School Within a School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:to attend sws, everyone there essentially had to list it as their #1 and then also have a great lottery number (or have a sibling). the same is also true at some of the smaller charter schools (middle school at latin). this type of dynamic tends to create a small, closeknit community that is overall very happy and dedicated to being there. but the dark side comes when the same individuals also feel some need to justify their decision to chose sws as #1 in the lottery over other options (for example, to drive everyday to sws instead of attending the walkable in-bound school down the street). this creates a self-perpetuating fiction that its somehow necessarily better than the other dcps hill area elementary schools as opposed to largely just being more popular.

There is a lot of truth to this. Also lends to a culty culture where it isn’t ok to question the status quo, or even raise objective questions about whether there might be better approaches. This is why after many years at SWS we didn’t even play the lottery for Latin. Couldn’t stomach it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:SWS has a very clubby feel. Some would say cult-y. I learned early on as a parent never to question their methods because it would lead only to frustration. At least in the past, the administration had a tight group of parents it could count on the circle the wagons when questions were raised.

That said, there are families who seem extremely happy there, and I take them at their word, even though that was not our experience.

If you went to an open house and were turned off, the same things will probably bother you if you enroll. And they won’t change. If you loved what you saw at the open house then you will probably love the school.

The academics are not particularly strong given the demographics of the school. For our family, we would sacrifice academic quality only for a school culture that made up for that loss. SWS wasn’t it for us. (For reference, we are a pretty typical-for-dc white UMC dual-career family and our kids are pretty smart and resilient, and don’t have any special needs).

Funny- this was my feeling at Brent. Nora disliked my questioning so much that she called child and family services on my family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can’t expect the sun, the moon and the stars from any DCPS school academically, OP. Writing instruction tends to particularly weak. We’re not at SWS but share a writing tutor with a 5th grade family at SWS. There just isn’t much emphasis on teaching spelling, grammar and usage in this school system, along with insufficient practice at school. Not a huge deal but we couldn’t make another Hill DCPS program work through the upper grades without supplementing significantly at some cost.

My first grade sws student literally brings home a stack of "books" that she writes in school. All three of my kids are ahead of peers in their reading and writing and I can say we have literally done nothing at home to supplement at home. Could it be that one 5th grader is not reflective of the entire curriculum?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can’t expect the sun, the moon and the stars from any DCPS school academically, OP. Writing instruction tends to particularly weak. We’re not at SWS but share a writing tutor with a 5th grade family at SWS. There just isn’t much emphasis on teaching spelling, grammar and usage in this school system, along with insufficient practice at school. Not a huge deal but we couldn’t make another Hill DCPS program work through the upper grades without supplementing significantly at some cost.

My first grade sws student literally brings home a stack of "books" that she writes in school. All three of my kids are ahead of peers in their reading and writing and I can say we have literally done nothing at home to supplement at home. Could it be that one 5th grader is not reflective of the entire curriculum?

The rubber hits the road at about 2nd. Not many 5s on parcc. If you don’t believe test scores matter than sws is a great fit for you. Signed, a parent whose child was scoring below grade level while at sws but is now scoring 3 years above grade level after 2 years at a different public school, where they also happen to be much much happier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can’t expect the sun, the moon and the stars from any DCPS school academically, OP. Writing instruction tends to particularly weak. We’re not at SWS but share a writing tutor with a 5th grade family at SWS. There just isn’t much emphasis on teaching spelling, grammar and usage in this school system, along with insufficient practice at school. Not a huge deal but we couldn’t make another Hill DCPS program work through the upper grades without supplementing significantly at some cost.

My first grade sws student literally brings home a stack of "books" that she writes in school. All three of my kids are ahead of peers in their reading and writing and I can say we have literally done nothing at home to supplement at home. Could it be that one 5th grader is not reflective of the entire curriculum?

The rubber hits the road at about 2nd. Not many 5s on parcc. If you don’t believe test scores matter than sws is a great fit for you. Signed, a parent whose child was scoring below grade level while at sws but is now scoring 3 years above grade level after 2 years at a different public school, where they also happen to be much much happier.

Ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can’t expect the sun, the moon and the stars from any DCPS school academically, OP. Writing instruction tends to particularly weak. We’re not at SWS but share a writing tutor with a 5th grade family at SWS. There just isn’t much emphasis on teaching spelling, grammar and usage in this school system, along with insufficient practice at school. Not a huge deal but we couldn’t make another Hill DCPS program work through the upper grades without supplementing significantly at some cost.

My first grade sws student literally brings home a stack of "books" that she writes in school. All three of my kids are ahead of peers in their reading and writing and I can say we have literally done nothing at home to supplement at home. Could it be that one 5th grader is not reflective of the entire curriculum?

The rubber hits the road at about 2nd. Not many 5s on parcc. If you don’t believe test scores matter than sws is a great fit for you. Signed, a parent whose child was scoring below grade level while at sws but is now scoring 3 years above grade level after 2 years at a different public school, where they also happen to be much much happier.

I have two kids in the upper grades and this is just pure trolling. The teachers are particularly strong in the upper grades. And the test scores speak for themselves. https://www.dcschoolreportcard.org/schools/1-0175/student-achievement?lang=en

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can’t expect the sun, the moon and the stars from any DCPS school academically, OP. Writing instruction tends to particularly weak. We’re not at SWS but share a writing tutor with a 5th grade family at SWS. There just isn’t much emphasis on teaching spelling, grammar and usage in this school system, along with insufficient practice at school. Not a huge deal but we couldn’t make another Hill DCPS program work through the upper grades without supplementing significantly at some cost.

My first grade sws student literally brings home a stack of "books" that she writes in school. All three of my kids are ahead of peers in their reading and writing and I can say we have literally done nothing at home to supplement at home. Could it be that one 5th grader is not reflective of the entire curriculum?

The rubber hits the road at about 2nd. Not many 5s on parcc. If you don’t believe test scores matter than sws is a great fit for you. Signed, a parent whose child was scoring below grade level while at sws but is now scoring 3 years above grade level after 2 years at a different public school, where they also happen to be much much happier.

I agree. My 4th grader was scoring way above her grade at different school. Now, after 3years at SWS she is falling.

I have two kids in the upper grades and this is just pure trolling. The teachers are particularly strong in the upper grades. And the test scores speak for themselves. https://www.dcschoolreportcard.org/schools/1-0175/student-achievement?lang=en

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can’t expect the sun, the moon and the stars from any DCPS school academically, OP. Writing instruction tends to particularly weak. We’re not at SWS but share a writing tutor with a 5th grade family at SWS. There just isn’t much emphasis on teaching spelling, grammar and usage in this school system, along with insufficient practice at school. Not a huge deal but we couldn’t make another Hill DCPS program work through the upper grades without supplementing significantly at some cost.

My first grade sws student literally brings home a stack of "books" that she writes in school. All three of my kids are ahead of peers in their reading and writing and I can say we have literally done nothing at home to supplement at home. Could it be that one 5th grader is not reflective of the entire curriculum?

The rubber hits the road at about 2nd. Not many 5s on parcc. If you don’t believe test scores matter than sws is a great fit for you. Signed, a parent whose child was scoring below grade level while at sws but is now scoring 3 years above grade level after 2 years at a different public school, where they also happen to be much much happier.

I agree. My 4th grader was scoring way above her grade at different school. Now, after 3years at SWS she is falling.

I have two kids in the upper grades and this is just pure trolling. The teachers are particularly strong in the upper grades. And the test scores speak for themselves. https://www.dcschoolreportcard.org/schools/1-0175/student-achievement?lang=en

Right, pure trolling because the poster doesn't agree with your view on the quality of upper grades instruction.

SWS' test scores are consistently seriously mediocre, barely, for the demographics represented, period.

[Anonymous]

Right. The test scores do speak for themselves. Considering the demographics of the school (which are raised repeatedly on these boards), there should be many, many, many more 5s on PARCC.

Fine to have the debate about whether test scores are important. And fine if your definition of "good test scores" is that the achievement gap is not too wide (SWS does ok relative to other schools in this area).

