Redshirting consequences at Lafayette

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The jealousy and pettiness and sense of victimhood on this thread is something to behold. A gentle reminder that DC public schools are not very good. Standardized testing suggests your kids would get a better education if they went to any random public school in Iowa. So the idea that if a kid "reshirts" or, put more directly, repeats a grade at a mediocre school, that he or she will get some amazing benefit and be transformed into a math whiz or something seems disconnected from reality.

It's in part because of the academic range of DCPS schools that it's it's ridiculous to think that your UMC kid is going to be behind simply because of a summer birthday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The jealousy and pettiness and sense of victimhood on this thread is something to behold. A gentle reminder that DC public schools are not very good. Standardized testing suggests your kids would get a better education if they went to any random public school in Iowa. So the idea that if a kid "reshirts" or, put more directly, repeats a grade at a mediocre school, that he or she will get some amazing benefit and be transformed into a math whiz or something seems disconnected from reality.

The idea that Lafayette moms are saying that other folks have a "sense of victimhood" is amazing. If you hate DCPS so much, go elsewhere. It sounds like folks at Lafayette would rather you did too.

Not a Lafayette mom. Just saying that parents can have good reasons to hold their kids back; you don't actually know what those reasons are and they dont have to tell you; and if a child is held back, it has zero consequences for your child. Reading this thread you'd think all the kids who didnt "get" to repeat a grade are getting completely screwed over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The jealousy and pettiness and sense of victimhood on this thread is something to behold. A gentle reminder that DC public schools are not very good. Standardized testing suggests your kids would get a better education if they went to any random public school in Iowa. So the idea that if a kid "reshirts" or, put more directly, repeats a grade at a mediocre school, that he or she will get some amazing benefit and be transformed into a math whiz or something seems disconnected from reality.

The idea that Lafayette moms are saying that other folks have a "sense of victimhood" is amazing. If you hate DCPS so much, go elsewhere. It sounds like folks at Lafayette would rather you did too.

Not a Lafayette mom. Just saying that parents can have good reasons to hold their kids back; you don't actually know what those reasons are and they dont have to tell you; and if a child is held back, it has zero consequences for your child. Reading this thread you'd think all the kids who didnt "get" to repeat a grade are getting completely screwed over.

If you're talking to a reporter about it in order to advocate for a policy and you're using your kids as examples, you're making it people's business.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The jealousy and pettiness and sense of victimhood on this thread is something to behold. A gentle reminder that DC public schools are not very good. Standardized testing suggests your kids would get a better education if they went to any random public school in Iowa. So the idea that if a kid "reshirts" or, put more directly, repeats a grade at a mediocre school, that he or she will get some amazing benefit and be transformed into a math whiz or something seems disconnected from reality.

The idea that Lafayette moms are saying that other folks have a "sense of victimhood" is amazing. If you hate DCPS so much, go elsewhere. It sounds like folks at Lafayette would rather you did too.

Not a Lafayette mom. Just saying that parents can have good reasons to hold their kids back; you don't actually know what those reasons are and they dont have to tell you; and if a child is held back, it has zero consequences for your child. Reading this thread you'd think all the kids who didnt "get" to repeat a grade are getting completely screwed over.

If you're talking to a reporter about it in order to advocate for a policy and you're using your kids as examples, you're making it people's business.

Oh, ok, so all this, this whole thread, all 70+ pages, is really just about one random person in one single newspaper story who may or may not have been quoted accurately. Got it.

[Anonymous]

“He does not read at all. He does not know the alphabet,” Siegel said. “In kindergarten, you learn to read.”

From the article. LOL. maybe if they had put the child in kindergarten, he/she wouldn't be so far behind.

And now a whiney mom wants special treatmetn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The jealousy and pettiness and sense of victimhood on this thread is something to behold. A gentle reminder that DC public schools are not very good. Standardized testing suggests your kids would get a better education if they went to any random public school in Iowa. So the idea that if a kid "reshirts" or, put more directly, repeats a grade at a mediocre school, that he or she will get some amazing benefit and be transformed into a math whiz or something seems disconnected from reality.

The idea that Lafayette moms are saying that other folks have a "sense of victimhood" is amazing. If you hate DCPS so much, go elsewhere. It sounds like folks at Lafayette would rather you did too.

