What does PreK Look Like in DCPS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Okay, you're not high-strung, you're just writing a big-words essay at 6:19 AM about precisely what kind of preschool you think is best for everyone.

It sounds like you want a more play-based and child-led approach than you're going to get in DCPS. Yes, there's research, but DCPS has other considerations too. Like the feasibility of a truly child-led approach within DCPS' adult-child ratio, which is funding-driven. Like how much recess can each class have when the school has only one playground and 20+ classes. And the fact that not all parents feel as strongly about play-based as you do. Myself, I'm very up on the research literature through my job, but still felt that a hybrid play-based and direct instruction approach was perfect for my specific child.

You need to understand that in the lottery it's unlikely you'll get a PK3 spot at a school with strong test scores in the upper grades. Possible but unlikely.

Sadly, my kid woke up at 4:30AM and I didn’t fall back asleep. I had been meaning to post but kept forgetting. Sue me for thinking being more articulate would help get the point across. Your factious comment as to what you think my personality is like isn’t helpful.

And it’s not what I think is best, it’s what research shows. I have also stated that I do not care if there is some academics that are teacher led. The particular school I was in boundary for before I moved just seemed so strict I was worried this might be the norm.

I also didn’t say playground time specifically. 30 minutes isn’t ideal, 45-60 would be better but that would be fine if the rest of the day wasn’t small groups and whole group teacher-led all day.

You're not going to get what you're hoping for from DCPS. You're not going to get a 60-minute recess because those minutes are mandated to be used for other purposes. It's math. It's just not how it works in public school, and it's not up to the individual schools. And what on earth is wrong with small groups?

If you come in being like "The research proves that this is unequivocally best and therefore the school must provide it", you're just going to alienate everyone. Research changes! It comes and goes, it ebbs and flows, all kinds of stupid things have been rolled out as research-based and then rolled back again. If you hang your hat on the research you'll just annoy everyone and seem like an inexperienced preschool parent.

This is 100 years of research…it hasn’t changed in terms of play being best. American public school districts with universal PK don’t listen.

Nothing is wrong with small groups, just 30 minutes each day (for each kid) seems like a lot. And 60 min of whole group, not including the morning meeting. You are right the day is short, that’s why I was worried. When I raised concerns the school said it was the ‘gold standard in DCPS.’

I am inexperienced! That is why I am asking. I think the in boundary school would be Van Ness or Brent.

I'm the same poster who just wrote a novel above (with a kid at Dorothy Height). Gahhhh... I'm sorry those two schools are your possible options. Van Ness is largely Black, Title 1, and underperforming overall... Brent is pretty much the opposite (largely white, high SES, and the white kids are scoring well), but I think I would be more concerned sending my kid to Brent, where there are very few Black kids and the ones who do go there are generally doing poorly (only 15% of Black kids there score on grade level in ELA!).

It's very weird to use a school's 3rd-5th grade test scores to judge a how play-based its ECE program is.

I'm really confused. What does the bolded comment above (which you are presumptively responding to) have to do with an ECE program being play-based? It sounded like the OP was also concerned with the general quality of each school for Black children and the type of experience her child would have there, not just how play-based each school's ECE program is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Okay, you're not high-strung, you're just writing a big-words essay at 6:19 AM about precisely what kind of preschool you think is best for everyone.

It sounds like you want a more play-based and child-led approach than you're going to get in DCPS. Yes, there's research, but DCPS has other considerations too. Like the feasibility of a truly child-led approach within DCPS' adult-child ratio, which is funding-driven. Like how much recess can each class have when the school has only one playground and 20+ classes. And the fact that not all parents feel as strongly about play-based as you do. Myself, I'm very up on the research literature through my job, but still felt that a hybrid play-based and direct instruction approach was perfect for my specific child.

You need to understand that in the lottery it's unlikely you'll get a PK3 spot at a school with strong test scores in the upper grades. Possible but unlikely.

