I've heard MV is terrible with communication from so many people and that can be a problem for prek3 to 1st. And they aren't impressed with upper grades (though maybe they aren't disappointed). I went to their virtual open house. It was terrible. I didn't hold it against them at the time, but given how happy we are with our title 1 dcps, I'm glad we had a terrible lotto number. I think the issues they had were more emblematic than I realized.

Whatever is going on does seem to be effecting charters more than solid DCPSes. Our 1st grader got into every charter to which we applied (we are happy at our IB DCPS and staying) but is still between 40 and 60 at 3 highly regarded EOTP DCPSes.

We left MV for another HRCS. We know two other families that this year for DCPS. So, it's not just people moving away or going private. I think MV is a good school, but it was not a great fit for us.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who cares about waitlists? If you want immersion go for it. The great news for many of us who were stuck for years on waitlists is you can now have your school of choice. I remember dreaming of the day that MV #2 would open. Now, there are more MV seats AND many DCPS have gotten better too. This is a really good thing. (FWiW my kids go to a different charter, nothing around here is “perfect,” not even overcrowded upper NW).

Agree completely.

Also, not all DCPS schools are created equal. I'm very pleased that so many DCPS schools are improving and attract more in bound (and out of bound) schools. Perhaps more HRCS spots can go to kids whose inbounds schools are still pretty low-performing.

People take notice when a school's waitlist isn't as long as it used to be because it indicates that there might be problems, poor retention, dissatisfied parents, etc. I think with MV opening a second campus not very far away, a shorter waitlist is to be expected. But for Lee and Two Rivers and ITS, what could be the reason? This year so many people I know have moved out of the DMV entirely, so I'm sure part of it is pandemic driven. But for some schools to be struggling for enrollment and others not, can indicate trouble.

From what I can gather, enrollment is down throughout the city. We know a number of people that moved out of DC (we have mid-elementary age kids). Then there are some that decided to home school or moved to private when they were open throughout last year and decided to stay. Our kids go to one of the schools mentioned above, and the folks we know that left did not leave because they were dissatisfied. Mostly heading out of the city or moved to another part of DC and decided to go somewhere closer to the new house.

+1. I have lower elementary kids at a HRCS and every family we know that left moved out of DC or went private. Parents are pretty happy with reopening last spring and COVID protocols thus far.

Turns out that being in your house with your kids every single minute of every single day can make you reevaluate lots of things. Like having a real yard. And two bathrooms. And a driveway.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who cares about waitlists? If you want immersion go for it. The great news for many of us who were stuck for years on waitlists is you can now have your school of choice. I remember dreaming of the day that MV #2 would open. Now, there are more MV seats AND many DCPS have gotten better too. This is a really good thing. (FWiW my kids go to a different charter, nothing around here is “perfect,” not even overcrowded upper NW).

Agree completely.

Also, not all DCPS schools are created equal. I'm very pleased that so many DCPS schools are improving and attract more in bound (and out of bound) schools. Perhaps more HRCS spots can go to kids whose inbounds schools are still pretty low-performing.

People take notice when a school's waitlist isn't as long as it used to be because it indicates that there might be problems, poor retention, dissatisfied parents, etc. I think with MV opening a second campus not very far away, a shorter waitlist is to be expected. But for Lee and Two Rivers and ITS, what could be the reason? This year so many people I know have moved out of the DMV entirely, so I'm sure part of it is pandemic driven. But for some schools to be struggling for enrollment and others not, can indicate trouble.

From what I can gather, enrollment is down throughout the city. We know a number of people that moved out of DC (we have mid-elementary age kids). Then there are some that decided to home school or moved to private when they were open throughout last year and decided to stay. Our kids go to one of the schools mentioned above, and the folks we know that left did not leave because they were dissatisfied. Mostly heading out of the city or moved to another part of DC and decided to go somewhere closer to the new house.

+1. I have lower elementary kids at a HRCS and every family we know that left moved out of DC or went private. Parents are pretty happy with reopening last spring and COVID protocols thus far.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who cares about waitlists? If you want immersion go for it. The great news for many of us who were stuck for years on waitlists is you can now have your school of choice. I remember dreaming of the day that MV #2 would open. Now, there are more MV seats AND many DCPS have gotten better too. This is a really good thing. (FWiW my kids go to a different charter, nothing around here is “perfect,” not even overcrowded upper NW).

