How to tell a child they must leave a school that they love?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What parents wouldn't try to move her kids to a school with less poverty? white or black. Y'all are being really dumb piling on the OP.

The OP's decision is made. The specific question is how to explain the change in a manner that is developmentally appropriate for K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What parents wouldn't try to move her kids to a school with less poverty? white or black. Y'all are being really dumb piling on the OP.

The OP's decision is made. The specific question is how to explain the change in a manner that is developmentally appropriate for K.

Not to mention that getting into ITS in any particular year isn’t a given. I assume people aren’t going to claim her feeder MS is as good as ITS given that it’s not Deal or Hardy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What parents wouldn't try to move her kids to a school with less poverty? white or black. Y'all are being really dumb piling on the OP.

OP said her kindergarten child, in her 2nd week of school, is not being challenged academically. If you don't call out BS when you see it, you are part of the problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What parents wouldn't try to move her kids to a school with less poverty? white or black. Y'all are being really dumb piling on the OP.

OP said her kindergarten child, in her 2nd week of school, is not being challenged academically. If you don't call out BS when you see it, you are part of the problem.

I think it's possible. Not that anything too awful has happened in three weeks of K, but if the OP has been at the school since PK3 she probably knows what the school's attitude is. If the teacher is underwhelming or they've already denied her request for differentiation or proposed an inadequate plan, then the OP is right to have concerns. ITS is a good school, I wouldn't pass it up for an IB that I didn't have confidence in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here, it's K at ITS. That list has moved sooo fast, I was not mentally prepared for it.

The reason for the move is that DC is not being academically challenged right now. It's not because of too many black kids in the upper grades, it's because of hardly any high-performing kids in any grade and because I know her friends are leaving anyway. They are working on some pull-outs or whatever, but I know it's nowhere near the challenge that DC needs. I like the teacher but the group work is far below DC's level.

I'm not sure that we'll be thrilled with ITS as a middle school because it's such a small program, but I know it's a recently created program so we'll see how it grows. I would choose it over our IB middle school in a heartbeat.

I'm in a similar situation but chose IB over moving.

K was not an easy place for academic challenges because the school was not set up for it. K was just not that academically focused.

We're a few years into early elementary now and it keeps getting better. The school and teachers continue to get better at providing individualized work. There are also classmates who have stepped up their game. Not all kids develop at the same rate. Some who didn't do anything amazing academically in K are doing great now. Our IB also has really small class sizes, so that helps.

Thanks. Do you mind saying the school? I feel like our K is overly academically focused, but at a lower academic level than DC is at. DC has a reading pull-out but still, most of the morning is spent on Fundations type stuff that is age- and level-appropriate for most of the class but not for her.

fundations at our DCPS was right on target for my smart, white high SES K boy EOTP. And ITS is a FULL YEAR behind DCPS - I know because I compared notes with an ITS parent. this is 100% about you wanting your child in a more homogeneous class, and 0% about the actual curriculum.

As a parent and teacher, this message is just ridiculous. How could an entire class of a school be one year behind another?? That's not how reading development works. Just about any class will have a mix of students below, on, and above level. You can't make gross generalizations. Also, there are also absolutely kids who don't need specific phonics instruction to learn to read. Some come to kindergarten already reading at a second-grade level. I don't have a dog in the fight with public vs. charter (I've worked at both and there are pros/cons to both), but couldn't let that message slide.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here, it's K at ITS. That list has moved sooo fast, I was not mentally prepared for it.

The reason for the move is that DC is not being academically challenged right now. It's not because of too many black kids in the upper grades, it's because of hardly any high-performing kids in any grade and because I know her friends are leaving anyway. They are working on some pull-outs or whatever, but I know it's nowhere near the challenge that DC needs. I like the teacher but the group work is far below DC's level.

I'm not sure that we'll be thrilled with ITS as a middle school because it's such a small program, but I know it's a recently created program so we'll see how it grows. I would choose it over our IB middle school in a heartbeat.

I'm in a similar situation but chose IB over moving.

K was not an easy place for academic challenges because the school was not set up for it. K was just not that academically focused.

