PK3 Lottery- Two rivers P St vs Mundo Verde P st

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If OP is only looking at PK, they will be fine at a DCPS or TR or MV8. Btw, my kid went to JO Wilson for PK and there was virtually no screen use. I am sure they use screens a lot in upper grades (one of the reasons we left) but it's not a thing in PK. The occasional dance video, that's it. No kids on tablets, no academics taught via app, etc. It was just songs and play and art and recess, plus like 15 minutes a day if small group time to work on pre-literacy and early math skills as prep for K. It was great. I have high standards for schools and we loved JO for PK.

Past PK, the picture is more complicated. I will note that when I toured TR4, I saw multiple classrooms of 2nd and 3rd graders all in devices wearing headphones. It was an immediate no for me. And they were classes with subs. I thought it was crazy that this is what they were doing on a tour day, but at least it's honest.

Your past experience does not portray the current. Central has recently passed down mandatory academic requirements in ECE which includes the use of screens. Lots of title 1 ECE uses screens already for math and ELA.

Link to these new "mandatory academic requirements" in ECE in DCPS? I'm PP and we are only a couple years out of PK at JOW.

Also ECE includes Kindergarten. I think DCPS kindergarten is too academic, and yes, includes too much screen time (specifically iReady). But PK and K are pretty different at most DCPS schools. PK teachers in DCPS are required to have a masters in early childhood education, whereas K teachers are much less likely to have it (and often teachers flex between K, 1st, and 2nd from year to year, depending on the school needs). So there's a separation between the PK program and the K-5 program.

I would also tend to choose JOW over TR because of facilities. The JO facilities when we were there were okay but not great. I liked that the PK classrooms were in their own wing with a separate entrance for pick up and drop off. But the playground was pretty meh and the building was old. Starting in the fall they will have a brand new building including a brand new separate playground for PK that will be right off their classrooms. The new design looks really gorgeous -- check out the renderings on their website.

I was so underwhelmed by the TR facilities when we toured. I hated the idea of my kid playing on that tiny playground right up against traffic on Florida Avenue, with all the noise and air pollution from traffic -- things get really bottlenecked at Florida and 4th IME. Also having observed drop off and pick up in that area many time during my walking commute, it just looks chaotic. I'm sure TR has nurturing teachers and a perfectly good PK program (as I said, PK in DC tends to be pretty good across the board) but that building was a major turn off for me, and if I could instead send my kid to a brand new school a few blocks away with a brand new campus? It's a no brainer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If OP is only looking at PK, they will be fine at a DCPS or TR or MV8. Btw, my kid went to JO Wilson for PK and there was virtually no screen use. I am sure they use screens a lot in upper grades (one of the reasons we left) but it's not a thing in PK. The occasional dance video, that's it. No kids on tablets, no academics taught via app, etc. It was just songs and play and art and recess, plus like 15 minutes a day if small group time to work on pre-literacy and early math skills as prep for K. It was great. I have high standards for schools and we loved JO for PK.

Past PK, the picture is more complicated. I will note that when I toured TR4, I saw multiple classrooms of 2nd and 3rd graders all in devices wearing headphones. It was an immediate no for me. And they were classes with subs. I thought it was crazy that this is what they were doing on a tour day, but at least it's honest.

Your past experience does not portray the current. Central has recently passed down mandatory academic requirements in ECE which includes the use of screens. Lots of title 1 ECE uses screens already for math and ELA.

How about people's current experience? Which you also continue to discount in every thread ...

How about people just answer OP’s question instead of all the posters on here who have no kids at either school, trying to convince her to consider DCPS schools.

People are trying to tell her that TR stinks, to the point where nearby DCPS are more popular despite using more screens.

Two Rivers uses tons of screens. Tons. Not in PK but after that. Actually, you know what, scratch that, there were still a lot of screens in PK, it was just a lot of videos shown to the class instead of individual devices. Those don't bug me as much but the way TR bills itself, I actually did expect less of that.

