Loiederman MS Magnet Program vs Tilden MS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - my 5th grader was also offered a spot at Loiderman and her home school is Tilden. She’s interested in visual arts. I’m concerned about the academics at Loiderman as well as her making friends.

OP here. I also have a child at Tilden. I am not too impressed by the academics there. They follow standard MCPS curriculum. It’s basic.

NP. Loiderman also follows standard MCPS curriculum. By letting incoming magnet 6th graders take higher classes, what they are really doing is putting them in classes with older students. The majority of my daughter's classes had 8th grade students. While some middle schools may also have a mix of grade levels, our home school for example, would primarily have a class of 6th graders above grade level, with a few 7th graders mixed in. At Loiderman it was 80% 8th graders (non-magnet), 15% 7th graders, and 5% 6th graders. There are not enough above grade level 6th graders that can easily fit into one class. Why does it matter? Perhaps it doesn't for your kid. My daughter was a very young looking 6th grader. She was treated poorly by older students, based on her size and being new. Teachers did nothing to help, and acknowledge that's it's a rough group. I volunteered and I was shocked to see how some kids treat teachers and parents. I'm not naive or easily surprised.

We pulled her and went back to our home school (which I'm not going to name, since DCUM loves to hate on our cluster). Middle school is hard, and Loiderman made it harder.

FWIW, we are mixed family, so this isn't about race or ethnicity.

Its only math they allow accelerated in less they changed it and when we did it, the bulk of the class was the same grade. It's pretty common in all schools that the kids are disrespectful. Its a parenting issue, though teachers should correct it.

Teachers are unable to correct it. If teachers try to enforce discipline in their classrooms, they are not backed up by Admin. This is a problem in many MSs around MCPS. Kids are allowed to be incredibly disrespectful towards other students and towards teachers, without facing any negative consequences for their bad behavior.

Many teachers want to be the kids friends and lack boundaries. There are lots of things you can do in the classroom to get things under control. Sure, there will always be the few bad seeds but how teachers run their classrooms is equally important. They need to stop the blame game and step up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - my 5th grader was also offered a spot at Loiderman and her home school is Tilden. She’s interested in visual arts. I’m concerned about the academics at Loiderman as well as her making friends.

OP here. I also have a child at Tilden. I am not too impressed by the academics there. They follow standard MCPS curriculum. It’s basic.

NP. Loiderman also follows standard MCPS curriculum. By letting incoming magnet 6th graders take higher classes, what they are really doing is putting them in classes with older students. The majority of my daughter's classes had 8th grade students. While some middle schools may also have a mix of grade levels, our home school for example, would primarily have a class of 6th graders above grade level, with a few 7th graders mixed in. At Loiderman it was 80% 8th graders (non-magnet), 15% 7th graders, and 5% 6th graders. There are not enough above grade level 6th graders that can easily fit into one class. Why does it matter? Perhaps it doesn't for your kid. My daughter was a very young looking 6th grader. She was treated poorly by older students, based on her size and being new. Teachers did nothing to help, and acknowledge that's it's a rough group. I volunteered and I was shocked to see how some kids treat teachers and parents. I'm not naive or easily surprised.

We pulled her and went back to our home school (which I'm not going to name, since DCUM loves to hate on our cluster). Middle school is hard, and Loiderman made it harder.

FWIW, we are mixed family, so this isn't about race or ethnicity.

Its only math they allow accelerated in less they changed it and when we did it, the bulk of the class was the same grade. It's pretty common in all schools that the kids are disrespectful. Its a parenting issue, though teachers should correct it.

Teachers are unable to correct it. If teachers try to enforce discipline in their classrooms, they are not backed up by Admin. This is a problem in many MSs around MCPS. Kids are allowed to be incredibly disrespectful towards other students and towards teachers, without facing any negative consequences for their bad behavior.

Many teachers want to be the kids friends and lack boundaries. There are lots of things you can do in the classroom to get things under control. Sure, there will always be the few bad seeds but how teachers run their classrooms is equally important. They need to stop the blame game and step up.

