Anonymous
Post 09/15/2025 23:47     Subject: Should DCPS add or shutdown any schools?
Anonymous wrote:I'm on my phone so I can't look at the spreadsheet that has all the data, but if I recall correctly, LAMB scores are more aligned with it bilingual peer schools than the Montessori peer schools. It blows every other Montessori school out of the water.



Lamb parent here. I don’t know how lamb performs compared to Montessori schools but we have not been happy since 3rd grade. The only reason we are staying is the dci feed.

Some teachers at lamb are amazing. Some are not. Lots of getting are going to Mathnesium. Your mileage may vary.
Anonymous
Post 09/15/2025 17:49     Subject: Should DCPS add or shutdown any schools?
I'm on my phone so I can't look at the spreadsheet that has all the data, but if I recall correctly, LAMB scores are more aligned with it bilingual peer schools than the Montessori peer schools. It blows every other Montessori school out of the water.

Anonymous
Post 09/15/2025 16:48     Subject: Should DCPS add or shutdown any schools?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Our kids were at a charter Montessori and I don’t think there was a lot of learning going on at upper el either. Montessori is just not good past 2nd grade.


And yet there's 1,500 children on LAMB's waitlist.


One weird thing about LAMB that is not true of any other school is that it pulls in the ECE families who want Montessori but then retains them because they want DCI for MS and HS. It's the only Montessori with a feeder preference to DCI because of the immersion program.

I haven't looked at the number lately but I seem to recall LAMB having less upper grade attrition than other Montessori schools and I think this is why.

Though even the lesser amount of upper grade attrition is more of a problem at LAMB than it is at other schools because they don't backfill past K because it would be so disruptive of their combo Montessori/immersion program. So the school runs at permanent deficits because every student they lose past K is a funding source they can't really replace.
Anonymous
Post 09/15/2025 13:46     Subject: Should DCPS add or shutdown any schools?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Our kids were at a charter Montessori and I don’t think there was a lot of learning going on at upper el either. Montessori is just not good past 2nd grade.


And yet there's 1,500 children on LAMB's waitlist.


Where are you getting that number? PK3 waitlist on results day was 345. Even if you look at total on waitlists across all grades PK3-5 it was only 962.
Anonymous
Post 09/15/2025 12:32     Subject: Should DCPS add or shutdown any schools?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Our kids were at a charter Montessori and I don’t think there was a lot of learning going on at upper el either. Montessori is just not good past 2nd grade.


And yet there's 1,500 children on LAMB's waitlist.


No one knows less about schools than parents doing the PK3 lottery.


Exactly. They haven't had the time to learn about the whole school ecosystem. Plus, Montessori sounds fancy and gets a lot of positive press.
Anonymous
Post 09/15/2025 12:04     Subject: Should DCPS add or shutdown any schools?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Our kids were at a charter Montessori and I don’t think there was a lot of learning going on at upper el either. Montessori is just not good past 2nd grade.


And yet there's 1,500 children on LAMB's waitlist.


What most people don't understand is that Montessori doesn't work for everyone. Students need to be intrinsically motivated to thrive in that kind of setting and let's be real-not every student is. Parents don't seem to recognize this, so they send their kids anyway and then wonder why it's not working for them. They also need to be at schools with good administrators and Montessori trained teachers.
Anonymous
Post 09/15/2025 11:19     Subject: Should DCPS add or shutdown any schools?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Our kids were at a charter Montessori and I don’t think there was a lot of learning going on at upper el either. Montessori is just not good past 2nd grade.


And yet there's 1,500 children on LAMB's waitlist.


No one knows less about schools than parents doing the PK3 lottery.
Anonymous
Post 09/15/2025 10:53     Subject: Should DCPS add or shutdown any schools?
Anonymous wrote:Our kids were at a charter Montessori and I don’t think there was a lot of learning going on at upper el either. Montessori is just not good past 2nd grade.


And yet there's 1,500 children on LAMB's waitlist.
Anonymous
Post 09/15/2025 10:30     Subject: Should DCPS add or shutdown any schools?
Our kids were at a charter Montessori and I don’t think there was a lot of learning going on at upper el either. Montessori is just not good past 2nd grade.
Anonymous
Post 09/12/2025 14:53     Subject: Should DCPS add or shutdown any schools?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:DCPS needs to shutdown CHML (Montessori can stay for ECE) but use that beautiful space for 1-8th in an actual academic way. It is completed wasted right now on abysmal learning and beyond subpar behavior management.


I know this won't happen but actually agree. They aren't offering real Montessori past K or 1st, but the school is in a prime location with a fantastic campus. I wish DCPS would just keep the Montessori in ECE but convert the rest of the school to a regular DCPS campus with *some* Montessori influence (maybe do mixed age classrooms for specials, incorporate more independent learning than you see at other DCPS schools, stay totally screen free). It just doesn't make sense as is, and they wind up hemorrhaging families after K and then you have new families coming in during upper grades looking for Montessori, but it doesn't really exist when you have so much movement in and out of the school, yet it's not being replaced with anything.

Alternative, maybe get rid of grades 2-5th but expand the middle school and see if you can sell it to kids coming out of Lee and LAMB? I don't know. But right now it's vastly underutilized.


