McDoniel Estes M Elementary School

Estes McDoniel is a that is a job for each position held. There's not a community/family. No connection with teachers and staff. You have to love kids and have a passion for teaching kids in order to get through to them. There is a lot of finger pointing and pointless rewards. I'm dissatisfied with the schools staff

We were so very happy at McDoniel for years, but this is no longer the case. Our eldest son attended from K-5 and was a part of the dual-immersion program. Couldn't have asked for a better education for him! Sadly we have not had the same experience with our youngest. He did not get as good of teachers as our eldest son and the school has changed dramatically with the last 2 changes of administration. He was in the dual-immersion Spanish program for grades K-3 then at the beginning of this year for 4th grade after a week of school, received a flier that Spanish would no longer be available for 4th and 5th graders so that they could focus more on "core curriculum standards" (read: TESTS). The atmosphere at the school is not nearly as friendly as it used to be at all. I am disappointed that our youngest has had such a terrible experience here compared to his brother. He has always loved school but the last 2 years has come home saying he "hates" school on almost a daily basis and this was the "worst day ever". This is a kid who as a rule earns mostly As with some Bs, Principal's Award on a regular basis, and has never been a discipline problem ever. Sad as we used to think we were so lucky to have our boys at this school. We used to always feel "in the loop" and now continually have no idea what is going on at the school as there is so little communication to parents. I emailed the principal on one occasion and didn't even get the courtesy of a return email when any other time that I contacted an administrator I either received a return email or phone call immediately. They don't really appear to care about parents much here anymore either. We are moving in a few weeks and I can't say we're sorry that our youngest will be finishing up at a different elementary school.

We have been very happy at Estes McDoniel. We have one child who attended K-5 and was the 3rd class to be in the dual-immersion Spanish/English program for all 6 years. Our 3rd grader is also at McDoniel and has been in the dual-immersion program since Kindergarten. We are so thankful for the opportunity for our children to learn both Spanish and English simultaneously. It is a life-skill to be bilingual. We do not see any downfalls to this addition to the academic program at McDoniel. Both of our children scored very high on the CRT scores so the dual-immersion program obviously didn't "damage" them at all. I think that a lot of people do not really understand the benefits of being bilingual in life and honestly it's a shame. Per the negative review, you also have to keep in mind that the population served by the school has changed over the years and can account for some of the decline in test scores plus every year because of NCLB the cut scores are raised. There really hasn't been a huge change in their overall scores. The dual-immersion, marine science lab, choir/music group are awesome. Every year can depend on the teacher a student gets but for the most part we have been very happy with the education that both of our children have received. Our eldest child is now attending Hyde Park Middle School which is a math/science magnet and one of the top rated middle schools in the district. We thank McDoniel for his preparation to have been able to be accepted at such a high-caliber middle school. My only complaint is that they give far too much homework in our experience K-2. Some people think homework = better school but the research doesn't back this up in early grades. Overall we would recommend Estes McDoniel to anyone, and in particular FOR the dual-immersion program that will give our children an extra leg-up in life!

Unfortunately the school has gone down hill since they implemented the Spanish program. I know many families who attended this school before and during this change. The unanimous conclusion is that the administration has brought the school down with this program. If you check the CRT scores since this was implemented, they are just getting lower and lower. If you have children attending the school now, you will know that they are trying to fix this problem by making the children that are slower stay after school for CRT classes. I don't understand why they just don't admit failure and start teaching the kids what they need to know; Reading, Writing and Math. These are the things that they need to survive in the real world. WAKE UP and do the right thing by our children!