Sadly, my kid woke up at 4:30AM and I didn’t fall back asleep. I had been meaning to post but kept forgetting. Sue me for thinking being more articulate would help get the point across. Your factious comment as to what you think my personality is like isn’t helpful.

And it’s not what I think is best, it’s what research shows. I have also stated that I do not care if there is some academics that are teacher led. The particular school I was in boundary for before I moved just seemed so strict I was worried this might be the norm.

I also didn’t say playground time specifically. 30 minutes isn’t ideal, 45-60 would be better but that would be fine if the rest of the day wasn’t small groups and whole group teacher-led all day.

You're not going to get what you're hoping for from DCPS. You're not going to get a 60-minute recess because those minutes are mandated to be used for other purposes. It's math. It's just not how it works in public school, and it's not up to the individual schools. And what on earth is wrong with small groups?

If you come in being like "The research proves that this is unequivocally best and therefore the school must provide it", you're just going to alienate everyone. Research changes! It comes and goes, it ebbs and flows, all kinds of stupid things have been rolled out as research-based and then rolled back again. If you hang your hat on the research you'll just annoy everyone and seem like an inexperienced preschool parent.

This is 100 years of research…it hasn’t changed in terms of play being best. American public school districts with universal PK don’t listen.

Nothing is wrong with small groups, just 30 minutes each day (for each kid) seems like a lot. And 60 min of whole group, not including the morning meeting. You are right the day is short, that’s why I was worried. When I raised concerns the school said it was the ‘gold standard in DCPS.’

I am inexperienced! That is why I am asking. I think the in boundary school would be Van Ness or Brent.

I'm the same poster who just wrote a novel above (with a kid at Dorothy Height). Gahhhh... I'm sorry those two schools are your possible options. Van Ness is largely Black, Title 1, and underperforming overall... Brent is pretty much the opposite (largely white, high SES, and the white kids are scoring well), but I think I would be more concerned sending my kid to Brent, where there are very few Black kids and the ones who do go there are generally doing poorly (only 15% of Black kids there score on grade level in ELA!).

It's very weird to use a school's 3rd-5th grade test scores to judge a how play-based its ECE program is.

I'm really confused. What does the bolded comment above (which you are presumptively responding to) have to do with an ECE program being play-based? It sounded like the OP was also concerned with the general quality of each school for Black children and the type of experience her child would have there, not just how play-based each school's ECE program is.

OP never said anything about the quality of elementary schools beyond what she was interested in with respect to ECE. She briefly mentioned that she is black and feels DCPS in general is failing black students.

Dorothy Heights lady made it about her own reservations about having black children in any DCPS school and then went on to trash two schools she almost certainly knows nothing about beyond a cursory look at the test scores.

If what OP cares about is ECE, she should go to open houses and talk to parents in the neighborhood to get a feel for what the programs are like. PK3 in and around Capitol Hill is very competitive, so her options are pretty much limited to her IB and a small handful of charters. I guess if she's really lucky she might be able to get a spot at one of the two nearby citywide schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a fancy essay you have written here.

Some kids read at 3 regardless of their school's approach and school quality. Some kids wouldn't at even the best school regardless of the approach.

DCPS schools have a choice of certain curricula. Is there a particular curriculum you dislike? You seem to have confused "play-based" instruction with free play recess. They aren't the same thing and aren't intended to be. I doubt anyone is giving lectures to 3 year olds.

No, I have equated it to play. Free-play meaning child-directed and teacher supported. Building Blocks Math is a curriculum all PK teachers must use.

And funny, the research definitely does not show it’s ‘just PK.’
And we are also looking at privates, being a private pre-k does not automatically make it a good school.

I will ask teachers, so far it seems other parents equate Pre-K to glorified babysitting…

Not, high strung I’m simply curious what schools look like. Especially as a newer Black mom, in a city mostly failing Black children.

