Capitol Hill - middle school and beyond?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know of several CH teachers currently sending their kids to SH. This gives me hope for when my younger kids are ready for middle school.

We're IB for SH and I thought the same way for a few years. Then my kids got into the upper ES grades at their Hill DCPS post Covid and I took a hard look at SH. We were turned off by several problems that didn't look like they'd be going away.

*Increasing but still weak IB buy-in with, with steady buy-in from Wards 5, 7 and 8.
*Untracked science and social studies classes where most students work behind grade level. No plans to change that.
*The fact that we didn't see a single student, teacher or admin of East Asian descent in the building. Our families are from Korea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Having lived in both places I agree that hill families have bought into the concept of a school needing to be a “fit” whereas w3 public school families have an expectation that a school should serve all (or at least most). On the hill this leads to a bit more of a love it or leave it attitude whereas you’ll see more complaining in w3.

+1. No school is a perfect fit because they are lacking in different ways, but one of the nice things about splitting off into different schools is that there are more like-minded parents at the various schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having lived in both places I agree that hill families have bought into the concept of a school needing to be a “fit” whereas w3 public school families have an expectation that a school should serve all (or at least most). On the hill this leads to a bit more of a love it or leave it attitude whereas you’ll see more complaining in w3.

+1. No school is a perfect fit because they are lacking in different ways, but one of the nice things about splitting off into different schools is that there are more like-minded parents at the various schools.

ugh actually I hate the “like minded parents” cabal …

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having lived in both places I agree that hill families have bought into the concept of a school needing to be a “fit” whereas w3 public school families have an expectation that a school should serve all (or at least most). On the hill this leads to a bit more of a love it or leave it attitude whereas you’ll see more complaining in w3.

+1. No school is a perfect fit because they are lacking in different ways, but one of the nice things about splitting off into different schools is that there are more like-minded parents at the various schools.

ugh actually I hate the “like minded parents” cabal …

+1, it encourages people to be cliquey and can be so unwelcoming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know of several CH teachers currently sending their kids to SH. This gives me hope for when my younger kids are ready for middle school.

We're IB for SH and I thought the same way for a few years. Then my kids got into the upper ES grades at their Hill DCPS post Covid and I took a hard look at SH. We were turned off by several problems that didn't look like they'd be going away.

*Increasing but still weak IB buy-in with, with steady buy-in from Wards 5, 7 and 8.
*Untracked science and social studies classes where most students work behind grade level. No plans to change that.
*The fact that we didn't see a single student, teacher or admin of East Asian descent in the building. Our families are from Korea.

I have a K child and I'm trying to understand the negativity association with children behind grade level? Where are kids behind supposed to go to learn?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know of several CH teachers currently sending their kids to SH. This gives me hope for when my younger kids are ready for middle school.

We're IB for SH and I thought the same way for a few years. Then my kids got into the upper ES grades at their Hill DCPS post Covid and I took a hard look at SH. We were turned off by several problems that didn't look like they'd be going away.

*Increasing but still weak IB buy-in with, with steady buy-in from Wards 5, 7 and 8.
*Untracked science and social studies classes where most students work behind grade level. No plans to change that.
*The fact that we didn't see a single student, teacher or admin of East Asian descent in the building. Our families are from Korea.

I have a K child and I'm trying to understand the negativity association with children behind grade level? Where are kids behind supposed to go to learn?

When your K child is in 6th grade and in a class where many students are at a 3rd grade level, then it can be difficult for the teacher to spend a lot of time teaching at a 6th grade level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know of several CH teachers currently sending their kids to SH. This gives me hope for when my younger kids are ready for middle school.

We're IB for SH and I thought the same way for a few years. Then my kids got into the upper ES grades at their Hill DCPS post Covid and I took a hard look at SH. We were turned off by several problems that didn't look like they'd be going away.

*Increasing but still weak IB buy-in with, with steady buy-in from Wards 5, 7 and 8.
*Untracked science and social studies classes where most students work behind grade level. No plans to change that.
*The fact that we didn't see a single student, teacher or admin of East Asian descent in the building. Our families are from Korea.

I have a K child and I'm trying to understand the negativity association with children behind grade level? Where are kids behind supposed to go to learn?

When your K child is in 6th grade and in a class where many students are at a 3rd grade level, then it can be difficult for the teacher to spend a lot of time teaching at a 6th grade level.

I think what the PP means is that... this is a public school. They are tasked with teaching kids, all of the kids who walk through their doors, and meeting them whereever they are. Where are those kids supposed to go to learn? Are they supposed to be removed from the school so that more advanced kids can learn?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know of several CH teachers currently sending their kids to SH. This gives me hope for when my younger kids are ready for middle school.

We're IB for SH and I thought the same way for a few years. Then my kids got into the upper ES grades at their Hill DCPS post Covid and I took a hard look at SH. We were turned off by several problems that didn't look like they'd be going away.

*Increasing but still weak IB buy-in with, with steady buy-in from Wards 5, 7 and 8.
*Untracked science and social studies classes where most students work behind grade level. No plans to change that.
*The fact that we didn't see a single student, teacher or admin of East Asian descent in the building. Our families are from Korea.

