Middle school dilemma: Eliot-Hine/Stuart Hobson/Jefferson

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Until at least a few Asians with Asian parents start enrolling at SH, EH and JA we’re not touching them either. -POC Mom on the Hill. PS. You stop.

I fully understand why as an Asian parent you might not want your kid to be an “only.” But the “Asian presence” metric is otherwise a bit odd …

[Anonymous]

I would go with SH, EH, Jefferson, in that order. But that is only if the commute is equal (which is not true for most).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Until at least a few Asians with Asian parents start enrolling at SH, EH and JA we’re not touching them either. -POC Mom on the Hill. PS. You stop.

I fully understand why as an Asian parent you might not want your kid to be an “only.” But the “Asian presence” metric is otherwise a bit odd …

Asians are just odd, right? There’s a reason that Fairfax is trying to beat back Asian erollment. Oddly enough.

[Anonymous]

Enrollment at TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Disagree. When these parents wax enthusiastic, ask yourself why the Asian families aren’t touching the Ward 6 middle schools when they are at the feeder elementary schools, albeit in snall numbers. If these were great middle schools, some Asians would enroll, period.

oh ffs. please stop. there are tiny numbers of Asian families on the Hill and in DCPS to begin with, so by your logic, nobody should enroll in any DCPS school at all and we must all move to Fairfax.

as a “booster” I have been totally transparent about my experiences, here and in person. my goal is really to just let people know my actual, honest experience of having a happy kid at a Hill MS. obviously I know it’s not the same as being enrolled in AAP. but I assume people are not idiots and know that was never the assumption.

so I’ll say it again for those in the back: if you are AAP or bust, then go live your dream. meanwhile I have a happy, learning kid at our Hill MS.

There are other options besides Hill middle schools or moving to Fairfax.

Of course there are. But when you approach that middle ground that is affordable for regular families and not selective like AAP, those schools in fact start to look not all that different from Hill MS and in fact our Hill MS looks better in some respects (eg none of the reports of fighting/drugs/etc as at some of the “good” MS discussed here.)

Honestly, what planet are you on? There are plenty of affordable neighborhoods with good schools in the area. The Hill middle schools have math scores in the toilet.

[Anonymous]

What's the relevance of average PARCC/CAPE scores are in a Hill middle school where your kid is taking 7th grade algebra while most of the other students in 7th grade are taking remedial or regular 7th grade math? There is some challenge in the Hill middle schools. My main concern about these schools is discipline and lack of definite academic tracking and above grade-level offerings outside math and maybe English, a longstanding problem due to backward DCPS policy on academic tracking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Until at least a few Asians with Asian parents start enrolling at SH, EH and JA we’re not touching them either. -POC Mom on the Hill. PS. You stop.

I fully understand why as an Asian parent you might not want your kid to be an “only.” But the “Asian presence” metric is otherwise a bit odd …

Asians are just odd, right? There’s a reason that Fairfax is trying to beat back Asian erollment. Oddly enough.

I mean yes, it’s odd to use Asian enrollment as the argument for why you shouldn’t enroll your kid in W6 schools, unless perhaps you are an Asian parent who doesn’t want your kid to be an extreme minority. Are you trying to say W6 schools discriminate against Asians? Concerning if true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Disagree. When these parents wax enthusiastic, ask yourself why the Asian families aren’t touching the Ward 6 middle schools when they are at the feeder elementary schools, albeit in snall numbers. If these were great middle schools, some Asians would enroll, period.

oh ffs. please stop. there are tiny numbers of Asian families on the Hill and in DCPS to begin with, so by your logic, nobody should enroll in any DCPS school at all and we must all move to Fairfax.

as a “booster” I have been totally transparent about my experiences, here and in person. my goal is really to just let people know my actual, honest experience of having a happy kid at a Hill MS. obviously I know it’s not the same as being enrolled in AAP. but I assume people are not idiots and know that was never the assumption.

so I’ll say it again for those in the back: if you are AAP or bust, then go live your dream. meanwhile I have a happy, learning kid at our Hill MS.