I completely get it... and I wish this weren't anonymous and there was some way for me to reach out to you directly. It was really disheartening looking at schools for my [Black] child and realizing that there are basically two (maybe three? I'm looking at you, Whittier. Lol.) elementary schools in DC that I would be comfortable sending my kid to long-term... and things don't look much better w/r/t equity in MoCo, PG, Arlington, or Fairfax. (Note to anyone who infers from my writing that I am educated and who wants to tell me that this is all a class issue and my high SES kid will be academically successful at a school where most Black kids are not doing well and that their [relative] wealth will insulate them, that's not how it works... if most kids who look like them at their school are performing far below grade level, they will be assumed to be low-performing by other kids and teachers, and that's a crappy situation to be in, to spend your time when you should be focused on learning having to prove that you are not low performing and to have to potentially distance yourself from the kids who look like you in order to do so.)

Most of the DCPS schools I visited do a lot of explicit, scripted phonics instruction starting in PK3 that has kids sitting at desks staring at a teacher writing on the whiteboard... which isn't developmentally appropriate and not what we were looking for. (We do want explicit letter recognition and phonics instruction, just not through that method.) Because we did not win the lottery last year, my kid ended up at our top-choice realistic (lottery-wise) school, Dorothy Height in Petworth, and we have been very happy with it... our only real complaint is that my kid hates having to wear a uniform color and it causes our family regular morning angst. Lol. My kid is thriving there in a very small class (11 kids) with a lead teacher with 25 years of PK3 experience (plus a full-time assistant teacher with 6 years of PK3 experience) and a Reggio Emilia play-based instructional methodology...other DCPS schools seem to use the Creative Curriculum instead. The Dorothy Height PK program is extremely diverse in all sorts of ways (especially racially and w/r/t SES) that are not currently reflected in the upper grades there. I don't know whether we will keep my kid there for all of elementary school... it largely depends on whether the other middle-class families choose to keep their kids there past PK and how the school is doing academically as a result of those choices. That typically doesn't happen because Dorothy Height doesn't have an inbound area and most of the middle class families move their kids to their bilingual inbound (Powell or Bruce Monroe) when they are guaranteed a seat in K, or to a bilingual charter, if they lottery into one. I'm wondering though whether more middle class families may stay now that the school is housed in a beautiful new building and has a good middle class school vibe... tbd.

Takoma and Shepherd?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a fancy essay you have written here.

Some kids read at 3 regardless of their school's approach and school quality. Some kids wouldn't at even the best school regardless of the approach.

DCPS schools have a choice of certain curricula. Is there a particular curriculum you dislike? You seem to have confused "play-based" instruction with free play recess. They aren't the same thing and aren't intended to be. I doubt anyone is giving lectures to 3 year olds.

No, I have equated it to play. Free-play meaning child-directed and teacher supported. Building Blocks Math is a curriculum all PK teachers must use.

And funny, the research definitely does not show it’s ‘just PK.’
And we are also looking at privates, being a private pre-k does not automatically make it a good school.

I will ask teachers, so far it seems other parents equate Pre-K to glorified babysitting…

Not, high strung I’m simply curious what schools look like. Especially as a newer Black mom, in a city mostly failing Black children.

I completely get it... and I wish this weren't anonymous and there was some way for me to reach out to you directly. It was really disheartening looking at schools for my [Black] child and realizing that there are basically two (maybe three? I'm looking at you, Whittier. Lol.) elementary schools in DC that I would be comfortable sending my kid to long-term... and things don't look much better w/r/t equity in MoCo, PG, Arlington, or Fairfax. (Note to anyone who infers from my writing that I am educated and who wants to tell me that this is all a class issue and my high SES kid will be academically successful at a school where most Black kids are not doing well and that their [relative] wealth will insulate them, that's not how it works... if most kids who look like them at their school are performing far below grade level, they will be assumed to be low-performing by other kids and teachers, and that's a crappy situation to be in, to spend your time when you should be focused on learning having to prove that you are not low performing and to have to potentially distance yourself from the kids who look like you in order to do so.)