I have a K child and I'm trying to understand the negativity association with children behind grade level? Where are kids behind supposed to go to learn?

When your K child is in 6th grade and in a class where many students are at a 3rd grade level, then it can be difficult for the teacher to spend a lot of time teaching at a 6th grade level.

I think what the PP means is that... this is a public school. They are tasked with teaching kids, all of the kids who walk through their doors, and meeting them whereever they are. Where are those kids supposed to go to learn? Are they supposed to be removed from the school so that more advanced kids can learn?

I guess you can ask the same about kids who are advanced. If a 6th grader does math at an 8th grade level, should they be placed in 8th grade for that class? If a 6th grader reads at a 3rd grade level, should they be placed in 3rd grade for that class?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know of several CH teachers currently sending their kids to SH. This gives me hope for when my younger kids are ready for middle school.

We're IB for SH and I thought the same way for a few years. Then my kids got into the upper ES grades at their Hill DCPS post Covid and I took a hard look at SH. We were turned off by several problems that didn't look like they'd be going away.

*Increasing but still weak IB buy-in with, with steady buy-in from Wards 5, 7 and 8.
*Untracked science and social studies classes where most students work behind grade level. No plans to change that.
*The fact that we didn't see a single student, teacher or admin of East Asian descent in the building. Our families are from Korea.

I have a K child and I'm trying to understand the negativity association with children behind grade level? Where are kids behind supposed to go to learn?

When your K child is in 6th grade and in a class where many students are at a 3rd grade level, then it can be difficult for the teacher to spend a lot of time teaching at a 6th grade level.

I think what the PP means is that... this is a public school. They are tasked with teaching kids, all of the kids who walk through their doors, and meeting them whereever they are. Where are those kids supposed to go to learn? Are they supposed to be removed from the school so that more advanced kids can learn?

The idea is that the school is supposed to meet everyone's needs, not park the above-grade kids on computers while trying to remediate and manage behavior among the below-grade-level kids. The range is too wide for one teacher to cover. But DCPS pretends this is fine because "equity".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know of several CH teachers currently sending their kids to SH. This gives me hope for when my younger kids are ready for middle school.

We're IB for SH and I thought the same way for a few years. Then my kids got into the upper ES grades at their Hill DCPS post Covid and I took a hard look at SH. We were turned off by several problems that didn't look like they'd be going away.

*Increasing but still weak IB buy-in with, with steady buy-in from Wards 5, 7 and 8.
*Untracked science and social studies classes where most students work behind grade level. No plans to change that.
*The fact that we didn't see a single student, teacher or admin of East Asian descent in the building. Our families are from Korea.

I have a K child and I'm trying to understand the negativity association with children behind grade level? Where are kids behind supposed to go to learn?

When your K child is in 6th grade and in a class where many students are at a 3rd grade level, then it can be difficult for the teacher to spend a lot of time teaching at a 6th grade level.

I think what the PP means is that... this is a public school. They are tasked with teaching kids, all of the kids who walk through their doors, and meeting them whereever they are. Where are those kids supposed to go to learn? Are they supposed to be removed from the school so that more advanced kids can learn?

I guess you can ask the same about kids who are advanced. If a 6th grader does math at an 8th grade level, should they be placed in 8th grade for that class? If a 6th grader reads at a 3rd grade level, should they be placed in 3rd grade for that class?

There are hardly any 6th graders in 8th grade math, so it seems like that would be totally doable and more of a logistics question. Assuming they can behave slightly maturely. But there are tons of 6th graders below grade level, so many that the 3rd grade classroom would no longer be age-appropriate for actual 3rd graders. Also in DCPS that would usually be a separate building and not nearby.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know of several CH teachers currently sending their kids to SH. This gives me hope for when my younger kids are ready for middle school.

We're IB for SH and I thought the same way for a few years. Then my kids got into the upper ES grades at their Hill DCPS post Covid and I took a hard look at SH. We were turned off by several problems that didn't look like they'd be going away.

*Increasing but still weak IB buy-in with, with steady buy-in from Wards 5, 7 and 8.
*Untracked science and social studies classes where most students work behind grade level. No plans to change that.
*The fact that we didn't see a single student, teacher or admin of East Asian descent in the building. Our families are from Korea.

I have a K child and I'm trying to understand the negativity association with children behind grade level? Where are kids behind supposed to go to learn?

When your K child is in 6th grade and in a class where many students are at a 3rd grade level, then it can be difficult for the teacher to spend a lot of time teaching at a 6th grade level.

I think what the PP means is that... this is a public school. They are tasked with teaching kids, all of the kids who walk through their doors, and meeting them whereever they are. Where are those kids supposed to go to learn? Are they supposed to be removed from the school so that more advanced kids can learn?

The idea is that the school is supposed to meet everyone's needs, not park the above-grade kids on computers while trying to remediate and manage behavior among the below-grade-level kids. The range is too wide for one teacher to cover. But DCPS pretends this is fine because "equity".

