Anonymous
Post 01/26/2015 19:29     Subject: Creative Minds or Stokes?
CMI is so kid focused in my opinion--all about the whole child. From what I have heard of Stokes, the only reason to go there is immersion--for French immersion, that is. If you don't want that then it wouldn't make sense to go there. Of course I have no firsthand experience with Stokes--just what I've heard. CMI has great small classes as well.
Anonymous
Post 01/26/2015 19:20     Subject: Creative Minds or Stokes?
Anonymous wrote:I'll be brutal here. Read at your own risk.
I went to the CMI open house and my impression is that the school is more about itself, its culture and the principal than the kids. There are other schools just like that, they focus SO much on their cult(ure) that they forget where they are, who attends their classes and what needs they may have.
So, yeah. I warned you that I was going to get nasty.
If you read this far, is because you like crossing police yellow tapes. Adventure!


Sorry you got that vibe, it's hard to address everyone individually at an open house. I hope you reach out again if you didn't get all of your questions answered. It IS all about the kids.
Anonymous
Post 01/26/2015 16:27     Subject: Creative Minds or Stokes?
Anonymous wrote:I'll be brutal here. Read at your own risk.
I went to the CMI open house and my impression is that the school is more about itself, its culture and the principal than the kids. There are other schools just like that, they focus SO much on their cult(ure) that they forget where they are, who attends their classes and what needs they may have.
So, yeah. I warned you that I was going to get nasty.
If you read this far, is because you like crossing police yellow tapes. Adventure!


It is all about the kids at CMI. There is no cult. We love it there. Our child is blossoming. Having a small class is amazing.
Anonymous
Post 01/26/2015 15:05     Subject: Re:Creative Minds or Stokes?
FYI, if it makes a difference, please note that the entrance to AFRH that will be used for drop-off and pickup is the gate at the intersection of Upshur and Rock Creek Church Road, NW.

Whoops, I was referring to the new CMI location!
Anonymous
Post 01/26/2015 15:00     Subject: Re:Creative Minds or Stokes?
FYI, if it makes a difference, please note that the entrance to AFRH that will be used for drop-off and pickup is the gate at the intersection of Upshur and Rock Creek Church Road, NW.
Anonymous
Post 01/26/2015 14:54     Subject: Creative Minds or Stokes?
I'll be brutal here. Read at your own risk.
I went to the CMI open house and my impression is that the school is more about itself, its culture and the principal than the kids. There are other schools just like that, they focus SO much on their cult(ure) that they forget where they are, who attends their classes and what needs they may have.
So, yeah. I warned you that I was going to get nasty.
If you read this far, is because you like crossing police yellow tapes. Adventure!
Anonymous
Post 01/26/2015 14:53     Subject: Creative Minds or Stokes?
Anonymous wrote:both schools are very very difficult to get into. Why are you even asking this. It's not like you will get a choice between the two and you'll be incredibly to get into either one.


Obviously very hard to get into, but with a single lottery number, if OP does well enough she effectively could send her child to either, but whatever school she ranks higher would be the one she gets into, and DC would not be waitlisted at a worse-ranked school. So it makes sense that she consider which she would prefer now. But I agree, as someone who got a terrible draw last year, that OP should not worry about it too much--she most likely will be waitlisted at both.
Anonymous
Post 01/26/2015 14:50     Subject: Creative Minds or Stokes?
both schools are very very difficult to get into. Why are you even asking this. It's not like you will get a choice between the two and you'll be incredibly to get into either one.
Anonymous
Post 01/26/2015 14:42     Subject: Re:Creative Minds or Stokes?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I find these "should I pick X or Y school" posts a bit silly without giving any information about what is important to you. Obviously, if language immersion is the most important criteria to you, then you would pick the language immersion school over the non language immersion school. Besides that, there are many family-specific variables you've got to figure out yourself. Do the schools have roughly the same number of kids in a class? If there's a difference, which is preferable to you? Is having a more established school with multiple years of test scores you can look at important to you? Does either school go thru 8th grade and, if so, is that a positive, negative or neutral for you? If music and arts important to your family, are there significant differences between the schools? What about before care, after care and afterschool clubs? Does one have better offerings for your family? Is cost a factor? What about lunch? Who is the provider at each or is lunch a non-issue for your family because you'll bring lunch? Does your child have SN? If so, did you learn anything from the open houses that might steer you in one direction or the other. And, of course, there is the almighty commute consideration, though you said that's a non-issue in your specific example.