Not a Lafayette mom. Just saying that parents can have good reasons to hold their kids back; you don't actually know what those reasons are and they dont have to tell you; and if a child is held back, it has zero consequences for your child. Reading this thread you'd think all the kids who didnt "get" to repeat a grade are getting completely screwed over.

If you're talking to a reporter about it in order to advocate for a policy and you're using your kids as examples, you're making it people's business.

Oh, ok, so all this, this whole thread, all 70+ pages, is really just about one random person in one single newspaper story who may or may not have been quoted accurately. Got it.

That's who's putting themselves out there as the face of this effort. If someone else has a better case, they should have made it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The jealousy and pettiness and sense of victimhood on this thread is something to behold. A gentle reminder that DC public schools are not very good. Standardized testing suggests your kids would get a better education if they went to any random public school in Iowa. So the idea that if a kid "reshirts" or, put more directly, repeats a grade at a mediocre school, that he or she will get some amazing benefit and be transformed into a math whiz or something seems disconnected from reality.

The idea that Lafayette moms are saying that other folks have a "sense of victimhood" is amazing. If you hate DCPS so much, go elsewhere. It sounds like folks at Lafayette would rather you did too.

Not a Lafayette mom. Just saying that parents can have good reasons to hold their kids back; you don't actually know what those reasons are and they dont have to tell you; and if a child is held back, it has zero consequences for your child. Reading this thread you'd think all the kids who didnt "get" to repeat a grade are getting completely screwed over.

If you're talking to a reporter about it in order to advocate for a policy and you're using your kids as examples, you're making it people's business.

+1

They made this public and now that it is, everyone wants to know if DCPS caves and lets the kid enroll in K. And if they do, then I will certainly advocate for DCPS to give me things I didn’t think I was entitled to under previous policies. I wrote this upthread but for instance getting my child into the class of the teacher I’d prefer each year. Or ensuring they are enrolled in the courses I want them in in HS, even if the school has policies on class size or prerequisites. Why should I pay attention to these policies anymore?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The jealousy and pettiness and sense of victimhood on this thread is something to behold. A gentle reminder that DC public schools are not very good. Standardized testing suggests your kids would get a better education if they went to any random public school in Iowa. So the idea that if a kid "reshirts" or, put more directly, repeats a grade at a mediocre school, that he or she will get some amazing benefit and be transformed into a math whiz or something seems disconnected from reality.

The idea that Lafayette moms are saying that other folks have a "sense of victimhood" is amazing. If you hate DCPS so much, go elsewhere. It sounds like folks at Lafayette would rather you did too.

Not a Lafayette mom. Just saying that parents can have good reasons to hold their kids back; you don't actually know what those reasons are and they dont have to tell you; and if a child is held back, it has zero consequences for your child. Reading this thread you'd think all the kids who didnt "get" to repeat a grade are getting completely screwed over.

1) no one is arguing that parents who want to redshirt should have to share their reasons with me, personally. But DCPS policy was at principal's discretion, not parents. So they did need to share their reasons with the principal, who deemed them insufficient

2) Redshirting can of course have an impact on other children. It changes the composition of the class. It can impact behavioral expectations, disadvantaging on-time kids who may now be viewed as immature for the grade because redshirted kids pull the average age up. It could also have consequences down the road in HS applications, when being a year older may make it easier for kids to compete on factors like leadership, interview skills, and relationships with teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The jealousy and pettiness and sense of victimhood on this thread is something to behold. A gentle reminder that DC public schools are not very good. Standardized testing suggests your kids would get a better education if they went to any random public school in Iowa. So the idea that if a kid "reshirts" or, put more directly, repeats a grade at a mediocre school, that he or she will get some amazing benefit and be transformed into a math whiz or something seems disconnected from reality.

The idea that Lafayette moms are saying that other folks have a "sense of victimhood" is amazing. If you hate DCPS so much, go elsewhere. It sounds like folks at Lafayette would rather you did too.

Not a Lafayette mom. Just saying that parents can have good reasons to hold their kids back; you don't actually know what those reasons are and they dont have to tell you; and if a child is held back, it has zero consequences for your child. Reading this thread you'd think all the kids who didnt "get" to repeat a grade are getting completely screwed over.

