Reply to Outside-the-box guidance for evaluating DC elementary schools?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I’ve worked in both a highly rated, well liked on DCUM school and a poorly rated, Title I, rarely mentioned on DCUM school, both DCPS elementaries. I’ve also worked in two other elementary schools in two different states, one a typical upper middle class school and the other a Title I not as bad as DCPS but still low performing. For my own child what would make the difference is the level of joy in the school. The out of state Title I had just as many behavior problems as the Title I one DCPS, but overall the building had a sense of joy for students. We did fun school wide activities, we had celebrations, kids did fun projects as a school or grade. I still have some awesome memories of times with kids. The DCPS Title I the very first thing I noticed was the kids seemed depressed and admin wasn’t interested in making school a joyous place to be. The staff didn’t care either when I tried to organize some celebrations and events.

You can worry about test scores all day, but for a neurotypical child from an ordinary family will do just fine anywhere at the elementary level. But whether your kid loves school will be determined by the joy in the school. And from my years teaching, I see that kids who love school are more engaged and eager to learn.

Now, how do you figure out which schools have that sense of joy? That will be harder to figure out and I can’t really answer that. I would poke around on Facebook pages, PTA/PTO pages, Google them and see what comes up. Look at the kids in the pictures and what they are doing. What kind of events does the school have? Do they invite families into the building? Things like that. [/quote]

As a self contained teacher teacher who works with children who are not neurotypical, I disagree that children who are can do well anywhere. Neurotypical children can still have behavioral issues, depression, anxiety, etc.

I have worked in a school on cap hill, NW, and my current school is in NE. My NE school is my favorite so far and title 1. I think the majority of our students love school and their teachers. I agree that super important. The tone of depression is definitely due to a school’s culture and how staff interacts with students and each other.

OP I’d also look for how involved the teachers are, less involved teachers is a sign that the school is horrible. Can you find pictures, clubs they run, on the school page what does it say about them?

Look on this forum (with a grain of salt) about what other parents have said about any particular school.[/quote]

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