Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, management is a skill and not everyone has it. The ED is basically MIA in the school's day to day operations. Basically no parent involvement at all. The guides are so great and my DC is doing so well there. Seems like the ED has to go. How would that happen? The complaints about the board are they are a rubber stamp so are they really going to step up here? The teachers need support and all the comments about a culture of fear are so disheartening.

I also feel like the managment layers are so unnecessary and wasteful. I can't believe there is a post for an assistant principal now. Too many hands...

What do you mean no parent involvement? There is the SSMACA (PTA) that is very involved and has raised thousands of dollars for the school. I do think the parents have been too trusting with the ED and Board. There have been numerous red flags that should have resulted in action--20 pt drop on PMF, staff turnover, etc.

Yes, I agree. The parents are VERY involved at SSMA. But parents do need to step up at tomorrow's board meeting now that we know what's happening behind the scenes. Guides will leave if the ED stays on and that's going to hurt re-enrollment.

I have been doing some research and I found interesting stuff on the DC PCS Board website.

First is the PMF you mentioned http://www.dcpcsb.org/sites/default/files/2017-11-8%20PMF%20Score%20Card%20SY16-17_Shining%20Stars%20Montessori%20Academy%20PCS_2017.pdf

What I noticed is that SSMA doesn't rank on all of the criteria and has a score based only on 55 out of a total 100 points. If you look at Bridges, for example, they rank on the full 100 point scale http://www.dcpcsb.org/sites/default/files/2017-11-8%20PMF%20Score%20Card%20SY16-17_Bridges%20PCS_2017.pdf

Where SSMA got killed last year vs the previous year was on attendance and re-enrollment. We lost 17 out of 18 points on those two factors alone. On the academic side of the PMF, all the PARCC scores were the same or went up versus the previous year http://www.dcpcsb.org/sites/default/files/Shining%20Stars%20Montessori%20Academy%20PCS_EC_PK3-8_2016.pdf

If we can get attendance and re-enrollment up, we would actually be a Tier 1 school with a score of 41.5 out of 55 or 75% instead of 24.4 out of 55. That's way above the cutoff for Tier 1. So it's not the academics, which have improved with the new director. It's attendance and re-enrollment.

To me, that makes this board issue critical because we NEED re-enrollment.

The second thing is the Annual Report:

http://www.dcpcsb.org/report/annual-report/shining-stars-montessori-academy-pcs-annual-report

What I noticed when I went through it is that the woman listed as Operations Manager is now listed on SSMA's website as Director of Compliance & School Performance. And she only has a high school diploma. Plus she's only been at the school 6 months. So, it's not like she was promoted to director because of her unique institutional knowledge. Not to be snobby, but this concerns me. To me, this looks like someone who is getting promoted not based on merit, but on allegiance to the ED. All of the other admin/directors listed in this Annual Report have advanced degrees.

Someone wrote about a "climate of fear". How about a climate of cronyism?

Anyway, SSMA is really close to Tier 1. If we can get rid of the toxic environment, we can fix the attendance and re-enrollment issues and we will instantly be a Tier 1 school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, management is a skill and not everyone has it. The ED is basically MIA in the school's day to day operations. Basically no parent involvement at all. The guides are so great and my DC is doing so well there. Seems like the ED has to go. How would that happen? The complaints about the board are they are a rubber stamp so are they really going to step up here? The teachers need support and all the comments about a culture of fear are so disheartening.

I also feel like the managment layers are so unnecessary and wasteful. I can't believe there is a post for an assistant principal now. Too many hands...

What do you mean no parent involvement? There is the SSMACA (PTA) that is very involved and has raised thousands of dollars for the school. I do think the parents have been too trusting with the ED and Board. There have been numerous red flags that should have resulted in action--20 pt drop on PMF, staff turnover, etc.

Anonymous wrote:Well, management is a skill and not everyone has it. The ED is basically MIA in the school's day to day operations. Basically no parent involvement at all. The guides are so great and my DC is doing so well there. Seems like the ED has to go. How would that happen? The complaints about the board are they are a rubber stamp so are they really going to step up here? The teachers need support and all the comments about a culture of fear are so disheartening.

I also feel like the managment layers are so unnecessary and wasteful. I can't believe there is a post for an assistant principal now. Too many hands...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

In my opinion, she was less than stellar and unresponsive to a number of parents and issues. She seemed to simply be over her head. Her termination is a sign of a much larger problem at SSMA. There is a"crisis of leadership" that needs to be addressed. There were other terminations that happened during the year that were not communicated effectively. Parents bond with school officials than they are just gone. I doubt a strategic plan exists. SSMA should be very stable right now considering it's been around for 8-9 years. It is certainly not that. The next couple of weeks will go a long way in determining the future of the school.

I kind of hate hashing this out here, but can you go into the "issues" a little more if they're not too personal. I was a little blindsided by this all: we use before- and aftercare, so we're really only interacting with our kid's teachers and a couple of staff and they've all been great.

Semi-related, and not really specific to SSMA, I wish someone could convince organizations going through moments of change that cryptic emails about "improving weaknesses" and "reenforcing strengths" usually look a lot worse than just being forthright about whatever is going on. I know if someone is fired/asked to resign there are legal reasons why you don't trumpet the reasons from the rooftop, but right now who the hell knows what's going on?