1) no one is arguing that parents who want to redshirt should have to share their reasons with me, personally. But DCPS policy was at principal's discretion, not parents. So they did need to share their reasons with the principal, who deemed them insufficient

2) Redshirting can of course have an impact on other children. It changes the composition of the class. It can impact behavioral expectations, disadvantaging on-time kids who may now be viewed as immature for the grade because redshirted kids pull the average age up. It could also have consequences down the road in HS applications, when being a year older may make it easier for kids to compete on factors like leadership, interview skills, and relationships with teachers.

So much agree with #2. Hate the obvious lie of "my redshirting doesn't impact anyone else." And that's even more true as the norms move from Sept bdays into summer bdays and sometimes now even late spring. Kids turning 7 in K impacts others who are 5.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The jealousy and pettiness and sense of victimhood on this thread is something to behold. A gentle reminder that DC public schools are not very good. Standardized testing suggests your kids would get a better education if they went to any random public school in Iowa. So the idea that if a kid "reshirts" or, put more directly, repeats a grade at a mediocre school, that he or she will get some amazing benefit and be transformed into a math whiz or something seems disconnected from reality.

The idea that Lafayette moms are saying that other folks have a "sense of victimhood" is amazing. If you hate DCPS so much, go elsewhere. It sounds like folks at Lafayette would rather you did too.

Not a Lafayette mom. Just saying that parents can have good reasons to hold their kids back; you don't actually know what those reasons are and they dont have to tell you; and if a child is held back, it has zero consequences for your child. Reading this thread you'd think all the kids who didnt "get" to repeat a grade are getting completely screwed over.

If you're talking to a reporter about it in order to advocate for a policy and you're using your kids as examples, you're making it people's business.

Oh, ok, so all this, this whole thread, all 70+ pages, is really just about one random person in one single newspaper story who may or may not have been quoted accurately. Got it.

They've gone to multiple different outlets to place their story and one of them is a PR specialist amazingly enough. If they weren't quoted accurately we'd all know.

Why they decided to air their kids' personal information all over the internet no one knows. But they have made themselves a spectacle and people are understandably frustrated that in a time of cuts the district and school are having to fight these families just to adhere to the existing policy because the principal whose character they had previously publicly impugned said no.

Almost the entire thread is people being like we support redshirting in cases where all parties agree and there is clear need. Simply having a summer birthday and refusing to take no for an answer are not one of those cases.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:“He does not read at all. He does not know the alphabet,” Siegel said. “In kindergarten, you learn to read.”

From the article. LOL. maybe if they had put the child in kindergarten, he/she wouldn't be so far behind.

And now a whiney mom wants special treatmetn.

Good lord, the child doesn't know the alphabet? These days, kids entering kindergarten are absolutely expected to know all their letters. I just cannot fathom an UMC child who is about to turn 5 and doesn't know the alphabet barring some significant intellectual delays, let alone one who is about to turn 6. And if significant intellectual delays were the reason she was asking to redshirt this child, you know she would have made sure to mention it from the mountaintops. Repeatedly.

Which makes me think she's not at all being truthful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Policies like this explains why no one ever responds DCPS has the best schools: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/1279885.page

What do parents think are the goal for these kids? To start companies? Solve global warming? What education do kids need for the future?

Or yes, argue over phonics for September vs October birthdays.

Redshirting is going to help these kids solve global warming? You're reaching.

DCPS is not trying to cater to wealthy people. So you are right that it will never be the best school district in the area as defined by wealthy people. Middle and working class people define "best schools" differently that wealthy people do.

For instance, DCPS is the only school district in the area that guarantees free PK3 and PK4 for every student in the district. And DCPS's PK program is phenomenal, with extremely high caliber of teaching across the board, including in Title 1 schools. That's a huge assist for working families, immigrant families, families who struggle to afford childcare, families where English is not their first language (guarantees early exposure to an English-language classroom for their kids), etc. That might not matter to you if you can easily afford private PK, can afford in-home childcare to facilitate part-time preschool programs, etc. But for the average DC family, it's an incredible benefit.

