Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm guessing that CMI is facing growing pains that all other charters have faced. I'll admit from experience, it is hard to voice concerns without being seen as a naysayer/soon to lottery parent. MV has seen it on discipline issues. TR4 has seen it with their PP react. TRY has seen with teaching changes. ITS has seen with older grade/potty issues. YY has faced with heritage/trying to be private. Stokes has faced with "are they from Maryland". When you are at a small and/or growing school, there's a very fine line between raising concerns and looking like a PITA parent.

We older grade at ITS, what's wrong with us? We love it.

How many ITS teachers left last year? All of them?

Three grade teachers. All left to make significantly more money at DCPS. It was a huge loss. The art teachers left, one moved to another state and one to another country. Thankfully, teacher attrition has never been something we've had to deal with. It happens. Fwiw we have a new teacher and is already my DD's "favorite teacher ever." They do a great job hiring great teachers.

A few beloved grade-level teachers left last year (I can think of 4 out of maybe 18-20 lead/master teachers total), as well as several specials teachers. It was a transition year, which is pretty normal for a school reaching the 5-year mark and also in the midst of a leadership transition. My kid has a new teacher this year and is, so far, having a great year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm guessing that CMI is facing growing pains that all other charters have faced. I'll admit from experience, it is hard to voice concerns without being seen as a naysayer/soon to lottery parent. MV has seen it on discipline issues. TR4 has seen it with their PP react. TRY has seen with teaching changes. ITS has seen with older grade/potty issues. YY has faced with heritage/trying to be private. Stokes has faced with "are they from Maryland". When you are at a small and/or growing school, there's a very fine line between raising concerns and looking like a PITA parent.

We older grade at ITS, what's wrong with us? We love it.

How many ITS teachers left last year? All of them?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm guessing that CMI is facing growing pains that all other charters have faced. I'll admit from experience, it is hard to voice concerns without being seen as a naysayer/soon to lottery parent. MV has seen it on discipline issues. TR4 has seen it with their PP react. TRY has seen with teaching changes. ITS has seen with older grade/potty issues. YY has faced with heritage/trying to be private. Stokes has faced with "are they from Maryland". When you are at a small and/or growing school, there's a very fine line between raising concerns and looking like a PITA parent.

We older grade at ITS, what's wrong with us? We love it.

Bad PARCC is the DCUM rhetoric of late. I'm reporting DCUM yelling, not personal opinions (I've had ITS on the top of my lottery list for 4 years running now)

Anonymous wrote:I'm guessing that CMI is facing growing pains that all other charters have faced. I'll admit from experience, it is hard to voice concerns without being seen as a naysayer/soon to lottery parent. MV has seen it on discipline issues. TR4 has seen it with their PP react. TRY has seen with teaching changes. ITS has seen with older grade/potty issues. YY has faced with heritage/trying to be private. Stokes has faced with "are they from Maryland". When you are at a small and/or growing school, there's a very fine line between raising concerns and looking like a PITA parent.

We older grade at ITS, what's wrong with us? We love it.

I'm guessing that CMI is facing growing pains that all other charters have faced. I'll admit from experience, it is hard to voice concerns without being seen as a naysayer/soon to lottery parent. MV has seen it on discipline issues. TR4 has seen it with their PP react. TRY has seen with teaching changes. ITS has seen with older grade/potty issues. YY has faced with heritage/trying to be private. Stokes has faced with "are they from Maryland". When you are at a small and/or growing school, there's a very fine line between raising concerns and looking like a PITA parent.

Anonymous wrote:Wow - CMI must be a heck of a place if it can turn TWO general threads into CMI specific only.

You've made it!

Anonymous wrote:Wow - CMI must be a heck of a place if it can turn TWO general threads into CMI specific only.

It's the new YY. Or maybe BASIS in that regard.

Wow - CMI must be a heck of a place if it can turn TWO general threads into CMI specific only.

Anonymous wrote:Former CMI parent here, upper grade. Last year admin definitely promised
to use textbooks in Middle School and to somehow teach organizing skills,
executive function skills. Actually they promised to do everything at once,
hopefully they'll manage to sort something out, and at least foster a pleasant
classroom "culture" which seemed to be a real priority. Good luck pressing
for more content, hope it works.

Like any new charter school, the MS is a new charter school. Is has to start at year 1. Budget, staff, etc. If you were here for CMI Elementry year 1 you probably remember lots of bumps in the road as well. Now, on year 5 we have a WL over 1000+ families, an amazing facility, a middle school (!), and parents who don't even remember when it was an admin team of 3 and everyone knew each other.

Former CMI parent here, upper grade. Last year admin definitely promised
to use textbooks in Middle School and to somehow teach organizing skills,
executive function skills. Actually they promised to do everything at once,
hopefully they'll manage to sort something out, and at least foster a pleasant
classroom "culture" which seemed to be a real priority. Good luck pressing
for more content, hope it works.

CMI MS has a visual arts room but visual arts is only a part of the curriculum. It is twice a week, of which science is a small part. The students use microscopes similar one DC has at home (and got at age 6 or 7). Then they just write down what they see. It is not a formal science curriculum. There is no homework, no textbooks (the math is copied sheets sent home), no tests, and no grades. It is just the first month but students are not being academically challenged. I like the critical thinking skills but they need to add some critical knowledge skills too. I hope to see textbooks, homework, and high-level science and math. STEAM was the selling point of CMI MS and it is a minor part of the school day.

This is a great idea. CMI should do a SN-preference for MS!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But I think Bridge's preference is only for kids with more significant special needs (as measured by hours of services in their IEPs). If CMI's SN kids get an hour of OT a week and preferential seating, and Bridge's kids need 1:1 aides, assistive communications devices, and PT daily then even having a smaller % of SN kids could still require a lot more effort and money.

How do they ensure that with a lottery? What if they get kids who need more?

Any school that offers the SN preference has to hold capacity for children who don't yet have IEPs or whose needs increase to that level. It is complicated - and the planning process required is quite detailed.

The school also has to have a well thought out plan for how it will measure and track those students progress since PARCC may not be an appropriate measurement. There's a lot of hoops to go through to get permission to use it and more monitoring too, which seems appropriate.

Anonymous wrote:But I think Bridge's preference is only for kids with more significant special needs (as measured by hours of services in their IEPs). If CMI's SN kids get an hour of OT a week and preferential seating, and Bridge's kids need 1:1 aides, assistive communications devices, and PT daily then even having a smaller % of SN kids could still require a lot more effort and money.

How do they ensure that with a lottery? What if they get kids who need more?