What do people like/not like about Lee Montessori?

[Anonymous]

Lee parent here. Been with Lee since the beginning. I’m very happy with Lee even more so with their adaptability to distance learning. They are doing so much more than friends with kids at WOTP schools.

Things I love about Lee. Small school. Teachers have been there for a long time. Leadership knows your kid. Outside of this strange time there aren’t a bunch of worksheets. Kids are allowed to explore things that interest them. The materials blow my mind in their simplicity but also how well they explain things (particularly math). They are very adaptable to my child’s needs (and are open to working on exploring how to meet DC and help DC grow).

I honestly don’t care about Test scores. I see how well rounded my child is becoming and he is interested is learning, understanding the world and being a good human.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lee parent here. Been with Lee since the beginning. I’m very happy with Lee even more so with their adaptability to distance learning. They are doing so much more than friends with kids at WOTP schools.

Things I love about Lee. Small school. Teachers have been there for a long time. Leadership knows your kid. Outside of this strange time there aren’t a bunch of worksheets. Kids are allowed to explore things that interest them. The materials blow my mind in their simplicity but also how well they explain things (particularly math). They are very adaptable to my child’s needs (and are open to working on exploring how to meet DC and help DC grow).

I honestly don’t care about Test scores. I see how well rounded my child is becoming and he is interested is learning, understanding the world and being a good human.

Do you honestly not care about the achievement gap?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lee parent here. Been with Lee since the beginning. I’m very happy with Lee even more so with their adaptability to distance learning. They are doing so much more than friends with kids at WOTP schools.

Things I love about Lee. Small school. Teachers have been there for a long time. Leadership knows your kid. Outside of this strange time there aren’t a bunch of worksheets. Kids are allowed to explore things that interest them. The materials blow my mind in their simplicity but also how well they explain things (particularly math). They are very adaptable to my child’s needs (and are open to working on exploring how to meet DC and help DC grow).

I honestly don’t care about Test scores. I see how well rounded my child is becoming and he is interested is learning, understanding the world and being a good human.

Do you honestly not care about the achievement gap?

Different poster. But I think people care to a point. But as long as their kid is doing great that’s all the really matters

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lee parent here. Been with Lee since the beginning. I’m very happy with Lee even more so with their adaptability to distance learning. They are doing so much more than friends with kids at WOTP schools.

Things I love about Lee. Small school. Teachers have been there for a long time. Leadership knows your kid. Outside of this strange time there aren’t a bunch of worksheets. Kids are allowed to explore things that interest them. The materials blow my mind in their simplicity but also how well they explain things (particularly math). They are very adaptable to my child’s needs (and are open to working on exploring how to meet DC and help DC grow).

I honestly don’t care about Test scores. I see how well rounded my child is becoming and he is interested is learning, understanding the world and being a good human.

Do you honestly not care about the achievement gap?

Different poster. But I think people care to a point. But as long as their kid is doing great that’s all the really matters

How would an achievement gap be measured, if not by test scores? Serious question. What's the Montessori approach here?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lee parent here. Been with Lee since the beginning. I’m very happy with Lee even more so with their adaptability to distance learning. They are doing so much more than friends with kids at WOTP schools.

Things I love about Lee. Small school. Teachers have been there for a long time. Leadership knows your kid. Outside of this strange time there aren’t a bunch of worksheets. Kids are allowed to explore things that interest them. The materials blow my mind in their simplicity but also how well they explain things (particularly math). They are very adaptable to my child’s needs (and are open to working on exploring how to meet DC and help DC grow).

I honestly don’t care about Test scores. I see how well rounded my child is becoming and he is interested is learning, understanding the world and being a good human.

Do you honestly not care about the achievement gap?

Different poster. But I think people care to a point. But as long as their kid is doing great that’s all the really matters

How would an achievement gap be measured, if not by test scores? Serious question. What's the Montessori approach here?

The only way to know if there is an actual achievement gap is to know how the students are performing in the classroom. Since they don’t teach to the test, the test isn’t an accurate reflection of whether or not students are receiving the same education in the classroom. The disparity in test scores can be due to influences at home and biases in the test (for example in terms of exposure to certain words) so it’s hard to know if it is due to negligence on the school’s part.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have two kids at Lee and I've found this period of time interesting in terms of 1) school is doing a lot for distance learning. 2) School (I hope) feels that this is more to help families than to actually facilitate learning, because it's hardly a replacement for school. But 3) I've been a bit surprised at how little my kids actually know compared to their peers. I'm concerned that following the child and focusing on social/emotional support (which Lee is outstanding at) may have real costs as they get older.

