Drew Model

[Anonymous]

Hi all,
Just wanted to hear other parents reviews of Drew. I see poor ratings on websites, but I read a lot of positive reviews. Those are older posts so wanted to get some recent insight. I also heard they may be getting rid of the Montessori program..? If you chose to send your child to an alternative program, what did you choose and what was your reasoning for choosing that over Drew?
Thank you for any input.

[Anonymous]

Drew will change in 2019. Right now there are two programs in the building -- a countywide Montessori program with about 400 students from around the county, and a neighborhood school with about 200 students. In 2019 the Montessori program will move to a new building and they will redo the boundaries to fill Drew with kids from other neighborhoods to relieve overcrowding at other elementary schools. Its unclear at this time if there will be any special focus to the new school or what the demographic profile of the student body will be. There are meetings going on right now that anyone can get involved in--check out the Drew or the APS websites.

[Anonymous]

PP is right about the coming changes at Drew. The boundaries will be redrawn in South Arlington and some kids from Randolph, Hoffman-Boston, and Oakridge will go to Drew. There is a "visioning" process going on now for the school, which I suppose may lead to a specific focus. I don't really get what the process is supposed to achieve. I do know that the test scores are not great out of Drew, especially among minority and low-income kids. My child is in the Montessori program, so it's different, but in general I'm happy with the school. The teachers and admin seem to try hard, they are very responsive, and the teachers we have had are patient and caring. My child loves them. I have been a room parent a couple times and been impressed. They have lots of school events (science fair, family movie night), and every child I have encountered there has been unfailing nice and polite.

I take it from your post you're zoned for Drew. We are too. We did the lottery for the Montessori program because we were worried about the scores, the rankings, etc. But, we live where we live, so we weren't too worried. My child is doing well in the Montessori style, but I have some concerns about whether it will be a good fit long term. We are not sure whether we will stick with Montessori post-2019 and follow it up to Henry, or stay with Drew. I can answer specific questions if you have them, but ultimately it's a very personal question. We are UMC professionals who believe our children will do fine almost no matter the circumstances at their school. We also value racial and economic diversity. But, we're not going to put our liberal ideologies on the backs of our children if the school really is significantly inferior in relevant ways. It's an ongoing balancing act.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP is right about the coming changes at Drew. The boundaries will be redrawn in South Arlington and some kids from Randolph, Hoffman-Boston, and Oakridge will go to Drew. There is a "visioning" process going on now for the school, which I suppose may lead to a specific focus. I don't really get what the process is supposed to achieve. I do know that the test scores are not great out of Drew, especially among minority and low-income kids. My child is in the Montessori program, so it's different, but in general I'm happy with the school. The teachers and admin seem to try hard, they are very responsive, and the teachers we have had are patient and caring. My child loves them. I have been a room parent a couple times and been impressed. They have lots of school events (science fair, family movie night), and every child I have encountered there has been unfailing nice and polite.

I take it from your post you're zoned for Drew. We are too. We did the lottery for the Montessori program because we were worried about the scores, the rankings, etc. But, we live where we live, so we weren't too worried. My child is doing well in the Montessori style, but I have some concerns about whether it will be a good fit long term. We are not sure whether we will stick with Montessori post-2019 and follow it up to Henry, or stay with Drew. I can answer specific questions if you have them, but ultimately it's a very personal question. We are UMC professionals who believe our children will do fine almost no matter the circumstances at their school. We also value racial and economic diversity. But, we're not going to put our liberal ideologies on the backs of our children if the school really is significantly inferior in relevant ways. It's an ongoing balancing act.

Dp- my family is zoned to a neighboring school. Our Montessori pre K is Drew. Doesn't that guarantee you a spot in the Drew Montessori program for k and up?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP is right about the coming changes at Drew. The boundaries will be redrawn in South Arlington and some kids from Randolph, Hoffman-Boston, and Oakridge will go to Drew. There is a "visioning" process going on now for the school, which I suppose may lead to a specific focus. I don't really get what the process is supposed to achieve. I do know that the test scores are not great out of Drew, especially among minority and low-income kids. My child is in the Montessori program, so it's different, but in general I'm happy with the school. The teachers and admin seem to try hard, they are very responsive, and the teachers we have had are patient and caring. My child loves them. I have been a room parent a couple times and been impressed. They have lots of school events (science fair, family movie night), and every child I have encountered there has been unfailing nice and polite.

I take it from your post you're zoned for Drew. We are too. We did the lottery for the Montessori program because we were worried about the scores, the rankings, etc. But, we live where we live, so we weren't too worried. My child is doing well in the Montessori style, but I have some concerns about whether it will be a good fit long term. We are not sure whether we will stick with Montessori post-2019 and follow it up to Henry, or stay with Drew. I can answer specific questions if you have them, but ultimately it's a very personal question. We are UMC professionals who believe our children will do fine almost no matter the circumstances at their school. We also value racial and economic diversity. But, we're not going to put our liberal ideologies on the backs of our children if the school really is significantly inferior in relevant ways. It's an ongoing balancing act.

Dp- my family is zoned to a neighboring school. Our Montessori pre K is Drew. Doesn't that guarantee you a spot in the Drew Montessori program for k and up?

Yes, I believe it does. It's just that the Drew Montessori will be moving to Henry in 2019. I expect the policy will remain the same.