Most of the DCPS schools I visited do a lot of explicit, scripted phonics instruction starting in PK3 that has kids sitting at desks staring at a teacher writing on the whiteboard... which isn't developmentally appropriate and not what we were looking for. (We do want explicit letter recognition and phonics instruction, just not through that method.) Because we did not win the lottery last year, my kid ended up at our top-choice realistic (lottery-wise) school, Dorothy Height in Petworth, and we have been very happy with it... our only real complaint is that my kid hates having to wear a uniform color and it causes our family regular morning angst. Lol. My kid is thriving there in a very small class (11 kids) with a lead teacher with 25 years of PK3 experience (plus a full-time assistant teacher with 6 years of PK3 experience) and a Reggio Emilia play-based instructional methodology...other DCPS schools seem to use the Creative Curriculum instead. The Dorothy Height PK program is extremely diverse in all sorts of ways (especially racially and w/r/t SES) that are not currently reflected in the upper grades there. I don't know whether we will keep my kid there for all of elementary school... it largely depends on whether the other middle-class families choose to keep their kids there past PK and how the school is doing academically as a result of those choices. That typically doesn't happen because Dorothy Height doesn't have an inbound area and most of the middle class families move their kids to their bilingual inbound (Powell or Bruce Monroe) when they are guaranteed a seat in K, or to a bilingual charter, if they lottery into one. I'm wondering though whether more middle class families may stay now that the school is housed in a beautiful new building and has a good middle class school vibe... tbd.

So with regards to Whittier some of the PK does have homework (extremely teacher specific and I believe it may just be one teacher), but it's also a school that absolutely is not just trying to be a work to the test environment. There's also an increasing number of white families but the admin seems to be doing a good job not just catering to new and potential new families but engaging the school as a whole.

[Anonymous]

Our DCPS uses Creative Curriculum; the day is structured with a schedule, but it's pretty play-based at the core, and kids are able to free play for a lot of it.

They pick a general topic to study for a few weeks like plants and trees, buildings and construction, parents are encouraged to come in and read to the class, etc.
They also have foodprints where they are introduced to different foods, simple recipes etc to try and encourage healthy nutrition.
During the warmer months, they get to go see the vegetables growing in the garden, etc.
Every month or so there's a field trip, they went to the botanical garden as part of the plant study, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a fancy essay you have written here.

Some kids read at 3 regardless of their school's approach and school quality. Some kids wouldn't at even the best school regardless of the approach.

DCPS schools have a choice of certain curricula. Is there a particular curriculum you dislike? You seem to have confused "play-based" instruction with free play recess. They aren't the same thing and aren't intended to be. I doubt anyone is giving lectures to 3 year olds.

No, I have equated it to play. Free-play meaning child-directed and teacher supported. Building Blocks Math is a curriculum all PK teachers must use.

And funny, the research definitely does not show it’s ‘just PK.’
And we are also looking at privates, being a private pre-k does not automatically make it a good school.

I will ask teachers, so far it seems other parents equate Pre-K to glorified babysitting…

Not, high strung I’m simply curious what schools look like. Especially as a newer Black mom, in a city mostly failing Black children.

I completely get it... and I wish this weren't anonymous and there was some way for me to reach out to you directly. It was really disheartening looking at schools for my [Black] child and realizing that there are basically two (maybe three? I'm looking at you, Whittier. Lol.) elementary schools in DC that I would be comfortable sending my kid to long-term... and things don't look much better w/r/t equity in MoCo, PG, Arlington, or Fairfax. (Note to anyone who infers from my writing that I am educated and who wants to tell me that this is all a class issue and my high SES kid will be academically successful at a school where most Black kids are not doing well and that their [relative] wealth will insulate them, that's not how it works... if most kids who look like them at their school are performing far below grade level, they will be assumed to be low-performing by other kids and teachers, and that's a crappy situation to be in, to spend your time when you should be focused on learning having to prove that you are not low performing and to have to potentially distance yourself from the kids who look like you in order to do so.)

