Lee or Breakthrough

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:what will happen if you don’t get your PK into Lee? your chances may be better at breakthrough which is a very good school. no drama and one campus starting this year with a true outdoor space. I would not drop your PK spot at breakthrough unless Lee can get your younger child in.

Where will the outdoor space be at Takoma?

There is a fenced grassy area next to the Takoma campus, although honestly they don't take the children out much during the day. The after school program takes the kids out after school.

Really? We are a Breakthrough Petworth family, and one of the big draws was the lengthy amount of outdoor time they have, even when they had to walk to one of the parks! Typically their recess/outdoor/lunch time is 11:30-1:30 for the Cycle 1 class, which I thought was great and a big difference between several other (not montessori) elementaries I visited where outdoor time was ~30 min. I thought Cycle 2 had similar time although maybe slightly different block.

[Anonymous]

They have had issues dealing with parents who have a more robust epistemic understanding of pedagogy and academic content.

Could you clarify what you mean by this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

They have had issues dealing with parents who have a more robust epistemic understanding of pedagogy and academic content.

Could you clarify what you mean by this?

Not the PP, but my best guess at a translation is that PP:
1) Has some advanced training in education;
2) Has serious and fair questions about the quality of Lee's academic programming and performance when peer Montessori schools don't have the same issues (as someone previously mentioned, if it was the Montessori model, why is Langdon performing better with more at risk kids);
3) Can see past some of education jargon being used both as excuses for Lee's underwhelming academic performance and as a way to deter people from asking questions (because they couldn't possibly understand); and
4) Wants to match lingo with Lee administrators and boosters who are hiding behind that jargon and not directly answering questions to let them know that PP is on to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:what will happen if you don’t get your PK into Lee? your chances may be better at breakthrough which is a very good school. no drama and one campus starting this year with a true outdoor space. I would not drop your PK spot at breakthrough unless Lee can get your younger child in.

Where will the outdoor space be at Takoma?

There is a fenced grassy area next to the Takoma campus, although honestly they don't take the children out much during the day. The after school program takes the kids out after school.

Really? We are a Breakthrough Petworth family, and one of the big draws was the lengthy amount of outdoor time they have, even when they had to walk to one of the parks! Typically their recess/outdoor/lunch time is 11:30-1:30 for the Cycle 1 class, which I thought was great and a big difference between several other (not montessori) elementaries I visited where outdoor time was ~30 min. I thought Cycle 2 had similar time although maybe slightly different block.

DP but also confused about outdoor time. The handbook says 1.25 hrs of outdoor time each day at Breakthrough. Is that not actually happening?

[Anonymous]

Breakthrough Takoma parent -- they definitely get an hour or more of outside time every day. In Takoma is was often walk to the park, play for 30-45 minutes, walk back. Plus our teacher would often include outdoor learning activities on top of outdoor rec time. One of the reasons we chose Montessori over DCPS was more outside time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Breakthrough Takoma parent -- they definitely get an hour or more of outside time every day. In Takoma is was often walk to the park, play for 30-45 minutes, walk back. Plus our teacher would often include outdoor learning activities on top of outdoor rec time. One of the reasons we chose Montessori over DCPS was more outside time.[/quote

Very helpful. Thank you!]

[Anonymous]

What are the current thoughts on Lee vs. Breakthrough for a potential incoming primary student? Breakthrough seems more stable lately.

[Anonymous]

My kids are at Lee EE and we’ve had a positive experience. I prefer one of the guides over the other likely because of her ability to bring her cultural background into the classroom and because she has extensive Montessori experience whereas the other guide is fairly new to Montessori. I’m not familiar with Breakthrough since it is far from where I live, but I plan on keeping my kids at Lee EE through at least 5th grade unless they start to focus too much on testing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids are at Lee EE and we’ve had a positive experience. I prefer one of the guides over the other likely because of her ability to bring her cultural background into the classroom and because she has extensive Montessori experience whereas the other guide is fairly new to Montessori. I’m not familiar with Breakthrough since it is far from where I live, but I plan on keeping my kids at Lee EE through at least 5th grade unless they start to focus too much on testing.

I'm curious how much it bothers Montessori-focused parents if the upper elementary classroom is under-enrolled or skewed towards 4th grade and very light on 6th graders. Doesn't that throw off the model?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm curious how much it bothers Montessori-focused parents if the upper elementary classroom is under-enrolled or skewed towards 4th grade and very light on 6th graders. Doesn't that throw off the model?

I have a fourth-grader at Lee. It’s not ideal. My kid says that it would be better if there were more older kids to lead the classroom and that it will be better when the current fourth-graders are fifth-graders guiding new fourth-graders next year. (She doesn’t realize that a lot of the current fourth-graders might not be there next year.)

But it still seems to be a nice class and functions well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are at Lee EE and we’ve had a positive experience. I prefer one of the guides over the other likely because of her ability to bring her cultural background into the classroom and because she has extensive Montessori experience whereas the other guide is fairly new to Montessori. I’m not familiar with Breakthrough since it is far from where I live, but I plan on keeping my kids at Lee EE through at least 5th grade unless they start to focus too much on testing.

I'm curious how much it bothers Montessori-focused parents if the upper elementary classroom is under-enrolled or skewed towards 4th grade and very light on 6th graders. Doesn't that throw off the model?

The Lee classrooms aren't underenrolled (they are actually at capacity), but definitely low on the 6th graders. Decent amount of 5th graders. Tons of 4th graders.

[Anonymous]

How are the current admin staff and teachers at Breakthrough? Have families been happy there the past few years?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How are the current admin staff and teachers at Breakthrough? Have families been happy there the past few years?

We've been at Breakthrough for 4 years and have been immensely pleased with communications and staff. I haven't always agreed with all their policies, but I have been extremely pleased with their comms about them, their willingness to answer questions, both in public and private forums. They consistently have zoom meetings to discuss new policies and processes and really take time to gather information. So I appreciate that and figure there's no school where I'd agree with every single policy.

We have really loved our guides, as well as the support guides. This year we moved up to a new guide, who has a less touchy feely communication style, but I soon realized the guide is great, just different than our prior. There are multiple opportunities to connect with them via observations and shared lessons and conferences, so I feel if you want to take the time to get to know the guide then you can really feel confident you know what's going on with your child and what their school day looks like.

I do think there are some guides who appear "better" than others, but that may be more subjective, and I don't know if it's really that some guides are better with families/parents than others. The most important thing to me is the way the guides interact with the children, and in that regard we've always been really happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How are the current admin staff and teachers at Breakthrough? Have families been happy there the past few years?

We've been at Breakthrough for 4 years and have been immensely pleased with communications and staff. I haven't always agreed with all their policies, but I have been extremely pleased with their comms about them, their willingness to answer questions, both in public and private forums. They consistently have zoom meetings to discuss new policies and processes and really take time to gather information. So I appreciate that and figure there's no school where I'd agree with every single policy.

We have really loved our guides, as well as the support guides. This year we moved up to a new guide, who has a less touchy feely communication style, but I soon realized the guide is great, just different than our prior. There are multiple opportunities to connect with them via observations and shared lessons and conferences, so I feel if you want to take the time to get to know the guide then you can really feel confident you know what's going on with your child and what their school day looks like.

I do think there are some guides who appear "better" than others, but that may be more subjective, and I don't know if it's really that some guides are better with families/parents than others. The most important thing to me is the way the guides interact with the children, and in that regard we've always been really happy.

Thanks for this great and helpful feedback!