Another CM family here - we are very happy with the school. Learning is happening, our child enjoys school and comes home talking about it. I like that they know the curriculum they are planning to teach and how they are going to teach it. I hadn't heard of the IPC before we came to CM, but it is really interesting - we learn new things about the world everyday

The drawbacks I think would be
*small class sizes due to limited social opportunities - what do you do if your child doesn't really click with any of the other kids? For the most part though the children and their families are great and that hasn't been a problem - if the class got any smaller it would be. Variety is the spice of life
*? really it's been great, fingers crossed for another good year - I've read (on DCUM - the predictor of all things that can go wrong) that the second year can be rougher than the first for a DCPCS...

Amazing class size!

Anonymous wrote:Any criticism of outdoor space should be off set by the phenomenal teacher:student ration. 2:15!!!

I always assumed that Hardy used nearby Jeleff as its home field. That would make a lot of sense.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are in CM- very happy. We have a great teacher and great parent involvement. Next year, that may change with a new teacher. Hopefully, it wont and we will still be happy. even the best schools can be bad if your teacher is not a good fit. The facts for the school are right in front of you: not immersion, no IB program (didnt know until now there could be early years), etc. If the facts work in your favor, the rest is based on personal taste. BTW, we turned down a spot at Ross, Lafayette and Cap City for CM.

And can you say more about choosing CM over Cap City? Just the thought of never having to lottery again alone would probably make me unable to resist Cap City...

We chose CM over cap city b/c of the smaller class size , but mainly the smaller school. Everyone at CM knows our son- not just his teachers- but everyone. Other teachers, director, principle, etc. I really enjoy that about a smaller school. It makes for easy navigating, comfortable environment, etc. but as I said that is not for everyone. My son is 4 so in the early years I think it is very important to not get lost in the crowd.

Anonymous wrote:We are in CM- very happy. We have a great teacher and great parent involvement. Next year, that may change with a new teacher. Hopefully, it wont and we will still be happy. even the best schools can be bad if your teacher is not a good fit. The facts for the school are right in front of you: not immersion, no IB program (didnt know until now there could be early years), etc. If the facts work in your favor, the rest is based on personal taste. BTW, we turned down a spot at Ross, Lafayette and Cap City for CM.

And can you say more about choosing CM over Cap City? Just the thought of never having to lottery again alone would probably make me unable to resist Cap City...

Wow! You have great lottery luck. Were you in bounds for Ross or Lafayette? What about CM got you so excited?

We are in CM- very happy. We have a great teacher and great parent involvement. Next year, that may change with a new teacher. Hopefully, it wont and we will still be happy. even the best schools can be bad if your teacher is not a good fit. The facts for the school are right in front of you: not immersion, no IB program (didnt know until now there could be early years), etc. If the facts work in your favor, the rest is based on personal taste. BTW, we turned down a spot at Ross, Lafayette and Cap City for CM.

Anonymous wrote:We are leaving CM for Sela (assuming we get in). Partly because of immersion, partly because of commute, and partly because our child didn't really click with teacher/peers - and in a small class in a small school, it matters. Close friends of ours love CM and wouldn't dream of leaving. Different strokes for different folks.

You'll get into Sela, and although you didn't say which grade you're child is entering next year, I'm sure you generally just made several CM hopeful parents really happy with that!

Learning gap PP here. I don't want to name the school because I'm afraid it would bring out the boosters trying to refute what has been our experience. My advice is to look carefully at the curriculum of each school you are considering. If the school has open houses, go and look at the actual work of the classrooms in the upper grades not only preschool to see if it's acceptable to you. As you get to upper elementary, you see more movement out of schools as parents find the education is lacking.

We are leaving CM for Sela (assuming we get in). Partly because of immersion, partly because of commute, and partly because our child didn't really click with teacher/peers - and in a small class in a small school, it matters. Close friends of ours love CM and wouldn't dream of leaving. Different strokes for different folks.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ Getting the same thing at Inspired Teachings, it's like "oh the school is fantastic" but then, all of these parents are crossing their fingers in the lottery... Huh?

We are PK4 at IT and have not done the lottery this year. I think the problem is that some parents take whatever they can get in the charter school lottery without being completely on-board with a school's philosophy. They play the lottery each year in the hope that their child will get into a language immersion program, for example. That and the location, of course. It's not a long commute for us at the moment, but I'd have to think twice about a 45 minute journey in the car, even for an amazing school.

+1, not to highjack a CM thread, but I think it's similar opinions. We are also a PK4 family that did not even enter lottery DCPS/Charter as we are more than thrilled with our current option. If it ain't broke, why fix it? Of course you're going to get varying answers with different families at different schools. I think all the reasons why one would reconsider have been laid out, but if/when someone were to get into a new school, they would have to weigh the negatives/pos with the new school.

Anonymous wrote:^ Getting the same thing at Inspired Teachings, it's like "oh the school is fantastic" but then, all of these parents are crossing their fingers in the lottery... Huh?

We are PK4 at IT and have not done the lottery this year. I think the problem is that some parents take whatever they can get in the charter school lottery without being completely on-board with a school's philosophy. They play the lottery each year in the hope that their child will get into a language immersion program, for example. That and the location, of course. It's not a long commute for us at the moment, but I'd have to think twice about a 45 minute journey in the car, even for an amazing school.