Most of the DCPS schools I visited do a lot of explicit, scripted phonics instruction starting in PK3 that has kids sitting at desks staring at a teacher writing on the whiteboard... which isn't developmentally appropriate and not what we were looking for. (We do want explicit letter recognition and phonics instruction, just not through that method.) Because we did not win the lottery last year, my kid ended up at our top-choice realistic (lottery-wise) school, Dorothy Height in Petworth, and we have been very happy with it... our only real complaint is that my kid hates having to wear a uniform color and it causes our family regular morning angst. Lol. My kid is thriving there in a very small class (11 kids) with a lead teacher with 25 years of PK3 experience (plus a full-time assistant teacher with 6 years of PK3 experience) and a Reggio Emilia play-based instructional methodology...other DCPS schools seem to use the Creative Curriculum instead. The Dorothy Height PK program is extremely diverse in all sorts of ways (especially racially and w/r/t SES) that are not currently reflected in the upper grades there. I don't know whether we will keep my kid there for all of elementary school... it largely depends on whether the other middle-class families choose to keep their kids there past PK and how the school is doing academically as a result of those choices. That typically doesn't happen because Dorothy Height doesn't have an inbound area and most of the middle class families move their kids to their bilingual inbound (Powell or Bruce Monroe) when they are guaranteed a seat in K, or to a bilingual charter, if they lottery into one. I'm wondering though whether more middle class families may stay now that the school is housed in a beautiful new building and has a good middle class school vibe... tbd.

Takoma and Shepherd?

Shepherd and an equally unrealistic [unless we move inbound for Shepherd] charter. Takoma's Black subgroup performance is similar to John Lewis's (pretty terrible) and neither is a school I would consider past PK, despite the increasing middle-class vibes of both (though those vibes are definitely stronger at Lewis)... though both of those are still a tier above Brightwood and Truesdell for Black students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a fancy essay you have written here.

Some kids read at 3 regardless of their school's approach and school quality. Some kids wouldn't at even the best school regardless of the approach.

DCPS schools have a choice of certain curricula. Is there a particular curriculum you dislike? You seem to have confused "play-based" instruction with free play recess. They aren't the same thing and aren't intended to be. I doubt anyone is giving lectures to 3 year olds.

No, I have equated it to play. Free-play meaning child-directed and teacher supported. Building Blocks Math is a curriculum all PK teachers must use.

And funny, the research definitely does not show it’s ‘just PK.’
And we are also looking at privates, being a private pre-k does not automatically make it a good school.

I will ask teachers, so far it seems other parents equate Pre-K to glorified babysitting…

Not, high strung I’m simply curious what schools look like. Especially as a newer Black mom, in a city mostly failing Black children.

I completely get it... and I wish this weren't anonymous and there was some way for me to reach out to you directly. It was really disheartening looking at schools for my [Black] child and realizing that there are basically two (maybe three? I'm looking at you, Whittier. Lol.) elementary schools in DC that I would be comfortable sending my kid to long-term... and things don't look much better w/r/t equity in MoCo, PG, Arlington, or Fairfax. (Note to anyone who infers from my writing that I am educated and who wants to tell me that this is all a class issue and my high SES kid will be academically successful at a school where most Black kids are not doing well and that their [relative] wealth will insulate them, that's not how it works... if most kids who look like them at their school are performing far below grade level, they will be assumed to be low-performing by other kids and teachers, and that's a crappy situation to be in, to spend your time when you should be focused on learning having to prove that you are not low performing and to have to potentially distance yourself from the kids who look like you in order to do so.)