But if you are looking for a place where your smart kid has the opportunity to advance beyond grade level academically, SWS is probably not the place.

As an aside, many people characterize the curriculum as not challenging. There is some of that but I think the bigger problem is that the curriculum is not focused on the right things. No focus on the fundamentals of writing. No focus on math fluency (or accuracy, even). Social studies and science (to the extent it exists) are very concept-based and not fact-or knowledge based. I realize that all elementary school education is trending this way to some degree. But SWS takes it really really far.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Right. The test scores do speak for themselves. Considering the demographics of the school (which are raised repeatedly on these boards), there should be many, many, many more 5s on PARCC.

Fine to have the debate about whether test scores are important. And fine if your definition of "good test scores" is that the achievement gap is not too wide (SWS does ok relative to other schools in this area).

But if you are looking for a place where your smart kid has the opportunity to advance beyond grade level academically, SWS is probably not the place.

As an aside, many people characterize the curriculum as not challenging. There is some of that but I think the bigger problem is that the curriculum is not focused on the right things. No focus on the fundamentals of writing. No focus on math fluency (or accuracy, even). Social studies and science (to the extent it exists) are very concept-based and not fact-or knowledge based. I realize that all elementary school education is trending this way to some degree. But SWS takes it really really far.

So which schools would you recommend for these things?

[Anonymous]

Would you stay at SWS for 5th or try to get into a middle school? I'm not keen on Latin or Basis what else is there?

[Anonymous]

The decision about whether to stay at SWS for fifth grade is 100% about your MS options and 0% about SWS. SWS 5th is about what you'd expect, if you've gone through the lower grades there. If you have a good MS option for 5th, take it. If you don't, then stay. If you are not keen on Latin or Basis then consider your IB MS or some of the charters that go through 8th. They are all very different and there is not one school in that group that is probably a good "fit" for everyone.

[Anonymous]

IB is Eliot Hine for 6th grade, were new this year to SWS, DS is very happy there and they will be in the renovated space next year. we left TRY last year and would have fed into the TR middle school but were not happy there. It's weird that some schools start at 5th and some at 6th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Right. The test scores do speak for themselves. Considering the demographics of the school (which are raised repeatedly on these boards), there should be many, many, many more 5s on PARCC.

Fine to have the debate about whether test scores are important. And fine if your definition of "good test scores" is that the achievement gap is not too wide (SWS does ok relative to other schools in this area).

But if you are looking for a place where your smart kid has the opportunity to advance beyond grade level academically, SWS is probably not the place.

As an aside, many people characterize the curriculum as not challenging. There is some of that but I think the bigger problem is that the curriculum is not focused on the right things. No focus on the fundamentals of writing. No focus on math fluency (or accuracy, even). Social studies and science (to the extent it exists) are very concept-based and not fact-or knowledge based. I realize that all elementary school education is trending this way to some degree. But SWS takes it really really far.

I'd say the curriculum is focused on all the right things, and the PARC and other testing is focused on the wrong things. Kids should learn how to interact with each other in elementary school, lest they end up like most of the adults who post on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right. The test scores do speak for themselves. Considering the demographics of the school (which are raised repeatedly on these boards), there should be many, many, many more 5s on PARCC.

Fine to have the debate about whether test scores are important. And fine if your definition of "good test scores" is that the achievement gap is not too wide (SWS does ok relative to other schools in this area).

But if you are looking for a place where your smart kid has the opportunity to advance beyond grade level academically, SWS is probably not the place.

As an aside, many people characterize the curriculum as not challenging. There is some of that but I think the bigger problem is that the curriculum is not focused on the right things. No focus on the fundamentals of writing. No focus on math fluency (or accuracy, even). Social studies and science (to the extent it exists) are very concept-based and not fact-or knowledge based. I realize that all elementary school education is trending this way to some degree. But SWS takes it really really far.

I'd say the curriculum is focused on all the right things, and the PARC and other testing is focused on the wrong things. Kids should learn how to interact with each other in elementary school, lest they end up like most of the adults who post on DCUM.

most of us aren't bad, it's just the obnoxious ones that are memorable.