We're a few years into early elementary now and it keeps getting better. The school and teachers continue to get better at providing individualized work. There are also classmates who have stepped up their game. Not all kids develop at the same rate. Some who didn't do anything amazing academically in K are doing great now. Our IB also has really small class sizes, so that helps.

Thanks. Do you mind saying the school? I feel like our K is overly academically focused, but at a lower academic level than DC is at. DC has a reading pull-out but still, most of the morning is spent on Fundations type stuff that is age- and level-appropriate for most of the class but not for her.

fundations at our DCPS was right on target for my smart, white high SES K boy EOTP. And ITS is a FULL YEAR behind DCPS - I know because I compared notes with an ITS parent. this is 100% about you wanting your child in a more homogeneous class, and 0% about the actual curriculum.

As a parent and teacher, this message is just ridiculous. How could an entire class of a school be one year behind another?? That's not how reading development works. Just about any class will have a mix of students below, on, and above level. You can't make gross generalizations. Also, there are also absolutely kids who don't need specific phonics instruction to learn to read. Some come to kindergarten already reading at a second-grade level. I don't have a dog in the fight with public vs. charter (I've worked at both and there are pros/cons to both), but couldn't let that message slide.

to clarify - the curriculum is 1 year behind. Not the students. Now, I think ITS is probably a great school, but based on my experience, DCPS K is much more "advanced" in its curriculum and expectations for learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What parents wouldn't try to move her kids to a school with less poverty? white or black. Y'all are being really dumb piling on the OP.

OP said her kindergarten child, in her 2nd week of school, is not being challenged academically. If you don't call out BS when you see it, you are part of the problem.

I think it's possible. Not that anything too awful has happened in three weeks of K, but if the OP has been at the school since PK3 she probably knows what the school's attitude is. If the teacher is underwhelming or they've already denied her request for differentiation or proposed an inadequate plan, then the OP is right to have concerns. ITS is a good school, I wouldn't pass it up for an IB that I didn't have confidence in.

Tell me about these "requests for differentiation" you make for your kindergartener in week 2??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here, it's K at ITS. That list has moved sooo fast, I was not mentally prepared for it.

The reason for the move is that DC is not being academically challenged right now. It's not because of too many black kids in the upper grades, it's because of hardly any high-performing kids in any grade and because I know her friends are leaving anyway. They are working on some pull-outs or whatever, but I know it's nowhere near the challenge that DC needs. I like the teacher but the group work is far below DC's level.

I'm not sure that we'll be thrilled with ITS as a middle school because it's such a small program, but I know it's a recently created program so we'll see how it grows. I would choose it over our IB middle school in a heartbeat.

I'm in a similar situation but chose IB over moving.

K was not an easy place for academic challenges because the school was not set up for it. K was just not that academically focused.

We're a few years into early elementary now and it keeps getting better. The school and teachers continue to get better at providing individualized work. There are also classmates who have stepped up their game. Not all kids develop at the same rate. Some who didn't do anything amazing academically in K are doing great now. Our IB also has really small class sizes, so that helps.

Thanks. Do you mind saying the school? I feel like our K is overly academically focused, but at a lower academic level than DC is at. DC has a reading pull-out but still, most of the morning is spent on Fundations type stuff that is age- and level-appropriate for most of the class but not for her.

fundations at our DCPS was right on target for my smart, white high SES K boy EOTP. And ITS is a FULL YEAR behind DCPS - I know because I compared notes with an ITS parent. this is 100% about you wanting your child in a more homogeneous class, and 0% about the actual curriculum.

Funny how ITS has way better test scores than Ward 5 IBs, then.

Sorry, but our IB pushes phonic so hard because a lot of the kids in K are behind where they should be. At a HRCS the kids may learn to read a little later because they have them doing other stuff instead of drilling on letters of the alphabet. But if the OP's child is advanced, I understand why Fundations would be unappealing. A child who already knows the sounds for each letter and basic phonetic combinations would be bored in Fundations.

