Tell me about Watkins

[Anonymous]

We're moving to DC and I am thoroughly confused about the lottery system. We will be in boundary for Watkins. It looks like this is not the ideal school, but this is where we've signed a lease. Should I be worried?

[Anonymous]

How old are your children?

Watkins is fine. Why are you concerned?

[Anonymous]

PP, search for Capitol Hill Cluster (or just "cluster") on DCUM threads, along with "Watkins" to find a wealth of insightful posts in the last two or three years.

Watkins is improving and attracting a few more in-boundary parents for 1st grade every year. But, unfortunately, it's leadership and staff situation has been tumultuous for years. The harsh reality is that the school loses 10-15% of its in-boundary parents and upper middle-class parents every year between 1st and 2nd, 2nd and 3rd, 3rd and 4th and then a good third between 4th and 5th every year. Many Watkins parents try to lottery into Maury, Capitol Hill Montessori, SWS, Brent and a variety of charters in NE, particularly Two Rivers (with campuses on the north and east sides of Cap Hill).

[Anonymous]

I am an IB parent that sends my child to a charter school. Honestly if the administration changed tomorrow and the new message from the administration was that the administration cares about and serves all students, not just those that are struggling and wants all students to be pushed academically, we would enroll there tomorrow. I have a lot of respect for people who want to make sure the neediest students succeed, but when the message is that this is the sole focus at the expense of academic excellence, that’s not somewhere right for our family.

[Anonymous]

+100. Exactly.

[Anonymous]

This is exactly why we left....the academics after 3rd grade are rough - and the administration has absolutely no idea how to run a school that serves every student — she is only concerned with the students that fall into her “life’s work” category and unfortunately she is not skilled enough to do more than that...

What is sad is that the old guard teachers are amazing - but they are losing more of them each year under her leadership so the school is a shell of what it used to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're moving to DC and I am thoroughly confused about the lottery system. We will be in boundary for Watkins. It looks like this is not the ideal school, but this is where we've signed a lease. Should I be worried?

Watching this 4-minute video will help demystify the lottery system http://www.myschooldc.org/resources/my-school-dc-videos

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP, search for Capitol Hill Cluster (or just "cluster") on DCUM threads, along with "Watkins" to find a wealth of insightful posts in the last two or three years.

Watkins is improving and attracting a few more in-boundary parents for 1st grade every year. But, unfortunately, it's leadership and staff situation has been tumultuous for years. The harsh reality is that the school loses 10-15% of its in-boundary parents and upper middle-class parents every year between 1st and 2nd, 2nd and 3rd, 3rd and 4th and then a good third between 4th and 5th every year. Many Watkins parents try to lottery into Maury, Capitol Hill Montessori, SWS, Brent and a variety of charters in NE, particularly Two Rivers (with campuses on the north and east sides of Cap Hill).

Can't speak to that stat being accurate or current, but is "10-15%" attrition level even an issue? So 2-3 students out of a class of 20 leave each year? That doesn't sound like any more attrition than SWS has.

[Anonymous]

Problem is that it's the in-boundary/high SES kids who leave, not the OOB/low SES. So your kid's first grade class is half low SES, but the 4th grade class is 3/4 low SES. It's a problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Problem is that it's the in-boundary/high SES kids who leave, not the OOB/low SES. So your kid's first grade class is half low SES, but the 4th grade class is 3/4 low SES. It's a problem.

God, this type of comment must be SO frustrating to Watkins parents who aren't jerks about equality in DC. Sorry you have to deal with this, evolved Watkins parents.

[Anonymous]

I can’t speak for the attrition numbers either, but SWS’ new students are often high-achieving students with highly-educated parents. When Watkins loses students they are almost always replaced by kids with greater challenges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Problem is that it's the in-boundary/high SES kids who leave, not the OOB/low SES. So your kid's first grade class is half low SES, but the 4th grade class is 3/4 low SES. It's a problem.

The figures don’t add up, Watkins is only 32% FARMs. It’s likely much lower than that in the earlier grades. So what’s driving parents away?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can’t speak for the attrition numbers either, but SWS’ new students are often high-achieving students with highly-educated parents. When Watkins loses students they are almost always replaced by kids with greater challenges.

so very not true

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Problem is that it's the in-boundary/high SES kids who leave, not the OOB/low SES. So your kid's first grade class is half low SES, but the 4th grade class is 3/4 low SES. It's a problem.

God, this type of comment must be SO frustrating to Watkins parents who aren't jerks about equality in DC. Sorry you have to deal with this, evolved Watkins parents.

The first comment is true but incomplete. In and of itself, it is not a problem that the share of low SES grows - that is, there are schools at which that is not a problem. As a previous poster said, however, at Watkins "the academics after 3rd grade are rough". That is not unrelated to the facts that 1) the share of children from families that are less frequently able to provide academic and social supports grows with each grade, and 2) the share of those children who struggle academically, and therefore demand more from the teachers, is higher than the share from families with, for example, graduate degrees. I also believe that a larger share have behavioral issues. (Yes: there are plenty of great parents who aren't rich, plenty of smart and well behaved kids who don't have great parents, kids with rich parents who act up, etc., etc. But as the many discussions about the achievement gap at Watkins have clearly demonstrated, SES is on average correlated with academic achievement.)

I'm a veteran Watkins parent who has been impressed with most of the teachers and whose children have generally done well at Watkins. But the kids also report being frustrated by the slow pace of the academics and also complain about "bad" kids who disrupt class regularly, though I we never know how much credence to give those reports.

You're welcome to think I'm a jerk or not evolved, but name-calling is not going to help the discussion. But if you disagree with me and have experiences or knowledge to share, I'd honestly love to hear them.

[Anonymous]

We havet a 3rd grader at Watkins and have been generally pleased with Watkins so far. It is concerning that kids move away from Watkins as the grades go on. Unfortunately some of the children who replace the kids that move away are from families that are not engaged in the school as much as the families who "grew up" in Watkins (and Peabody) or come with challenges (behavioral or academic.)

None of that would really matter except the administration doesn't believe in discipline. So disruptive kids can impact an entire classroom's ability to learn and little is done about it.

Many of the teachers at Watkins are highly qualified excellent educators. The building was remodeled just two years ago and is beautiful. The parent and family community is really outstanding. Stuart Hobson has a new(ish) principal who is outstanding and seems to be doing exciting things at the middle school. Watkins feeds to SH, so there is promise at middle school.