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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Maret has a 10% admissions rate for 6th. Where does the next 10% go? Not Sidwell, GDS, or NCS. They go to Field.

It is not a school where Sienna students would thrive. That misconception leads to many students being weeded out during admissions.[/quote]

Kids leaving Siena with remediated dyslexia can thrive in lots of places, including Field (and Maret). When my child was at Field (several years ago), there were a number of kids who had come from Lab after they no longer needed the intensive support.[/quote]

Kids with remediated dyslexia can thrive anywhere. However Field does not offer the remediation.[/quote]

Field is no longer the place it was when Lab School kids successfully went there in high numbers.  It is sad to see Field try to be something it is not, it is not GDS, it is not Gonzaga or Sidwell and it is failing to make the grade. [i][/i][b] Lab School needs a better partner so we are keeping our eyes on Sienna, I hope they stay true to their mission better than Field[/b].[/quote]

I think of Siena as equivalent to Lab, not a next step. Whereas pre-pandemic, Field was proud of accepting kids with disabilities -- not as a SN school, but a place that was accommodating and inclusive to those who no longer needed specialized instruction. While the new attitude toward disabilities might serve some students fine, it's a loss to the private school universe.[/quote]

Field has long been a magnet for parents of special needs kids because it lets parents feel like they have mainstreamed their child in an expensive private school that has some of the bells and whistles of other independent schools---but little to no homework or academic challenge.  Field has been desperate for money over the many years since it built out its current campus and has been happy to admit anyone who can pay. But the problem for the kids is that Field has minimal capacity to meet the needs of special needs kids.  So those kids languish, get distracted and disruptive,  and drag down the entire class.  That's the modern Field story.  Old timers there will talk about the vision of the founder and of everyone sitting around some broken down mansions in Kalorama counting on an abacus and singing Kumbaya. But those days are long gone and the new Field business plan is to grab as much money as it can by admitting rich kids with significant needs who have parents with too much pride to enroll them in a school actually set up to help them.

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This is the core problem at Field. And they can't fix it because they need the tuition money and can't turn kids away.  At the same time,  Field has not invested in support services to meet the needs of all students-- and the school has a disproportionate number of fairly inexperienced teachers who are called on to manage challenging classrooms. Frankly, the suburban public schools that most Field parents are avoiding have better support available than Field does,  for many of the students who end up at Field.[/quote]

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