One of our considerations in applying for the Montessori, which I didn't mention above, was the predominance of the Montessori program over the traditional program. I had a hard time believing the 150 or so kids in the traditional program were getting the same level of attention as the 400 or so in the Montessori program, especially given the dynamics of where the respective programs drew from (Montessori is ostensibly county-wide, though it's my sense that most kids are from South Arl) and the other factors applicable to the student body. Since Drew was our default neighborhood school, that was of concern to me. With Drew becoming a full and unified program, my calculus might change.

[Anonymous]

Ah, so this is why we've seen the big push for Montessori out of Drew. Both sides felt the spilt focus was a hinderence, which makes sense. I'll be interested to see how this plays out and what happenes to the scores respectively.

[Anonymous]

I am zoned for Drew, but we are going to Claremont. I would like to be able to go to our neighborhood school, but as the PP mentioned I have concerns about the lack of attention the traditional school receives. When you go on a tour of the school they don't even bother to show you traditional classrooms and when I met the principal at the welcome night they didn't even bother to mention the traditional program. It was a bit frustrating.

If you are zoned for Drew, you do currently get automatic admission to Claremont if you are interested in that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am zoned for Drew, but we are going to Claremont. I would like to be able to go to our neighborhood school, but as the PP mentioned I have concerns about the lack of attention the traditional school receives. When you go on a tour of the school they don't even bother to show you traditional classrooms and when I met the principal at the welcome night they didn't even bother to mention the traditional program. It was a bit frustrating.

If you are zoned for Drew, you do currently get automatic admission to Claremont if you are interested in that.

i find that hard to believe. were you in the right tour/group? any chance they got you mixed up with the Montessorri families?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am zoned for Drew, but we are going to Claremont. I would like to be able to go to our neighborhood school, but as the PP mentioned I have concerns about the lack of attention the traditional school receives. When you go on a tour of the school they don't even bother to show you traditional classrooms and when I met the principal at the welcome night they didn't even bother to mention the traditional program. It was a bit frustrating.

If you are zoned for Drew, you do currently get automatic admission to Claremont if you are interested in that.

i find that hard to believe. were you in the right tour/group? any chance they got you mixed up with the Montessorri families?

I don't think we got mixed up. They just had a general tour as far as I know. We asked to see a traditional classroom and they seemed surprised. But who knows, maybe we did get mixed up. I do know at the welcome night she didn't mention the traditional program until I asked. Maybe they just assumed we only wanted Montessori.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

If you are zoned for Drew, you do currently get automatic admission to Claremont if you are interested in that.

This is incorrect. Drew is not part of the automatic Claremont cluster admission- https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/legacy_assets/www/26c4621ab8-25-2.2-enrollment-transfers.pdf
" the Cluster (Abingdon/Hoffman-Boston /Oakridge) for Claremont are guaranteed admission to that school."

If you are in the Drew boundary you have almost no chance of getting into Claremont.
Claremont is really overcrowded. It fills with students from the cluster and siblings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If you are zoned for Drew, you do currently get automatic admission to Claremont if you are interested in that.

This is incorrect. Drew is not part of the automatic Claremont cluster admission- https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/legacy_assets/www/26c4621ab8-25-2.2-enrollment-transfers.pdf
" the Cluster (Abingdon/Hoffman-Boston /Oakridge) for Claremont are guaranteed admission to that school."

If you are in the Drew boundary you have almost no chance of getting into Claremont.
Claremont is really overcrowded. It fills with students from the cluster and siblings.

Not true. The Nauck neighborhood is also zoned for Hoffman Boston it is a double zone, which doesn't show up on the new map but shows up on the old one. I live in Nauck and was able to register at Claremont last week. We are considered priority. All my neighbors also go to Claremont.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ah, so this is why we've seen the big push for Montessori out of Drew. Both sides felt the spilt focus was a hinderence, which makes sense. I'll be interested to see how this plays out and what happenes to the scores respectively.

It was pretty much the Montessori people pushing this. There is not much parent involvement on the neighborhood side. The kinds of parents who would be involved either put their kids in Montessori or send them to ATS or Claremont.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If you are zoned for Drew, you do currently get automatic admission to Claremont if you are interested in that.

This is incorrect. Drew is not part of the automatic Claremont cluster admission- https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/legacy_assets/www/26c4621ab8-25-2.2-enrollment-transfers.pdf
" the Cluster (Abingdon/Hoffman-Boston /Oakridge) for Claremont are guaranteed admission to that school."

If you are in the Drew boundary you have almost no chance of getting into Claremont.
Claremont is really overcrowded. It fills with students from the cluster and siblings.

This does not take into account the map. They have basically drawn lines that make Claremont a neighborhood school. If you just signed up with no issue, it is because they have space this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If you are zoned for Drew, you do currently get automatic admission to Claremont if you are interested in that.

This is incorrect. Drew is not part of the automatic Claremont cluster admission- https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/legacy_assets/www/26c4621ab8-25-2.2-enrollment-transfers.pdf
" the Cluster (Abingdon/Hoffman-Boston /Oakridge) for Claremont are guaranteed admission to that school."

If you are in the Drew boundary you have almost no chance of getting into Claremont.
Claremont is really overcrowded. It fills with students from the cluster and siblings.

This does not take into account the map. They have basically drawn lines that make Claremont a neighborhood school. If you just signed up with no issue, it is because they have space this year.

Or because the Staff thought you were submitting an application for the lottery. You would have no issue doing that. It is not the same as being admitted.

[Anonymous]

So we are all in agreement that people living in Nauck are likely SOL to get into Claremont?