Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lamb’s test scores have been dropping for years. Every kid I know is supplementing. Lamb kids do not do well at DCI. I don’t know what happened. As a lamb parent it is shocking to me that the leadership seemingly are unconcerned as far as I can tell. Although, to be honest, I don’t really have time to read every parentsquare post because I’m driving my kids to Mathnasium after school like everyone else.

Also part of the problem is that LAMB takes SO many days off. The number of PD days is out of control. Next year, they're planning on taking professional development days every single week of the year.

LAMB parent here! You almost gave me a heart attack and I frantically searched ParentSquare to see when this was announced! But alas this is just wrong. The calendar hasn’t been released yet, but sounds like it will be similar to this year.

Ask Jessica. If LAMB isn't planning on taking weekly PD days next year, she will surely deny it. If she doesn't deny it, then you know.

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have experience this school year at MV Cook? (Since unionizing and a new principal). I know they've had plenty of issues in the past, but have they started to turn around? Their scores aren'tterrible considering the decent lottery chance, at least for that demographic. A viable safety for PK3 or 4 for those who can't lotto until their IB?

We’re current parents with a 5th and 3rd grader. No school is perfect but parents are broadly very happy with early grades and especially PK and K. It was a little dicier in 3rd and beyond. But we’re overall very happy. Just be warned that you won’t have a guarantee into DCI because of class size growth. But that’s a tomorrow problem. We’d definitely recommend putting it on your lottery list.

Does anyone have experience this school year at MV Cook? (Since unionizing and a new principal). I know they've had plenty of issues in the past, but have they started to turn around? Their scores aren'tterrible considering the decent lottery chance, at least for that demographic. A viable safety for PK3 or 4 for those who can't lotto until their IB?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lamb’s test scores have been dropping for years. Every kid I know is supplementing. Lamb kids do not do well at DCI. I don’t know what happened. As a lamb parent it is shocking to me that the leadership seemingly are unconcerned as far as I can tell. Although, to be honest, I don’t really have time to read every parentsquare post because I’m driving my kids to Mathnasium after school like everyone else.

Also part of the problem is that LAMB takes SO many days off. The number of PD days is out of control. Next year, they're planning on taking professional development days every single week of the year.

Do you mean for the spring semester or for 2025-2026 school year? I haven't seen a calendar yet for next school year. But aren't charters subject to the same number of days in class as DCPS?

Supposedly kids have to be in class for 180 days but the definition of a school day is fuzzy and some schools take full advantage of that.

Exactly this. Supposedly half days count as full days. I also heard that this half day once a week business was a done deal. Not sure why they’re pretending to do surveys. If you’re not paying teachers properly, letting them work less is the only solution. Why aren’t they paying teachers well? Well you gotta pay for that huge fleet of useless admins somehow!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lamb’s test scores have been dropping for years. Every kid I know is supplementing. Lamb kids do not do well at DCI. I don’t know what happened. As a lamb parent it is shocking to me that the leadership seemingly are unconcerned as far as I can tell. Although, to be honest, I don’t really have time to read every parentsquare post because I’m driving my kids to Mathnasium after school like everyone else.

Also part of the problem is that LAMB takes SO many days off. The number of PD days is out of control. Next year, they're planning on taking professional development days every single week of the year.

Do you mean for the spring semester or for 2025-2026 school year? I haven't seen a calendar yet for next school year. But aren't charters subject to the same number of days in class as DCPS?

Supposedly kids have to be in class for 180 days but the definition of a school day is fuzzy and some schools take full advantage of that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lamb’s test scores have been dropping for years. Every kid I know is supplementing. Lamb kids do not do well at DCI. I don’t know what happened. As a lamb parent it is shocking to me that the leadership seemingly are unconcerned as far as I can tell. Although, to be honest, I don’t really have time to read every parentsquare post because I’m driving my kids to Mathnasium after school like everyone else.

Also part of the problem is that LAMB takes SO many days off. The number of PD days is out of control. Next year, they're planning on taking professional development days every single week of the year.

LAMB parent here! You almost gave me a heart attack and I frantically searched ParentSquare to see when this was announced! But alas this is just wrong. The calendar hasn’t been released yet, but sounds like it will be similar to this year.

The school hasn't announced it yet but this is what they plan to do in the fall. They're first going to go through the motions of pretending to consult with parents.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lamb’s test scores have been dropping for years. Every kid I know is supplementing. Lamb kids do not do well at DCI. I don’t know what happened. As a lamb parent it is shocking to me that the leadership seemingly are unconcerned as far as I can tell. Although, to be honest, I don’t really have time to read every parentsquare post because I’m driving my kids to Mathnasium after school like everyone else.

Also part of the problem is that LAMB takes SO many days off. The number of PD days is out of control. Next year, they're planning on taking professional development days every single week of the year.

LAMB parent here! You almost gave me a heart attack and I frantically searched ParentSquare to see when this was announced! But alas this is just wrong. The calendar hasn’t been released yet, but sounds like it will be similar to this year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lamb’s test scores have been dropping for years. Every kid I know is supplementing. Lamb kids do not do well at DCI. I don’t know what happened. As a lamb parent it is shocking to me that the leadership seemingly are unconcerned as far as I can tell. Although, to be honest, I don’t really have time to read every parentsquare post because I’m driving my kids to Mathnasium after school like everyone else.

