Anonymous wrote:Are current Lee elementary families generally happy there this year and are students thriving? Are there still ongoing issues?

My kids are at East End and not old enough to take PARCC yet. My kids love the school, we love Montessori, and really the only drawback is no formal foreign language education. If they were to add at least Spanish class, that would make it an ideal school for us. I can't really imagine my kids doing better at another public school.

Are current Lee elementary families generally happy there this year and are students thriving? Are there still ongoing issues?

Anonymous wrote:
Ok but you should also note they hired tutors for the kids. I’m a current parent and know the third graders had tutoring for the test last year and a lot of parents also supplement. Let’s tell the whole story.

I’m also a parent and I read it differently. They had two - three hours of group tutoring/week for 4-6 weeks leading up to the test, and scores improved significantly. That amount of tutoring was focused on familiarizing the kids with the kinds of questions they’d see on the PARCC. To me this gives weight to the idea that part of the reason scores have been low is that the kids aren’t learning the material the way it is tested on the PARCC, and that they probably know more than PARCC indicates. The scores were generally average or above amongst “comparable” schools.

Do you think parents supplement more at Lee than at other similar schools? I don’t have any reason to think so.

I’m not saying the scores were great, just that Lee isn’t doing particularly badly compared to other schools with similar demographics, which is a common criticism of Lee.

The main point I was making here is that opening EE hasn’t dragged down scores at Brookland. Though I suppose the added tutoring might be covering up losses caused by the expansion.

- Dave

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Lee (Brookland) PARCC scores rose significantly last year - even while most schools’ scores dropped after the COVID year - so that’s no evidence that the expansion caused problems.

Ok so why are they hurting for students?

They aren't.

This is silly. They are. They had empty slots in mid ES. That's an issue even if they can manage to fill them this year.

+1, spots in 1st and 2nd indicates they are losing families after ECE. And they had spots in every single available grade for their EE campus, including PK3 and PK4. That's... surprising, given the usual demand for charters and Montessori for those age groups.

Especially given how things are going at Mundo, I'm stunned that Lee is having this trouble. They never had a problem in Brookland before.

Lee students are at Mundo now.

Really? Ayyyyy.

Anonymous wrote:Lee (Brookland) PARCC scores rose significantly last year - even while most schools’ scores dropped after the COVID year - so that’s no evidence that the expansion caused problems.

Ok but you should also note they hired tutors for the kids. I’m a current parent and know the third graders had tutoring for the test last year and a lot of parents also supplement. Let’s tell the whole story.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lee (Brookland) PARCC scores rose significantly last year - even while most schools’ scores dropped after the COVID year - so that’s no evidence that the expansion caused problems.

Ok so why are they hurting for students?

They aren't.

This is silly. They are. They had empty slots in mid ES. That's an issue even if they can manage to fill them this year.

+1, spots in 1st and 2nd indicates they are losing families after ECE. And they had spots in every single available grade for their EE campus, including PK3 and PK4. That's... surprising, given the usual demand for charters and Montessori for those age groups.

Especially given how things are going at Mundo, I'm stunned that Lee is having this trouble. They never had a problem in Brookland before.

Lee students are at Mundo now.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lee (Brookland) PARCC scores rose significantly last year - even while most schools’ scores dropped after the COVID year - so that’s no evidence that the expansion caused problems.

Ok so why are they hurting for students?

They aren't.

This is silly. They are. They had empty slots in mid ES. That's an issue even if they can manage to fill them this year.

+1, spots in 1st and 2nd indicates they are losing families after ECE. And they had spots in every single available grade for their EE campus, including PK3 and PK4. That's... surprising, given the usual demand for charters and Montessori for those age groups.

Especially given how things are going at Mundo, I'm stunned that Lee is having this trouble. They never had a problem in Brookland before.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lee (Brookland) PARCC scores rose significantly last year - even while most schools’ scores dropped after the COVID year - so that’s no evidence that the expansion caused problems.

