Beauvoir

[JamaicaMama]

Anonymous wrote:[

In terms of diversity, there is ethnic, religious, and socio economic diversity, but limited. I heard, and I'm not sure this is true but I found it to be true in my daughter's classes, that they "herd" the black children. Before people have an attack over that one, I mean to say that if they put a black girl in one class, they put another one in there with her too, to make sure the black children have other children of the same sex that look like them. I think it's a little silly, but I can tell you with my daughter, it was either no black children or 4 black children every year.

I actually think that grouping the minority children is a great idea. It would be great it there were enough children to make this step unnecessary, but its a novel approach and I like it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We all know Beauvoir is one of the competitive DC Independent Schools!! Would current parents please share your thoughts positive and negative about the school - administration, curriculum, staff professional development, school culture and community, teaching, diversity, and how new K students are transitioned in. Thank - you in advance.

I have a child who left Beauvoir (finished Beauvoir) so I have insight into the whole experience from start to finish. The finish is actually important, because the children leave after 3rd grade and you need to know what Beauvoir does to help you transition to another school.

Overall, I think Beauvoir is a good school, but I think it depends enormously on the teachers you get. Some things about Beauvoir are common to any classroom: the use of "life rules", the yearly preparation for "museum night" which entails months of integrated study of a country by each grade (integrated study, in the classroom, through music, through art, etc), chapel services, etc. These things have really defined Beauvoir, and I think they are honestly great. But the quality of the teachers can vary a bit, and I know this was an issue at the end of every year (hunting down other parents to find out which teachers of the next grade were good). I don't think there were any true duds (most had really strong educations, and of course there was a set curriculum), but I feel like there were a lot of teacher requests, which either speaks to super hyper parents or to some red flags about a few teachers. Moreover, Beauvoir suffers from a high degree of teacher turnover. Having said that, my child landed into 4 out of 5 great classrooms (and one mediocre).

On the education (outside the teacher) I will say that despite its incredible reputation, the school my daughter now goes to specifically mentioned that Beauvoir kids come in weak on math. So that's something they obviously need to address.

The parent body is on the surface very nice. On the surface. It's like any school, I'm sure. You have nice parents, and then you have parents whose every conversation with you is an attempt to figure out where your child is placed to their child (academically), what your social status is, etc. I found it easy to find a nice group of parents, and found it easy to be friendly to everyone regardless.

In terms of diversity, there is ethnic, religious, and socio economic diversity, but limited. I heard, and I'm not sure this is true but I found it to be true in my daughter's classes, that they "herd" the black children. Before people have an attack over that one, I mean to say that if they put a black girl in one class, they put another one in there with her too, to make sure the black children have other children of the same sex that look like them. I think it's a little silly, but I can tell you with my daughter, it was either no black children or 4 black children every year.

On outplacement, they have an outplacement director who will provide guidance and at least give you feedback of where you stand. Some call her the weatherman...she can only deliver the weather, she can't change it...but nonetheless there is someone there to see you through the process. And of course, Beauvoir feeds into the other cathedral schools which is nothing to sneeze at.

On the whole we were happy, but we would change things if we could.

Thank you for posting this. It's very helpful. Real, specific info on one of the mythologized schools. Helps put things in perspective.

[Anonymous]

One of the PP suggested that Beauvoir has a great deal of teacher turnerover each year; please comment on the reasons this happens and when you state turnover do you mean one or two teachers or over 5 teachers. Why are some teachers more effective than others (do they plan together as a team to ensure students are receiving the same instruction) and what does administration do to solve this? What role does the Associate Teacher play in the Beauvoir classroom?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of the PP suggested that Beauvoir has a great deal of teacher turnerover each year; please comment on the reasons this happens and when you state turnover do you mean one or two teachers or over 5 teachers. Why are some teachers more effective than others (do they plan together as a team to ensure students are receiving the same instruction) and what does administration do to solve this? What role does the Associate Teacher play in the Beauvoir classroom?

Regarding teacher turnover, I don't have statistics. I can only say during my DD's time there, there were three different years between K and 3 where the grade (composed of 4 teachers) lost 1-2 teachers (I think 1 teacher 2 of the years, and 2 teachers 1 of the years). That creates somewhat of a panic if your child is entering a year where the teacher is new (I don't think anyone wants new teachers). And to as to why that is, I don't know.

I know the associate teachers are wonderful stabilizers in the class. No matter what, you have this other teacher who remains the same (though generally the real teaching and authority comes from only the primary teacher...the associate seems to be an organizer, a reader to the children during breaks, etc. Not an instructor).

