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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Why can't DCPS refuse to backfill? I'm genuinely curious, and if it's simply DCPS policy that they must backfill all spots as best as possible, so be it.

But it's an odd policy, if so. There are other public school systems in the US that have similar lottery-only Montessori schools and choose not to backfill after first grade, or will only do so when a child is moving from another Montessori school.

Along those lines, does DCPS backfill dual language spots as well, regardless of language exposure or competency?[/quote]

DCPS can make that choice but they don't want to. In their view yes, schools must be open to new kids to the extent they have room and reasonable class sizes. Yes it's hard to incorporate them, but they have to go somewhere, and CHML for all its faults is no worse than a lot of DCPS middle schools.  DCPS does not want to give Montessori schools preferential treatment as far as class size or cost per pupil. The preciousness of some parents whom want "pure Montessori" with no new kids is really not a priority.

The awkward thing with CHML is that without backfilling, they wouldn't have many kids in the upper grades at all. You see this playing out at Lee, for example-- tons of preschoolers dwindles down to very scant numbers in 5th and 6th even though they do add some new kids. So there would be a lot of wasted capacity without backfilling. And the smallness of the upper grades program would limit what can be offered and generally puts people off, because older kids sometimes need a larger setting and feel stifled in a tiny school. And if they didn't maintain numbers by backfilling, the CHML would be much less cost-effective to run.

For dual language in DCPS, there is a competency test for older kids. I suppose they could allow transfers only from other Montessori schools but that definitely plays out in an awkward way socioeconomically and racially. [/quote]

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