Most of the DCPS schools I visited do a lot of explicit, scripted phonics instruction starting in PK3 that has kids sitting at desks staring at a teacher writing on the whiteboard... which isn't developmentally appropriate and not what we were looking for. (We do want explicit letter recognition and phonics instruction, just not through that method.) Because we did not win the lottery last year, my kid ended up at our top-choice realistic (lottery-wise) school, Dorothy Height in Petworth, and we have been very happy with it... our only real complaint is that my kid hates having to wear a uniform color and it causes our family regular morning angst. Lol. My kid is thriving there in a very small class (11 kids) with a lead teacher with 25 years of PK3 experience (plus a full-time assistant teacher with 6 years of PK3 experience) and a Reggio Emilia play-based instructional methodology...other DCPS schools seem to use the Creative Curriculum instead. The Dorothy Height PK program is extremely diverse in all sorts of ways (especially racially and w/r/t SES) that are not currently reflected in the upper grades there. I don't know whether we will keep my kid there for all of elementary school... it largely depends on whether the other middle-class families choose to keep their kids there past PK and how the school is doing academically as a result of those choices. That typically doesn't happen because Dorothy Height doesn't have an inbound area and most of the middle class families move their kids to their bilingual inbound (Powell or Bruce Monroe) when they are guaranteed a seat in K, or to a bilingual charter, if they lottery into one. I'm wondering though whether more middle class families may stay now that the school is housed in a beautiful new building and has a good middle class school vibe... tbd.

I might be out-of-date, but I was impressed when I was at Whittier how the staff body had a large number of experienced black teachers (and not Teach for America grads). (I left because of DC cost-of-living, even though the school culture was strong).


Anyway, I’m not in the DMV now, but it doesn’t seem to me Creative Curriculum is necessarily anti-play. Our PK3s have plenty of free-play time, with circle time and a brief craft the only real sit down activities (and circle time is very movement-based). I will say the level of structure varies depending on the teacher though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a fancy essay you have written here.

Some kids read at 3 regardless of their school's approach and school quality. Some kids wouldn't at even the best school regardless of the approach.

DCPS schools have a choice of certain curricula. Is there a particular curriculum you dislike? You seem to have confused "play-based" instruction with free play recess. They aren't the same thing and aren't intended to be. I doubt anyone is giving lectures to 3 year olds.

No, I have equated it to play. Free-play meaning child-directed and teacher supported. Building Blocks Math is a curriculum all PK teachers must use.

And funny, the research definitely does not show it’s ‘just PK.’
And we are also looking at privates, being a private pre-k does not automatically make it a good school.

I will ask teachers, so far it seems other parents equate Pre-K to glorified babysitting…

Not, high strung I’m simply curious what schools look like. Especially as a newer Black mom, in a city mostly failing Black children.

I completely get it... and I wish this weren't anonymous and there was some way for me to reach out to you directly. It was really disheartening looking at schools for my [Black] child and realizing that there are basically two (maybe three? I'm looking at you, Whittier. Lol.) elementary schools in DC that I would be comfortable sending my kid to long-term... and things don't look much better w/r/t equity in MoCo, PG, Arlington, or Fairfax. (Note to anyone who infers from my writing that I am educated and who wants to tell me that this is all a class issue and my high SES kid will be academically successful at a school where most Black kids are not doing well and that their [relative] wealth will insulate them, that's not how it works... if most kids who look like them at their school are performing far below grade level, they will be assumed to be low-performing by other kids and teachers, and that's a crappy situation to be in, to spend your time when you should be focused on learning having to prove that you are not low performing and to have to potentially distance yourself from the kids who look like you in order to do so.)

