Oyster-Adams School

[Anonymous]

Hello

We're thinking of relocating to DC area after a 15yr hiatus and we're thinking of moving someplace w/in the Oyster-Adams elementary school boundary. It looks like a fabulous school. Does anyone have any experience w/ this school as an LGBT family?

thanks.

[Anonymous]

It would be very LGBT friendly -- however, so would lots of good, diverse publics and charters in DC (Hyde, Stoddert, Janney, Capitol City Cluster, Washington Latin --the last starts in grade 5). The problem is, it is not that fabulous. This is a school going downhill fast. A few of the good smart teachers from Oyster glory days are left, but the school is being run by an inexperienced principal from a Rhee engineered putsch, and the incredibly oppressive, punitive DCPS Central Office is, if possible, even more unhelpful than ever under Rhee--piling more and more demands on said teachers to get the 'testing up',,, with no support beyond a tongue-lashing. Other schools have prinicipals with experience enough to form a 'protective barrier' around their schools, but the new principal at Oyster is in way over her head and the school is spinning in the wind. The school has lost its spirit and joie de vivre that it was once known for; the education is so so right now. Your LGBT family will be welcomed in many venues in metro DC (thought of Takoma Park?) but for your child's sake, I would look elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Ignore 19:04 who is a Wash Lat booster and sock puppet Rhee basher. (BTW, why on EARTH would Rhee undermine a school with her own kids in it???)

Anyway, yes Oyster is friendly to all kinds of families, but the boundary is still pretty small in terms of houses because Rock Creek takes up a lot of the geography. But since you know DC, you could go the rent-in-boundary option and later move. Hope you come back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It would be very LGBT friendly -- however, so would lots of good, diverse publics and charters in DC (Hyde, Stoddert, Janney, Capitol City Cluster, Washington Latin --the last starts in grade 5). The problem is, it is not that fabulous. This is a school going downhill fast. A few of the good smart teachers from Oyster glory days are left, but the school is being run by an inexperienced principal from a Rhee engineered putsch, and the incredibly oppressive, punitive DCPS Central Office is, if possible, even more unhelpful than ever under Rhee--piling more and more demands on said teachers to get the 'testing up',,, with no support beyond a tongue-lashing. Other schools have prinicipals with experience enough to form a 'protective barrier' around their schools, but the new principal at Oyster is in way over her head and the school is spinning in the wind. The school has lost its spirit and joie de vivre that it was once known for; the education is so so right now. Your LGBT family will be welcomed in many venues in metro DC (thought of Takoma Park?) but for your child's sake, I would look elsewhere.

This PP is not as knowledgeable as she thinks. For one thing, though Hyde & Stoddert are pretty good schools if she were intending to showcase her knowledge of the best schools she would have mentioned Mann, Murch, and Lafayette first. Secondly, there is no Capitol City Cluster. Presumably, this is an amalgam of "The Capitol Hill Cluster" which is DCPS and "Capital City" which is a charter school. Third, Rhee's own children attend Oyster so to believe she has deliberately mishandled the situation or is somehow indifferent to the school is to believe that DCPS's Chancellor of Schools doesn't give a damn about her own children's schooling; a strain on the imagination indeed. Finally, this particular PP has spammed at least half a dozen threads on DCUM today all with essentially the same gripe about Oyster. She even got reprimanded on one thread for doing so. We get it: there's an unhappy former Oyster parent out there who's now at Washington Latin and likes it. Yippee. Now can we move on?

[Anonymous]

Oyster parent here. It is NOT going downhill, and the alternative (Washington Latin???) that PP posted are simply not comparable nor even as good.

Oyster is not for everyone, but it is a wonderful school in one of the most child-and-parent-friendly neighborhoods in DC. You'll see a lot of hostility toward Oyster from some posters on this board, maybe because it's one of the old standard "top schools" and inspires a competitive and nasty streak in some.

Principal Aguirre is smart, responsive, and dedicated. Some teachers left but that is something you'll see across DCPS as Rhee cleans house. CHancellor Rhee sends her children their, as does the deputy mayor for EDUCATION, Reinoso. I have close friends who are professional education advocates who chose Oyster. Ask involved parents- Principal Aguirre is not "over her head." Many people found Rhee's decision to fire her predecessor alarming, but due to process as opposed to Aguirre's qualifications. A friend in education reform was on the selection committee and they got it right.

The down side of Oyster is that the achievement gap is visible there-- in large part because it is the only elite non-charter DCPS that has a very diverse student body with over 1/3 economically disadvantaged students. You see the differences in test scores, and principal Aguirre and the Chancellor are completely dedicated to turning that around. You are going to see some lower scores among the students who are coming in behind the eightball-- but Oyster is doing better by them than many other DCPS, and improving all of the time.

Meanwhile, this is a place that fosters, welcomes, and encourages intercultural exchange as part of its core mission. It works. All research shows that kids in these dual bilingual immersion programs come away more open to diversity.

I am not LGBT but I am an LGBT rights attorney and I believe that although Woodley Park does not the have the highest concentration of LGBT people in DC, the neighborhood is progressive and LGBT-friendly and has many lesbian and gay couples (not as many as Takoma Park, MD, but several).

Finally, I can't say enough about how great Woodley Park is for families. There are many NWDC neighborhoods (and Cap Hill) that have a nice playground and a nice school, but Woodley provides good activities for kids AND adults, which is huge to us. We love being able to walk out the door when DD is with her babysitter and grab a meal 100 yards from home, and we love being so close to Adams Morgan and Dupont, and the metro, and work.