I know the curriculum is posted somewhere and the studies that the children have are generally consistent (they will all be able to refer to common educational elements, such as common projects and field trips, complete consistency in all resource classes, and common core elements of the curriculum). But there will be differences in terms of homework (huge differences), and in terms of how much reading is done in the classroom (and how it is done...some will use reading groups, others will not). There is some grouping of children across classes by math level, so some children will go into another class to learn math with kids at the same level (which I think is helpful).

[Anonymous]

It seems that all teachers would do reading groups in order to ensure students receive reading instruction on their reading level. How does one effectively teach reading when students may be on different levels; some children begin school reading other are just learning reading readiness skills such as letter, vowel, and blend sounds. I think that should be a non-negotiable across grade levels. Can current or past parents please speak to reading instruction at Beauvoir. Thank - you

[Anonymous]

I wrote before (so this isn't a different mom). I was extremely surprised to find out they didn't do reading groups (as they did in my childhood). I know for 3rd grade my daughter did do them (although I really don't think they met every day...I think more like 2 times a week, with assignments in between), and in 2nd grade she didn't. From what I could gather, the teacher went around to make sure that everyone was reading an appropriate book (maybe the teacher would have each student read to her for a minute), but there was no group out-loud reading (at least not consistently enough that my daughter said they had reading groups).

[Anonymous]

pollyanna wrote:null

Sorry. I'm new to this. What does "null" signify? Is it like "bump?"

[Anonymous]

to 16:28 -- thank you for a very helpful, insightful posting. Do you know why faculty turnover is so high at Beauvoir? Do you think they are aware of the weakness of their math program and are they trying to change it? where did your child go after Beauvoir?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

pollyanna wrote:null

Sorry. I'm new to this. What does "null" signify? Is it like "bump?"

After some controversy, the poster in question went back and edited all her posts to read simply "null."

[Anonymous]

I'm 16:28 (and a few others). My daughter went on to NCS, which is where most of the Beauvoir girls went (probably 80%). I know that the same is true with St. Albans for the boys. On the math, I just took it as a warning and used the summer to bone up. I think what happens with math is that they concentrate very much on math concepts, but not on math facts. Also it may vary very much by the 3rd grade teacher in particular -- that's the grade that you're going to move past addition subtraction and early multiplication and really prepare for 4th grade. In my daughter's case, she had a great third grade teacher who had them doing math all the time.

Also, I will say that it probably depended very much on the child. I don't think Beauvoir had a student body composed of just geniuses. I know that in my DD's class, half went out of the classroom for learning resources (special support, either for reading, math or writing). So maybe this evaluation of "weak in math" speaks not to the teachers but just to a diverse (academically) student body.

[Anonymous]

[Also, I will say that it probably depended very much on the child. I don't think Beauvoir had a student body composed of just geniuses. I know that in my DD's class, half went out of the classroom for learning resources (special support, either for reading, math or writing). So maybe this evaluation of "weak in math" speaks not to the teachers but just to a diverse (academically) student body.

It is good to know they are not just looking for little geniuses to be the right fit for the school. You are the first parent I heard state that everyone wasn't a genius. Your post have been very helpful.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

My daughters recently graduated from Beauvoir, and loved it (to the point of disliking long weekends because they had to miss school). It's very focused on the needs of young children, and "developmentally appropriate" is a watchword. That means there's less of kids reading aloud and less of math facts vs. concepts - because, they'll tell you, the research says there are better ways to spend school time. Outplacement was excellent - lots of help, lots of choices. And yes, they do "herd" kids, in all sorts of ways: the new 2nd graders were together, the kids who lived with one parent were together, the kids who were 3+ years ahead in math were together - anything where a child might feel as if she's the only one. They started rewriting the math curriculum in 2007, not sure how things stand at the moment.

[Anonymous]

To PP, I have a son in Beauvoir now, and I can tell you all he ever seems to do is math, and it is going well beyond where I would have expected 3rd or 4th graders to be (into Algebra, complex operations, fraction division and multiplication, etc). So maybe they have already addressed the apparent deficiency there.

[Anonymous]

Anyone know about how many non-priority pre-k slots exist this year?

[Anonymous]

BUMP - thought this may be helpful to parents finalizing their decisions. If parents can provided additional information regarding

1. Updates to Mathematics Curriculum
2. School Community - Are all children and parents accepted? ie. playdates and birthday parties
3. Reading Instruction - Do children leave fluent readers and writers? and what instructional practices are utilized.
4. Any other information current parents think is important when making this huge decision.