This. It's not always true, but in a school where a significant percent of students are below grade level, the school will expend far more resources trying to get those kids up to grade level than it will spend on students at or above grade level who are also there to learn. Sometimes what happens is that the grade level and above students are left to work independently a lot, get bored, and lose interest in school. It sucks watching this happen to your kid.

Also, if the reason kids are below grade level is learning disabilities or developmental delays, that's one thing. But if the reason many kids are below grade level is that they are not getting the support they need outside of school, or they are dealing with major life stressors that make schoolwork hard to impossible, then you have a different problem. Schools are often not well suited to solving these problems, which means the school might expend a lot of energy trying to get those kids up to grade level and fail anyway, and in the meantime your kid has been stuck doing "independent study" in math for two years and isn't ready for HS either. It's a lose-lose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know of several CH teachers currently sending their kids to SH. This gives me hope for when my younger kids are ready for middle school.

We're IB for SH and I thought the same way for a few years. Then my kids got into the upper ES grades at their Hill DCPS post Covid and I took a hard look at SH. We were turned off by several problems that didn't look like they'd be going away.

*Increasing but still weak IB buy-in with, with steady buy-in from Wards 5, 7 and 8.
*Untracked science and social studies classes where most students work behind grade level. No plans to change that.
*The fact that we didn't see a single student, teacher or admin of East Asian descent in the building. Our families are from Korea.

I have a K child and I'm trying to understand the negativity association with children behind grade level? Where are kids behind supposed to go to learn?

When your K child is in 6th grade and in a class where many students are at a 3rd grade level, then it can be difficult for the teacher to spend a lot of time teaching at a 6th grade level.

I think what the PP means is that... this is a public school. They are tasked with teaching kids, all of the kids who walk through their doors, and meeting them whereever they are. Where are those kids supposed to go to learn? Are they supposed to be removed from the school so that more advanced kids can learn?

The idea is that the school is supposed to meet everyone's needs, not park the above-grade kids on computers while trying to remediate and manage behavior among the below-grade-level kids. The range is too wide for one teacher to cover. But DCPS pretends this is fine because "equity".

This. It's not always true, but in a school where a significant percent of students are below grade level, the school will expend far more resources trying to get those kids up to grade level than it will spend on students at or above grade level who are also there to learn. Sometimes what happens is that the grade level and above students are left to work independently a lot, get bored, and lose interest in school. It sucks watching this happen to your kid.

Also, if the reason kids are below grade level is learning disabilities or developmental delays, that's one thing. But if the reason many kids are below grade level is that they are not getting the support they need outside of school, or they are dealing with major life stressors that make schoolwork hard to impossible, then you have a different problem. Schools are often not well suited to solving these problems, which means the school might expend a lot of energy trying to get those kids up to grade level and fail anyway, and in the meantime your kid has been stuck doing "independent study" in math for two years and isn't ready for HS either. It's a lose-lose.

Yes. Or they can be below grade level because their teachers just aren't very good.

[Anonymous]

I will explain for the K parent. This is a common pattern: You love your elementary school. But then you get to 3rd or 4th grade and your child tests on or above grade level at the start of the year, already knows almost everything that is taught that year, and has iReady scores and things like that which over course of the year go up zero. You care immensely about the kids who are behind. But you are facing down the 5th grade lottery and you do not know what to do vis a vis your child and middle school. Not every relatively high-performing child is all that especially self-motivated or hard working.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will explain for the K parent. This is a common pattern: You love your elementary school. But then you get to 3rd or 4th grade and your child tests on or above grade level at the start of the year, already knows almost everything that is taught that year, and has iReady scores and things like that which over course of the year go up zero. You care immensely about the kids who are behind. But you are facing down the 5th grade lottery and you do not know what to do vis a vis your child and middle school. Not every relatively high-performing child is all that especially self-motivated or hard working.

This. And you also get burnt out from doing so much PTA stuff, struggling for years to help a beloved elementary school function adequately! And how hard it is to make any significant change. And you develop an appreciation for the challenges facing DC's public middle schools, which are so deep and significant, it's overwhelming. I still think change is possible-- I think change is happening now, just really really slowly. But people sometimes just get to a point where they can't anymore. The stakes for K are pretty low. They get higher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will explain for the K parent. This is a common pattern: You love your elementary school. But then you get to 3rd or 4th grade and your child tests on or above grade level at the start of the year, already knows almost everything that is taught that year, and has iReady scores and things like that which over course of the year go up zero. You care immensely about the kids who are behind. But you are facing down the 5th grade lottery and you do not know what to do vis a vis your child and middle school. Not every relatively high-performing child is all that especially self-motivated or hard working.

I am the K parent. I appreciate all the responses and views. My child has special needs and developmental issues, so I don't think this future vision will be mine. I was curious to see the view of parents with NT children. My child already has supports put in place, but it seems the supports are thinly spread when many kids need them. If only settling for grade level was my family's biggest hurdle. Excuse my woe is me moment. I'm not trying to minimize other people's family standards.