Anonymous wrote:Ever since Bullis rejected merging with them, this school's academic profile has been declining every year. Fewer and fewer kids are sticking around as they get older.

Bullis is an academic joke -- who keeps pushing the "tragedy of the lost merger with the third-rate school" narrative?

As a new parent at the school I will chime in and say that Norwood is a great school. One thing that strikes me about it is how open the staff seems to make changes as needed, for instance they noticed a few children needed even more challenge in Math in my child's class and provided even more challenging word problems for them as optional homework. My child loves it. They are also very responsive to parental concerns, and the thought that goes into making activities enjoyable, along with the amazing music program and art , lots of physical activity, Spanish starting at K, made it a great fit for us. I will say that the community is fairly homogenous, with no same sex parents and that is one issue I have with the school, but perhaps that will change with time? Also, I went to the forum with the new Head, and he is someone who I have no doubt will bring a lot of positive energy and ideas to the community. He seemed very engaged and I loved how he spoke about the importance of outdoor education for children.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

OK. Can we give it a rest now? I can't see the point in continuing past 13 pages.

OK. No. If it is too hot in the kitchen you can simply get out.

It's not too hot in the kitchen, we've just been eating the same bland dinner for the past two weeks. What I see in this thread is a very small number of dissatisfied parents hitting refresh on their browsers and lamenting their same issue with the school (math, LS Head, etc.) Lets get real. Norwood is a very good school. Could it better? Yep, absolutely. Just like every independent school could be better, hence the 13 page threads about Landon lacrosse, and NCS's pressure cooker mentality, and Potomac's endless leadership transition. These schools have issues. They are also all very good.

+1 Good points

It's not too hot in the kitchen, we've just been eating the same bland dinner for the past two weeks. What I see in this thread is a very small number of dissatisfied parents hitting refresh on their browsers and lamenting their same issue with the school (math, LS Head, etc.) Lets get real. Norwood is a very good school. Could it better? Yep, absolutely. Just like every independent school could be better, hence the 13 page threads about Landon lacrosse, and NCS's pressure cooker mentality, and Potomac's endless leadership transition. These schools have issues. They are also all very good.

You are not in prison where you must eat the grub. No one is forcing you to eat the same bland dinner. You have choices. One woman's meat is another's poison.

Anonymous wrote:

OK. Can we give it a rest now? I can't see the point in continuing past 13 pages.

OK. No. If it is too hot in the kitchen you can simply get out.

It's not too hot in the kitchen, we've just been eating the same bland dinner for the past two weeks. What I see in this thread is a very small number of dissatisfied parents hitting refresh on their browsers and lamenting their same issue with the school (math, LS Head, etc.) Lets get real. Norwood is a very good school. Could it better? Yep, absolutely. Just like every independent school could be better, hence the 13 page threads about Landon lacrosse, and NCS's pressure cooker mentality, and Potomac's endless leadership transition. These schools have issues. They are also all very good.

Anonymous wrote:Ever since Bullis rejected merging with them, this school's academic profile has been declining every year. Fewer and fewer kids are sticking around as they get older.

Ever since you graduated from high school, your contribution to society has been negligible and declining.

OK. Can we give it a rest now? I can't see the point in continuing past 13 pages.

OK. No. If it is too hot in the kitchen you can simply get out.

Anonymous wrote:Ever since Bullis rejected merging with them, this school's academic profile has been declining every year. Fewer and fewer kids are sticking around as they get older.

OK. Can we give it a rest now? I can't see the point in continuing past 13 pages.

Ever since Bullis rejected merging with them, this school's academic profile has been declining every year. Fewer and fewer kids are sticking around as they get older.

BTW, the point of my brag, which you were kind enough not to call me out on, was not that the scores prove that Norwood is the greatest thing since sliced bread but that they reassure me that the teaching DD has received there has been effective..

Fair enough. I wish all of these inaccurate blanket generalizations would stop. (I'm not referring to anything in your most recent post.) But I guess we will both have to wait until pigs fly. (Could be the sequel to Sharknado.)

I wish all of these anectdotal "my child scored..." would stop. Your child would have likely done that well at any school. That said, MCPS has its problems. Also, evey single private LS has been harshly criticized on this forum: Sidwell, Holton, Landon, GDS, Beauvoir, all have the incubation approach. They throw their efforts at the matriculating kids or those close to matriculation, which makes them look good on paper. It makes me think that if you want good primary years, go to a school that does just that, K-3, not something that feeds onto higher grades.
I really think that Norwood's schedule would make it hard for any teacher to work effectively with these kids. There is TOO MUCH movement during the day. Even if they took away half of the transitions, there would still be enough for even the most hyper boys.
It is a good school, but they need to get real and make some changes.

Anonymous wrote:I did not say that MCPS was good. The teachers do know the students, but they were powerless to stop all the advancing. Now that the rapid advancing has stopped, parents are complaining that it moves too slowly.
Anyway, Norwood is a different model. What seems to keep coming up is the teachers in K-3, maybe 4, are not effective.

My kids had and have had excellent teachers throughout lower school, and I feel confident that they are getting a sound education. (The older one scored in the 99th percentile on all sections of the SSAT with minimal prep, and she didn't learn that math on her own.) I would like to see more challenge and creativity in some areas of the curriculum, but I think that would be true just about anywhere. More important, I believe that the school is already making changes that will strengthen both the curriculum and teaching. I am truly sorry if you have had a poor experience in LS. While my kids' experience has been excellent overall, both had an ineffective teacher at some point in their time in LS, and I know how frustrating that can be. However, I think it is far from true that "the teachers in K-3, maybe 4, are not effective." And prefacing this assertion with "what seems to keep coming up" greatly overstates, IMO, the extent to which this view is shared by other Norwood families.

PP. Try not to so aggressive. People are fully aware of all kinds of issues. They have step children in different schools, sometimes one family has kids in two or three different schools.
Norwood is working on training teachers, but they said that they needed funds to do that and the money came from a tuition hike. I just think that the teachers education is not our problem. They should come with credentials. Worse yet, I am not sure that the initiative will work because the problems are more than just related to training.

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:No, I am not joking. How can a school that understands your kid be a red flag? Would you rather your child be a faceless number in Montgomery County?

The teachers know the kids in those schools too. But anyway, it is just an overused phrase.
The people who have their kids in MCPS know their 30K. It is theirs.

Right, the teachers in Montgomery County know their students so well yet were caught by surprise at the high failure rate in the math finals, do not know what the underlying causes might be for the alarming failure, and the poor student performance had apparently been going on for sometime. Hmm...very reassuring.

I did not say that MCPS was good. The teachers do know the students, but they were powerless to stop all the advancing. Now that the rapid advancing has stopped, parents are complaining that it moves too slowly.
Anyway, Norwood is a different model. What seems to keep coming up is the teachers in K-3, maybe 4, are not effective.

And how would you know that if you are a public school parent? All teachers need to update their skills-that is true for both private and public schools--and the most important thing is to provide teachers with an environment that supports training and rewards good performance.