Dogwood Elementary (or other Reston public schools)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:which in this school's case is why I REALLY think they need to reach out to the local community and explain that a neighborhood school where half the neighborhood runs scared from the school cannot function properly. There are several neighborhoods that feed into this school that are by NO means high povery and/or full of minority students. That is what is really bugging me about this. The better off part of the neighborhood has abandonned the school. That isn't what the NCLB sanctions were SUPPOSED to do, but it is how they have played out.

You may be right that NCLB exacerbates the problem it was intended to address. My understanding, however, is that the school did reach out to in-boundary parents last summer before school started and appealed to them to keep their kids at Dogwood and not avail of the transfer options.

Keep in mind, however, that it's rather challenging to craft the sort of message you might like the school to convey. If the message comes across primarily as an appeal to the high-income parents, the administration would surely get slammed. And telling the local parents that the school can't function properly without them could send even more of them running to the exits. Parents in this area are very conservative when it comes to their children's education. They don't want to be told that they or their children are the solution to someone else's problem; they want to hear instead that their kids will have every opportunity at school to maximize their learning potential.

obviously, it would be a very delicate balancing act of how to craft a message, and if you say they already have tried to reach out to the local parents, good. I have a feeling more of that needs to occur as the sanctions are lifted. I'm not the communications director, so I am just saying what it looks like to me as an outsider looking in. Not everyone can afford private schools, so not having the transfer option should help to decrease the disturbing differences between this school's demographics and the demographics of the surrounding area. And as I said earlier, it made me so very sad to hear a friend of mine actually mad that this school was now PASSING their exams. That should be a good sign, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
obviously, it would be a very delicate balancing act of how to craft a message, and if you say they already have tried to reach out to the local parents, good. I have a feeling more of that needs to occur as the sanctions are lifted. I'm not the communications director, so I am just saying what it looks like to me as an outsider looking in. Not everyone can afford private schools, so not having the transfer option should help to decrease the disturbing differences between this school's demographics and the demographics of the surrounding area. And as I said earlier, it made me so very sad to hear a friend of mine actually mad that this school was now PASSING their exams. That should be a good sign, right?

Yes. And many people probably don't know the intricacies of NCLB, so they don't understand what trip-wires can lead a school not to make AYP to begin with. There are some highly regarded schools that don't make AYP from time to time, but because they aren't Title I schools, they aren't at risk of having to offer a transfer option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
obviously, it would be a very delicate balancing act of how to craft a message, and if you say they already have tried to reach out to the local parents, good. I have a feeling more of that needs to occur as the sanctions are lifted. I'm not the communications director, so I am just saying what it looks like to me as an outsider looking in. Not everyone can afford private schools, so not having the transfer option should help to decrease the disturbing differences between this school's demographics and the demographics of the surrounding area. And as I said earlier, it made me so very sad to hear a friend of mine actually mad that this school was now PASSING their exams. That should be a good sign, right?

Yes. And many people probably don't know the intricacies of NCLB, so they don't understand what trip-wires can lead a school not to make AYP to begin with. There are some highly regarded schools that don't make AYP from time to time, but because they aren't Title I schools, they aren't at risk of having to offer a transfer option.

Exactly. I used to work at an ed association, and got to dig into the school report cards from time to time. There are schools that don't make AYP because ONE kid didn't show up on test day. One kid's absent and the school misses the attendance threshold, thereby "failing," even if the whole school passes every test with flying colors. Absolute freaking insanity.

[Anonymous]

I am a parent in a neighborhood that feeds into Dogwood. We purchased our home before we had children due to the large lot sizes (.5 acre) and large homes. For the poster who said homes sit, that was true during the severe sag in the market, but it was that way everywhere. Houses are selling in a matter of weeks now.

