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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I can tell you that in my child's classroom, the two teachers both appear quite inexperienced for what they're dealing with on a day to day basis. A third of the class is barely to completely non-verbal. Nearly as many are not potty trained. They do not have kids who come in and out of the classroom during the day (as I have heard about the inclusion model in another class); rather, all the kids are in there all day.

The pros: my child is getting a richer, more diverse experience with other children than I think is available in just about any other public school. Learning to communicate and socialize with children who are non-verbal or have other profound special needs is really lovely to watch with kids this young, and there is a lot of compassion among the children. At the preschool level, so much of what they need at this age is about socialization, and in that way, there are some terrific lessons for the kids to learn.

On the flip side, we have no way to communicate with other parents, having never received a class list (despite multiple requests), so we have not been able to help our child foster any friendships outside of school. The parents we've met don't seem interested in connecting as a class, so there's no sense of community. I don't even know the names of all the kids in my child's class.

So, the cons: just about everything else when it comes to educating my kid. The teachers appear to be overwhelmed and under qualified for the challenge. At least one is out of the room much of the time to handle toileting or give one-on-one attention to the children with more serious needs. The typically developing kids seem to fend for themselves, which, while understandable given the circumstances, is not optimal. The classroom is messy, often dirty, and disorganized. The promise of doing child-driven units on different themes is pretty much a joke. Communication from our teacher is sporadic and limited to a paragraph long "newsletter" once every other week at best, although I was told by the assistant principal (who has since left) that it's supposed to be sent by email and hard copy a minimum of once a week. We've never received an all-class email all year. Our child, who entered school knowing all the letters and their sounds, does not appear to have had any support to go further in early literacy, as the class works on one letter at a time, and they are maybe halfway through the alphabet at this point.

I admit we are majorly disappointed. Our experience does not match what we were told about the school before choosing it, or even what seems to happen in the handful of classrooms with stronger teachers. When I met with the assistant principal about a handful of issues with our teacher, she seemed well aware of her weaknesses but nothing changed as a result--even the more concrete, easy fixes we discussed.

I think the school excelled in the past because it was small and focused exclusively on early childhood. Now I think they are stretched too thin, and have hired teachers just to have warm bodies in the classroom, despite the rigors of the job. Would I say you should take a chance on it if your child gets in? If you have no other choices, maybe so; you could luck into being in one of the classrooms with a good teacher. But definitely go in with your eyes open.[/quote]

Just to help you salvage your year here - have you asked for a conference with your kids teacher directly?  My child is in a class like you describe, my guess would be the same one, but maybe not.  I know precisely what they're doing academically - yes, like all preschool classrooms they do a letter a week in large group, that's pretty standard, but they also have individualized small group time for both reading and math where they differentiate.  The teacher has always been willing to sit down with me to review what they're doing, address any issues etc - and I can never make those specific conference days.  And responds promptly to email.  You might try one or both of those options.  Sometimes some requests take some follow up, sometimes frustrating, but fairly standard I think, given demands on people's time.  If that doesn't work, then absolutely raise the issue to Ms. Kristine and insist again. The kids names are all over the place, in the room, cubbies etc.  They don't generally give out contact information for families - though I could see them being willing to poll parents for their willingness to be on an email list, but for each classroom there are mailboxes for each kid/parent - if you want to connect, you could try putting a note in all or some of those boxes, as an option.  Form a class email list that way - or email the parent list serve and say, hey, I'm an X class parent, I'd like to create such a list please reach out to me if you'd like to be on it.  Yep, some of the kids aren't potty trained.  You realize the whole class goes to the bathroom at the same time right?  And thus the vast majority of pottying - trained or not - happens at the same time?  I don't think it's the time suck it might appear to be from the outside and with a class with 3 year olds (even typical 3 year olds!) it's just what happens.  But definitely something you should ask about to get some more info.  Ask too about how they work with/integrate the non-verbal kids.  In our class, they use a variety of options - assistive devices, sign, visuals for choice.  And sometimes those verbal kids might need to wait a beat to give another kid extra time to respond via their method.  My kid happens to tend to need that extra time to, despite being quite verbal, in a larger group setting.  I don't see the non verbal or potty trained piece as being the derailing factor you do, in part because I've seen how they do it (they welcomed me to come and spend some time) and met with the teacher or emailed as needed, though again, maybe different classes.

On our side I do think the communication could be improved in terms of what's going on weekly, though I typically know the units they're doing.  And I'm also concerned about the departures as a general matter.  But I do wonder if expectations for people who haven't been at other schools might be a bit out of the norm?  We came from a generally recommended DCPS, in a similar class, which was rather chaotic.  With absolutely zero communication - well less than we get now - and meeting with a teacher was like pulling teeth.  They didn't give out contact info there either, class lists were parent led.  I'm pretty sure our old daycare wasn't sending out much communication wise at this age either with any sort of substance.  And teachers are teaching, sending out constant emails with plans is tough.  Are there better operations, no doubt.  And certainly promises not matching follow through is an issue.  But I wonder what's realistic.  [/quote]

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