Reply to Advice on Two River PCS

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]White family here who left after 2nd and wish we'd left sooner. I'd say we probably fall in the category of the families who were "less concerned" about the perceived academic issues. We did not think there were serious behavioral issues but it became clear at the beginning of 2nd grade (and if I'm honest with myself, towards the end of 1st) that our daughter was not learning what she needed to learn. We switched to DCPS for 3rd and are also much happier.[/quote]

Black parent here. Looking strictly through the narrow lens of MAP scores, my kids were doing great—fantastic, even—but I honestly attribute that almost entirely to what we were doing outside of school, especially with math enrichment, not to what was happening day-to-day in the classroom.

I also did experience some behavioral issues, particularly with my older child’s cohort. Some of it was just a lack of seriousness in the room and certain behaviors being tolerated—probably because some kids had documented issues, so teachers felt they had to be tolerated. But my son would complain about not being able to get the teacher’s attention because other kids were taking all of it. That’s not catastrophic, and I told him to roll with it, but over time I could see it making him more cynical about school.

And while I don’t think my kids suffered academically, I do think they were learning to coast—which can really come back to bite them later. When expectations are low and the work doesn’t push them, they start thinking “good enough” is fine, and that’s a hard mindset to break in the upper grades.

On top of that, we rarely got homework back with any meaningful feedback or red marks. Even if kids are testing well, they’re missing out on the kind of academic discipline they’ll need later. So between the classroom culture and the lack of rigor in day-to-day work, we decided to make a change.
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Academics at TR were like the proverbial frog boiling in a pot of water. You didn't know there was an issue until it was too late. MAP scores said everything was fine because if your kid is on the higher performing end, of course they were. My kid was basically made into a teacher's helper being tasked with supporting other kids or working "independently" (i.e. allowing the teachers to spend time with kids with higher needs). They never got real homework. They never learned how to study. They were never challenged. Middle and upper grades were no different than ECE, and that is where TR failed.

[b]For me the breaking point was when we attended a teacher meeting and MAP scores and all standardized tests were all top of range but report cards were 4s (and not 5s). Turns out that was because none of the TR materials tested understanding to a 5 so there was no way for a kid to get a 5. This was by design. They were teaching to borderline proficiency. They weren't testing anything above grade level. [/b]I walked out of that meeting and said to my spouse, "We are getting the eff out of here next year!"

We also had behavioral issue concerns. Similar to TR's inability to shift from an ECE to academic mindset, they were also ill equipped to deal with behavioral issues as pre-puberty and puberty set in. Teachers lost control of classrooms. Admins' first response was to come down on teachers who tried to create structure. Perpetrators of physical violence were treated like the victims. Teachers and parents were asked to worry about the poor child who acted out and hit or threw chairs and were subtly accused of racism or classism if they cared more about their kid getting hit by a chair than the kid who threw it. We escaped in 5th (thank the lord) but I have no doubt the MS behavioral issues that are widely reported (they actually staggered the return to school after December break 2 years ago to try and get a handle on out of control kids) are an extension of TR's treating MS kids like ECE kids.  [/quote]

Yes - at some point a year or two ago, TR made explicit that they were not doing any Tier 1 grade level instruction and so formally abandoned the “5” as the top mark on progress reports, with 4 (i.e., excels at grade level) being the highest possible score.

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*TR made explicit that they were not doing any Tier 1 ABOVE grade level instruction 
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