I love how there's no way the DCPS can be more advanced than ITS. The DCPS curriculum is more rigorous because the kids are behind in DCPS; but the kids read later in ITS because they are more advanced.

BTW there was a broad range of reading/writing readiness in our DCPS class that did not correspond to race or SES.

The DCPS curriculum is more focused on phonics and reading intervention for kids who struggle. Other curricula may result in later reading, but that doesn't mean it's a less valid or "rigorous" a curriculum. It's just a different approach. If a child already reads, they don't need K to be a year of intense phonics. I don't know why the kids at ITS read later (or if that's even true), but the school has great test scores so whatever they're doing is probably working just fine.

No, DCPS K is more rigorous and reading/writing focus. That's why some people don't like it!! They want ITS *because* it's less pressured in K. People don't actually want more academics in early elementary; they want their kids to be around kids like them.

[Anonymous]

What part of their curriculum is a year behind? I’ve never heard that before and I have a kid at ITS and a kid in DCPS.

https://www.inspiredteachingschool.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=1175429&type=d&pREC_ID=1423838

[Anonymous]

We switched our youngest later in the school year from IB to a charter and it was tough at first but they adjusted. Liked it by the end of the first year and loved it since. We had one day, we had a lot of anxiety, and we did a lot of the things that are being suggested here: Met with the teacher and took pictures of the room ahead of time (it may be too late for that), focused on what was going to be fun about the new school, took up EVERY parent at drop-off who said we should reach out and connect, had playdates with the couple acquaintances we knew at the school, had playdates with friends from the old school for about six months.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What parents wouldn't try to move her kids to a school with less poverty? white or black. Y'all are being really dumb piling on the OP.

OP said her kindergarten child, in her 2nd week of school, is not being challenged academically. If you don't call out BS when you see it, you are part of the problem.

I think it's possible. Not that anything too awful has happened in three weeks of K, but if the OP has been at the school since PK3 she probably knows what the school's attitude is. If the teacher is underwhelming or they've already denied her request for differentiation or proposed an inadequate plan, then the OP is right to have concerns. ITS is a good school, I wouldn't pass it up for an IB that I didn't have confidence in.

Tell me about these "requests for differentiation" you make for your kindergartener in week 2??

Not OP, but probably a request for a formal evaluation and maybe a push-in or reading in another classroom or at least some kind of specific approach to be communicated to the parent. Some kids read really really early, and can get pretty far ahead. Especially if they are older in the class age spectrum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here, it's K at ITS. That list has moved sooo fast, I was not mentally prepared for it.

The reason for the move is that DC is not being academically challenged right now. It's not because of too many black kids in the upper grades, it's because of hardly any high-performing kids in any grade and because I know her friends are leaving anyway. They are working on some pull-outs or whatever, but I know it's nowhere near the challenge that DC needs. I like the teacher but the group work is far below DC's level.

I'm not sure that we'll be thrilled with ITS as a middle school because it's such a small program, but I know it's a recently created program so we'll see how it grows. I would choose it over our IB middle school in a heartbeat.

I'm in a similar situation but chose IB over moving.

K was not an easy place for academic challenges because the school was not set up for it. K was just not that academically focused.

We're a few years into early elementary now and it keeps getting better. The school and teachers continue to get better at providing individualized work. There are also classmates who have stepped up their game. Not all kids develop at the same rate. Some who didn't do anything amazing academically in K are doing great now. Our IB also has really small class sizes, so that helps.

Thanks. Do you mind saying the school? I feel like our K is overly academically focused, but at a lower academic level than DC is at. DC has a reading pull-out but still, most of the morning is spent on Fundations type stuff that is age- and level-appropriate for most of the class but not for her.

fundations at our DCPS was right on target for my smart, white high SES K boy EOTP. And ITS is a FULL YEAR behind DCPS - I know because I compared notes with an ITS parent. this is 100% about you wanting your child in a more homogeneous class, and 0% about the actual curriculum.

Funny how ITS has way better test scores than Ward 5 IBs, then.

