Our kid goes there, gets straight As. Did not go to a school west of the park for elementary. Deal appears to us like a lot of busywork, not rigor. S/he is not challenged to engage with content in a meaningful way, and of course creativity is not a priority at Deal for teachers or students so that lets you know, right there, that they have low expectations of kids. I think there are a few good, perhaps even great teachers there that would shine in a better-conceptualized school.

Anonymous wrote:OP. Just find it disconcerting that Deal is considered the very best DCPS option and every other parent I see, when I ask, how is school, replies, "They're getting Straight A's". Can't tell if that's good or bad, that's all. I don't know who put the stats out there but thanks. I guess my friends' kids are just very very smart. I wish mine could go to Deal but it's full.

Whoa. Are you new to the DC area? First of all welcome and second of all every parent has a gifted and/or advanced child.

Me? I have a slow one at Deal. Definitely rigorous for him, excellent specialist team there (like probably as good if not better than any other MS in the area) and he got one A -- in gym.

Agree with aa:27. I am a Deal parent (through a JKLM) and posted earlier asking for a definition of rigorous. I agree that it is sort of in the eye of the beholder. My child (6th grade) is being pushed to be her best at Deal and there are times that she hates it. FWIW she is the type of kid for whom school work comes pretty easy and we’ve worked hard to try and teach her the importance of practicing and putting work in to excel. Deal and its teachers help reinforce it.

As an example my child received all As except for a B+ in pre algebra. She was moved into pre-algebra several weeks after school started and did very poorly on the initial tests and quizzes – this had never happened to her before. At the start of the advisory she had a D in pre-algebra. She took it upon herself to get tutored by the teacher afterschool and during lunch and she was able to retake tests when she was unhappy with the grade. She fought hard for the B+ and it taught her a lesson about hard work, tracking your progress, focus and getting help when you need it. She didn’t care about the As – only that B+.

In terms of the subject matter they are covering - when look at some of the work, I don’t remember touching a lot of it until high school. I feel that the IB program adds a lot of rich content. The other part of this are the teachers because they push students hard – especially the students that can do better. They will tell your kids to their face that they can do better – one teacher told my child that she’d better “step it up” – which pissed my daughter off, but I was happy about it. Better coming from the teacher sometimes, than me all of the time.

I’m guessing OP that your cohort of friends and their kids are motivated to excel. Deal is not giving out As for no effort – it is truly a lot of work and sometimes I lament the fact that our kids are being worked so much before they even get to college. I don’t remember it being like this growing up.

There may be others who have a different experience. But I feel that my DD is getting a solid and rigorous education.

Thank you, that is very helpful information.

We can only speak from our own experience, but given that DC has consistently performed above grade level and scored advanced on the DC-CAS, yes, we think DC is academically advanced. I don't know how the suburban schools identify gifted and talented kids, but children who score advanced on the DC-CAS in 5th grade are invited to apply for the Johns Hopkins talent search for gifted kids, so I assume (without having any particularly good information that would support the assumption) that's the same population who would be identified as gifted in a suburban school district. And yes, as I said in the prior posting, we've been very happy with the degree of challenge so far. There also seem to be a fair number of individual projects, which allows for kids to work at a more advanced level. And, although I didn't mention it, the extracurriculars are great. Our DC has really enjoyed doing some completely new activities, sports, etc. From our perspective, with a strong student and extremely demanding expectations for schools, it's been a total success.

Well, K and one of the Ms do not feed into Deal, so it was an inaccurate question in any event.

The quesiton I believe the PP was trying to ask was whether children who are academically advanced are challenged at Deal. I would add to that question whether Deal's program challenges kids that would be tagged as talented and gifted in a school district that had such a designation.

The OP asked about students from JKLMM schools, and I answered it with readily available information. No need to have a JKLMM student to be able to explain that the assumption was numerically impossible. Second question was about academic rigor, NOT JKLMM students.

The OP asked about students from JKLMM schools. So you're the snob.

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand your question. To the extent I do, I have already answered it. And don't assume my child was a JKLMM. It just makes you sound like a snob.

I don't understand your question. To the extent I do, I have already answered it. And don't assume my child was a JKLMM. It just makes you sound like a snob.

Would you say your child was advanced in their JKLMM? How do the brightest a[youtube]cademically do at Deal?

Anonymous wrote:Numbers poster here. In answer to the questions about rigor, we think Deal is wonderful for our sixth grader, who scored advanced on both math and english dc-cas and has been performing above-grade-level for years. DC finds the classes challenging and what we see of the curriculum seems interesting and well-thought-out. Math in particular seems quite challenging (pre-algebra). Nothing but happy so far. And, FWIW, DC got some A- grades despite doing all the homework, doing extra credit, studying for the tests, and staying super-organized. I think OP's friends' children are either VERY smart (or maybe taking a lower-level math class and/or one of the "easy" languages) or they're exaggerating about the grades.

Numbers poster here. In answer to the questions about rigor, we think Deal is wonderful for our sixth grader, who scored advanced on both math and english dc-cas and has been performing above-grade-level for years. DC finds the classes challenging and what we see of the curriculum seems interesting and well-thought-out. Math in particular seems quite challenging (pre-algebra). Nothing but happy so far. And, FWIW, DC got some A- grades despite doing all the homework, doing extra credit, studying for the tests, and staying super-organized. I think OP's friends' children are either VERY smart (or maybe taking a lower-level math class and/or one of the "easy" languages) or they're exaggerating about the grades.

Anonymous wrote:By the way, why is that FLAME THROWING? You one of those DCPS Uber Moms with fangs frothing?

Yes