When my oldest started ES a number of years ago, I spent many many hours agonizing over this decision. At the time, he was well ahead of his peers (reading chapter books, doing math), our main concern was that he would not be challenged. We were also concerned that since there were not a ton of kids his age in our neighborhood at the time, he would be socially isolated by not being a Spanish speaker. This was a complaint of a few of our neighbors with older children. Truth be told, as a former public school teacher, it was really against what I believed in to opt out, but alas, we thought we knew what was going to be best for our son. We used the NCLB opt out option. We do not have to reapply every year, he is guaranteed to stay there through Elementary school. He ended up at Crossfield, which if one is looking just at test scores, performs extremely well. Siblings are not grandfathered in, so as a prior poster mentioned, if they pass again this year, the opt out option goes away. Our oldest would lose his transportation, but would be allowed to remain. If we decided to send or little ones (we have rising Kindergartners the next two years)

I can say, though his experience has been good, we now feel we made a mistake, and likely intend to send our younger two to Dogwood for a few reasons.

As a prior poster mentioned, Dogwood has a full time AAP teacher (Advanced Academic). Crossfield has someone 2-days a week. Crossfield has a much higher number of children who are taking advantage of these opportunities, which in my opinion, at Crossfield, are minimal. I have known quite a few parents from Dogwood whose children are found eligible for Level IV placement, who choose to stay at Dogwood due to the high level of differentiation.

From the social standpoint, we have found that our son's social life mostly revolves around sports. Since he does not attend his "neighborhood school" he is not fostering relationships with our neighbors (with the exeception of immediate ones, and sports buddies).

One of the biggest reasons is class size. Our oldest is ina class of 30 this year. Dogwood has classes ranging from 15 to a max in the low 20's.

What has changed, is the # of young families. AS houses sell, they are going to young families, so more children are feeding into the school.

I could go on and on about this.....

[Anonymous]

I'm glad to read the latest post. I have a DS that will be in Dogwood in 2012. After much agonizing about the school, I've come to accept that its probably not as bad as I think it will be. I have the same reasons as to why I feel the school will be good for my kids. The AP teacher is one and hopefully they will get to bond with kids in the neighborhood too. If the school ends up not working, then I will look into a transfer at that time. I don't think our house values have been impacted either. Houses on my street sell pretty quickly as the prices are reasonable for the amount of house and land you get.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have to decide if you feel comfortable being the "minority" in a school that has 16% white kids, and that is your decision to make. But, the stats would suggest that there is nothing wrong with the teaching at Dogwood.

Just be aware about bullying. My DD attended a "less than desirable school" in FCPS (not Dogwood) and, as a non-Spanish speaker, was bullied in 1st and 2nd grades by classmates that spoke Spanish. They would laugh at her at recess and in the hallways, talking about her (in Spanish) behind her back, etc. The teacher was aware and spoke to the girls but the bullying continued. Thankfully DD no longer attends that school, and is now at another FCPS elementary school and is quite happy (and not bullied).

I personally experienced this situation myself as a child in a diverse elem school in CA. I am white and the majority of the students at my elementary school were african american and hispanic. Although I think the experience made me more comfortable then some with all different sorts of people, as a child it was very difficult at times. My family had much more money than most of the families I went to school with. Most families at my school were low-income. I was smarter than a lot of the kids.It was hard to feel like I really fit in and I felt excluded at times. There was a lot of jealousy on the part of the other girls about the fact I had Guess Jeans, of all things, for example.
The experience of going to school there for 6 years had a profound effect on me that I am only now realizing as an adult. I am still dealing with the issue that I automatically feel I should downplay myself so as not to make anyone jealous.
So please do think about using your children to start a trend, when they are the ones who have to go to a school which might feel hostile at times.

[Anonymous]

I have some first hand experience with this school, though have not been there since 2008. I would say that in all, you'll get just as good an education there as you will elsewhere. No, the students are not a homogeneous population, and yes, there is poverty and diversity, but when did those become bad things? The quality of the staff is excellent, and the teachers that are there are there because they care and they want to be there. The principal is fantastic and really knows the school and her students.