2016 Views on Maury
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Anonymous
| Looking into renting in the area inbound for Maury. Interested in hearing recent views on Maury elementary (from Kindergarten onwards). Specifically interested in knowing more about its diversity, academics (how strong of a school are they) and their strengths. How would you characterize the kids that come out from Maury - compassionate; artistic; strong STEM program; etc. |
Anonymous
| I know a few, and I can't speak to their academic performance but they seem to be all-around great kids. I know there are some parents involved in improving the middle school to which Maury feeds, which should really benefit Maury in terms of retaining the older kids. |
Anonymous
| I love love love Maury and the adjacent neighborhood. The lower grades aren't that diverse- mostly white at this point. The principal is next level amazing and dedicated. I wish they would have Spanish instead of mandarin and I wish that they hadn't expanded the boundery when it is already crowded (part of Kaya's and Bowser's campaign against Capitol Hill). Otherwise we are so, so happy. If only it felt into Deal.... |
Anonymous
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There is no magic school formula that creates outputs of compassionate, artistic, or "STEM" kids, or whatever. Your particular kids are probably going to turn out the same whether they go to Maury or Brent or Janney.
If you are a person who really loves things (i.e. you have "school spirit") then you will probably love love love Maury like PP. More objectively, it's a solid, fine school. About what you could ask for in a public school in DC. Expect more testing than you might like. It's small, which is also nice. The PTA is extremely active shaking down the neighborhood for money, which means that all the grades get aides and there are specials. That's nice. But the school is very small physically, which I understand means that the class sizes are large, which is not so nice. The PK is extremely un-diverse compared to the neighborhood demographics, not sure why. The aftercare is above average, which is nice. It's run by a teacher and mostly staffed by teachers/aides. |
Anonymous
| the PP is exactly on point. the aftercare offers a decent spring/winter/summer camp and teacher development days off, also, which is a nice bonus. |
Anonymous
| Maury is also looking to renovate and expand in 2017. |
Anonymous
| OP here. Thanks for this input. Curious to know how "large" are their classes? We are African American/African and feel Maury might be more diverse then a Brent from what I can tell from comments on this board. We have friends of friends whose kids went there and had a very positive experience so I need to reach out to them. I think their kids have recently left the school (graduated on to middle school) so was interested in some feedback on the lower grades. Thanks for mentioning their after care/school options - I will look on their website for more information on that. Any other thoughts/things to look into/ask about from current parents? |
Anonymous
Lots of schools would like to renovate and expand. Has Maury's been budgeted? This is DC - approved and budgeted are NOT the same thing. |
Anonymous
K last year started with 28 kids in one class and 28 or 29 in the other. Not sure how big the K class is this year. Principal, teachers and staff are excellent and great aftercare program. Very involved parents and caregivers. Tight on space - DCPS expanded the Maury boundary last year when there already was not enough space and 35 in-bounds kids were initially waitlisted for PK3 and 11 IB kids waitlisted for PK4. |
Anonymous
How old is your child? The PK classes are all around 16 kids, but the K classes are quite large (close to 30). As for diversity, the PK classes are almost all white - 1 out of 16 African American in our class. If diversity in all grades is really important to you, then I think Shepherd might be a better choice from what I hear ... although a very different neighborhood choice! |
Anonymous
| I think past K, the classes are very diverse. Even Brent has pretty diverse upper grades, because the white/other high SES families start to flake out and make room. |
Anonymous
| OP here - those class sizes are huge! 30 kids in one classroom? With 1 teacher and 1 aid I presume? That sounds so large. I can't recall how many kids were in my elementary classes growing up but there were two classes in each grade and I don't recall it being that many (non-DCPS school). We would be starting in K not pk unfortunately (although I hear there is no guarantee that one would get in at the pk3/4 level). Would prefer not to have my little one be the only non-white kid in the class and preferably not the only black kid in the class. Don't know anything about Shepherd - I'll do some preliminary research. |
Anonymous
Will look more into Brent. I know many on this site feel it is one of the best in this area. Racial diversity is very important to us. When you say upper grades are you referring to 1-3 or 4-6? |
Anonymous
NP - but it's 4-6 - because many Brent parents leave for alternative middle school options (private, charter). |
Anonymous
+1! Please cite some numbers and/or schedule. |