Reply to Does anyone on Capitol Hill send their kid to an elementary in upper NW?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Can someone explain to me the issues the schools have that make a school untenable by 2nd grade when it was great in ECE? Is it simply that the UMC kids leave by then or is there something else going on? [/quote]

OP here and I can explain our situation.

Once my kid got to K, the focus obviously really shifts to academics. That’s when stuff like classroom distractions and peer ability start to matter because they impact how your kid learns. In PK and even to some degree in K, the focus is more on teaching kids how to function in school, how to be more independent, how to be social and resolve small social problems. If your kid has no academic delays, and the teachers are good (which ours have been across the board) it’s hard not to have a good experience.

Starting in K but especially this year in 1st, that shifted. There is much more academic focus. And yes, many of the UMC families with really well-supported kids have left the school by now. That means that just as school is getting more academic and challenging, the classroom environment is getting harder. Disruptive kids are making it harder to focus on schoolwork, instead of just interrupting “choice time”. There are also a number of kids with serious truancy issues due to unstable home lives, and you don’t realize the impact that has on a classroom environment until you are in it, and your kid is constantly getting shuffled around to different groups because so many kids come to school sporadically. And that does seem like it will get worse as the kids age.

My kid does well academically and has done fine socially. She gets used as an example or to help guide the other kids a lot, which I think can be really good for her. But I think she’s missing out on a lot because the teachers (who again, are great) have to focus a lot of their energy on high needs kids. The school also focuses most of its resources on those kids, rightly — tutoring my child doesn’t need, for instance. It would be nice to be at a school with a critical mass of at or above grade level kids, and maybe get some programming and services aimed at meeting those kids’ needs and making school feel really fun for them. My kid does fine in school, but it’s not that fun for her and a lot if it is about being patient and working independently.[/quote]

I'm not trying to discount your issue and think you are right to be looking at other schools. But "being patient and working independently" are INCREDIBLY important life skills so she's not getting nothing out of this experience. [/quote]

Of course. And we felt that way in K and for the first have of 1st. But kids need lots of different life skills. And there is a point in which working independently and patiently waiting for the teacher to address behavioral issues or help students who need a lot more help starts to feel like no one cares about you as a student and that school isn't really for you. There needs to be a balance.

It would also be different if there were a critical mass of students like her in the classroom who were working independently together. There aren't. It's usually her and one other kid. There used to be a third but their family moved. So it's a lonely existence.[/quote]

NP working independently or by yourself on a computer is not an adequate substitute for active, engaged teaching by the teacher.

I’m not interested in my kid being the “helper” to other kids all the time and not actively learning new content and challenging material which he is fully capable of.[/quote]

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