Kendall Demonstration Elementary School

Our son has attended for K and 1st. We've been very happy with the teachers and the community (PTO).Main complaints are: 1) IEP services -- the instructors who provide the services are great. However, each year I've had to flight for 6 weeks to get the services started. The VP, who is over the coordination of the services, is no help. Parents have complained each year about this same issue and no improvements are ever implemented.2) administration -- communication is very lacking. They also seem out of touch. Before we started K another parent did "warn" me about the administration.

Absolutely stellar. We have moved a lot and have experience many different school. We were blown away by how welcoming and helpful the team at Wheatley has been with helping us get acclimated and ensuring our kids are supported and welcomed. This is truly one of the best experience we've had with a school, and we were foster parents of 31 children, so we are intimately familiar with the benefits of a good school.

I'm currently in my last year of TwoRivers middle school, and my experience with the elementary was phenomenal. They were so helpful, understanding, and caring. Please don't listen to any of these other parents they don't know what they're talking about. This school is also one of the only school in D.C. who's middle school actually helps with high school applications.

I have 2 kids at MV. Overall a great school. The location/area is the biggest "issue". So many incidents occur around the school. The staff do go above and beyond to ensure the kids safety during lock-downs. Most teachers are great and the new Admin have made great improvements to the school. The Spanish language component is a plus. More resources are needed for kids that enter the school at a higher grade with no prior Spanish experience.

Overall our experience has been great. The teachers truly go the extra mile for all the students, regardless of whether they are behind or advanced. Most of the kids in my child's class are right on grade level and there is also an advanced reading group. My child has loved all of the teachers and also loves the family events. We are so excited and proud to be part of a school that is improving.

The staff work very hard but the expectations of them from administration seem unreasonable. There always seem to be staffing issues- high teacher turnover, unfilled teacher positions, staff out/ resigning. In the primary classrooms, the class sizes are more reasonable than lower elementary and upper elementary. In primary, there are also 2 adults in the classroom and only 1 in the upper grades where the class sizes are over 25 students in most classes. Supervision of students during non-academic times seems to be a challenge due to the staffing issues. Behavior issues are not addressed consistently which results in undesirable behaviors increasing instead of decreasing and ultimately disrupting learning. There don't seem to be any consequences in elementary for misbehavior. There are also issues with communication from administration to both families and staff. Do not expect to receive prompt responses from administration unless you have an important role in the school community. I think that this school could improve significantly if administration was more open to disclosing the problems within the school and working with families and staff to create and implement a plan to address the problems.