You sound like a parent who can't parent. No, it's time for YOU to do YOUR job. Time for YOU to step up. Trust me, I've volunteered...no teachers want to be friends with these kids, you're just wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - my 5th grader was also offered a spot at Loiderman and her home school is Tilden. She’s interested in visual arts. I’m concerned about the academics at Loiderman as well as her making friends.

OP here. I also have a child at Tilden. I am not too impressed by the academics there. They follow standard MCPS curriculum. It’s basic.

NP. Loiderman also follows standard MCPS curriculum. By letting incoming magnet 6th graders take higher classes, what they are really doing is putting them in classes with older students. The majority of my daughter's classes had 8th grade students. While some middle schools may also have a mix of grade levels, our home school for example, would primarily have a class of 6th graders above grade level, with a few 7th graders mixed in. At Loiderman it was 80% 8th graders (non-magnet), 15% 7th graders, and 5% 6th graders. There are not enough above grade level 6th graders that can easily fit into one class. Why does it matter? Perhaps it doesn't for your kid. My daughter was a very young looking 6th grader. She was treated poorly by older students, based on her size and being new. Teachers did nothing to help, and acknowledge that's it's a rough group. I volunteered and I was shocked to see how some kids treat teachers and parents. I'm not naive or easily surprised.

We pulled her and went back to our home school (which I'm not going to name, since DCUM loves to hate on our cluster). Middle school is hard, and Loiderman made it harder.

FWIW, we are mixed family, so this isn't about race or ethnicity.

Its only math they allow accelerated in less they changed it and when we did it, the bulk of the class was the same grade. It's pretty common in all schools that the kids are disrespectful. Its a parenting issue, though teachers should correct it.

Teachers are unable to correct it. If teachers try to enforce discipline in their classrooms, they are not backed up by Admin. This is a problem in many MSs around MCPS. Kids are allowed to be incredibly disrespectful towards other students and towards teachers, without facing any negative consequences for their bad behavior.

Many teachers want to be the kids friends and lack boundaries. There are lots of things you can do in the classroom to get things under control. Sure, there will always be the few bad seeds but how teachers run their classrooms is equally important. They need to stop the blame game and step up.

You sound like a parent who can't parent. No, it's time for YOU to do YOUR job. Time for YOU to step up. Trust me, I've volunteered...no teachers want to be friends with these kids, you're just wrong.

No, wrong. We very much parent. But, it's very hard when you check in on your child and teachers don't respond or work with you at all. If I find out my kid acts up at school, doesn't turn in assignments, there are consequences at home and apologies to the teacher. There is only so much you can do as a parent when you are not there with your child.

[Anonymous]

My kid absolutely had a teacher that wanted to be friends with the kids and it was a disaster. The teacher was also super disorganized and let things happen during class time and on school computers that was totally inappropriate- this was not at Loiderman but at a CES program in 4th grade. The teacher was new to MCPS totally unqualified to be teaching in the CES program based on actual performance and was subsequently moved the next year to a different school. Many parents complained but kept getting the response from Admin to just wait it out, give the teacher time to get their act together (which never happened). Meanwhile the students spent a year with a teacher that didn't have any structure, was always behind and therefore the class was always behind and learning terrible academics, plus inappropriate behavior went unchecked. You had 9yr old kids spending 6hrs per day with this adult. The adult in the room needs to provide appropriate guidance for Pete's sake. So extrapolate that to tweens/teens who's mere existence is to push boundaries and you can see how a bad teacher could create a bad environment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not worth the commute IMO unless your kid is interested in theater. Even then I'd be on the fence due to commute issues. I'm in the DCC and sent my kid to a mediocre MS, so I am not a Loiderman "hater, " just not sure it is worth the commute.

PP with happy Loiederman kid, and out of boundary. It is worth the commute for us because of the results for DC. I am sure that everyone else here wants the same thing: the best school match for the kid. We are not at all concerned about aggregate test results schoolwide, because the teaching we have experienced has been of very high quality.