Make your own choice but seriously, consider Oyster-- it's the closest to a perfect neigborhood we've ever found.

[Anonymous]

The posters are correct that Woodley Park and Kalorama
Triangle that feed Oyster-Adams have few LGBT residents.

And the neighborhood in which Adams is located, one of the centers of the LGBT community, is walled off from having its children attend by the same policy makers whose children are in attendance.

Oyster-Adams has the attention of the entire D.C. education policy making community, and it has a huge PTA budget enhanced by the friends of the community. But it is two schools dedicated to serving first the needs of Woodley Park. You will live with whatever decisions are made to that end.

[Anonymous]

As a gay parent whose child goes to O/A I can say that it would be a very good choice. While the school continually monitors its "inclusivity" it seems to me, and to my child, to be effortlessly inclusive. In the two times that my sexual orientation has been used to bully my child, a wide circle of students have made it clear that the bully's attitude is inappropriate, with one student who was not even my child's friend telling the bully "this is not how we do things here."

You're not going to find the kind of "we're here, we're queer" gay culture you might see at some schools, but it's not necessary at a school as inclusive as O/A.

Regarding academics, there was some initial concern about Sra. Aguirre. However she's proven herself a champion of the school's mission. You'll find that the motivated teachers have stayed, and she's attracted some very qualified new teachers. Aside from the 07-08 blip in scores, DCCAS scores have continued to be exceptionally strong. The middle school curriculum and atmosphere has shaped up to be very rigorous with 8th graders transitioning into the very best public and private schools.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately, Oyster's hey day is over, and Rhee only hastened it's mediocrity by putting the current drone in place. It's a sweetheart deal, nothing more.

[Anonymous]

Further, the few die-hard Rhee/Aguirre guard dogs are the usual suspects...if anyone ever actually came in and took charge of this school with grace, outreach, talent, and ability to understand and embrace all of the families regardless of socio-economic incomes, the Uber Moms who can't exist without running Oyster would have no lives. The core teachers are excellent, and as driven and talented as any you'll ever find, English and Spanish. The arts are a lost cause, the current "leadership" believes bilingualism is to the exclusion of high quality enrichment programming. If only someone would HONESTLY critique Rhee in her role, and then her appointed principals, a veil will be lifted. Having not subscribed to this listserve in years I was simultaneously saddened (that it's all true, all negative posts of Oyster) and then elated that I AM NOT CRAZY!!! See, in the Oyster-Rhee-Aguirre culture, critiques are forbidden and quickly dismissed and discounted. The open house stories DO represent the current dis-organization. You don't need an admissions committee and funds for a successful open house, only honest enthusiasm. No, Aguirre doesn't appear to try because she is a puppet/drone doing time. The LSRT is meaningless there, anything important is either faked to the community or just misrepresented. Go elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

20:34 -- who are you kidding? WHAT kids are transitioning to the best high schools? Barely any have even REMAINED past 6th grade, no offense to the handful of bright O-A kids who have stuck it out. There is NO COMP. to O-A's principal and enrichment options and Deal's, not to mention private schools. Oyster should be a FLAGSHIP school what with the Chancellor's own kids there. Unfortunately, her standards are quite low for anything competitive (or of a liberal artistic mindset), while her two kids plus Aguirre's 3 all get a free education on our tax dollars.

[Anonymous]

NP here. My, someone really resurrected an old thread here with venom that still feels fresh.

OP you may be here by now and I hope you found a school you like. FWIW, my limited knowledge of Washington Latin (we have friends who have a child there) is that it's a wonderful school. It's run by the former head of the National Cathedral School and is developing a very appealing program.

Having said that, it's not really comparable to Oyster. Latin is a middle-school/high school and Oyster is an elementary.

I CAN recommend Washington Yu Ying. It's a Chinese Immersion school and it seems to attract a very progressive population.

Cheers!

[Anonymous]

I'm 20:34. It's true that a number of parents chose not to send their kids to the middle school when it first opened.

However, I stand by my comment that this year, the first year where graduating 8th graders have been at O-A for up to 10 years, rising high school students *were* admitted to some of the best high schools in D.C. Unlike a lot of posters, I actually have relatively accurate facts. These are based on self reporting, and neither I, nor my kid, know all of the 8th graders, but we do know most. Out of a class of 44 students, I learned that:

12 were admitted to SWW.
5 were selected for interviews at Banneker.
3 were admitted to Edmund Burke.
3 were admitted to GDS, 1 waitlisted.
2 were admitted to Phelps.
2 were admitted to McKinley Tech.
1 was admitted to Sidwell, 1 waitlisted.
1 was admitted to Maret.
1 was admitted to Ellington.

Obviously, some kids applied to more than one school, so that affects these admissions reports. However with all the bashing of the O-A middle school, these are pretty promising results for a new program.

[Anonymous]

How would a gender non-conforming child do in the upper grades at Oyster/Adams? Has the language so DC could probably test in.

Any info would be tremendously appreciated.

[Anonymous]

A gender non-conforming kid would likely be more supported than in a traditional public school. There are a lot of kids at O-A who are non-traditional in one form or another.

[Anonymous]

10:55 That's impressive. Are any of the admitted O/A students going to GDS, Maret or Sidwell or are some of those admits going to Walls?

OP,
You'd be welcome there. Some people like the principal, some don't. That's true with any principal. You'll decide for yourself!