Joe Weedon wants permission to send his daughter to Walls

[Anonymous]

It’s an analogy. Article talks about the tension between our beliefs for an urban district & the reality when it impacts our own children.
And the problem is how the district treats vulnerable citizens. If you don’t think both groups are vulnerable- then I can’t help you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s an analogy. Article talks about the tension between our beliefs for an urban district & the reality when it impacts our own children.
And the problem is how the district treats vulnerable citizens. If you don’t think both groups are vulnerable- then I can’t help you.

WTF is this word salad? What analogy? And both groups (whatever you mean by this) are not vulnerable.

[Anonymous]

Wait. You don’t think kids with special needs are vulnerable? Really?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s an analogy. Article talks about the tension between our beliefs for an urban district & the reality when it impacts our own children.
And the problem is how the district treats vulnerable citizens. If you don’t think both groups are vulnerable- then I can’t help you.

WTF is this word salad? What analogy? And both groups (whatever you mean by this) are not vulnerable.

DP- you seriously don’t think special needs kids are vulnerable???

Also this is the hypocrisy of Weedon at work right there too. My kids would not do well at “any” school- my kids need the extra support they get in their charte. And loudmouths like Clapp and Weedon approach the issue like privileged white people. If they say some school works, it will work. No arguments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If his daughter spent most of her time in middle school playing cards, being unchallenged and having a frequent rotation of subs or teachers coming/going, why does he need a WashPo article to tell us what we all know? DCPS is not prepared for middle school and certainly, there are only a few slots at the magnet high schools. I'm assuming that Weedon probably had to get a tutor for his DD in order for her to do well on PARCC and entrance exams to Walls given the lack of proper rigor.

While DCPS struggles with proper middle/high school neighborhood options, the schools in the suburbs struggle with how not to be pressure cookers. Those in the private Big 10 also struggle with the pressure cooker environments.

Its a sad state of affairs when our only option in this region and across the country is a pressure cooker school which comes with lots of learning, room for challenge/growth and opportunities vs disengaged low scoring schools rife with little challenge.

DC is in a unique position because the city council allowed charters here to directly compete with city public schools, thereby almost forcing DCPS to begin looking at how to retain residents for funding schools. New residents are trying to hold DCPS accountable with little success. DCPS is only good through elementary and they don't seem to care about proper neighborhood middle/high school options because its economic city tax base is strong. Many residents in the District are childfree and therefore don't use the city's schools so they really don't care to be involved. Many are also transient and not here for the long term. Still, others will leave after the free pre-k for the suburbs or private schools.

There are a lot of DC type A types who think tutoring is necessary, but for smart motivated kids its
unnecessary. The broad brush applied to EH and by extension its students and community is unfair when you can't even acknowledge the kids who happen succeed, however much they're an exception.

While the Weedons have seen the social and community benefits that come with attending their neighborhood middle school, they have also encountered the challenges. Most prominently: high turnover among teachers and administrators, which leads to an unstable academic environment. His daughter says she has become an expert card player because of all the free time she has had with substitute teachers.

Are you ignoring this portion of the article or just lacking proper comprehension? There was an unstable academic environment, his daughter became an expert card player and you tell me that the possibility of Malia having a tutor is a type A behavior? I am sure her parents had to fill in the large academic DCPS gaps in some form--- tutors, enrichment, etc. There are many posters on here who attend DCPS in upper elementary/middle school who provide out-of-school experiences--- which are a form of enrichment. There are others who have a tutor but probably wouldn't admit it --- the horror of do as I say, but not as I do exist in many DC liberal circles.

PP, you need to get off the offensive train, I did not paint the EH community with a broad brush nor did I state that there aren't smart kids at EH. I simply came to a conclusion based on what I read on WashPo.

gee, that kind of sounds like it was [i]A JOKE[/i]. I would question why he'd make a joke at the expense of a school he's trying to prop up. Then again, playing cards is a good skill for reinforcing math, albeit not where you'd want a middle schooler's math focus to be.

Passing PARCC is just not a big deal for a smart kid. The idea of tutoring someone to succeed at PARCC is mind numbingly stupid.

