Middle Schools for Cap Hill

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Didn't imply that your kid was white. I asked because, to my knowledge, Banneker's white population has always been in the single digits.

If you were serious about Banneker as a white family, that would have been interesting.

Well, I think now that Banneker is serving a larger number of kids, there may be more white kids. Maybe not as a percentage but as an absolute number.

[Anonymous]

Untrue. Ask Banneker admins. Half a dozen white kids enrolled this year, no more than in past years.

[Anonymous]

im not sure the parallel to inboundary families increasingly trying certain elementary schools is as poor or unlikely as some people think it is. look at hardy ten or so years ago. now hardy continues to have some problems typical of an urban public middle school, but inboundary families have increasingly and pretty heavily bought into the school there.

[Anonymous]

Mainly because DCPS cut Eaton out of the Deal-Wilson pyramid in 2004 (phased in over a decade). No equivalent situation EotP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Untrue. Ask Banneker admins. Half a dozen white kids enrolled this year, no more than in past years.

You don’t need to ask the admins, you can compute it from publicly available data. Banneker enrolled 6 white freshmen this year, but they graduated 2 white seniors last year. The total number of white kids enrolled on count day rose from 16 to 20. The % white rose from 3% to 4%. These numbers are still small, it might be a blip, etc., but given the pace of demographic change in DC schools, I’d bet on it rising further. Regardless, even though your half-dozen figure is correct, the previous posters are correct that right now both the absolute number and the % of white kids at Banneker is going up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Untrue. Ask Banneker admins. Half a dozen white kids enrolled this year, no more than in past years.

You don’t need to ask the admins, you can compute it from publicly available data. Banneker enrolled 6 white freshmen this year, but they graduated 2 white seniors last year. The total number of white kids enrolled on count day rose from 16 to 20. The % white rose from 3% to 4%. These numbers are still small, it might be a blip, etc., but given the pace of demographic change in DC schools, I’d bet on it rising further. Regardless, even though your half-dozen figure is correct, the previous posters are correct that right now both the absolute number and the % of white kids at Banneker is going up.

It’s not going up significantly and I just don’t see it going anywhere with the type of model that is Banneker.

[Anonymous]

Jefferson kids were on Nick News this week if you want to hear from some of them! https://youtu.be/RW6LZUr4alk

[Anonymous]

irrespective of whether you label it good or bad, the demographic change in capitol hill over the past 20 years is massive. in 2003, brent elementary school was 93% black and only 4% white. the capitol hill area middle schools have an entrenched collective action problem. i think individual families see others leaving (moving to suburbs or upper nw and entering the lottery for charter schools), become insecure w the prospect of staying and attending the feeder middle schools, and then do likewise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Jefferson kids were on Nick News this week if you want to hear from some of them! https://youtu.be/RW6LZUr4alk

Thanks for sharing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:irrespective of whether you label it good or bad, the demographic change in capitol hill over the past 20 years is massive. in 2003, brent elementary school was 93% black and only 4% white. the capitol hill area middle schools have an entrenched collective action problem. i think individual families see others leaving (moving to suburbs or upper nw and entering the lottery for charter schools), become insecure w the prospect of staying and attending the feeder middle schools, and then do likewise.

It’s wrong to place the blame solely on parents. A huge reason Capitol Hill kids don’t enroll in IB middle schools has to do with zoning — Hill elementary schools feed into three middle schools instead of one or two. Another larger factor is the lack of tracking.

In any case, I was actively planning to send my child to a DCPS middle school but ultimately enrolled in a charter—the lack of a viable high school path was the decisive factor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:here is my (lottery aside) problem with the charter school options: washington latin seems truly lovely but its really just too far for my particular capitol hill family's particular willingness to commute. i personally don't really like basis. i think the best solution is not buses to charter schools - its honors classes at the capitol hill middle schools so the high-achieving students that now exist at pretty much all of the capitol hill area elementary schools start to opt in.

Can gently suggest that your commuting worries might be overblown? We are a Cap Hill family who have commuted
to various Latin campuses for a decade now. The bus from Eastern Market is an expense and kind of crazy at times, but you will only need a year or two before your kid with be delighted to take the metro with all their friends and feel competent and grown up. It is a gift to give your kids the confidence to navigate their own way to school.

It is a 45-minute commute each way on public transit which gets wearying. But after all the years, no one in our family regrets it. The pain is worth the gain.

An hour and a half round trip commute???

Hard pass.

The issue is that people move to the Hill precisely for walkability and the neighborhood feel. Yes there are people who are willing to commute across town for schools, as there always have been. It used to be that the wealthy people on the Hill sent their kids to privates in NW and they'd do that commute starting in elementary. But the cohort of people who have kids starting middle school around now have become used to being able to walk to school, to knowing their classmates families and bumping into them at the farmer's market or soccer practice on the weekend. It's really hard to make that adjustment to committing to a couple years of busing or driving and then having their kid take a long metro commute daily. This is why Basis is somewhat inexplicably popular on the Hill (given that Hill families lean a bit more crunchy and Basis is not at all crunchy) and why a Latin campus closer to the Hill would be an instant draw for Hill families. Like to the point that it will undermine the stated goal of that Latin campus, which is to provide more opportunities to underserved families east of the river and in Ward 5.

Apparently, you think that Hill families are all vegan, Birkenstock-wearing PETA members sitting around the fire pit singing Kumbaya.

Actually, many of us are just normal DC folk who want to send our kids to the best school we can without enduring a horrendous commute, and do the research instead of listening to blowhards on DCUM.

And right now that means Brent/Maury/etc. to Basis DC.

Do you even live in the Hill?

If you were normal, you would be living in the burbs or NW DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Untrue. Ask Banneker admins. Half a dozen white kids enrolled this year, no more than in past years.

You don’t need to ask the admins, you can compute it from publicly available data. Banneker enrolled 6 white freshmen this year, but they graduated 2 white seniors last year. The total number of white kids enrolled on count day rose from 16 to 20. The % white rose from 3% to 4%. These numbers are still small, it might be a blip, etc., but given the pace of demographic change in DC schools, I’d bet on it rising further. Regardless, even though your half-dozen figure is correct, the previous posters are correct that right now both the absolute number and the % of white kids at Banneker is going up.

It’s not going up significantly and I just don’t see it going anywhere with the type of model that is Banneker.

The math here tells us it won't go up significantly year over year. If it happens it will be gradual. At @525 kids enrolled you would need more than a 5 kid demo change to alter the percentages by 1 percent. And since those demographic changes can only really occur in 9th grade, with an enrolled population of 178 students the class would have to shift by 3% in a single year just to change the overall percentage by one point. What is relevant for this type of situation are trendlines and YoY growth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Jefferson kids were on Nick News this week if you want to hear from some of them! https://youtu.be/RW6LZUr4alk

Beautiful kiddos! So brave to share these thoughts and opinions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jefferson kids were on Nick News this week if you want to hear from some of them! https://youtu.be/RW6LZUr4alk

Beautiful kiddos! So brave to share these thoughts and opinions.

Seriously?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jefferson kids were on Nick News this week if you want to hear from some of them! https://youtu.be/RW6LZUr4alk

Beautiful kiddos! So brave to share these thoughts and opinions.

Seriously?

WTF. Yes seriously. When is the last time you were sat down to be interviewed for television and asked about your mental health and that of your friends and family? Would you be as poised and forthcoming?