There are other options besides Hill middle schools or moving to Fairfax.

Of course there are. But when you approach that middle ground that is affordable for regular families and not selective like AAP, those schools in fact start to look not all that different from Hill MS and in fact our Hill MS looks better in some respects (eg none of the reports of fighting/drugs/etc as at some of the “good” MS discussed here.)

Honestly, what planet are you on? There are plenty of affordable neighborhoods with good schools in the area. The Hill middle schools have math scores in the toilet.

Please list the neighborhoods with MS with higher test scores and affordable housing/rent, that are not suburban.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's the relevance of average PARCC/CAPE scores are in a Hill middle school where your kid is taking 7th grade algebra while most of the other students in 7th grade are taking remedial or regular 7th grade math? There is some challenge in the Hill middle schools. My main concern about these schools is discipline and lack of definite academic tracking and above grade-level offerings outside math and maybe English, a longstanding problem due to backward DCPS policy on academic tracking.

I have a kid in EH. The discipline is very very strong. I’m not sure about academic tracking beyond math but my kid is engaged in subjects he never had an interest in entirely based on the strength of the teachers. So no, it’s not a grind, but seems pretty positive intellectually so far. My kid is 11 so he has time.

PARCC for all the critiques actually tests serious content knowledge and skills, so I think the results are meaningful.

[Anonymous]

If the discipline at EH is so strong, why do fights break out on the sidewalks outside on occasion? I saw one driving past not six weeks ago. Four or five students were slugging one another with two dozen looking on, some cheering. The academic tracking deficit at EH isn't a major drawback in 6th grade. By 8th grade, it's more of a problem. Even great teachers can't serve advanced learners, or kids who could become advanced learners with a push, all that well in classes of at least two dozen kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If the discipline at EH is so strong, why do fights break out on the sidewalks outside on occasion? I saw one driving past not six weeks ago. Four or five students were slugging one another with two dozen looking on, some cheering. The academic tracking deficit at EH isn't a major drawback in 6th grade. By 8th grade, it's more of a problem. Even great teachers can't serve advanced learners, or kids who could become advanced learners with a push, all that well in classes of at least two dozen kids.

Was that EH or Eastern? All I can say is to go there during dismissal and you’ll see it is extremely well controlled.

If your #1 concern is your child being in a homogeneous environment, no, that’s not going to happen at EH, but it’s not like that is a secret. Personally I have really changed my understanding of what an “advanced learner” even is.

[Anonymous]

I don’t mean to diminish what people care about but in most DC school catchment areas there are vanishingly small Asian populations. So it seems odd to expect schools to overrrepresent them in student populations, i.e., if a grade has 50 students how many schools should we expect to have more than one Asian child? Perhaps that’s not the case on the Hill or other specific areas.

[Anonymous]

Moving is always expensive. Mortgage rates are high. Prices in DC stay are relatively high almost anywhere inside the Beltway. I am seeing a lot of people who always thought they would move for middle school think about staying where they are now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t mean to diminish what people care about but in most DC school catchment areas there are vanishingly small Asian populations. So it seems odd to expect schools to overrrepresent them in student populations, i.e., if a grade has 50 students how many schools should we expect to have more than one Asian child? Perhaps that’s not the case on the Hill or other specific areas.

It’s not a secret that many Asian families prioritize a more intensive form of education starting in elementary school. I’m one of the EH “boosters” and I have zero issues with that, even think we should have more g&t and magnets, not fewer. A happy medium is what most families are after, I imagine. I step back and look at my parenting values and realize that education values of strictiness/rigor/performance are not actually mine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Moving is always expensive. Mortgage rates are high. Prices in DC stay are relatively high almost anywhere inside the Beltway. I am seeing a lot of people who always thought they would move for middle school think about staying where they are now.

yep. the amount of money we made on our Hill house makes up the difference between DC Tag and out of state tuition! Really hoping we can stay for HS but we’ll see.