That is a great idea. As it stands, it's currently a dumping ground for kids who have been kicked out of their home schools and got lottery spots. This is mostly for upper elementary, but they come into the school with behavior issues, have never been exposed to Montessori and the independence it brings, and it truly ends up ruining the upper elementary classrooms to the point that ZERO learning is going on. I feel for the kids who have been at the school since pre-k. The same thing happens in lower elementary as well, just not to the same extremes as upper elementary. DCPS needs to do SOMETHING whether it's closing the lottery after a certain age or screening kids to see if they could actually handle this kind of independent environment or what you suggested. It is truly a disaster as it stands. The principal does absolutely nothing to quell these behavior issues and it just bleeds into the entire school community. She is not a leader.


I've seen out-of-boundary students sent back to their home school for discipline issues. Is that not happening?


Lol no. The kids with behavior problems are rewarded with candy, missing class to walk around with the dean, coloring pages, etc. She thinks they need "love", so she doesn't acknowledge that some of them have real issues that need addressing.
Anonymous
Post 09/12/2025 10:35     Subject: Should DCPS add or shutdown any schools?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:DCPS needs to shutdown CHML (Montessori can stay for ECE) but use that beautiful space for 1-8th in an actual academic way. It is completed wasted right now on abysmal learning and beyond subpar behavior management.


I know this won't happen but actually agree. They aren't offering real Montessori past K or 1st, but the school is in a prime location with a fantastic campus. I wish DCPS would just keep the Montessori in ECE but convert the rest of the school to a regular DCPS campus with *some* Montessori influence (maybe do mixed age classrooms for specials, incorporate more independent learning than you see at other DCPS schools, stay totally screen free). It just doesn't make sense as is, and they wind up hemorrhaging families after K and then you have new families coming in during upper grades looking for Montessori, but it doesn't really exist when you have so much movement in and out of the school, yet it's not being replaced with anything.

Alternative, maybe get rid of grades 2-5th but expand the middle school and see if you can sell it to kids coming out of Lee and LAMB? I don't know. But right now it's vastly underutilized.


That is a great idea. As it stands, it's currently a dumping ground for kids who have been kicked out of their home schools and got lottery spots. This is mostly for upper elementary, but they come into the school with behavior issues, have never been exposed to Montessori and the independence it brings, and it truly ends up ruining the upper elementary classrooms to the point that ZERO learning is going on. I feel for the kids who have been at the school since pre-k. The same thing happens in lower elementary as well, just not to the same extremes as upper elementary. DCPS needs to do SOMETHING whether it's closing the lottery after a certain age or screening kids to see if they could actually handle this kind of independent environment or what you suggested. It is truly a disaster as it stands. The principal does absolutely nothing to quell these behavior issues and it just bleeds into the entire school community. She is not a leader.


I've seen out-of-boundary students sent back to their home school for discipline issues. Is that not happening?
Anonymous
Post 09/12/2025 08:20     Subject: Should DCPS add or shutdown any schools?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:DCPS needs to shutdown CHML (Montessori can stay for ECE) but use that beautiful space for 1-8th in an actual academic way. It is completed wasted right now on abysmal learning and beyond subpar behavior management.


I know this won't happen but actually agree. They aren't offering real Montessori past K or 1st, but the school is in a prime location with a fantastic campus. I wish DCPS would just keep the Montessori in ECE but convert the rest of the school to a regular DCPS campus with *some* Montessori influence (maybe do mixed age classrooms for specials, incorporate more independent learning than you see at other DCPS schools, stay totally screen free). It just doesn't make sense as is, and they wind up hemorrhaging families after K and then you have new families coming in during upper grades looking for Montessori, but it doesn't really exist when you have so much movement in and out of the school, yet it's not being replaced with anything.

Alternative, maybe get rid of grades 2-5th but expand the middle school and see if you can sell it to kids coming out of Lee and LAMB? I don't know. But right now it's vastly underutilized.


That is a great idea. As it stands, it's currently a dumping ground for kids who have been kicked out of their home schools and got lottery spots. This is mostly for upper elementary, but they come into the school with behavior issues, have never been exposed to Montessori and the independence it brings, and it truly ends up ruining the upper elementary classrooms to the point that ZERO learning is going on. I feel for the kids who have been at the school since pre-k. The same thing happens in lower elementary as well, just not to the same extremes as upper elementary. DCPS needs to do SOMETHING whether it's closing the lottery after a certain age or screening kids to see if they could actually handle this kind of independent environment or what you suggested. It is truly a disaster as it stands. The principal does absolutely nothing to quell these behavior issues and it just bleeds into the entire school community. She is not a leader.
Anonymous
Post 09/11/2025 19:37     Subject: Should DCPS add or shutdown any schools?


Montessori can never fail the people. The people can only fail Montessori


Funny!
Anonymous
Post 09/11/2025 18:46     Subject: Should DCPS add or shutdown any schools?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:They have been at full enrollment or nearly full. I'm not sure if that will continue.

But they'd need a really significant decrease to go from 3 buildings to 2.


Their debt situation is really bad and I bet that 4th St site is worth more than they paid for it by a lot given the Union Market development (that literally did not exist when the bought that building). I could totally see them selling that building. Their middle school is not full.


What is the debt situation? I se it a positive $9.8 million in net assets on the 2023 990.


That's measured against the value of the real estate. They are (more than) fine if they sell the 4th St building. The liquidity for debt payments is the issue.


Oh, I see what you mean. Are you saying they're not able to meet monthly obligations, though? Because that would be... wow.