DCPS was also one of the first school districts in the area to recognize that the Lucy Caulkins method was BS and they needed to emphasize phonic instruction starting in K. DCPS also was also a leader in the area in diagnosing dyslexia and other learning disabilities early via in-school evaluations, to ensure kids are getting needed interventions earlier. For families who may not have the resources to supplement a lackluster reading program at home, or the knowledge or means to identify learning disabilities early, these are important offerings that you do not find in some of the "best schools" in the area as defined by rich people who may not value these assets as much.

The biggest drawbacks in DCPS are at the MS and HS level, where the vast majority of schools have serious issues both with academic performance and behavior. As a middle class family, that's where the value of DCPS sees a steep drop off, and it's when we, and many other middle and working class families, start considering other options (charters, moving to the suburbs, maybe parochial school if we can swing it). However, as a family in this boat, one of the first things you learn is that for middle class families, the "good" suburban districts aren't necessarily a solution because a middle class family cannot afford to live IB for the "best" suburban schools. In the burbs, middle and working class families are in a similar situation as they in the city -- underwhelming MS and HS options, many with major behavioral issues and a lot of kids performing poorly on academics. Some suburban districts offer lottery options like DC, but without the public transit infrastructure in DC that can make lotterying into a school across town feasible for a family on a budget with no SAH parent.

I'm not a DCPS apologist. The district has major issues and I'm one of the first to complain about them. But the idea that it's the lack of redshirting in the district that is the real problem is myopic at best. I don't have any problem with DCPS's strict limits on redshirting (at least, that's what I've experienced at my NE school, I didn't even know that schools in upper NW had worked out this exception for themselves until this Lafayette issue to publicized). I don't think there is anything wrong with DCPS that would be solved by more parental discretion in redshirting, and I could see ways in which such a policy would actually undermine the district's efforts to improve, especially at the MS and HS level. Redshirting also undermines the district's functional policies on early intervention for LDs and literacy, which I value, and can come into conflict with the district's terrific universal PK program (it is hard to design a redshirting policy that is equitable when so many families use the universal PK program, which would result in families requesting a third year of city-funded PK in order to redshirt -- it's not workable).

If that all sounds like hell on earth to you, by all means flee to a private or to Bethesda or Falls Church. For me, comparing to DCPS to suburban schools I can actually afford, it does okay, and is frankly preferable in a number of ways.

Duh redshirting won’t help global warming but neither will a 8/1 or 9/1 birthday cutoff. This whole thing is petty. Give a kid a good school experience. Let the whole “we have to make sure all kids are the same age” go

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“He does not read at all. He does not know the alphabet,” Siegel said. “In kindergarten, you learn to read.”

From the article. LOL. maybe if they had put the child in kindergarten, he/she wouldn't be so far behind.

And now a whiney mom wants special treatmetn.

Good lord, the child doesn't know the alphabet? These days, kids entering kindergarten are absolutely expected to know all their letters. I just cannot fathom an UMC child who is about to turn 5 and doesn't know the alphabet barring some significant intellectual delays, let alone one who is about to turn 6. And if significant intellectual delays were the reason she was asking to redshirt this child, you know she would have made sure to mention it from the mountaintops. Repeatedly.

Which makes me think she's not at all being truthful.

That was also my reaction. A 6 year old who doesn't even know his letters either has special needs or his parents have gone out of their way to keep him from pre-literacy skills. These kids have been in preschool. You're telling me these private preschools don't sing the alphabet song? Please.

I also think she's lying.

There were a number of kids in my child's 1st grade classroom who were still working on learning some letter sounds and were not doing much more than c-v-c words in terms of reading. It's not that unusual. DCPS does dyslexia screening at the start of 1st grade to help identify and LDs that might be impacting kids, and many kids learn to read in 1st grade. Yes, some learn in K as well. There is a range. It's normal. Being on the low end of the range does not mean you are behind. It just means you are on the low end of the range.

[Anonymous]

All these anti-redshirters must hate ENCL soccer. The cutoff is 8/1. Imagine being in one grade for soccer and another for DCPS. Ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Now that Bowser is involved, these parents have no chance. For all her flaws, Bowser will absolutely stand up to entitled parents who are trying to gain favor for their own kids -- I think she hates it.

From the most recent article:

"Bowser supports the crackdown, saying it ensures fairness in classrooms.

“We don’t want some kids to be advantaged to the disadvantage of other kids – that’s why we have the rule,” Bowser said."