poster is talking about Langley or Potomac. But we had 3 go through Potomac and never were asked to sign anything

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The prior posts are garbled to the extent that they are unclear whether poster is talking about Langley or Potomac. But we had 3 go through Potomac and never were asked to sign anything

So weird how two parents at the same school had such different experiences! Different time periods? No overlap in teachers? Someone lying?