so if rhee is sending her older kid to deal

[Anonymous]

How much of the change is a bilingual issue? It's hard enough to get middle school right, is the Adams model too ambitious? Are there public programs in the burbs that work? It seems like Rhee's child might have started late for bilingual. Do all Oyster children who don't do well have option of Deal. Tia

[Anonymous]

NO. All Oyster children do not have the option of Deal. Oyster used to be a 'feeder' school and Deal basically made room for any Oyster child who applied. When Oyster launched its Middle School, that arrangement was deemed no longer necessary (and unfair to other children from all over the city to boot). NOW, only Oyster children who are also 'in-bounds' for Deal have automatic entry. These also tend to be children from a certain socio-economic class (if you look at the neighborhood that is in-bounds to both Oyster elementary and Deal--which is the original Cleveland Park neighborhood). So the upper class children are now peeling off in droves from the Oyster Middle School, regardless of how long they have been in the program, can handle the Spanish etc., and guess who is left behind?

[Anonymous]

By the way, yes, part of the issue is a bilingual issue. What does a bilingual Middle School program 'look like'? There are models all over the world, but DCPS never invested in experts before launching the program. And the new principal certainly has not righted the ship.

[Anonymous]

9:46 Haven't you made this point before? Doesn't Oyster-Adams the highest per student budget after special ed? You want expensive experts, too? It's not rocket science. What they have been doing is comparable to what other bilingual middle schools do. I know the faculty examined different models but they also had to factor in budgetary considerations in implementing one.

[Anonymous]

09:46: I don't think the District invested in experts before turning all the Ward 5 schools into preschool -8 models either. So it's not just an Oyster issue. The District did not have any experience w/ such a model. And now Ward 5 is advocating to get a middle school back -- since the District has already sold the former middle school to UDC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:9:46 Haven't you made this point before? Doesn't Oyster-Adams the highest per student budget after special ed? You want expensive experts, too? It's not rocket science. What they have been doing is comparable to what other bilingual middle schools do. I know the faculty examined different models but they also had to factor in budgetary considerations in implementing one.

. Pusey costs more through a dated agreemt with the office of bilingual Ed that helps fund the second teacher. Other than that it receives the same amount of money as other schools. And to answer your question - YES I want expensive experts ( or let's look at it another way... Knoweldgeable and experienced) when expensive projects are launched. Yes indeed.

[Anonymous]

Sorry-- that came out garbled. Oyster scrambles to make budget like any other school. It does not get 'double the funding' b/cause it's a bilingual program. It has a formula it worked out with OBE years ago to pay for additional Spanish teachers that doesn't take into account pay raises, seniority etc. Other than that-it works with the same budget limitations as all other schools. A Middle School is expensive to run, and when one fails I hear tax dollars sucking down the drain. Yes, I would much prefer that experts were hired at the onset so it was launched successfully. And BTW, education is rocket science. This country has been trying to 'get it right' for fifty years now and we are still wandering in the desert. To expect to 'get it right' (OA Middle School) without thoughtful groundwork laid is ludicrous. Yes, there are successful bilingual models to emulate. No one visited them, no experts visited from them. The whole process was ludicrous.

[Anonymous]

9:48 Oyster has two teachers in the classroom through Grade 5, correct? When we were there, we were repeatedly told it was the most expensive school per student in DCPS after special ed and that downtown did not like to hear from Oyster parents because it was considered privileged enough. Of course Oyster has to make budget but per student its budget is higher than most other schools -- no matter where the money comes from within the city budget. Most of it is not coming from an outside source or from OCC!

Your vision for how O-A should have developed its MS is more for a private school than a public school at least a DCPS school. The resources were just not there. Do you not recall that at the time the school was understaffed, no counselor, no vice principal, the principal was doing the job of six or more people during this expansion. I believe the principal and/or an outside consultant visited a few bilingual models (one in Boston).

Also there was not enough time to lay the groundwork! Wasn't final approval down to the wire. Really why don't you let go on what might have been and focus on what can be!

[Anonymous]

I just looked at the budgets for Oyster on the DCPS website. It's pretty interesting as they have the two schools split, but the teachers seem to be mostly in Adams budget.

Overall, the two schools have a 7.8 million dollar operating budget for 668 students. It ends of being $11,644 per student.

It's not cheap.

[Anonymous]

How can that be when Grades Six, Seven and Eight do not have two teachers in the classroom?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just looked at the budgets for Oyster on the DCPS website. It's pretty interesting as they have the two schools split, but the teachers seem to be mostly in Adams budget.

Overall, the two schools have a 7.8 million dollar operating budget for 668 students. It ends of being $11,644 per student.

It's not cheap.

DCPS is one of the most highly funded school systems in the nation. ALL the schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:9:48 Oyster has two teachers in the classroom through Grade 5, correct? When we were there, we were repeatedly told it was the most expensive school per student in DCPS after special ed and that downtown did not like to hear from Oyster parents because it was considered privileged enough. Of course Oyster has to make budget but per student its budget is higher than most other schools -- no matter where the money comes from within the city budget. Most of it is not coming from an outside source or from OCC!

Your vision for how O-A should have developed its MS is more for a private school than a public school at least a DCPS school. The resources were just not there. Do you not recall that at the time the school was understaffed, no counselor, no vice principal, the principal was doing the job of six or more people during this expansion. I believe the principal and/or an outside consultant visited a few bilingual models (one in Boston).

Also there was not enough time to lay the groundwork! Wasn't final approval down to the wire. Really why don't you let go on what might have been and focus on what can be!

Because I STILL think they need experts--NOW.

Again, it expensive b/cause of the extra teacher with its own funding stream. Besides that it is not floating in dough. I am not suggesting experts should be hired by the school's operating budget--but by the school system WHENEVER it decides to expand or modify a program. Leaving it up to the teachers to plan (which is basically what they did) is well nigh ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Practically speaking what would they do differently at the Oyster MS? It's close to what the WIS MS does. They also have to follow DCPS standards, correct? All DCPS plan their classes, correct? That's the problem of not having a curriculum.

What's the funding stream for the extra teacher? It's still DC funds, correct?

[Anonymous]

13:23 Yes and Oyster takes the cake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Practically speaking what would they do differently at the Oyster MS? It's close to what the WIS MS does. They also have to follow DCPS standards, correct? All DCPS plan their classes, correct? That's the problem of not having a curriculum.

What's the funding stream for the extra teacher? It's still DC funds, correct?

The funding stream came from the office of bilingual ed, so Oyster could get in that extra teacher. Even so, was not nearly enough--a decades old 'formula' per teacher. The rest was covered by regular DCPS funding--same as every other school. Oyster has gone without lots - to build a specialty program on a limited budget. The principal has to make the same hard decision as other principals. When they decided to make a Middle School, they should have gotten some expansion funds just for that (to make it work). Yes, Middle School must follow the DCPS standards--but there are all sorts of considerations to what is age appropriate for a Middle School in terms of advisories, class schedules, how to divide up content areas between languages, counselors, extra -curriculars that don't just come naturally to people used to administering elementary school. It is a different layer of pedagogy--much less that Oyster might try to develop a Middle School specialty to attract people (like Deal has with IB). There should have/should be more investment at the front end for this project.