The school has had high turnover. They're on their 4th principal in 4 years. They've had the same IB coordinator the entire time and she's fantastic. I'm sure whatever shortcomings EH has (and not to mitigate the school's struggles), motivated kids can succeed in such an environment. Most white IB families (and some AA too) just won't give it the time of day.

So you’re just going to ignore that Malia has had educational gaps and come up with the pitiful excuse that card games are a way to reinforce math skills?

What gaps? The ones that got her accepted into SWW? You're reaching

DP- are you kidding? Or do you not understand reading comprehension? No one is reaching- you don’t become an “expert card Player” because you’re learning so much at school.

Why not? Maybe you've never heard of the MIT Blackjack Bank. But that's not really relevant here.

But it was a dumb JOKE. Your grand sense of humor is clearly on display here

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PARCC scores:

SWW
94% ELA
73% Math
Combined 83%


MD schools (combined ELA/Math):
http://data.baltimoresun.com/news/parcc2017/high/
Whitman 84%
Wootton 81%
Winston 77%
Damascus 71%
BCC 68%

I think you failed to mention that students purposely chose not to do as well because they saw it as something that really didn’t matter amid AP and IN exams. I remember reading an article about it. I’m posting it here. Thought the article cites Whimtnan there were plenty of W and top schools in the county where students didn’t really take PARCC serious.

https://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2017/05/prestigious-walt-whitman-high-school-slid-best-high-schools-rankings/

From the second article, “On Monday, she and four other Montgomery County high school students spoke in Annapolis during a forum about the impact of the PARCC tests. The kids say they aren’t against testing, but they saw problems in how instruction paired with the contents and software of the test. They felt it was one more hoop to jump through, for no reason, since the results wouldn’t count towards their grades or graduation.

https://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2015/12/students-say-parcc-exams-create-unnecessary-stress/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PARCC scores:

SWW
94% ELA
73% Math
Combined 83%


MD schools (combined ELA/Math):
http://data.baltimoresun.com/news/parcc2017/high/
Whitman 84%
Wootton 81%
Winston 77%
Damascus 71%
BCC 68%

Come on, it's hard to tell much of anything from HS PARCC scores. The kids know that they gain nothing personally from scoring high. Some of them bomb the test on purpose, or refuse to take it. You're much better off comparing SAT scores, an evaluation where the kids has skin in the game.

MCPS doesn’t release average SAT scores by school any longer. It’s not because they are afraid of comparisons of Whitman to SWW. It’s because they are so embarrassed by the scores in the bottom 1/2 of MCPS.

Really? I went on Google and searched if this was true. This dashboard includes data on the performance MCPS graduates as it relates to the SAT.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/data/LAR-charts/SAT-Performance.html

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/press/index.aspx?id=8231

I hate when people intentionally spread paranoia on here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PARCC scores:

SWW
94% ELA
73% Math
Combined 83%


MD schools (combined ELA/Math):
http://data.baltimoresun.com/news/parcc2017/high/
Whitman 84%
Wootton 81%
Winston 77%
Damascus 71%
BCC 68%

I think you failed to mention that students purposely chose not to do as well because they saw it as something that really didn’t matter amid AP and IN exams. I remember reading an article about it. I’m posting it here. Thought the article cites Whimtnan there were plenty of W and top schools in the county where students didn’t really take PARCC serious.

https://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2017/05/prestigious-walt-whitman-high-school-slid-best-high-schools-rankings/

From the second article, “On Monday, she and four other Montgomery County high school students spoke in Annapolis during a forum about the impact of the PARCC tests. The kids say they aren’t against testing, but they saw problems in how instruction paired with the contents and software of the test. They felt it was one more hoop to jump through, for no reason, since the results wouldn’t count towards their grades or graduation.

https://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2015/12/students-say-parcc-exams-create-unnecessary-stress/

Wouldn’t SWW students feel the same way?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If his daughter spent most of her time in middle school playing cards, being unchallenged and having a frequent rotation of subs or teachers coming/going, why does he need a WashPo article to tell us what we all know? DCPS is not prepared for middle school and certainly, there are only a few slots at the magnet high schools. I'm assuming that Weedon probably had to get a tutor for his DD in order for her to do well on PARCC and entrance exams to Walls given the lack of proper rigor.

