Reply to Can anyone shed light on what is likely to change at Norwood with new leadership?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I agree with pp.  I just wish they had more of an academic focus.  Live music and art, but they should take math just as serious.

Hoping the new head will up the math program and create a stem program. [/quote]

It will take a lot. 
When I look at their science program, it is great that the kids start science in the early years! However, this is another source of moving the kids to another location in the school to learn a subject. Sink time. Then the science teachers are really enthusiastic, but they are teaching age inappropriate materials to the kids. My son, who is in fourth grade really does not get what is being taught. He rattles off things to my father, who is a scientist, when my father asks him what he is talking about, DS is clueless. I hope the school does not get the impression that making it harder makes it better. The teachers need to set realistic goals so that the kids capture more. 
Math is still a problem. The program is weak. A poorly written workbook with poor quality paper that frustrates the kids since it is hard to erase anything. Yes, a minor gripe, but it matters. Funny enough, one of the staff members involved in the math text choice left the school saying good riddance. She did not seem to care. 
Overall, they have some archaic ways of doing things, they do little to no self evaluation, ignore consultants, but call on consultants for everything, and hire from a small pool, lots of nepotism. 
As pp said, more parents need to have academics as their primary focus. Too many see it as a finishing school or a day at the country club for their child. 
It will take a lot. [/quote]

I'm sorry that Norwood is apparently not working out the way you had hoped for your son.  I think you are in the small minority on that front.

But anyway, as to your comments, what about the discussions I (and many other parents I know) have had with parents of HS-age kids at schools in the area--Sidwell, StA, Potomac, Visitation among others--who comment on how well the kids coming from Norwood do at their kids' schools, and how well-prepared they are? Norwood has nothing to do with that? Does it have anything to do with its excellent HS placement track record?

It will take a lot to do what?  To turn it into a K-8 pressure cooker?  Maybe a pressure-cooker environment is not optimal in any respect, including maximizing academic achievement.  And maybe that's not what Norwood wants for itself.  That hardly makes it a country club.[/quote]

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