Ok so why are they hurting for students?

They aren't.

This is silly. They are. They had empty slots in mid ES. That's an issue even if they can manage to fill them this year.

+1, spots in 1st and 2nd indicates they are losing families after ECE. And they had spots in every single available grade for their EE campus, including PK3 and PK4. That's... surprising, given the usual demand for charters and Montessori for those age groups.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lee (Brookland) PARCC scores rose significantly last year - even while most schools’ scores dropped after the COVID year - so that’s no evidence that the expansion caused problems.

Ok so why are they hurting for students?

They aren't.

This is silly. They are. They had empty slots in mid ES. That's an issue even if they can manage to fill them this year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lee (Brookland) PARCC scores rose significantly last year - even while most schools’ scores dropped after the COVID year - so that’s no evidence that the expansion caused problems.

Ok so why are they hurting for students?

They aren't.

Did they fill their empty spots?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lee (Brookland) PARCC scores rose significantly last year - even while most schools’ scores dropped after the COVID year - so that’s no evidence that the expansion caused problems.

Ok so why are they hurting for students?

They aren't.

Anonymous wrote:Lee (Brookland) PARCC scores rose significantly last year - even while most schools’ scores dropped after the COVID year - so that’s no evidence that the expansion caused problems.

Ok so why are they hurting for students?

Lee (Brookland) PARCC scores rose significantly last year - even while most schools’ scores dropped after the COVID year - so that’s no evidence that the expansion caused problems.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lee has had some truly amazing staff, but unfortunately, many of them left over the last few years. As a result of this and other changes, there have been several recent challenges there.

It seems like all of the DC charter schools that expanded to a second campus have become stretched too thin with growing pains and lost some of their previously wonderful environment.

I would respectfully suggest that what they lost by expanding was the concentration of UMC families enrolled. That, in turn, exposed them to some of the same behavioral and learning challenges that was the reason many families fled from DCPS schools. That has created behavioral issues in upper ES grades and lowered test scores. That combination of factors may be creating a feedback loop. Add to that the fact that UMC families are leaving DC and the school system and there are now fewer UMC families for an expanding number of seats. My view is that this is going to separate out the schools that excelled because of preferred demographics from those whose outcomes were not wholly dependent on those UMC advantages.

A lot of speculation in here.

I agree that it's important to look at demographics when comparing charters to DCPS because charters have a more self-selecting population of families and often the difference in test scores is simply a reflection of student demographics.

But is there evidence Lee has "diluted" its concentration of UMC families? My understanding is that Brookland is still mostly UMC families. Not sure about East End -- I think they do get a handful of Hill families for PK if they can't get into their IB or have a bad IB, but my understanding is that Lee EE is mostly families EotR, from neighborhoods like Hillcrest where there are plenty of UMC families who might be interested in Montessori. EE is more of a wild card anyway because they haven't taken PARCC yet as they are still building up their upper grades.

My sense is that Lee still has a predominantly UMC family base. Which means that if the school's test scores lag similarly situated schools (they do) and there is a steady list of longtime and talented staff departing, the issue is not simply that they expanded too quickly. It's that there may be something fundamentally off about their approach.

Anonymous wrote:Lee has had some truly amazing staff, but unfortunately, many of them left over the last few years. As a result of this and other changes, there have been several recent challenges there.

It seems like all of the DC charter schools that expanded to a second campus have become stretched too thin with growing pains and lost some of their previously wonderful environment.

I would respectfully suggest that what they lost by expanding was the concentration of UMC families enrolled. That, in turn, exposed them to some of the same behavioral and learning challenges that was the reason many families fled from DCPS schools. That has created behavioral issues in upper ES grades and lowered test scores. That combination of factors may be creating a feedback loop. Add to that the fact that UMC families are leaving DC and the school system and there are now fewer UMC families for an expanding number of seats. My view is that this is going to separate out the schools that excelled because of preferred demographics from those whose outcomes were not wholly dependent on those UMC advantages.