While DCPS struggles with proper middle/high school neighborhood options, the schools in the suburbs struggle with how not to be pressure cookers. Those in the private Big 10 also struggle with the pressure cooker environments.

Its a sad state of affairs when our only option in this region and across the country is a pressure cooker school which comes with lots of learning, room for challenge/growth and opportunities vs disengaged low scoring schools rife with little challenge.

DC is in a unique position because the city council allowed charters here to directly compete with city public schools, thereby almost forcing DCPS to begin looking at how to retain residents for funding schools. New residents are trying to hold DCPS accountable with little success. DCPS is only good through elementary and they don't seem to care about proper neighborhood middle/high school options because its economic city tax base is strong. Many residents in the District are childfree and therefore don't use the city's schools so they really don't care to be involved. Many are also transient and not here for the long term. Still, others will leave after the free pre-k for the suburbs or private schools.

There are a lot of DC type A types who think tutoring is necessary, but for smart motivated kids its
unnecessary. The broad brush applied to EH and by extension its students and community is unfair when you can't even acknowledge the kids who happen succeed, however much they're an exception.

While the Weedons have seen the social and community benefits that come with attending their neighborhood middle school, they have also encountered the challenges. Most prominently: high turnover among teachers and administrators, which leads to an unstable academic environment. His daughter says she has become an expert card player because of all the free time she has had with substitute teachers.

Are you ignoring this portion of the article or just lacking proper comprehension? There was an unstable academic environment, his daughter became an expert card player and you tell me that the possibility of Malia having a tutor is a type A behavior? I am sure her parents had to fill in the large academic DCPS gaps in some form--- tutors, enrichment, etc. There are many posters on here who attend DCPS in upper elementary/middle school who provide out-of-school experiences--- which are a form of enrichment. There are others who have a tutor but probably wouldn't admit it --- the horror of do as I say, but not as I do exist in many DC liberal circles.

PP, you need to get off the offensive train, I did not paint the EH community with a broad brush nor did I state that there aren't smart kids at EH. I simply came to a conclusion based on what I read on WashPo.

gee, that kind of sounds like it was [i]A JOKE[/i]. I would question why he'd make a joke at the expense of a school he's trying to prop up. Then again, playing cards is a good skill for reinforcing math, albeit not where you'd want a middle schooler's math focus to be.

Passing PARCC is just not a big deal for a smart kid. The idea of tutoring someone to succeed at PARCC is mind numbingly stupid.

The school has had high turnover. They're on their 4th principal in 4 years. They've had the same IB coordinator the entire time and she's fantastic. I'm sure whatever shortcomings EH has (and not to mitigate the school's struggles), motivated kids can succeed in such an environment. Most white IB families (and some AA too) just won't give it the time of day.

So you’re just going to ignore that Malia has had educational gaps and come up with the pitiful excuse that card games are a way to reinforce math skills?

What gaps? The ones that got her accepted into SWW? You're reaching

DP- are you kidding? Or do you not understand reading comprehension? No one is reaching- you don’t become an “expert card Player” because you’re learning so much at school.

Why not? Maybe you've never heard of the MIT Blackjack Bank. But that's not really relevant here.

But it was a dumb JOKE. Your grand sense of humor is clearly on display here

(1) You don’t understand what constites a joke. Weedon was clearly making a point about teacher absenteeism which you seem not to understand.
(2) Lots of adults who are great at math do play blackjack in their spare time. What you’re not understanding is that students at MIT don’t play cards at school during learning time. I don’t know why this has to be explained.

In sum- the article makes clear what we all know- Eliot-Hine fails its students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know Weedon, but why on earth would anyone talk about this with the WaPo?

Looks like political posturing at the expense of an 8th grader.

It's nobody's damn business? How is she going to feel arty school through the end of the year?

My kid can barely look at me when I step foot on campus. He'd run off to the circus if I let a reporter take pictures of him.

Another poster nailed it: Because he spent years chastising families for my choosing Eastern. Now that he is faced with the same decision, he needs a public airing of the dilemma that is now his. All of this trumps his daughter’s right to privacy.

