Louise Archer Elementary School

This is the worst school ever. Racism is real here, and the level of neglect is extremely high.

My daughter had a wonderful experience at this school. It was not without some minor flaws but that's expected for any school and any academic journey. During this time, she experienced some great teachers who truly cared about the students, several who were strong at meeting the student where they're at. There were great activities, from the annual talent show to Science night, Read-a-thon and other activities to cultivate a positive learning environment and school community. The diversity of students allowed my daughter to learn how to work with all cultures and embrace the idea of inclusion. They recently got new playground equipment and a chicken coup which are great amenities for students. Overall she felt safe the entire time so we could not ask for more.

I'm writing this in the hopes that it provides others with a more nuanced snapshot of one family's recent experience with the school, as most who fill out these forms are either extremely positive or extremely negative. As context, I had two children go through Wolftrap a few years apart, finishing recently. Overall, we had a positive experience and would recommend the school. Huge pluses for us included: *** the amazing levels of parent involvement; truly, the PTA is full of rockstar parents who spend enormous amounts of time and energy creating tons of fun events that really build community, and the teachers get SO MUCH community support*** the staff focus on always doing better; when the school learned that something like 97% of the students met or exceeded the state standards as determined by testing scores, they met to discuss how to get that last 3 percent there, tooThat said, no place is perfect and that was also our experience at Wolftrap. Our major concern with the school was that quiet, well-behaved kids slip through the cracks when they have issues. Both of my children are quiet and generally well-behaved, but both had issues crop up that totally flew under the radar of the staff. One child is extremely gifted in one core subject but they are peer-level in another core subject (which is ok! peer level is ok!)... this meant that my child was not in full-time Advanced Academic Program (AAP) but was also not being challenged in the core subject in which they are extremely gifted. The school eventually agreed to pull my child out for the top level of AAP (Level IV) for the core subject that they are extremely gifted in while keeping them in regular classes for other subjects, but had I not fought for it, I am 100% certain that my child would have slipped through the cracks and not been appropriately challenged. My other child is what the district calls "Twice Exceptional" (2E), which means that they are very smart but also have a disability (such as ADHD, autism, physical disability, etc). My child struggled with their ADHD and completing their work, but did not get the support that they needed because they were not disrupting the class, bullying others, etc. In the end, would another school have actually noticed these issues on their own? As a parent, I'm not really sure. The classrooms are full of a variety of kids and the reality is that if you don't advocate for them, they might not get what they need, wherever that is.