Most of the DCPS schools I visited do a lot of explicit, scripted phonics instruction starting in PK3 that has kids sitting at desks staring at a teacher writing on the whiteboard... which isn't developmentally appropriate and not what we were looking for. (We do want explicit letter recognition and phonics instruction, just not through that method.) Because we did not win the lottery last year, my kid ended up at our top-choice realistic (lottery-wise) school, Dorothy Height in Petworth, and we have been very happy with it... our only real complaint is that my kid hates having to wear a uniform color and it causes our family regular morning angst. Lol. My kid is thriving there in a very small class (11 kids) with a lead teacher with 25 years of PK3 experience (plus a full-time assistant teacher with 6 years of PK3 experience) and a Reggio Emilia play-based instructional methodology...other DCPS schools seem to use the Creative Curriculum instead. The Dorothy Height PK program is extremely diverse in all sorts of ways (especially racially and w/r/t SES) that are not currently reflected in the upper grades there. I don't know whether we will keep my kid there for all of elementary school... it largely depends on whether the other middle-class families choose to keep their kids there past PK and how the school is doing academically as a result of those choices. That typically doesn't happen because Dorothy Height doesn't have an inbound area and most of the middle class families move their kids to their bilingual inbound (Powell or Bruce Monroe) when they are guaranteed a seat in K, or to a bilingual charter, if they lottery into one. I'm wondering though whether more middle class families may stay now that the school is housed in a beautiful new building and has a good middle class school vibe... tbd.

Takoma and Shepherd?

Shepherd and an equally unrealistic [unless we move inbound for Shepherd] charter. Takoma's Black subgroup performance is similar to John Lewis's (pretty terrible) and neither is a school I would consider past PK, despite the increasing middle-class vibes of both (though those vibes are definitely stronger at Lewis)... though both of those are still a tier above Brightwood and Truesdell for Black students.

What’s the charter? I always assumed that Shepherd’s black student performance was about demographics - it has to have the largest concentration of UMC black families in the city - rather than anything special about the school itself.

[Anonymous]

My kids are in middle school now, but one went to an academic preK charter and one to a DCPS preK (Reggio programming). One was academically advanced and one was definitely not, could barely hold a pencil in preK. Both enjoyed it, but my impression is, your kid has to be able to follow rules and get along well with others. That's the thing that will make DCPS preK much more stressful, not the math education.

They had started out at a home-based daycare, which I think was very helpful in the socioemotional aspects, so in that sense they were prepared for the larger classrooms in preK.

[Anonymous]

I'm a substitute teacher for DCPS PreK and it's quite sad. They are leaning more and more on tech/screens in the classroom, it makes me not even want to complicit. Thinking about math scores for 4 year olds is sad in itself IMO. It's really an essential time for social and emotional development which does require free play and peer interaction. A lot of dcps teachers I've seen have poorly managed classroom and spend a lot of time shaming children for not following the rules -- really for just being small children! Personally I think Reggio programs are best, if you find one affiliated with a church, they tend to be more affordable. Or perhaps the Montessori charter school (no experience there). Good luck

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a substitute teacher for DCPS PreK and it's quite sad. They are leaning more and more on tech/screens in the classroom, it makes me not even want to complicit. Thinking about math scores for 4 year olds is sad in itself IMO. It's really an essential time for social and emotional development which does require free play and peer interaction. A lot of dcps teachers I've seen have poorly managed classroom and spend a lot of time shaming children for not following the rules -- really for just being small children! Personally I think Reggio programs are best, if you find one affiliated with a church, they tend to be more affordable. Or perhaps the Montessori charter school (no experience there). Good luck

That is sad! My kids went through a DCPS program about 5 years ago, and there were no screens at all. Centers, play, etc. I wonder if things are changing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a substitute teacher for DCPS PreK and it's quite sad. They are leaning more and more on tech/screens in the classroom, it makes me not even want to complicit. Thinking about math scores for 4 year olds is sad in itself IMO. It's really an essential time for social and emotional development which does require free play and peer interaction. A lot of dcps teachers I've seen have poorly managed classroom and spend a lot of time shaming children for not following the rules -- really for just being small children! Personally I think Reggio programs are best, if you find one affiliated with a church, they tend to be more affordable. Or perhaps the Montessori charter school (no experience there). Good luck

That is sad! My kids went through a DCPS program about 5 years ago, and there were no screens at all. Centers, play, etc. I wonder if things are changing.

