Academic experience at Mundo Verde in the 1st-3rd grade years

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not the previous PP's but just wanted to say I don't appreciate the "MV boosters" comment. There are people who are happy with MV, there are people who are ok with it but think the school needs to do better, and there are people who left the school either because of life changes or they had major issues with MV. We've been happy (experienced Prk3 through 1st) and will be monitoring academics as our children move through the upper grades. Like most families, we weighed our options and made what we think is the best choice for our children. I don't think folks just "boost" DC schools and have blinders on in terms of either school-specific or system-wide issues. If they are "boosting" as you say, they must love it a lot. Most of the MV comments in recent threads are not "this is a perfect school" but more "we love/like a lot about it and its the better school option for us."

The original question was about experience with 1st thru 3rd grade and at least for my family, that is when the wheels started to come off. I loved the school during the pre-K and K years, but found academics and discipline problems got worse as the years went on. And the impact of those problems became more obvious when my kids hit middle school. I was just trying to warn whomever asked the question.

I'm happy you've found a good fit for your family. And I hope the school gets its act together in the upper grades. But when you write off people with lots of experience in 1-3rd grade at the school (when it sounds like you're only a few weeks into 1st grade) you do kinda sound like a booster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not the previous PP's but just wanted to say I don't appreciate the "MV boosters" comment. There are people who are happy with MV, there are people who are ok with it but think the school needs to do better, and there are people who left the school either because of life changes or they had major issues with MV. We've been happy (experienced Prk3 through 1st) and will be monitoring academics as our children move through the upper grades. Like most families, we weighed our options and made what we think is the best choice for our children. I don't think folks just "boost" DC schools and have blinders on in terms of either school-specific or system-wide issues. If they are "boosting" as you say, they must love it a lot. Most of the MV comments in recent threads are not "this is a perfect school" but more "we love/like a lot about it and its the better school option for us."

The original question was about experience with 1st thru 3rd grade and at least for my family, that is when the wheels started to come off. I loved the school during the pre-K and K years, but found academics and discipline problems got worse as the years went on. And the impact of those problems became more obvious when my kids hit middle school. I was just trying to warn whomever asked the question.

I'm happy you've found a good fit for your family. And I hope the school gets its act together in the upper grades. But when you write off people with lots of experience in 1-3rd grade at the school (when it sounds like you're only a few weeks into 1st grade) you do kinda sound like a booster.

I’m not the original poster but no where did I get the impression that he wrote off your experience. He said some people are happy and others are not and left. That’s not a booster.

[Anonymous]

All this comparison to IB schools is disingenuous. Neighboring IB schools is a really low bar. To stay at MV through upper grades, most people would have to never lottery, or get into and turn down ITS, Two Rivers, Stokes, DCB, and various other well-respected schools. If that's what you want to do, fine. But don't pretend your only options are MV or your IB. It just isn't true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: I'm happy you've found a good fit for your family. And I hope the school gets its act together in the upper grades. But when you write off people with lots of experience in 1-3rd grade at the school (when it sounds like you're only a few weeks into 1st grade) you do kinda sound like a booster.

Not what I said but ok. I dislike that on DCUM, anyone who has had a good experience is a booster and wanted to respond to that. My oldest is in 2nd. I didn't weigh in on the original question because I can't speak to grades to 2-3. We were happy with the academic progress in first grade and there weren't any discipline issues. 2nd and 3rd grades will be a better test though.

[Anonymous]

There’s a pretty easy way to find this all out, comparatively, but I don’t know who has this info. How are each feeder to DCI performing? If MV kids have such behavior and academic issues compared to other schools it should be fairly obvious once they all merge into one school, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There’s a pretty easy way to find this all out, comparatively, but I don’t know who has this info. How are each feeder to DCI performing? If MV kids have such behavior and academic issues compared to other schools it should be fairly obvious once they all merge into one school, right?

MV only recently had kids old enough for DCI so there isn't much data. Try next year.

[Anonymous]

Op, you're asking a hard question. How does one judge academics? How much academics do first graders really need? Could MV do better on PARCC? Definitely, particularly if they drilled down in test prep. Is that desirable? To some families, maybe, but to mine, a love of learning, a long recess, specials like art and music and gardening, plus Spanish language, diversity, and exciting expeditions are preferable.

Am I speaking from a privileged position? Absolutely. I have the knowledge base and can make the time to help my kids if they fall behind. It's not fair that everyone's not in the same position.

All of us in relatively new charters are dealing with a fair amount of risk, because we don't know if the models are successful in the long term, like past high school. There are no controlled experiments that I know of to show the likely outcome of the educational models that we are choosing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op, you're asking a hard question. How does one judge academics? How much academics do first graders really need? Could MV do better on PARCC? Definitely, particularly if they drilled down in test prep. Is that desirable? To some families, maybe, but to mine, a love of learning, a long recess, specials like art and music and gardening, plus Spanish language, diversity, and exciting expeditions are preferable.

Am I speaking from a privileged position? Absolutely. I have the knowledge base and can make the time to help my kids if they fall behind. It's not fair that everyone's not in the same position.

All of us in relatively new charters are dealing with a fair amount of risk, because we don't know if the models are successful in the long term, like past high school. There are no controlled experiments that I know of to show the likely outcome of the educational models that we are choosing.

PP, what age are your kids at MV? I think I could have written your exact post when my kids were in kinder or even the start of first grade at MV. but over the next couple years, some of MV's weaknesses made it seem like the school was getting in the way of my kid's love of learning. They weren't being pushed in the areas where they were ahead, and the teachers weren't adequately communicating to us about the areas where they were behind. Plus my kids begged to go to a school where science was a regular subject, not something was sometimes incorporated into some of the expos. And my kids grew frustrated that their teachers seemed unable to control the classrooms. And they wanted better specials teachers. And one hour of recess when 20 min of it is spent walking (and recess is cancelled for even the threat of rain because the playgrounds are so far away) doesn't really seem better than the 45 min my kids get now at an on-site playground.