Outside of the Montessori schools where low/no tech is a central part of the approach, charters use as many screens as DCPS, in some cases more (TR uses more).

What people don't understand about charters (I certainly didn't) is that so much of what you learn about them before your kid attends is just marketing. TR is all marketing. Their admin are sales people. It is not a good school. Sorry.

[Anonymous]

Current MV Parent here! If it's no screens you want for your Pk student... that's what you'll get. MV is very hands on for PK. They focus on lots of activities and learning through play. They do watch videos occasionally or a teacher may play songs from Youtube but nothing excessive. It's full Spanish immersion so your child will be spoken to in Spanish and be expected to speak Spanish as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless Spanish immersion is important to you, I'd do most DCPS schools over both of these for ECE, based on what I know about them.

Those schools aren't far from Seaton and JO Wilson - I'd at least check those two out. If you want Spanish immersion, Cleveland isn't far either and I have friends having a good experience there for ECE, though I've never a kid attend myself.

ECE is pretty strong across the district and then you can decide if you want to stay at the school or lottery elsewhere for K and up.

To put my response in context: I've never had a kid at either TW or Mundo. I have friends who have left both schools, and I went to a Two Rivers open house. But obviously, people with direct experience will know more.

In other words, you have no experience with either school personally and so your recommendation is useless. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless Spanish immersion is important to you, I'd do most DCPS schools over both of these for ECE, based on what I know about them.

Those schools aren't far from Seaton and JO Wilson - I'd at least check those two out. If you want Spanish immersion, Cleveland isn't far either and I have friends having a good experience there for ECE, though I've never a kid attend myself.

ECE is pretty strong across the district and then you can decide if you want to stay at the school or lottery elsewhere for K and up.

To put my response in context: I've never had a kid at either TW or Mundo. I have friends who have left both schools, and I went to a Two Rivers open house. But obviously, people with direct experience will know more.

In other words, you have no experience with either school personally and so your recommendation is useless. Thank you.

It is truly bizarre that you think only actually enrolled parents have anything worthwhile to add.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless Spanish immersion is important to you, I'd do most DCPS schools over both of these for ECE, based on what I know about them.

Those schools aren't far from Seaton and JO Wilson - I'd at least check those two out. If you want Spanish immersion, Cleveland isn't far either and I have friends having a good experience there for ECE, though I've never a kid attend myself.

ECE is pretty strong across the district and then you can decide if you want to stay at the school or lottery elsewhere for K and up.

To put my response in context: I've never had a kid at either TW or Mundo. I have friends who have left both schools, and I went to a Two Rivers open house. But obviously, people with direct experience will know more.

In other words, you have no experience with either school personally and so your recommendation is useless. Thank you.

It is truly bizarre that you think only actually enrolled parents have anything worthwhile to add.

NP. It’s bizarre that OP is asking specifically about 2 charters and DCPS families always jumping in trying to recommend their school or other DCPS schools. It is not what OP is asking.

Charter families don’t do this except maybe for the Basis folks.

What is it? Do you guys have an inferiority complex or are so desperate to recruit families to your school or DCPS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless Spanish immersion is important to you, I'd do most DCPS schools over both of these for ECE, based on what I know about them.

Those schools aren't far from Seaton and JO Wilson - I'd at least check those two out. If you want Spanish immersion, Cleveland isn't far either and I have friends having a good experience there for ECE, though I've never a kid attend myself.

ECE is pretty strong across the district and then you can decide if you want to stay at the school or lottery elsewhere for K and up.

To put my response in context: I've never had a kid at either TW or Mundo. I have friends who have left both schools, and I went to a Two Rivers open house. But obviously, people with direct experience will know more.

In other words, you have no experience with either school personally and so your recommendation is useless. Thank you.

It is truly bizarre that you think only actually enrolled parents have anything worthwhile to add.

NP. It’s bizarre that OP is asking specifically about 2 charters and DCPS families always jumping in trying to recommend their school or other DCPS schools. It is not what OP is asking.