How old?

What don’t they seem to know? We are at another Montessori and I wonder this too sometimes. But also I feel it’s just different what they know, not less. In some ways more.

I'm interested in Montessori and would like to know this answer to this, too. My Pre-K 3 at a DCPS has learned to count to 30, the alphabet, his colors, shapes, how to spell his name, and his teacher did a tree study, a house study, and a clothing study. He's still working on phonetics, writing his name and tracing the alphabet.

There's not much of a focus on social/emotional learning, though.

My Montessori Pre-K4 kid is ok with counting till 20 and ready for more than that IF we'd push it. Right now, we personally think it's ok and just repeat numbers here and then but not trying to do any 'fixed' study time. He can write his name but that was not from school but at home. Colors and shapes he knew before starting pre-k. I don't know what you mean by the tree, house and clothing study. We love Lee right now for our kid and feel Montessori is a privilege that lets kids be and explore so we are thankful for it now but are also aware that this might not be the right fit a few years down the line.

[Anonymous]

We love being at Lee and the community is nice but not as warm and tight-knit as I would have liked. But that seems to be a design feature and not a flaw. Its the reason why sometimes its referred to as 'Type A' on these pages.

The one thing I really really like and that is keeping us in the school is the staff. The class teacher knows our kid so well and understands them in a manner that makes me really trust them and be confident that they take excellent care of my child. The other teachers and staff are also very nurturing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lee parent here. Been with Lee since the beginning. I’m very happy with Lee even more so with their adaptability to distance learning. They are doing so much more than friends with kids at WOTP schools.

Things I love about Lee. Small school. Teachers have been there for a long time. Leadership knows your kid. Outside of this strange time there aren’t a bunch of worksheets. Kids are allowed to explore things that interest them. The materials blow my mind in their simplicity but also how well they explain things (particularly math). They are very adaptable to my child’s needs (and are open to working on exploring how to meet DC and help DC grow).

I honestly don’t care about Test scores. I see how well rounded my child is becoming and he is interested is learning, understanding the world and being a good human.

Do you honestly not care about the achievement gap?

Different poster. But I think people care to a point. But as long as their kid is doing great that’s all the really matters

How would an achievement gap be measured, if not by test scores? Serious question. What's the Montessori approach here?

The only way to know if there is an actual achievement gap is to know how the students are performing in the classroom. Since they don’t teach to the test, the test isn’t an accurate reflection of whether or not students are receiving the same education in the classroom. The disparity in test scores can be due to influences at home and biases in the test (for example in terms of exposure to certain words) so it’s hard to know if it is due to negligence on the school’s part.

+1 Understanding the tests themselves highlights numerous instances of bias. Look more closely at what happens in practice, in the system itself, as opposed to outdated and, frankly, biased tested strategies. (PARCC for example. How many states have dropped this test? And we still have parents looking at those scores for school choice? Yikes.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We love being at Lee and the community is nice but not as warm and tight-knit as I would have liked. But that seems to be a design feature and not a flaw. Its the reason why sometimes its referred to as 'Type A' on these pages.

The one thing I really really like and that is keeping us in the school is the staff. The class teacher knows our kid so well and understands them in a manner that makes me really trust them and be confident that they take excellent care of my child. The other teachers and staff are also very nurturing.

Can you speak more to this? If you find the school not being as tight-knit or warm as you wanted but also that the staff is nurturing?

[Anonymous]

I'm a Lee parent. I wish the test scores weren't terrible, even though I think PARCC sucks and that there are reasons it will be hard for students at a strict Montessori school to do well on them. My 4th grader is doing fine academically but totally bombed the tests. It's hard to tell yourself to look at reality and ignore the tests, but mostly I wish the scores were better because it reflects badly on the school and could cause trouble down the road if they don't improve.