Current preschool family and your experience is ours— circle time, centers, small groups, recess, free play, etc. I don’t think the schedule or structure of a lot of DCPS has changed in the last several years.

FWIW, I also don’t know what “math score” is referring to. Progress reports include whether a child can recognize numbers/count them/write them. In pre-k 4, they were learning about addition/subtraction by counting beads during “small group” lessons, which is when teachers pull a group of 3-4 kids for a quick 10 minute “lesson” while the rest are in centers. None of it has been age inappropriate, using tablets/screens, or sitting and doing rote work like some posters are referring to. I really wonder where they’ve seen this because I visited and have now volunteered at several schools, and they all were very similar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a substitute teacher for DCPS PreK and it's quite sad. They are leaning more and more on tech/screens in the classroom, it makes me not even want to complicit. Thinking about math scores for 4 year olds is sad in itself IMO. It's really an essential time for social and emotional development which does require free play and peer interaction. A lot of dcps teachers I've seen have poorly managed classroom and spend a lot of time shaming children for not following the rules -- really for just being small children! Personally I think Reggio programs are best, if you find one affiliated with a church, they tend to be more affordable. Or perhaps the Montessori charter school (no experience there). Good luck

That is sad! My kids went through a DCPS program about 5 years ago, and there were no screens at all. Centers, play, etc. I wonder if things are changing.

Current preschool family and your experience is ours— circle time, centers, small groups, recess, free play, etc. I don’t think the schedule or structure of a lot of DCPS has changed in the last several years.

FWIW, I also don’t know what “math score” is referring to. Progress reports include whether a child can recognize numbers/count them/write them. In pre-k 4, they were learning about addition/subtraction by counting beads during “small group” lessons, which is when teachers pull a group of 3-4 kids for a quick 10 minute “lesson” while the rest are in centers. None of it has been age inappropriate, using tablets/screens, or sitting and doing rote work like some posters are referring to. I really wonder where they’ve seen this because I visited and have now volunteered at several schools, and they all were very similar.

+1. PK classes in our DCPS don’t even have tablets/devices for the kids. (The upper grades definitely do, so it’s definitely an intentional choice.)

[Anonymous]

We did pk3 (2018-19) at a title I school and Pk 4 at our in bound WOTP school. Same curriculum. Different experiences. Which lead me to believe it is highly dependent on the teacher. And that’s a bit luck-of-the -draw. But I will say to you what I say to all my worrying friends. dCPS pays its teachers well, and a PK teacher is going to make a lot more there than at private. (They can get into the six figures with enough years in service and master’s degree) And that factor should not be overlooked.

The title I teacher we had had two masters degrees (early Ed and child psychology). She was truly the most insightful person I interacted in our early years. They did do a lot of academic things in class, but my kid always thought they were fun. There are ways to teach letters and writing and numbers, etc without sitting still or being lectured at. So keep that in mind. They also did lots of different kinds of playing.

In pk 4 at the in bound school we found the teacher to be a lot stricter with chit chat, sitting still, etc. they also deemphasized the academics more. I preferred the title I school’s approach more. But we’ve continued on in our inbound school and the other years have been wonderful.

I honestly think you can’t go wrong at most DCPS prek given the wage factor. Plus with the money you save you can get a good start on saving for college! As others have mentioned, I think that a bigger factor to consider is whether you plan to stay at the school long term. Try to choose where you will be happiest longest, but take what you get in the lottery with confidence that the prek at DCPS is generally pretty great.

[Anonymous]

My kid did PK at a title 1 school and it was amazing. The teachers are actually college educated accredited teachers. I don’t know any friends at other schools who thought the PK experience was “rote”. My kid is now a straight A student at highly regarded DCPSschool.
Don’t overthink this OP. DCPS gets a LOT wrong but PK is one of the best things they do!