Agree completely.

Also, not all DCPS schools are created equal. I'm very pleased that so many DCPS schools are improving and attract more in bound (and out of bound) schools. Perhaps more HRCS spots can go to kids whose inbounds schools are still pretty low-performing.

People take notice when a school's waitlist isn't as long as it used to be because it indicates that there might be problems, poor retention, dissatisfied parents, etc. I think with MV opening a second campus not very far away, a shorter waitlist is to be expected. But for Lee and Two Rivers and ITS, what could be the reason? This year so many people I know have moved out of the DMV entirely, so I'm sure part of it is pandemic driven. But for some schools to be struggling for enrollment and others not, can indicate trouble.

From what I can gather, enrollment is down throughout the city. We know a number of people that moved out of DC (we have mid-elementary age kids). Then there are some that decided to home school or moved to private when they were open throughout last year and decided to stay. Our kids go to one of the schools mentioned above, and the folks we know that left did not leave because they were dissatisfied. Mostly heading out of the city or moved to another part of DC and decided to go somewhere closer to the new house.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who cares about waitlists? If you want immersion go for it. The great news for many of us who were stuck for years on waitlists is you can now have your school of choice. I remember dreaming of the day that MV #2 would open. Now, there are more MV seats AND many DCPS have gotten better too. This is a really good thing. (FWiW my kids go to a different charter, nothing around here is “perfect,” not even overcrowded upper NW).

Agree completely.

Also, not all DCPS schools are created equal. I'm very pleased that so many DCPS schools are improving and attract more in bound (and out of bound) schools. Perhaps more HRCS spots can go to kids whose inbounds schools are still pretty low-performing.

People take notice when a school's waitlist isn't as long as it used to be because it indicates that there might be problems, poor retention, dissatisfied parents, etc. I think with MV opening a second campus not very far away, a shorter waitlist is to be expected. But for Lee and Two Rivers and ITS, what could be the reason? This year so many people I know have moved out of the DMV entirely, so I'm sure part of it is pandemic driven. But for some schools to be struggling for enrollment and others not, can indicate trouble.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who cares about waitlists? If you want immersion go for it. The great news for many of us who were stuck for years on waitlists is you can now have your school of choice. I remember dreaming of the day that MV #2 would open. Now, there are more MV seats AND many DCPS have gotten better too. This is a really good thing. (FWiW my kids go to a different charter, nothing around here is “perfect,” not even overcrowded upper NW).

Agree completely.

Also, not all DCPS schools are created equal. I'm very pleased that so many DCPS schools are improving and attract more in bound (and out of bound) schools. Perhaps more HRCS spots can go to kids whose inbounds schools are still pretty low-performing.

*students* not *schools* in the last line.

Anonymous wrote:Who cares about waitlists? If you want immersion go for it. The great news for many of us who were stuck for years on waitlists is you can now have your school of choice. I remember dreaming of the day that MV #2 would open. Now, there are more MV seats AND many DCPS have gotten better too. This is a really good thing. (FWiW my kids go to a different charter, nothing around here is “perfect,” not even overcrowded upper NW).

Agree completely.

Also, not all DCPS schools are created equal. I'm very pleased that so many DCPS schools are improving and attract more in bound (and out of bound) schools. Perhaps more HRCS spots can go to kids whose inbounds schools are still pretty low-performing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So an overwhelmed 4 year old has nobody to speak with if they are feeling sick or having a hard time? Sounds great…

Get a clue. They speak English too.

The PP did state “They hire teachers that speak little English, so kids really are thrown in the deep end until they gain some basic understanding.”

MV isn’t alone - Lee Montessori has openings in 1st and 2nd grade too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The issue with MV isn't the Spanish, it's the discipline problems.

People said the same about my title 1 school and it is not true in my school.