As for the achievement gap, the test itself has been shown to have biases, but I can certainly believe that black kids are having more trouble with academics than white kids, for all the reasons that's true at most schools. Maybe there's something about the education at Lee that makes it worse. However, I've know most of the kids in Upper Elementary (4th/5th/6th) for a bunch of years now, and a lot of the real classroom leaders - both socially and academically - are African-American. "Academically" in the sense that they are doing really impressive projects and are leading work groups, not in the PARCC sense.

At the same time, I've had a number of friends leave the school because they didn't find it a fair or welcoming place for African-Americans, so I'm not saying everything is awesome there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a Lee parent. I wish the test scores weren't terrible, even though I think PARCC sucks and that there are reasons it will be hard for students at a strict Montessori school to do well on them. My 4th grader is doing fine academically but totally bombed the tests. It's hard to tell yourself to look at reality and ignore the tests, but mostly I wish the scores were better because it reflects badly on the school and could cause trouble down the road if they don't improve.

As for the achievement gap, the test itself has been shown to have biases, but I can certainly believe that black kids are having more trouble with academics than white kids, for all the reasons that's true at most schools. Maybe there's something about the education at Lee that makes it worse. However, I've know most of the kids in Upper Elementary (4th/5th/6th) for a bunch of years now, and a lot of the real classroom leaders - both socially and academically - are African-American. "Academically" in the sense that they are doing really impressive projects and are leading work groups, not in the PARCC sense.

At the same time, I've had a number of friends leave the school because they didn't find it a fair or welcoming place for African-Americans, so I'm not saying everything is awesome there.

I’m more concerned about your last statement than test scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a Lee parent. I wish the test scores weren't terrible, even though I think PARCC sucks and that there are reasons it will be hard for students at a strict Montessori school to do well on them. My 4th grader is doing fine academically but totally bombed the tests. It's hard to tell yourself to look at reality and ignore the tests, but mostly I wish the scores were better because it reflects badly on the school and could cause trouble down the road if they don't improve.

As for the achievement gap, the test itself has been shown to have biases, but I can certainly believe that black kids are having more trouble with academics than white kids, for all the reasons that's true at most schools. Maybe there's something about the education at Lee that makes it worse. However, I've know most of the kids in Upper Elementary (4th/5th/6th) for a bunch of years now, and a lot of the real classroom leaders - both socially and academically - are African-American. "Academically" in the sense that they are doing really impressive projects and are leading work groups, not in the PARCC sense.

At the same time, I've had a number of friends leave the school because they didn't find it a fair or welcoming place for African-Americans, so I'm not saying everything is awesome there.

I’m more concerned about your last statement than test scores.

It is for this reason we ranked East End above Brookland. The principal at East End is great!

[Anonymous]

Are people going to still not care about test scores when their kids bomb the 7th grade PARCC and can't get into application schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are people going to still not care about test scores when their kids bomb the 7th grade PARCC and can't get into application schools?

This was my concern, too. I like Montessori, and I agree that what's most important is developing a happy, independent child (not test scores), BUT most kids, at some point, have to work within the confines of traditional schooling, which requires standardized tests. Even if a child can go through Montessori to 12th grade, wouldn't it impact their ability to pursue college (assuming that they wouldn't have knowledge required to do well on the SAT, on APs, etc.)? Of course, not all kids need to go to college, but it felt--to me--that doing Montessori would be unnecessarily limiting their ability to make those choices later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a Lee parent. I wish the test scores weren't terrible, even though I think PARCC sucks and that there are reasons it will be hard for students at a strict Montessori school to do well on them. My 4th grader is doing fine academically but totally bombed the tests. It's hard to tell yourself to look at reality and ignore the tests, but mostly I wish the scores were better because it reflects badly on the school and could cause trouble down the road if they don't improve.

As for the achievement gap, the test itself has been shown to have biases, but I can certainly believe that black kids are having more trouble with academics than white kids, for all the reasons that's true at most schools. Maybe there's something about the education at Lee that makes it worse. However, I've know most of the kids in Upper Elementary (4th/5th/6th) for a bunch of years now, and a lot of the real classroom leaders - both socially and academically - are African-American. "Academically" in the sense that they are doing really impressive projects and are leading work groups, not in the PARCC sense.

At the same time, I've had a number of friends leave the school because they didn't find it a fair or welcoming place for African-Americans, so I'm not saying everything is awesome there.

Compared to Sela, which has a larger population of black and at-risk kids, Lee is most certainly failing.