Sorry, but our IB pushes phonic so hard because a lot of the kids in K are behind where they should be. At a HRCS the kids may learn to read a little later because they have them doing other stuff instead of drilling on letters of the alphabet. But if the OP's child is advanced, I understand why Fundations would be unappealing. A child who already knows the sounds for each letter and basic phonetic combinations would be bored in Fundations.

I love how there's no way the DCPS can be more advanced than ITS. The DCPS curriculum is more rigorous because the kids are behind in DCPS; but the kids read later in ITS because they are more advanced.

BTW there was a broad range of reading/writing readiness in our DCPS class that did not correspond to race or SES.

The DCPS curriculum is more focused on phonics and reading intervention for kids who struggle. Other curricula may result in later reading, but that doesn't mean it's a less valid or "rigorous" a curriculum. It's just a different approach. If a child already reads, they don't need K to be a year of intense phonics. I don't know why the kids at ITS read later (or if that's even true), but the school has great test scores so whatever they're doing is probably working just fine.

No, DCPS K is more rigorous and reading/writing focus. That's why some people don't like it!! They want ITS *because* it's less pressured in K. People don't actually want more academics in early elementary; they want their kids to be around kids like them.

DCPS is more academic focused and if the academics are things OP's child has already mastered, what is the point of that? I thought Fundations was fine, because it helped my child learn to read. A child who reads already is not getting much out of it.

[Anonymous]

Best of luck to your daughter today OP!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here, it's K at ITS. That list has moved sooo fast, I was not mentally prepared for it.

The reason for the move is that DC is not being academically challenged right now. It's not because of too many black kids in the upper grades, it's because of hardly any high-performing kids in any grade and because I know her friends are leaving anyway. They are working on some pull-outs or whatever, but I know it's nowhere near the challenge that DC needs. I like the teacher but the group work is far below DC's level.

I'm not sure that we'll be thrilled with ITS as a middle school because it's such a small program, but I know it's a recently created program so we'll see how it grows. I would choose it over our IB middle school in a heartbeat.

I'm in a similar situation but chose IB over moving.

K was not an easy place for academic challenges because the school was not set up for it. K was just not that academically focused.

We're a few years into early elementary now and it keeps getting better. The school and teachers continue to get better at providing individualized work. There are also classmates who have stepped up their game. Not all kids develop at the same rate. Some who didn't do anything amazing academically in K are doing great now. Our IB also has really small class sizes, so that helps.

Thanks. Do you mind saying the school? I feel like our K is overly academically focused, but at a lower academic level than DC is at. DC has a reading pull-out but still, most of the morning is spent on Fundations type stuff that is age- and level-appropriate for most of the class but not for her.

fundations at our DCPS was right on target for my smart, white high SES K boy EOTP. And ITS is a FULL YEAR behind DCPS - I know because I compared notes with an ITS parent. this is 100% about you wanting your child in a more homogeneous class, and 0% about the actual curriculum.

As a parent and teacher, this message is just ridiculous. How could an entire class of a school be one year behind another?? That's not how reading development works. Just about any class will have a mix of students below, on, and above level. You can't make gross generalizations. Also, there are also absolutely kids who don't need specific phonics instruction to learn to read. Some come to kindergarten already reading at a second-grade level. I don't have a dog in the fight with public vs. charter (I've worked at both and there are pros/cons to both), but couldn't let that message slide.

to clarify - the curriculum is 1 year behind. Not the students. Now, I think ITS is probably a great school, but based on my experience, DCPS K is much more "advanced" in its curriculum and expectations for learning.

But.... this doesn't make sense instructionally. Any decent teacher of reading knows not all students in a class are getting the same curriculum. It should be tailored to the students' reading levels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Definitely move her. Get the academics right! She’ll make new friends and will enjoy it more if she has some academic peers. Her friendships from PK-4 are unlikely to be lifelong friendships away.

I moved my daughter two weeks into K last year from a school she was comfortable with. She did fine. It took about 2 months fir her to be equally comfortable with the new school.

NP but thanks for this. DD is at a new school for 1st this year and while school only started last week, we had some tears last week. Glad to see that the transition really does just take some time.