Eh, the difference is at our Title 1 school, there were excellent, experienced teachers who were good at handling all sorts of kids. And, at least at our school, which was small and a bit kumbaya, they did a lot of work to build relationships between kids and the teachers so that there was a relationship in place to really work with the kid. At MV, the discipline problems are not because there are bad kids or something like that, it's because the teachers are new and unsupported, and there's so much turn over that there is less of a relationship built, and they backfill so kids who have not had the benefit of of MV's immersion ECE program are now frustrated because they can't understand. We left our DCPS because of fears that we would encounter disruption in the upper grades (and we wanted Spanish of course), only to find out that there were kids throwing chairs and complete disorder in the MV classroom. My kid, who had been...let's say boisterous but well behaved, was being told he was a bad kid because he was so bored because there was no differentiation. So we left. For a school with no Spanish. I'm glad my kid speaks a bit of Spanish now, and we are in a good place now. But really, I'm not sure all this was worth it--we could have just hired a tutor and not had all the heartache.

Oh, you are the "kids throwing chairs" poster.

Am I? It did make an impression, when my kid came home telling me about it (though he seemed more amused than I was TBH). I imagine it made an impression on all the parents who heard about it. FWIW, I don't post here often, so there may be a few of us.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The issue with MV isn't the Spanish, it's the discipline problems.

People said the same about my title 1 school and it is not true in my school.

Eh, the difference is at our Title 1 school, there were excellent, experienced teachers who were good at handling all sorts of kids. And, at least at our school, which was small and a bit kumbaya, they did a lot of work to build relationships between kids and the teachers so that there was a relationship in place to really work with the kid. At MV, the discipline problems are not because there are bad kids or something like that, it's because the teachers are new and unsupported, and there's so much turn over that there is less of a relationship built, and they backfill so kids who have not had the benefit of of MV's immersion ECE program are now frustrated because they can't understand. We left our DCPS because of fears that we would encounter disruption in the upper grades (and we wanted Spanish of course), only to find out that there were kids throwing chairs and complete disorder in the MV classroom. My kid, who had been...let's say boisterous but well behaved, was being told he was a bad kid because he was so bored because there was no differentiation. So we left. For a school with no Spanish. I'm glad my kid speaks a bit of Spanish now, and we are in a good place now. But really, I'm not sure all this was worth it--we could have just hired a tutor and not had all the heartache.

Oh, you are the "kids throwing chairs" poster.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The issue with MV isn't the Spanish, it's the discipline problems.

People said the same about my title 1 school and it is not true in my school.

Eh, the difference is at our Title 1 school, there were excellent, experienced teachers who were good at handling all sorts of kids. And, at least at our school, which was small and a bit kumbaya, they did a lot of work to build relationships between kids and the teachers so that there was a relationship in place to really work with the kid. At MV, the discipline problems are not because there are bad kids or something like that, it's because the teachers are new and unsupported, and there's so much turn over that there is less of a relationship built, and they backfill so kids who have not had the benefit of of MV's immersion ECE program are now frustrated because they can't understand. We left our DCPS because of fears that we would encounter disruption in the upper grades (and we wanted Spanish of course), only to find out that there were kids throwing chairs and complete disorder in the MV classroom. My kid, who had been...let's say boisterous but well behaved, was being told he was a bad kid because he was so bored because there was no differentiation. So we left. For a school with no Spanish. I'm glad my kid speaks a bit of Spanish now, and we are in a good place now. But really, I'm not sure all this was worth it--we could have just hired a tutor and not had all the heartache.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The issue with MV isn't the Spanish, it's the discipline problems.

+1. And the curriculum, but that's not until older grades.

I have only heard this from anonymous poster in DCUM.

I've heard it from families we've spoken with that lotteried out in the upper grades. I think it, like most schools, work good enough for kids at or slightly above grade level. Maybe slightly below grade level without a ton of accommodations needed. Which is almost all kids, so that's not a huge deal if you're happy with how and what your kid is learning. But some parents I've spoken with, specifically those that have kids similar to mine, have said MV specifically refused to work with them, and they were unhappy enough to leave. Honestly, if it's the best option in your neighborhood and you really want Spanish, then I can understand giving it a shot. I don't think it's a BAD school, I just don't think it's the best school out of the options our family has available to us. Your choices and preferences may differ.