Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Uh, when I was growing up, we went to mass on SUNDAY. What happened to that? When did we start doing mass twice a week now? Why not three times a week? Or every morning before classes?

Or are Friday masses during school intended to be a substitute for Sunday mass, so parents can sleep in?

Friday mass is not a substitute for Sunday mass. If you don’t know that you honestly have no business chiming in on this thread.

Anonymous wrote:It's not "hate" to not feel compelled to host the Boy Scouts forever. The Boy Scouts went through a scandal and a bankruptcy and a rebrand, and now this religious school hosts a religious scouting organization. Seems pretty reasonable.

Anonymous wrote:Studies show that students perform better academically when schools move from one to two recesses per day.

The problem is not how many hours kids are in the classroom.

The problem is that there aren't enough great, experienced teachers coming to the school and staying at the school.

Anonymous wrote:Uh, when I was growing up, we went to mass on SUNDAY. What happened to that? When did we start doing mass twice a week now? Why not three times a week? Or every morning before classes?

Or are Friday masses during school intended to be a substitute for Sunday mass, so parents can sleep in?

Anonymous wrote:Yes, St. Mary's needs to focus like a laser on academics and on getting and keeping great teachers and administrators.

But weekly mass is obviously not the cause of teacher turnover nor of any math curriculum challenges.

There are always lukewarm or non-Catholics who come to parochial schools for the affordable private education and then start complaining about the religion.



It's bad enough to join something good and try to reshape it away from one of the reasons it's good. It's like being a bad, subversive guest.

But it's even worse to dishonestly blame the religious aspects they resent for unrelated problems like teacher turnover.

There is a grain of truth here, though, which is that the school leadership may not have their "hair on fire" as much as they should about the turnover and teaching issues, because they feel good about how things are going with their faith formation mission. They should feel good about that, but they also should be working very hard to hire and retain the best teachers and administrators they possibly can.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Math instruction here is ABYSMAL. Anyone thinking of going here should do their due diligence and ask a very simple question: What were the average, median, and standard deviations of your MAP RIT scores in 3rd - 5th grades. Will give you everything you need to know.

Another poster nailed the fundamental problem — not enough differentiation, so 7 or so children who need a lot of help slow down and derail the other 20 kids in the class.

TBH math instruction was never great. I know they tried with the Singapore Math program, but it didn't really work.

for those who are hungry up on Mass attendance, the Diocese of Arlington is more Orthodox than ADW. St. Mary's is ground zero for Catholic orthodoxy in the diocese. If weekly mass is too much, then you should probably look at a different school.

I’m fine with weekly mass. Or daily mass. But not at the expense of ACADEMICS. It’s a SCHOOL, not a monastery. So get the teaching and academics in order first.

Most parochial schools in this area have weekly mass. If that doesn’t suit you, public school is probably the better choice.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Math instruction here is ABYSMAL. Anyone thinking of going here should do their due diligence and ask a very simple question: What were the average, median, and standard deviations of your MAP RIT scores in 3rd - 5th grades. Will give you everything you need to know.

Another poster nailed the fundamental problem — not enough differentiation, so 7 or so children who need a lot of help slow down and derail the other 20 kids in the class.

TBH math instruction was never great. I know they tried with the Singapore Math program, but it didn't really work.

for those who are hungry up on Mass attendance, the Diocese of Arlington is more Orthodox than ADW. St. Mary's is ground zero for Catholic orthodoxy in the diocese. If weekly mass is too much, then you should probably look at a different school.

I’m fine with weekly mass. Or daily mass. But not at the expense of ACADEMICS. It’s a SCHOOL, not a monastery. So get the teaching and academics in order first.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Math instruction here is ABYSMAL. Anyone thinking of going here should do their due diligence and ask a very simple question: What were the average, median, and standard deviations of your MAP RIT scores in 3rd - 5th grades. Will give you everything you need to know.

Another poster nailed the fundamental problem — not enough differentiation, so 7 or so children who need a lot of help slow down and derail the other 20 kids in the class.

TBH math instruction was never great. I know they tried with the Singapore Math program, but it didn't really work.

for those who are hungry up on Mass attendance, the Diocese of Arlington is more Orthodox than ADW. St. Mary's is ground zero for Catholic orthodoxy in the diocese. If weekly mass is too much, then you should probably look at a different school.