Carson?

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12/21/2020 19:42

Subject: Re:Carson?

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Anonymous wrote:If you can avoid it, try and get out of Rachel Carson. It's not Mormons or FARMS as the previous posters have said (which quite frankly seems ridiculous). Diversity in an elementary school is a good thing.

The issue is the administration is terrible. Turned over about 4 years ago, and the new principal is really disliked by the parents and many of the teachers. She doesn't seem like a bad person, just way in over her head and extremely under qualified. The rumor was that nobody else wanted the job given the size of the school and how tough many of the parents are, but obviously just a rumor - so who knows.

Think I'm crazy? Just look at how the school rankings have changed since she took over...we have all dealt with the overcrowding (and it's EXTREMELY overcrowded) because the school was so great. Not anymore.

It used to be one of the best, if not the best elem school in MCPS. But it's really gone downhill and shows no signs of improving. It's a hot topic across the Kentlands and Lakelands, but I just don't see it changing. All that said, there are some amazing teachers there who are trying their best.

We’re a Lakelands family and have had to make the tough decision to send our kid to private ES. The old RCES principal was apparently well-loved, but people do not like the new one. Add that on top of everything else and we have to just opt out.

I find this hilarious since parents *hated* the previous principal. He didn't cave to every parent demand and knew how to handle the Karens in there day after day. If I heard someone taking about how they disliked him I would always say "you'll be sorry when he's gone" because he ran a very tight ship and held every teacher accountable, cut bad teachers out of the mix immediately, pushed trouble maker kids out and kept eyes on what was going on during every school event etc. Now that he's gone... Welp, here we are.

I didn’t realize parents hated him. I had a lot of respect for him. Under his tenure, RCES was a Blue Ribbon school less than a decade ago. He ran things the way he felt would work best and gave other people less input. It seemed to me that the new principal seemed to have more of a “Go ahead any make some suggestions, let’s shake things up and see what works” kind of approach, and some things didn’t work.

RCES is definitely overcrowded, but the class sizes aren’t any bigger than they are at other schools.

How crowded is RCES? And what is the average class size? Like 25 kids/1 teacher for k?

Yes, classes tend to be 24-26 students. The overcrowding doesn’t really affect classroom teaching, it affects core facilities. One grade is housed in portable classrooms, but they’re large and have heat and air conditioning and a covered walkway that connects them with the building. They just don’t have restrooms or classroom sinks. The all purpose room can only fit one grade at a time, so there are 6 different lunch periods, which means that one unlucky grade has to eat “lunch” at 10:30. A whole grade goes out to recess at the same time, so you’ll have 2-3 recess aides supervising 150 or more kids. Sometimes two classes have PE at the same time and must share the gym. Upper grades don’t have a set library time; the kids are given opportunities to visit the library, a few at a time, during reading. Anything that involves the entire school either has to split up by grade level (K-2 do it at this time, while 3-5 do it at this other time) or there’s totally inadequate parking around the school for parents. They used to invite 5th graders’ parent to the ceremonies on the last day of school, but now the students and staff fill the combined all purpose room and gymnasium space, so they can’t include parents.

How can that large of a student body NOT effect classroom learning? When you have that many students the teaching is helpful to the majority of the population, but any child who isn't keeping up with (or is ahead) of the pack is left to their own devices.

Because RCES teachers don’t have more students than teachers at other MCPS elementary schools (except Focus or Title I schools). They teach approximately 25 students, sometimes more and sometimes fewer. Small group instruction takes place in reading and math in every class. Just like at other schools, the students in the lower grades are regrouped according to their reading level for reading instruction. To match up students of similar reading ability, some students may leave their home room and join a different teacher for reading. At RCES, there have been between 4-7 teachers per grade, depending on enrollment. That makes it easy to offer instruction at a wide range of skill levels.

RCES has a great PTA, numerous parent volunteers, and some wonderful teachers. I was really impressed with one of the counselors, as well. I brought an educational advocate to the meeting where the RCES staff was working with the Lakelands Park Middle School counselor to write my child’s 504 for 6th grade. After the meeting, the advocate, who has attended many of these meetings, commented that the RCES staff clearly really cared about my child and had been providing supports that they weren’t even required to provide (no services, just classroom accommodations and the occasional lunch one-on-one with the counselor). There’s a reason why people didn’t leave in droves for private school back when enrollment topped 1,000 students.

Then explain why enrollment went from just over 1,000 a couple years ago to 873 and is projected in future years to be in the 870s. Also explain RCES’s lagging test scores.

I’d love to believe you that RCES is this terrific school, as we’re districted to it and love the neighborhood, but the numbers just don’t back you up.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/02159.pdf

Honestly, the loss of the previous principal probably had something to do with falling enrollment. However, the three biggest cohorts RCES ever had were the first 3 incoming K classes after it became a Blue Ribbon school. I think when people heard their neighborhood had a Blue Ribbon school, some of them who would have gone private decided to enroll their new K students at RCES. Then their younger children went there because their older child was there. Part of why I think this is that I’m a parent from the 2nd big cohort and 23 of the children in my child’s K class were firstborns.

It’s now been enough years that those first three post-Blue Ribbon cohorts have all aged out and even some of their younger siblings are almost done with elementary school. A lot of the shrinking enrollment a couple years ago was due to fewer K students being enrolled several years in a row. I think that when the neighborhood conversation shifted from “Hey, we’ve got a BR school!” to “OMG, we’re at more than 150% capacity and we lost more playground because they had to add more portables!,” more new young families with their first rising K students went private.

People who can afford private abandoning the neighborhood public school could be a possible explanation for falling test scores.