Anonymous
Post 07/02/2017 21:21     Subject: Shining Stars Montessori in Brookland
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Is this really all people have to say about it? I've talked to a lot of happy parents. We are enrolled. I simply don't get why the school is considered some kind of mediocre option on this type of snobby forum as compared to other "HRCS" in the area. The charter score is equal to or higher than some of those as well. Perhaps I'm missing something and I should be more concerned, but I thought we were lucky to get a spot there until I realized other SES white folks on forums seem to regard it with disdain. Anyways, hopefully they're all going somewhere else.


Ahh, DCUM's school popularity contest. I notice some schools are better than others at shutting down discussion by flooding threads with over-the-top glowing posts and denigrating any more circumspect posts. SSMA's parents don't do this and thus they have a slightly lower rep; but for this reason they are likely to get a parent body not as interested in school popularity contests. It's a win IMO.


Only Problem with this is that the people interested in popularity contests also raise money and get things done. If there is a need on special ed front, you want exactly one of those parents to be around to throw the fit for you. They have pros and cons.
Anonymous
Post 07/02/2017 15:09     Subject: Shining Stars Montessori in Brookland
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Hopefully your child will not turn out to have any learning disabilities or need special ed services. They haven't yet figured that out.


STILL? Jeez. We were there 3 years ago and they didn't have it together for special needs then either.



To be fair, public schools in DC are famous for not having it together for special needs. And DCPS is worse. They had a class action recently where it took them so long to provide child find services that they argued the case should be thrown out since the children had aged out of the program. Not that they weren't guilty (they were). Not that they had solved the problem (they hadn't). Just that if they could go without providing services for those particular children long enough, then the point was moot.

Ah, a return to the days of Blackman-Jones is a'comin....
Anonymous
Post 07/02/2017 09:16     Subject: Re:Shining Stars Montessori in Brookland
I have a rising Prek4 there and the school is a great diverse quiet gem. They raised a lot of money and they are training bright children which is evident in how polite they are in the halls and how they perform at the monthly peace assemblies. No snobs wanted!
Anonymous
Post 07/01/2017 21:24     Subject: Re:Shining Stars Montessori in Brookland
We were very happy there. Our child has moved onto middle school now (which they don't have, which is unfortunate)--but it was a very positive, nurturing experience. I don't get the naysaying either, except that some always tear down instead of up.
Anonymous
Post 07/01/2017 20:44     Subject: Re:Shining Stars Montessori in Brookland
Anonymous wrote:To the PP asking about whether to enrol her/his child with special needs: We are one of the families who left/was counseled out a couple years ago due to the school's abysmal special ed system. It's great to hear that they have a new coordinator, but everyone involved at the time - from the E.D. to the principal to the classroom teacher to the sped coordinator and providers - had one goal, and that goal was to deny services to SN students. I would not feel comfortable recommending SSMA to another SN parent unless all of those people have been replaced and there has been some sort of radical shift in attitudes towards differential instruction. At the time, the party line was that they would only do things the Montessori way, and that did not include legally-mandated accommodations for children with different learning needs. I find the Montessori excuse rather specious because other Montessori charters manage to accommodate SN kids just fine.


NP. Also Maria Montessori started her work with underprivileged and disabled children. No excuse for them not accommodating learning differences.

Anonymous
Post 07/01/2017 17:23     Subject: Re:Shining Stars Montessori in Brookland
To the PP asking about whether to enrol her/his child with special needs: We are one of the families who left/was counseled out a couple years ago due to the school's abysmal special ed system. It's great to hear that they have a new coordinator, but everyone involved at the time - from the E.D. to the principal to the classroom teacher to the sped coordinator and providers - had one goal, and that goal was to deny services to SN students. I would not feel comfortable recommending SSMA to another SN parent unless all of those people have been replaced and there has been some sort of radical shift in attitudes towards differential instruction. At the time, the party line was that they would only do things the Montessori way, and that did not include legally-mandated accommodations for children with different learning needs. I find the Montessori excuse rather specious because other Montessori charters manage to accommodate SN kids just fine.
Anonymous
Post 05/24/2017 12:40     Subject: Shining Stars Montessori in Brookland
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:If you want to compare SSMA's QSR with other schools' reports, they are all posted here.

http://www.dcpcsb.org/report/qualitative-school-reviews
Doesn't make it super easy to compare, does it?


Well since we have nothing at all like this for DCPS, I'm not going to complain about the presentation.

You can use these to compare the Montessori charters against each other. Or get a better sense of what happens at KIPP and DC Prep vs. a so-called HRC.
Anonymous
Post 05/24/2017 12:25     Subject: Shining Stars Montessori in Brookland
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:If you want to compare SSMA's QSR with other schools' reports, they are all posted here.

http://www.dcpcsb.org/report/qualitative-school-reviews
Doesn't make it super easy to compare, does it?


it's a nice snapshot of the school, which seems to be running much more smoothly than it was 2 years ago. I imagine the new building and better retention helped.
Anonymous
Post 05/24/2017 12:19     Subject: Shining Stars Montessori in Brookland
Anonymous wrote:If you want to compare SSMA's QSR with other schools' reports, they are all posted here.

http://www.dcpcsb.org/report/qualitative-school-reviews
Doesn't make it super easy to compare, does it?
Anonymous
Post 05/24/2017 12:12     Subject: Shining Stars Montessori in Brookland
If you want to compare SSMA's QSR with other schools' reports, they are all posted here.

http://www.dcpcsb.org/report/qualitative-school-reviews
Anonymous
Post 05/24/2017 12:12     Subject: Shining Stars Montessori in Brookland
Anonymous wrote:Also "The QSR team scored 84% of observations as distinguished or proficient in the Instruction domain, a significant increase from 28% of observations as distinguished or proficient in this domain during the school’s last QSR in February 2015" That is impressive. Wonder what changed? Or was it an off week vs. on week?

Are these numbers the ones used for Tiers, or not?


No. These are part of the 5-year charter review process. They are very important (which is why SSMA had to do it twice when the first report was low) but separate from Tier ratings.
Anonymous
Post 05/24/2017 12:07     Subject: Shining Stars Montessori in Brookland
The behavior management scores were not so good though