Of course, we would ultimately decide based on our family's preferences and what works for us. I was curious to hear other people's opinion and perhaps find other information that we may have overlooked.


Without sharing anything about yourself - it's hard to provide anything to help you.

CMI is a smaller school. Stokes has immersion. Both schools are big on "healthful food" while Stokes has an onsite chef, CMI has organic food brought in house. Both are arts immersion schools, but I believe CMI is more involved in music while Stokes focuses more on language arts.

Stokes has been around longer.

Both pride themselves on the "close knit community" and really from my experience with both - it's true.
Anonymous
Post 01/26/2015 14:39     Subject: Re:Creative Minds or Stokes?
Anonymous wrote:I find these "should I pick X or Y school" posts a bit silly without giving any information about what is important to you. Obviously, if language immersion is the most important criteria to you, then you would pick the language immersion school over the non language immersion school. Besides that, there are many family-specific variables you've got to figure out yourself. Do the schools have roughly the same number of kids in a class? If there's a difference, which is preferable to you? Is having a more established school with multiple years of test scores you can look at important to you? Does either school go thru 8th grade and, if so, is that a positive, negative or neutral for you? If music and arts important to your family, are there significant differences between the schools? What about before care, after care and afterschool clubs? Does one have better offerings for your family? Is cost a factor? What about lunch? Who is the provider at each or is lunch a non-issue for your family because you'll bring lunch? Does your child have SN? If so, did you learn anything from the open houses that might steer you in one direction or the other. And, of course, there is the almighty commute consideration, though you said that's a non-issue in your specific example.


Of course, we would ultimately decide based on our family's preferences and what works for us. I was curious to hear other people's opinion and perhaps find other information that we may have overlooked.
Anonymous
Post 01/26/2015 14:36     Subject: Re:Creative Minds or Stokes?
I find these "should I pick X or Y school" posts a bit silly without giving any information about what is important to you. Obviously, if language immersion is the most important criteria to you, then you would pick the language immersion school over the non language immersion school. Besides that, there are many family-specific variables you've got to figure out yourself. Do the schools have roughly the same number of kids in a class? If there's a difference, which is preferable to you? Is having a more established school with multiple years of test scores you can look at important to you? Does either school go thru 8th grade and, if so, is that a positive, negative or neutral for you? If music and arts important to your family, are there significant differences between the schools? What about before care, after care and afterschool clubs? Does one have better offerings for your family? Is cost a factor? What about lunch? Who is the provider at each or is lunch a non-issue for your family because you'll bring lunch? Does your child have SN? If so, did you learn anything from the open houses that might steer you in one direction or the other. And, of course, there is the almighty commute consideration, though you said that's a non-issue in your specific example.
Anonymous
Post 01/26/2015 14:24     Subject: Creative Minds or Stokes?
Anonymous wrote:What two weird schools to put against each other. Normally Stokes and CMI are not ones you see parents debating. Interesting.



OP here. These schools work for our family commute-wise.
Anonymous
Post 01/26/2015 14:20     Subject: Creative Minds or Stokes?
What two weird schools to put against each other. Normally Stokes and CMI are not ones you see parents debating. Interesting.

Anonymous
Post 01/26/2015 14:17     Subject: Creative Minds or Stokes?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Creative Minds - arts, music, foreign language. Stokes wouldn't stand a chance.


You do know Stokes has all of that, and that the foreign language is actual immersion. I have no dog in this fight as my kids are in DCPS, but really?


You realize not everyone is interested in "actual immersion" right? We already speak one of the targeted languages at home, so we have no interest in that. And, I'd like to have my child learn a bit of Chinese. I'm not sold on Yu Ying's teaching method, so CM is a good school for us.


Without immersion, this is useless longterm.


Research shows otherwise, but ok.
Anonymous
Post 01/26/2015 14:16     Subject: Creative Minds or Stokes?
I really disliked the principal at the CMI open house and did not think that the school lived up to the DCUM hype. On the other hand, I loved the program at Stokes and could support Spanish or French. If commute wasn't an issue, I'd definitely go with Stokes. Unfortunately, we are too far away from Stokes to be able to make it work, so commute is the reason we are not applying.