Reply to S/O - Avoid Focus School

Forum Index » Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)

Reply to "S/O - Avoid Focus School "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This thread is very helpful. Would people also mind naming their Focus school? It will really help parents who are considering enrolling their kids. 
Looking for feedback on East Silver Spring ES at the K-2 level and wonder, too, if it was one of the schools already discussed.[/quote]

My kids are at East Silver Spring and I'm the PP who said we have 4 field trips a year, not to have a private tasting with the chef at the Kennedy Center, but still interesting and educational.  We've had a positive experience at the school.  There were several retirements at the kindgergarten level last year, and then one teacher moved out of state to follow her partner's job.  This meant a near-total turnover in kindergarten staff, even though one teacher moved down from 1st grade.  I'm assuming next year will be more settled, though, and the timing of the turnover was just bad luck.

Still, it's a good school with caring, dedicated teachers and a really good group of kids.  Ironically, given the way other posters on threads about Focus/Title I schools talk about behavior, we've only ever had behavior/bullying issues with other middle class white or Asian kids, never the working class Ethiopian/Eritrean kids who make up the bulk of the study body.

It's not utopia. At times the administration can feel reluctant to have parents get involved in the classrooms (although that has changed in the last 3 years).  The PTA draws from the same core group of middle class parents ever year, but again that has been changing over the past couple of years.  The challenges regarding class directories and getting in touch with other parents that some folks mention on this thread are definitely an issue.  The aftercare provider is mediocre (but there is a bus to other programs).  Overall, though, it has been a really positive experience and I've had no concerns about my high-performing kids being challenged.  Their test scores show they are working well above grade level, and we've had good luck with the HGC/magnet process with the one old enough to attend.  We never had a class larger than 16 in the lower grades, and the teachers genuinely work to engage kids who came in well-prepared and well-coached from preschool.

I've seen the school change a lot in our time there.  The demographics are shifting slightly, the administration is softening to parent involvement, and the PTA and staff have done a really great job setting up afterschool activities like Lego Robotics or Girls on the Run. There is some nostalgia among parents who have been there for 5 years or more about the school losing Title I status when the FARMS rate dropped a touch a few years ago.  Title I status really gave a ton of extra resources, but the Focus status makes up some of those resources.

So, yeah, it's not perfect but it's good, and we would make the same choices again if given the opportunity. [/quote]

Thanks, PP. I was the one who asked about East Silver Spring. How often do kids get music and art from dedicated teachers who specifically teach those classes? PE? How much recess? Science and technology? And in technology, are the kids exposed to keyboarding and junior coding basics? Are there smartboards in the technology room or in the classrooms? Is the library well outfitted and do the kids get to choose books there weekly?

How responsive is administration to parent concerns? Have been trying for weeks to get a tour, to no avail. Might improve though when the principal returns from her externship from the middle school?

How's the socioeconomic diversity among the active PTA membership?

TIA [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics