Startling Creative Minds Vacancies

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But CMI got tons of love in the past, so something has happened/changed. And, from what I am hearing from CMI families - some of whom have left -the school is great for early childhood education and certain special needs, but that is it. I am hearing great disappointment with upper elementary and middle school and SN that does not fit into the CMI model. Is this right? Honestly, I am not worried about parent drama - we are a two parent working family and do not have time for all of that. Just need a good place for our kids.

You've got it right. Only thing that has changed is the proportion of families experiencing upper elementary/middle.

The problems were here all along: lack of meaningful support/PD for inexperienced teachers tasked with complex teaching assignments (inclusion classroom, project-based curriculum + common core). Lack of clear structure and approach for classroom management grows discipline problems, alongside poor/lazy approach to academic and social/emotional differentiation. Discipline issues grow as instruction weakens in upper grades (when kids are increasingly ready for rigor, but there is none). Minimal to no school-wide expectations for students - behavior, performance, etc. Misinterpreting inclusion as "anything goes" or personalized learning, but without the staffing, training and support to back it up and deliver. Not just the teachers. Elementary school instructional support is nonexistent too.

They may figure it out, but the hole is deep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But CMI got tons of love in the past, so something has happened/changed. And, from what I am hearing from CMI families - some of whom have left -the school is great for early childhood education and certain special needs, but that is it. I am hearing great disappointment with upper elementary and middle school and SN that does not fit into the CMI model. Is this right? Honestly, I am not worried about parent drama - we are a two parent working family and do not have time for all of that. Just need a good place for our kids.

You've got it right. Only thing that has changed is the proportion of families experiencing upper elementary/middle.

The problems were here all along: lack of meaningful support/PD for inexperienced teachers tasked with complex teaching assignments (inclusion classroom, project-based curriculum + common core). Lack of clear structure and approach for classroom management grows discipline problems, alongside poor/lazy approach to academic and social/emotional differentiation. Discipline issues grow as instruction weakens in upper grades (when kids are increasingly ready for rigor, but there is none). Minimal to no school-wide expectations for students - behavior, performance, etc. Misinterpreting inclusion as "anything goes" or personalized learning, but without the staffing, training and support to back it up and deliver. Not just the teachers. Elementary school instructional support is nonexistent too.

They may figure it out, but the hole is deep.

What grade does the decline begin in?

[Anonymous]

Not a CM family, but I'm not convinced that the problems are limited to upper grades. Management dysfunction usually results in systemic school-wide problems. It may not be felt that strongly at the lower PK level but don't fool yourselves into thinking that it doesn't have any negative impacts.

[Anonymous]

There were upper grade parents raising these concerns 3 and more years ago but they were shut down. I'm embarrassed to admit that i was one of the moms who thought those moms were just "trouble makers" and ignored them. Now I'm in the upper grades and experiencing the issues. They start a bit in 2nd grade and get worse.

[Anonymous]

Yes, The young professional crowd was really effective in maintaining cliques and keeping
parents in the older grades off of academic and other committees. Most of the oldsters now
have their kids in better schools. Y'all have a good day!

[Anonymous]

Yikes! I was so excited about my PK3 and K possibly going here and now I'm really concerned... Sigh!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People just love to bash this school. I wonder if the numbers will of applicants this year will be dropping.

Given that a friend of mine has a kid who's 198 on the waitlist for PK3, I doubt it.

[Anonymous]

It doesn’t really matter if there’s a huge waitlist for PK3 if they have trouble filling the upper grade spots. You staff up for extended grades and then if you have empty seats in the upper grades you’ll either have to make those per-pupil dollars really stretch or add more kids to the younger grades. Either way, if the upper grades go down the tubes the younger grades will suffer a decrease in quality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think that for the school to stabilize, admin will need to do the hard work of overhauling
the curriculum. Until that's done, the mainly inexperienced staff has to struggle with teaching
for the PARCC test, the hard work of the project-based curriculum, and the inclusion
classroom. As a former parent, I am also aware that some teachers have been subject to violence
and i've worried about whether they have received the support that they deserve.

Violence from the students? thats troubling. I have CMI first on my list, alhtough its highly unlikely we will get in, all these crazy CMI posts do give me pause. We don't have this much parent and admin drama at our IB title one school.

Physical aggression or transgressions are not uncommon among kids on the ASD spectrum. Obviously, not every kid with ASD will have these issues, or have them repeatedly, but it is going to happen. Well trained and supported teachers will have ways to deal with most of these incidents and can defuse them and keep everyone safe. But if a teacher is not trained or prepared, it can feel like an assault. Not saying that this is what is happening at CMI; I’m just saying that if a school has a substantial population of kids on the spectrum physical aggression and transgressions should not be surprising.

[Anonymous]

I can't say whether these incidents are easy for any instructor to handle, but
reaslistically, it is easier if someone is large and male. The SE
staff at CMI working with ASD have tended to be neither.

[Anonymous]

Ugh, the Director of Early Childhood Ed left also?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think that for the school to stabilize, admin will need to do the hard work of overhauling
the curriculum. Until that's done, the mainly inexperienced staff has to struggle with teaching
for the PARCC test, the hard work of the project-based curriculum, and the inclusion
classroom. As a former parent, I am also aware that some teachers have been subject to violence
and i've worried about whether they have received the support that they deserve.

Violence from the students? thats troubling. I have CMI first on my list, alhtough its highly unlikely we will get in, all these crazy CMI posts do give me pause. We don't have this much parent and admin drama at our IB title one school.

Physical aggression or transgressions are not uncommon among kids on the ASD spectrum. Obviously, not every kid with ASD will have these issues, or have them repeatedly, but it is going to happen. Well trained and supported teachers will have ways to deal with most of these incidents and can defuse them and keep everyone safe. But if a teacher is not trained or prepared, it can feel like an assault. Not saying that this is what is happening at CMI; I’m just saying that if a school has a substantial population of kids on the spectrum physical aggression and transgressions should not be surprising.

Friends who had kids who were ASD were experiencing these issues at the hands of neurotypical kids, without appropriate intervention from the school. Hearing from friends - their heart is in the right place, but their staff is woefully undermanned/underprepared/undertrained.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ugh, the Director of Early Childhood Ed left also?

there hasn't been anyone in that role since December of 2017 - she became the director of inclusion (after that staff member left) and they did not hire anyone to replace her (although they did bury the information so it is not surprising that no one knew this). Instead the lower school director attempted to take on all of her responsibilities...while also writing up the curriculum for the multiple classrooms whose teachers left midyear.

[Anonymous]

Cause for concern in the FAR report that just came out from DCPCSB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cause for concern in the FAR report that just came out from DCPCSB.

https://www.dcpcsb.org/sites/default/files/Creative%20Minds%20International%20PCS_FAR.pdf