Charter families don’t do this except maybe for the Basis folks.

What is it? Do you guys have an inferiority complex or are so desperate to recruit families to your school or DCPS?

Not at all, I just think it's silly to be so restrictive. People who seriously considered the school but went elsewhere likely have worthwhile information and are not likely to be booster-ish. Then of course there are people who know the school well as staff, or through volunteering or something, despite not being parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless Spanish immersion is important to you, I'd do most DCPS schools over both of these for ECE, based on what I know about them.

Those schools aren't far from Seaton and JO Wilson - I'd at least check those two out. If you want Spanish immersion, Cleveland isn't far either and I have friends having a good experience there for ECE, though I've never a kid attend myself.

ECE is pretty strong across the district and then you can decide if you want to stay at the school or lottery elsewhere for K and up.

To put my response in context: I've never had a kid at either TW or Mundo. I have friends who have left both schools, and I went to a Two Rivers open house. But obviously, people with direct experience will know more.

In other words, you have no experience with either school personally and so your recommendation is useless. Thank you.

It is truly bizarre that you think only actually enrolled parents have anything worthwhile to add.

NP. It’s bizarre that OP is asking specifically about 2 charters and DCPS families always jumping in trying to recommend their school or other DCPS schools. It is not what OP is asking.

Charter families don’t do this except maybe for the Basis folks.

What is it? Do you guys have an inferiority complex or are so desperate to recruit families to your school or DCPS?

This is definitely not true. There's a DCI poster who brings DCI up on every thread that even tangential mentions middle school or high school. Also, there are a million parents who jump in to say that some particular DCPS school someone is asking about is horrible and only the charter schools are remotely viable or you have to move to the burbs. I think some of these folks are well intentioned and others are just stirring for the sake of it, but it definitely doesn't split along charter vs non-charter lines.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless Spanish immersion is important to you, I'd do most DCPS schools over both of these for ECE, based on what I know about them.

Those schools aren't far from Seaton and JO Wilson - I'd at least check those two out. If you want Spanish immersion, Cleveland isn't far either and I have friends having a good experience there for ECE, though I've never a kid attend myself.

ECE is pretty strong across the district and then you can decide if you want to stay at the school or lottery elsewhere for K and up.

To put my response in context: I've never had a kid at either TW or Mundo. I have friends who have left both schools, and I went to a Two Rivers open house. But obviously, people with direct experience will know more.

In other words, you have no experience with either school personally and so your recommendation is useless. Thank you.

It is truly bizarre that you think only actually enrolled parents have anything worthwhile to add.

NP. It’s bizarre that OP is asking specifically about 2 charters and DCPS families always jumping in trying to recommend their school or other DCPS schools. It is not what OP is asking.

Charter families don’t do this except maybe for the Basis folks.

What is it? Do you guys have an inferiority complex or are so desperate to recruit families to your school or DCPS?

Charter families absolutely post in threads about DCPS.

Also, I posted upthread and we are a former TR4 family who is now at a DCPS. We left because we didn't like TR and have been much happier at DCPS. I actually think this makes me very qualified to provide feedback to OP, and I feel comfortable encouraging her to investigate DCPS options over TR4 because I think she will actually be happier at a DCPS based on what she's shared (I didn't comment on MV because I have no experience with it, and also the immersion aspect makes that less of a 1:1 comparison the way TR is).

As someone who has experience with both charters and DCPS, it is my general observation that charter families can be clueless about DCPS and that there are a lot of false narratives about DCPS that get circulated among charter schools. For instance, we have good friends we knew at TR4 who decamped for suburbs the year before we left for DCPS. These friends *still* have misconceptions about DCPS based on their time at TR4, even when we've explained to them that it's really not the case based on our actual experience in a DCPS school. There is a lot of indoctrination at TR, and I suspect other charters, and part of that is painting DCPS as some kind of bogeyman to be avoided at all costs.

I don't have to recruit people to our DCPS because it has high IB enrollment and is considered a pretty desirable school with a good MS feed.