Lafayette Elementary School

Abysmal education. Thank goodness this school year is ending soon. Our Child learned very, very little at Lafayette. The entire year was chaos, lack of communication, poor teaching, absent teachers, minimal homework...a general mess. Most parents in our child's class agree that this year was a total loss for their kids. Nice neighborhood, involved parents but the school has tanked due thanks to a mass of bad or teachers who are "over it" with their profession. There is only so much a parent can do at home afterschool and on weekends to compensate. Now we get to spend our summer scurrying to catch our child up.
--Submitted by a parent

NOT a good school or investment in your child. If you are a smart parent, go enroll your kid at Janney or something. Lafayette's standards are terrible and dysfunctional. I'm being serious, you will not end up happy at lafayette unless you are VERY lucky with teachers each year.
--Submitted by a parent

Our children do not fall thru cracks at Lafayette, they fall into sink holes. Unless your child is placed with a competent, caring home base teacher, you can pretty much assume that you, the paren(s) will be your child's primary educator for the year. My best estimate, having been a Lafayette parent for 7+ years, is that 60% of the teachers are decent to great and the other 40% are fair to terrible. These same undesirable teachers return year after year after year with the same below average results. It isn't just the classroom teachers, either; Special Ed and ESL teachers are no better. The children and their educations are not top priorities at Lafayette. The school is terribly over crowded. Lafayette is made to accommodate roughly 500 students but there at over 700 in attendance. The fire code sign about capacity in the cafeterioum (the cafeteria & auditorium are one shared space) is ignored as it is over capacity on a daily basis. If it we're for the parents, their "voluntary" contributions and parents association, Lafayette would be considerably worse. There s a lot of shame to go around at Lafayette.
--Submitted by a parent

It breaks our hearts to admit this but Lafayette has truly declined in the past 5 years. The main topic at after school pick up amongst the many parents is the very poor quality of teachers and pitiful principal leadership. Each grade has 4 teachers divided amongst about 100 children. Generally there are 2 good teachers for each grade and two horrible teachers. It is luck of the draw each fall when kids are assigned to a teacher. The bad teachers never leave and are not fired, regardless of how poor their students perform. When any of my children have been placed with the underperforming teachers, my wife and I spend the entire school year teaching our kids the basic material they should have learned during the school day. It is a huge burden but we can't let our kids slip behind. We often wonder why we pay such high taxes in this neighborhood- for what! Every Lafayette family we know is fortunate to have one stay at home parent or tutors. Without that luxury, Lafayette test scores would be considerably lower. This year, Our son and his classmates joke that there teacher is the dead guy from "Weekend at Bernie's"- physically present- mentally absent.
--Submitted by a parent

My husband and I are very involved in our kids education. I have the luxury to be with our kids each day after school. Our kids get undivided attention during homework time. . Without this daily help, our kids, both who have tested as above as above average IQ, would slip thru the LARGE cracks at Lafayette. More often than not, my kids struggle with their homework because they did not learn the lesson during class time. Ultimately, I end up teaching the concepts/skills necessary for them to do well. 50 of Lafayette teachers are wonderful. The other 50% are an absolute disgrace. These lousy teachers do the absolute minimum required, which Involves barely showing up. Lafayette had gone downhill in all aspects over the last 8 years. It is over crowed, the principal is ineffective, she puts band aides over catastrophe discipline issues and turns a blind eye to some clearly horrid teachers. This year, there have been some very serious discipline problems at Lafayette. Not general elementary school problems but Senior High school level problems. Many issues get brushed under the carpet and there is quite a bit of CYA going on at Lafayette.
--Submitted by a parent

The strength of Lafayette continues to be the quality of the parents who choose to send their kids there. We all know that can comprise 50% of the equation for a good education. To pay $15,000-$35,000 for an uncertain marginal benefit that a DC private or parochial school might offer over a quality public elementary school like Lafayette is nice for the uber-wealthy, but not anyone else. To the parent who claims 50% of Lafayette kids have paid tutors after school, that is a gross exaggeration. It's probably 5-10% if that. The school is crowded, and like any school, there are very good teachers and some who are not so good. But my 2nd grader has been there for 3 1/2 years and is at a 5th-6th grade level in both math and reading. If you are an active parent, your child can flourish at Lafayette, and you'll have plenty of money to spend on tutors, activities, and summer camps to further their education if you want, and still come out way ahead financially.
--Submitted by a parent

I am disappointed in the low level of English my child is picking up at Lafayette. We are native speakers of English at home, well educated and speakers of several other languages as well. I am constantly having to correct my child's grammar (double negatives, and syntax). He is not learning this bad English from home or the other children in class. Although Lafayette is considered a good school for DC, I noticed that several of the aids, even though English is their native language, speak very poorly. I have overheard them say "them books" "don't got nothin" "we's happy", etc. I would understand this if Lafayette was located in Appalachia or an urban ghetto, but I was expecting my child to get a middle class education. I am shocked that these kinds of aids are hired at Lafayette. How we express ourselves is a reflection on our education and upbringing, and Lafayette has really lowered the bar on this one.
--Submitted by a parent

I have had three children attending Lafayette. My fifth grader had a terrible year last year. The class was unruly and they were all punished " sitting heads down" all the time even though the offenders were always the same. Ubelievable. My second grader was in a class with 27 kids last year. Every Friday my child brought her math book home and we went over what she should have learned in school. The teacher didn't have time for all of them. Third grade is great, as always. HSA is great, parent involvment great, lots of activities after and before school. The open classrooms are not a good learning environment. My older kids are now in private school and there is a huge difference. more focused students and no need to punish them.
--Submitted by a parent

This site states, under test scores and stats that there is 1 full time teacher per 14 children at Lafayette Elementary. That stat is not correct. My child is in a class with 1 full-time teacher and 25 kids. No aide, nothing. Worse than that my child's class is shoved in a windowless, poorly vented corner of the building with no walls. The hall next to my child's "classroom" is a well traveled corridor, so the children are constantly distracted. Luckily, we were assigned to one of the good teachers this year- luck of draw. With over 700 kids under the age of 11 in the building, my kid feels like a sardine. Also, keep in mind that Lafayette's better than average test scores may be explained by the fact that at least 50% of the children have private tutors after school which are paid for by parents. That considered, means that Lafayette on it's own isn't as good as it used to be.
--Submitted by a parent

For the 2011-2012 academic year, Lafayette has over 700 children enrolled in up to grade 5. Classes have up to 26 children and only 1 teacher to control the class in open classrooms, no walls. Even the smartest, most focused elementary school kids will be a easily distracted. Lafayette is too small and can't adequately accommodate 700+ kids. Yet another DCPS that bites the dust. Too bad. After a less than positive year at Lafayette, we enrolled our child in a private school where she is in a class of 19 children and 2 Full Time teachers, dedicated to her and her 18 classmates all day, everyday.
--Submitted by a parent