Capital City?

[Anonymous]

No Textbooks.
No Tests.
No Real Grades.

That makes Cap City.
I know a kid who went to Cap City for 8 years, he is always done with his homework, and never has to study. He really doesn't get grade (he's in 10th grade), has never taken a serious test (at the school), and doesn't have a single textbook. As with any non-regulated school, the teachers are hit and miss, some are actually good while others should find a new profession. Do you want your kid to succeed in college and beyond, don't go here, you want your child to be babied, go here.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:No Textbooks.
No Tests.
No Real Grades.

That makes Cap City.
I know a kid who went to Cap City for 8 years, he is always done with his homework, and never has to study. He really doesn't get grade (he's in 10th grade), has never taken a serious test (at the school), and doesn't have a single textbook. As with any non-regulated school, the teachers are hit and miss, some are actually good while others should find a new profession. Do you want your kid to succeed in college and beyond, don't go here, you want your child to be babied, go here.

I know a kid who went to Cap City for 7 years. He is my son. It is true that he had no textbooks. While he was not graded on a traditional scale, he was graded. He was repeatedly evaluated -- it just wasn't called testing -- and subject to DC CAS and other tests. As a previous poster did a great job of explaining, Capital City cannot viewed the same as a traditional school. The bottom line for me as a parent is not whether the school uses the same teaching methods as other schools, but whether the students learn as much or more than students at traditional schools. Based on standardized testing (a measure I would not normally trust and you are free not to) and his performance alongside children from top DCPS elementary schools in his current school, I can affirmatively say that he was prepared quite well.

I am not sure that you are in a position to judge whether or not the school prepares students to succeed in college because I believe you are fixated on methods rather than outcomes. You have not actually demonstrated any knowledge of outcomes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No Textbooks.
No Tests.
No Real Grades.

That makes Cap City.
I know a kid who went to Cap City for 8 years, he is always done with his homework, and never has to study. He really doesn't get grade (he's in 10th grade), has never taken a serious test (at the school), and doesn't have a single textbook. As with any non-regulated school, the teachers are hit and miss, some are actually good while others should find a new profession. Do you want your kid to succeed in college and beyond, don't go here, you want your child to be babied, go here.

Regarding "No Real Grades", I have personal expereince at lower grades at CCPCS and another school within the DC System. I have received the Teaching Strategies Gold based report card and this said nothing about my child. In contrast, I found the CCPCS report card a fair representation of my child with some clear specific items that my child needed to worked on.

I am happy that at the lower grades CCPCS does not have homework every night like DCPS does. I have peers (in JKLM school) who start the homework battles at K - how is that teaching a child to love learning?

And regarding text books - I would much prefer to have the monies spent on other materials than texbooks like the ones that were being used in Virginia to teach state history. These books had been fact checked - and stated that thousands of black soliders fought for the Confederacy during the civil war.

[Anonymous]

A new question regarding Cap City's upper grades: Does the physical activity component continue in upper grades, and how robust is it?

We were in the 200s on the waitlist, so in a way it's all moot. What had sold me the most on Cap City, though, was being told that the physical activity (swimming for the PK/K kids) was designed to push kids--that is, by trying hard at something physical they'd open up to pushing themselves in other ways, too. Do folks find that this actually happens? And does it happen all the way through?

My husband & I were both "gifted" kids, doing things way ahead of our peers, but it hasn't made any sort of difference in our lives. Our son seems to be similarly "gifted," but I think that what he actually needs in order to succeed is the ability to challenge himself and not to fear new things.

[Anonymous]

The physical activity does continue in the upper grades. I can't remember if they do swimming during the day though. I know swimming is offered after school, as are a bunch of other physical activities.