Reply to Two Rivers elementary families -- what is your MS plan

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We have sent our kids to both TR and to a Title 1 DCPS and they got more challenging work especially above grade level at the DCPS. I have no idea if this is representative of other Title 1 schools -- I imagine it varies. But a quick compare and contrast:

1) Two Rivers has a more nurturing and friendly environment with more neighborhood families and it's more social and seemed to have more invested and involved families -- more as in a greater number of them. Not that people at TR were more invested. However past K the curriculum is really unchallenging especially in math and we felt we had to supplement aggressively at home. Our oldest is a naturally ver good reader so I am not sure if the curriculum was better there or our kid just needed less instruction. We also felt there was overeliance on screens and app-based learning especially after K -- just entire chunks of the day with the kids all sitting separate on ipads with headphones. I feel like they put a lot of effort into making ECE a good experience and then punt on middle and upper elementary. The teachers also seemed less committed in upper grades and on the inexperienced side.

2) DCPS definitely had a less nurturing and friendly vibe. Parents are in and out and the PTO struggles to get participation. There is a core group of devoted parents though and I'd actually say they are more involved and committed than most parents at TR. But there are fewer of them. There are lots of single parent or dual working families where they are clearly devoted parents but just do not have the time or bandwidth for school involvement. There are also (by definition) a lot of kids from not-great family situations. There are more low level behavioral issues -- talking back and being late to school. Anecdotally I think there are a lot of at risk kids who get SN diagnoses in 2nd or 3rd grade and until that happens they can be harder to control in the classroom but once they get treatment it gets better. I thinnk it's likely just harder to get them the attention they need to get diagnosed and treated.

BUT academically the DCPS is better. Even when you factor in the large at risk population and the classroom issues that correspond with it. The curriculum is better and more straight forward with very clear progression through material that is easy for us to follow and track via report cards and PT conferences. And the teachers are frankly amazing. I have concluded that teachers willing to work in these schools tend to just really love teaching because we haven't had a dud (whereas at TR I'd say about half were mediocre). And they absolutely do a great job of differentiating and providing challenging coursework to advanced kids. Both of our kids were testing below grade level on i-Ready assessments in math when we came to this school and both are now in the the upper end of on grade level now. One of our kids jumped 3 grade levels in reading during 1st grade (no joke -- the focus on phonics and the way they encouraged fluency was fantastic and so much more organized than how TR approached).

TR has very weak academics. It's possible that our DCPS has unusually good academics for a Title 1. I don't know. But I have ZERO regrets about leaving TR and actually wish we'd left earlier. I would not recommend it to anyone except potentially as an ECE (and only ECE) option if you know for sure you will be able to move to a school you are happier with for 1st and actually I'd leave at Kindergarten because I in my experience even the early academics in K are sub-standard at TR.

This thread does have a lot of people opining about schools their kids don't attend but I have noticed one thing: I don't think I've seen a single currrent TR family defending the school's academics past PK. I've seen some people criticizing other schools and saying they aren't as good as TR in terms of things like sending kids outside. But I'd love to hear a single TR parent say "The school's academics are great and no overhaul of the curriculum is needed." But I don't and that's unusual on threads like this. You usually have at least a couple boosters.[/quote]

I found this to be true at our Title 1 DCPS also, and was a huge proponent in early elementary. I agree that the way DCPS teaches reading is particularly strong.

However -- the wheels came off the bus later on. Principal hired inexperienced teachers who let the more advanced kids finish their work in like 5 minutes and then just do whatever they wanted (read or play video games) for the rest of the time. Fights broke out in the classroom all the time. Many kids are WAY below grade level and take up all the attention of the teacher.

I'm not sure an elementary charter is the answer, but DCPS schools do differ. I decided to put my older kid in a charter middle that is much more challenging than the DCPS option (I talked to teachers at both schools to determine this) and to move our younger kid to a better run non-T1 DCPS.[/quote]

As somebody who used to teach in a (non TR) charter, I think the benefits of teaching in DCPS attract and retain teachers for longer periods of time. I have seen the revolving door of teachers at charter schools, sometimes leaving the profession or sometimes going to DCPS where pay and benefits are better. 
Does that mean all of the dcps teachers started out better? Not necessarily, but in general, if you stay in a profession for longer you learn skills and learn how to differentiate and improvise and think on your toes, all skills that make really strong teachers in urban districts like DCPS. 
Our kids have been in Title 1 Cap Hill schools since 2015, with the older in middle, and we have found Dad teacher experience really matters, and we have lucked out with schools with very experienced teachers. They are required teach the same curriculum to everybody, but they found ways to push kids who needed to be pushed and support kids who needed extra help. 
I agree with one of the previous posters, I have not heard a ton of specific examples about academic content at TR after the Early childhood and younger years. 
For the sake of having good options in the neighborhood, I hope they can figure things out![/quote]

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