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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Chev Chs school culture: awful.  Teach to test, brow-beating, shaming.  Kids taught to fear authority rather than respect it (and question it respectfully).  The best schools are where kids and community are happy.  Look for that.[/quote]

I have seen this same post/poster multiple times.  Obviously you had a bad experience but we are at Chevy Chase, and while there are things I don't like about MoCo schools (such as an emphasis on testing), I haven't experienced anything like this, and I don't have any reason to think things would be better at another school (like a different one we visited where they brought up test scores 2-3x during the tour).[/quote]

I have not posted previously but also have kids at CCES.  Our experience at CCES has not been great.  There has been a great deal of teacher turnover in both the HGC and the regular program in the past few years, which makes me wonder if teachers are not that happy at school.  This year's third grade teachers are mostly brand new or very recent graduates.  Many parents dislike the principal and/or fear her.  She's not really a collaborative principal -- more of a "do as I say" type.  Kids are definitely taught to fear authority. Some may think that's a good thing; it does mean the school is orderly.

In addition, test scores at CCES are not what they appear to be.  If you look at the scores broken down by grade, you will see that the percent of advanced readers are low in 3rd grade, higher in 4th and 5th grade, and then drop again in 6th grade.  This is because the reading test scores are artificially inflated by the influx of kids in the Highly Gifted Center, almost all of whom are very strong readers.  Math scores are probably inflated too, but it's more difficult to tell about that because most of the center math kids are accelerated by 1 or more years, so although they are all good at math, it's less predictable that they will universally do well on the math MSAs (since the math MSA focuses on on grade level math, some of which a kid can sort of forget when they are 1-3 years advanced).  Since test scores are not broken out separately for the regular program and the HGC program, the principal gets a bit of a free ride from the performance of the HGC kids.

CCES used to be really good at acceleration in math. This year they have stopped math acceleration and are only serving kids in heterogenous groups in math.  Many kids are repeating math concepts for the second year in a row.  Many parents dislike this but principal refuses to do anything about it.  Some other MCPS elementary schools have continued to do some acceleration in 3rd grade, but not CCES.

Also, principal is very tough on special ed at this school.  I have heard this from a number of parents who have had difficulty and a number of special ed professionals who advise against sending special ed kids to this school or have had difficulty with this principal on special ed issues.  ( I know that many families have difficulties with their schools and special ed, but I've really heard some tales about CCES).

Having a sixth grade program is nice in a way as the kids are sheltered socially from middle school issues for a year, but the academic program for 6th graders suffers (e.g. only one language choice, no daily orchestra option, etc.).  Parents tried to get MCPS to provide equivalent programming, but failed and instead got a new middle school which won't be ready for years.  Principal did seem to try to cope with this, but basically wasn't interested in advocating for the parents against the MCPS upper admin (although she also didn't stand in the way of parents advocating for themselves...)

That said, the school is very clean and orderly.  We like the parent community and the neighborhood and a number of the school activities throughout the year.  For self-motivated kids without any special learning or social needs, this is probably a fine place, like many MCPS schools.  [/quote]
Ypu mention some other schools continue to provide math acceleration in 3rd grades. Which shools are doing that? I thought Curr 2.0 prohibits that?
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