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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am very interested in the pp specific examples about good things about a title I school in FCPS[/quote]

I'm the PP. I'm hesitant to do this because I feel like I always get flamed, but ....

What do I love about the curriculum? For my daughter's school (Baileys), I love that it is a Kennedy Center CETA school. I love that she is learning actively through creative movement, drama/story-telling, and fine art. I love that she has a science lab and an outdoor garden. I love that they take field trips to the Portrait Gallery to "read" paintings, that they are working with the Smithsonian on a virtual museum right now in Social Studies, that last year she went to the Kennedy Center three times. I love that when my son was in kindergarten, staff from Wolf Trap came in weekly and taught them math through story telling. I love that in third grade the kids learn violin (last year the PTA bought the entire third grade violins—not to keep, it’s so that there are always violins for the third graders), and in the fourth grade they learn guitar. I love that my DC was in the school play in 4th grade (The Phantom Tollbooth), the school dance troupe (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJT1G7fNk-0), band, and chorus. I love that the drama teacher comes to the class to do exercises on reading comprehension and learn about history. For example, earlier this year, he worked with them on reading scripts about Jamestown. I love that when they are learning new things in science, they go to their art classes and draw those things. Or when they were learning about electricity, they did a creative movement piece about electricity. Baileys is also a Spanish immersion school. Lots of parents from all different backgrounds are involved in the school and you'll always see a ton of parents and families at school functions.

What don't I love? Inconsistent teachers from AMAZING to just okay (although most have been really good). Extremely large, over-crowded (not the actual classes which are small—around 20 kids) and often chaotic school functions. I think my daughter could use some more attention from the teachers but she is a good/easy student so I don't think she is on their radar. My daughter is definitely a minority in her classroom and although she has a lot of friends at school, she doesn’t have many that come to the house to play. And because it is a magnet school some of her good friends live in McLean and Chantilly which does not make playdates easy. Oh, and the trailers. Ugh all 19 ugly trailers. Next year they are splitting the school in two so that will address the over-crowding problems, but many people will have issues w/the fact that the 3-5 graders are moving to an office building on Rt 7 next year (http://www.fcps.edu/clusters/c3/easternfairfaxes/index.html), but it wouldn't bother me. Since this is FCPS first "urban" school, I think they will want to do it right and make it a model school. We will see. I know it isn't for everyone though. In fact, I kept my oldest at the school, but I pulled my son out of the school and moved him to our base school (mostly due to the overcrowding which they did not have a solution for until this year).

Lastly, I love the diversity at Baileys, but I also wish it were a little more diverse in that it’s not actually that diverse because it’s mostly hispanic and FARMS. I wish it was closer to 50/50. I just don’t think it’s good for the low-income students when a school is mostly low-income. However, I do think the teachers and administration are doing the best they can and it’s been a great experience for my daughter and I’m glad we decided to enroll her there. As I said, she will be going to a private school for middle school and then back to pubic for high school.

As far as the other school (my kids go to two different Title I schools)—really, I’m not sure how it is different than any other small suburban school in FCPS except that my kids, again, are the minority (although a little less so than at Baileys). It’s a small school so I love that they know us in the front office. The teachers (so far) have been great and experienced. They are nurturing, but have good control in the classrooms and are very organized. Great communication--I always know what is going on in the classrooms. My kids have learned a ton this year and again are meeting all the FCPS standards of learning. My kindergartener is reading really well (she wasn’t reading when she started in the Fall) and my son’s writing has improved tremendously this year. I don’t know how the curriculum is any different than any other FCPS school so I’m not sure how to comment on that. My son is learning Arabic which I think is really cool. He comes home talking about Tunisia and Afghanistan (I know this isn’t the primary language there but he was talking about it the other day for some reason). My children who go here seem to have more friends (playdates, etc.) than my daughter but it is our neighborhood/base school (Baileys is actually one of the neighborhood schools too but just not ours). I’m not one to have meetings with the principal, but I have a lot of neighborhood friends who do and they all talk very highly of her. She is young with lots of energy and ideas. I've gone on two field school trips and the kids were great and really cute. At this age, my kids obviously notice that kids may look different but they don't care and they don't notice the SES differences. I love that. I know it may (will probably) change as they get older, but I hope it doesn't change too much.

What don’t I love about the school? I miss the arts integration and extra-curricular activities of Baileys. I don't love all the worksheets (ugh!) in my daughter's kindergarten class. I think my son could be challenged more in math but he is not getting that and I’m not sure why (maybe this goes back to that achievement gap issue).

All-in-all, I THINK my kids are doing well at their Title I schools, but I can't say if they would be better off in a non-Title I school. Maybe they would, but they are happy and learning a lot so although I do wonder at times, we are happy with our decision.

(Sorry for the rambling.)[/quote]

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