The awful test scores and lack of a plan for lower and upper elementary are major issues. We had a phenomenal teacher before changing classes so we were blindsided by the "downgrade" in expectations. The pmf was a major eye opener back in November. It was awful and a pretty lackluster response. We learned a great teacher can mask a lot. One of the drawbacks of Montessori is the lack of visibility of a kid's performance. You have to consistently ask questions, monitor, and visit the class. The homework was key for us to really gauge what was going on. When that pretty much stopped after we changed classes, that was a red flag. School is supposed to get harder not easier. That was an indication of lack of curriculum development and expectations. Montessori was designed to only go to third grade so I was curious to see how it would work past that. At SSMA, it's been a very disappointing result this year. In a nutshell, they don't know what they don't know. This won't be fixed overnight. So plan accordingly......

Huh? There is no homework in Montessori. And Montessori was always designed through upper el, that is, age 12.

SSMA is not a pure Montessori thus the AMS certification. It allows for more flexibility in the classroom, i.e. computers, homework, etc. Very few schools actually go to age 12 that I'm aware off.

What are you talking about? Plenty of schools go through upper el. Few go though middle or high school but there are plenty that go through sixth grade. All over the country.

Clarification..Public or Charter Montessori in DC that do it well? SSMA, Lee, Breakthrough, CHML, etc.--No or TBD. Some of the privates are ok from what I hear but nothing great. Of course a lot go to sixth grade.

What about LAMB? Goes to 5th and appears to be well-regarded through upper elementary.

Anonymous wrote:Well, management is a skill and not everyone has it. The ED is basically MIA in the school's day to day operations. Basically no parent involvement at all. The guides are so great and my DC is doing so well there. Seems like the ED has to go. How would that happen? The complaints about the board are they are a rubber stamp so are they really going to step up here? The teachers need support and all the comments about a culture of fear are so disheartening.

I also feel like the managment layers are so unnecessary and wasteful. I can't believe there is a post for an assistant principal now. Too many hands...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

In my opinion, she was less than stellar and unresponsive to a number of parents and issues. She seemed to simply be over her head. Her termination is a sign of a much larger problem at SSMA. There is a"crisis of leadership" that needs to be addressed. There were other terminations that happened during the year that were not communicated effectively. Parents bond with school officials than they are just gone. I doubt a strategic plan exists. SSMA should be very stable right now considering it's been around for 8-9 years. It is certainly not that. The next couple of weeks will go a long way in determining the future of the school.

I kind of hate hashing this out here, but can you go into the "issues" a little more if they're not too personal. I was a little blindsided by this all: we use before- and aftercare, so we're really only interacting with our kid's teachers and a couple of staff and they've all been great.

Semi-related, and not really specific to SSMA, I wish someone could convince organizations going through moments of change that cryptic emails about "improving weaknesses" and "reenforcing strengths" usually look a lot worse than just being forthright about whatever is going on. I know if someone is fired/asked to resign there are legal reasons why you don't trumpet the reasons from the rooftop, but right now who the hell knows what's going on?

The awful test scores and lack of a plan for lower and upper elementary are major issues. We had a phenomenal teacher before changing classes so we were blindsided by the "downgrade" in expectations. The pmf was a major eye opener back in November. It was awful and a pretty lackluster response. We learned a great teacher can mask a lot. One of the drawbacks of Montessori is the lack of visibility of a kid's performance. You have to consistently ask questions, monitor, and visit the class. The homework was key for us to really gauge what was going on. When that pretty much stopped after we changed classes, that was a red flag. School is supposed to get harder not easier. That was an indication of lack of curriculum development and expectations. Montessori was designed to only go to third grade so I was curious to see how it would work past that. At SSMA, it's been a very disappointing result this year. In a nutshell, they don't know what they don't know. This won't be fixed overnight. So plan accordingly......

Huh? There is no homework in Montessori. And Montessori was always designed through upper el, that is, age 12.

SSMA is not a pure Montessori thus the AMS certification. It allows for more flexibility in the classroom, i.e. computers, homework, etc. Very few schools actually go to age 12 that I'm aware off.

What are you talking about? Plenty of schools go through upper el. Few go though middle or high school but there are plenty that go through sixth grade. All over the country.

Clarification..Public or Charter Montessori in DC that do it well? SSMA, Lee, Breakthrough, CHML, etc.--No or TBD. Some of the privates are ok from what I hear but nothing great. Of course a lot go to sixth grade.

Anonymous wrote:

enh124 wrote:The Board allowed all the drama to occur without any action. They seem to have botched their fiduciary duty. All have to go! We were oblivious to everything until our child's performance suffered. So we started to ask questions and had meetings (entire class of parents) and the previous principal was clueless. My sense is she came from a private school and was fairly overwhelmed by all the accountability that is required by public schools. You have to respond to parents with "real" answers and plans. She couldn't do that. There is no plan to be successful. I'd be looking at other options. This will not be fixed for a while. Don't be optimistic, be realistic!

Sorry but that makes no sense. Have you ever seen a DC private primary school? Private schools have entitled parents who pay top dollar for "accountability". There's no way you can last at a DC private primary school without dealing with entitled, helicopter parents and having accountability. So I have no idea what you're talking about

The only things "overwhelming" at SSMA are the compliance issues. And SSMA has someone who is supposed to be taking are of that. After all, the ED has hired layers of admin folks.