Reply to Anyone want to share great experiences they have with their charter or magnet middle school?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I always fear getting shot down for being a naive booster, but my kid has been having a good MS experience at Inspired Teaching.  As noted above, it's a small school experience-- about 45/48 kids per grade.  But that works for my kid who is receiving differentiated, advanced instruction and getting some close support as they figure out what they are interested in and take some academic risks.  High school placement support has begun and the principal seems very committed to helping each student find the right fit.  My kid and I talk a lot about the social experiences there and over multiple years there I have yet to hear a story related to bullying.  it's a positive, supportive culture, in our experience. But if you want a LOT of activities and a lot of kids from which to choose your friends, it admittedly isn't the right fit. [/quote]

We won't shoot you down, but I note that we walked away from Inspired Teaching because it was too hippie/granola crunchie, too intent on teaching our kid to advocate for liberal causes, too cruisey (hardly any homework), too black and white (we're neither), too OK with distance learning last year, and too limited in what it offered in terms of enrichment.  Friendly, pleasant, well-meaning middle school though.[/quote]

I hear you on homework. It is something that always gives me a little clench in the stomach, esp when I hear from friends with kids at Latin and Basis.  but, they explained it in a pretty satisfactory way -- there are different pedagogical approaches to homework, and they'd rather kids do the work in school where teachers can guide them instead of adding on practice on their own where they might reinforce their own misunderstandings of content without a teacher to redirect.  And, it's a lot of project based work and my kid does do more of that outside school than is required but they do it to make headway.  It's more nuanced than that, but they also noted that they hear from graduates that they adjust pretty well in rigorous HS settings.  DL was hard last year, but I know they were devoting a fair amount of space and staff capacity to kids who needed to be in person all week, so it made me more accepting (not happy, but accepting) of the change in plans to 1 day/week.  There has also been a helpful change in the head of school. And, I'm personally totally fine with advocating for liberal causes! :) [/quote]

I am very happy with the new head of school so far.  It's my hope that academic rigor will continue and that my DC will continue to be academically engaged and challenged.  I like the small size because it makes it less likely that DC will skate by as a compliant smart kid without much attention.  We don't mind about the lack of enrichments because we're already settled into certain enrichment activities elsewhere.

I strongly support the at-risk preference coming to ITS, but I hope the staff is ready and prepared to maintain high academic standards while also meeting the needs of kids who haven't been well-served by their prior schools.  I don't think it'll make much difference at the middle school level because it's already pretty easy to get in for 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th.  I get sick of the constant woke-talking so I'm excited for the school to to take some concrete action towards equity, and the new HOS has EOTR experience so I feel good about that.

And bottom line, living where we do (near the school), Two Rivers Young is too far, CMI isn't good, Brookland and McKinley and Cardozo middles are not going to provide appropriate academics, and Latin, BASIS, and DCI are a lottery maybe.  There really aren't a lot of options for middle school that really appeal to me.  It did not escape my notice that so many ITS 8th graders got into Walls last year (and I know it was a very weird admissions year but still).  [/quote]

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