Also part of the problem is that LAMB takes SO many days off. The number of PD days is out of control. Next year, they're planning on taking professional development days every single week of the year.

Do you mean for the spring semester or for 2025-2026 school year? I haven't seen a calendar yet for next school year. But aren't charters subject to the same number of days in class as DCPS?

Anonymous wrote:Lamb’s test scores have been dropping for years. Every kid I know is supplementing. Lamb kids do not do well at DCI. I don’t know what happened. As a lamb parent it is shocking to me that the leadership seemingly are unconcerned as far as I can tell. Although, to be honest, I don’t really have time to read every parentsquare post because I’m driving my kids to Mathnasium after school like everyone else.

Also part of the problem is that LAMB takes SO many days off. The number of PD days is out of control. Next year, they're planning on taking professional development days every single week of the year.

LAMB had an excellent Social Emotional Teacher working with the kids once a week but they did not renew her contract.

Instead the counselors are teaching the class and I have heard it is not going well because they are not teachers with the ability to handle classrooms of children.

My kid still asks about Ms. Sarah and why she isn't at LAMB anymore.

Anonymous wrote:The last two posts are mine- I don’t want to blow up this and turn it into an anti lamb rant, but truthfully it’s really not a good elementary school anymore. It’s easily the best pre-k in the city, but it just can’t do much more beyond that. Just so you all know, the principal was one of the best prek teachers at lamb. That’s her focus and that’s her background. The rest of the kids don’t leave because of the dci feed, but sadly most struggle like crazy once they get there.

I feel like I don’t see much honest critique of LAMB, so it’s appreciated. In terms of pre-k, my LO is pretty advanced verbally, but we still have some challenges with aggression. How do you feel LAMB manages social-emotional learning/behaviors?

The last two posts are mine- I don’t want to blow up this and turn it into an anti lamb rant, but truthfully it’s really not a good elementary school anymore. It’s easily the best pre-k in the city, but it just can’t do much more beyond that. Just so you all know, the principal was one of the best prek teachers at lamb. That’s her focus and that’s her background. The rest of the kids don’t leave because of the dci feed, but sadly most struggle like crazy once they get there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lamb’s test scores have been dropping for years. Every kid I know is supplementing. Lamb kids do not do well at DCI. I don’t know what happened. As a lamb parent it is shocking to me that the leadership seemingly are unconcerned as far as I can tell. Although, to be honest, I don’t really have time to read every parentsquare post because I’m driving my kids to Mathnasium after school like everyone else.

I've heard Montessori schools generally don't test well (and I imagine the model is very anti- teaching to the test) regardless of school quality, but I worry the model doesn't support students who have more focused interests/don't push themselves on their weaknesses.

Lamb definitely does test prep. I don’t think it’s anti-teaching to the test. I think the major problem with montessori is that the model lends itself to gaps in education. Another issue I find at lamb is that teachers aren’t all equally good. Some teachers are really abysmal while others are terrific. Doesn’t surprise me at all that wealthy white kids are struggling on these tests. Also anecdotally it seems that the white families are the biggest buy-ins to the “we don’t teach to the test” line of BS. The black families at LAMB that I know (tbh, mostly wealthy) will go out and supplement if their kids do poorly on testing. The few middle class families that aren’t supplementing are those lying to themselves that their kids are “fine” because montessori doesn’t teach to the test.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lamb’s test scores have been dropping for years. Every kid I know is supplementing. Lamb kids do not do well at DCI. I don’t know what happened. As a lamb parent it is shocking to me that the leadership seemingly are unconcerned as far as I can tell. Although, to be honest, I don’t really have time to read every parentsquare post because I’m driving my kids to Mathnasium after school like everyone else.

I'm curious if this is based on data or simply anecdotal. The kids I know from LAMB at DCI are doing well but that's also not based on data. Can you share any data you have seen regarding LAMB student performance at DCI?

First you should be aware the lamb will not give this data out to parents. If you want to see it or at least understand it you need to go to dci. DCI will likely tell you lamb has this information and should share it with you. They won’t. Speaking to teachers at dci about my concerns regarding lamb have confirmed what I anecdotally know, that lamb is one of the bottom performing schools. The major reason is that lamb kids just aren’t taught to write anything. They maybe write an essay once a month, if that. Meanwhile DCI requires essays for every class including PE.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sigh, Marie Reed, Bruce Monroe, and Powell really are great schools with great teachers, but will never escape the high SES flight (white and otherwise) because of the feeder pattern.

- Former family who loved their school but fled because of the feeder pattern.

Considering Chisholm and Houston don’t have a proper immersion feeder, and some charters don’t have DCI preference, it’s a shame DCPS doesn’t have a city-wide Spanish immersion 6-12 education campus.

Don't all dcps immersion programs except maybe oyster have a programmatic feeder right to MacFarland?

Yes, PP is incorrect. All DCPS kids in an elementary bilingual program have the right to two immersion feeder patterns - MacFarland and CHEC. Except O-A which has a right to Roosevelt for high school only because the originating school is prek - 8th not elementary only.

https://dcps.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dcps/page_content/attachments/SY2425%20School%20Feeder%20Patterns_10.23_Eng.pdf