Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+100. Perception or not, many high SES neighborhood parents want pullouts. So a school's leadership should give them pullouts to help them and the school. No skin off the school's back if the parents raise the money to pay for pullout instruction, as they do at Brent. Differentiated learning isn't as good because there aren't as many instructors involved. More good teachers means more learning, helping explain why private schools in this area rarely place more than 16 or 17 kids in an elementary class.

But many of the people asking for pullouts at LT aren't parents willing to raise money to pay for the instruction -- they're people whose kids don't even attend the school, basically saying "we won't send our kids there until you offer pullouts," which is very different from what you're describing.

I'm the LT parent who posted earlier that I prefer the differentiation LT currently offers. I would be more supportive of requests for pullouts if they came from parents of 3rd/4th/5th graders at LT, as opposed to parents of ECE kids who live IB but don't attend LT.

Anonymous wrote:This thread had scared me quite a bit, but now that school has started (my DC is in preK), and we have been to a few school's functions, I see that a lot of what's said here is almost hallucinatory.

Principal is nice, although not particularly warm (just my feeling, might be she is just reasonably stressed out).
Parents volunteered to set up a new website. There will be a new grow your vegetables/cook your meal program, for which parents have volunteered appliances and cookware.
There is an active listserv and active parents community that cares about the school and the teachers.

All the kids I have seen ( black and white, young and older) seem nice and well behaved. The classroom we are in was spotless and very well organized. I really can not yet see one thing wrong with the school.

For the skeptics worried about IB white V OOB black issues: it is true that preK is almost all white/Probably IB, and later grades almost all AA (IB or OOB not sure). But that goes only to show that *if* white high SES IB patents are so eager to exclude the "unwanted", all they have to do is enroll and there won't be one spot left for "the others".

Honestly, I love walking DC to school and hate a commute to school so much, that unless something really bad happens, we will be there for at least 5-6 years. I think short commute to school trumps absence of chess club or great AV system.

Anonymous wrote:+100. Perception or not, many high SES neighborhood parents want pullouts. So a school's leadership should give them pullouts to help them and the school. No skin off the school's back if the parents raise the money to pay for pullout instruction, as they do at Brent. Differentiated learning isn't as good because there aren't as many instructors involved. More good teachers means more learning, helping explain why private schools in this area rarely place more than 16 or 17 kids in an elementary class.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some LT parents (myself among them) prefer the skilled differentiation the school currently offers to the pull-out groups desired by non-LT parents.

Skilled differentiation is OK for the lower grades with a good teacher, but by 3rd grades pullout groups with more staff involved help retain high SES families. Bigtime. Just ask the Watkins parents who flee the school between 2nd and 4th. Almost all the high SES kids at LT are still little.

Anonymous wrote:Some LT parents (myself among them) prefer the skilled differentiation the school currently offers to the pull-out groups desired by non-LT parents.

Anonymous wrote:Why doesn't somebody start a chess club and hold a gala to raise money for a great AV system? Better yet, raise money for pullout groups and organize a system for upper grades kids who excel at math to loop up a grade or two. Brent didn't have those perks until very recently. If you build it, they will come.

Anonymous wrote:This thread had scared me quite a bit, but now that school has started (my DC is in preK), and we have been to a few school's functions, I see that a lot of what's said here is almost hallucinatory.

Principal is nice, although not particularly warm (just my feeling, might be she is just reasonably stressed out).
Parents volunteered to set up a new website. There will be a new grow your vegetables/cook your meal program, for which parents have volunteered appliances and cookware.
There is an active listserv and active parents community that cares about the school and the teachers.

All the kids I have seen ( black and white, young and older) seem nice and well behaved. The classroom we are in was spotless and very well organized. I really can not yet see one thing wrong with the school.

For the skeptics worried about IB white V OOB black issues: it is true that preK is almost all white/Probably IB, and later grades almost all AA (IB or OOB not sure). But that goes only to show that *if* white high SES IB patents are so eager to exclude the "unwanted", all they have to do is enroll and there won't be one spot left for "the others".

Honestly, I love walking DC to school and hate a commute to school so much, that unless something really bad happens, we will be there for at least 5-6 years. I think short commute to school trumps absence of chess club or great AV system.