So he wanted other parents (high SES) to " pave the way" for his kids to the point of castigating them, but when that didnt happen "in time" hes jumping ship, rather than seize the opportunity to "pave the way" for others? You just cant make this stuff up...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PARCC scores:

SWW
94% ELA
73% Math
Combined 83%


MD schools (combined ELA/Math):
http://data.baltimoresun.com/news/parcc2017/high/
Whitman 84%
Wootton 81%
Winston 77%
Damascus 71%
BCC 68%

I think you failed to mention that students purposely chose not to do as well because they saw it as something that really didn’t matter amid AP and IN exams. I remember reading an article about it. I’m posting it here. Thought the article cites Whimtnan there were plenty of W and top schools in the county where students didn’t really take PARCC serious.

https://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2017/05/prestigious-walt-whitman-high-school-slid-best-high-schools-rankings/

From the second article, “On Monday, she and four other Montgomery County high school students spoke in Annapolis during a forum about the impact of the PARCC tests. The kids say they aren’t against testing, but they saw problems in how instruction paired with the contents and software of the test. They felt it was one more hoop to jump through, for no reason, since the results wouldn’t count towards their grades or graduation.

https://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2015/12/students-say-parcc-exams-create-unnecessary-stress/

Wouldn’t SWW students feel the same way?

Unless there were news artciles about it. I don't think we can count it as anecdotal data.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If his daughter spent most of her time in middle school playing cards, being unchallenged and having a frequent rotation of subs or teachers coming/going, why does he need a WashPo article to tell us what we all know? DCPS is not prepared for middle school and certainly, there are only a few slots at the magnet high schools. I'm assuming that Weedon probably had to get a tutor for his DD in order for her to do well on PARCC and entrance exams to Walls given the lack of proper rigor.

While DCPS struggles with proper middle/high school neighborhood options, the schools in the suburbs struggle with how not to be pressure cookers. Those in the private Big 10 also struggle with the pressure cooker environments.

Its a sad state of affairs when our only option in this region and across the country is a pressure cooker school which comes with lots of learning, room for challenge/growth and opportunities vs disengaged low scoring schools rife with little challenge.

DC is in a unique position because the city council allowed charters here to directly compete with city public schools, thereby almost forcing DCPS to begin looking at how to retain residents for funding schools. New residents are trying to hold DCPS accountable with little success. DCPS is only good through elementary and they don't seem to care about proper neighborhood middle/high school options because its economic city tax base is strong. Many residents in the District are childfree and therefore don't use the city's schools so they really don't care to be involved. Many are also transient and not here for the long term. Still, others will leave after the free pre-k for the suburbs or private schools.

There are a lot of DC type A types who think tutoring is necessary, but for smart motivated kids its
unnecessary. The broad brush applied to EH and by extension its students and community is unfair when you can't even acknowledge the kids who happen succeed, however much they're an exception.

While the Weedons have seen the social and community benefits that come with attending their neighborhood middle school, they have also encountered the challenges. Most prominently: high turnover among teachers and administrators, which leads to an unstable academic environment. His daughter says she has become an expert card player because of all the free time she has had with substitute teachers.

Are you ignoring this portion of the article or just lacking proper comprehension? There was an unstable academic environment, his daughter became an expert card player and you tell me that the possibility of Malia having a tutor is a type A behavior? I am sure her parents had to fill in the large academic DCPS gaps in some form--- tutors, enrichment, etc. There are many posters on here who attend DCPS in upper elementary/middle school who provide out-of-school experiences--- which are a form of enrichment. There are others who have a tutor but probably wouldn't admit it --- the horror of do as I say, but not as I do exist in many DC liberal circles.

PP, you need to get off the offensive train, I did not paint the EH community with a broad brush nor did I state that there aren't smart kids at EH. I simply came to a conclusion based on what I read on WashPo.

gee, that kind of sounds like it was [i]A JOKE[/i]. I would question why he'd make a joke at the expense of a school he's trying to prop up. Then again, playing cards is a good skill for reinforcing math, albeit not where you'd want a middle schooler's math focus to be.

Passing PARCC is just not a big deal for a smart kid. The idea of tutoring someone to succeed at PARCC is mind numbingly stupid.

The school has had high turnover. They're on their 4th principal in 4 years. They've had the same IB coordinator the entire time and she's fantastic. I'm sure whatever shortcomings EH has (and not to mitigate the school's struggles), motivated kids can succeed in such an environment. Most white IB families (and some AA too) just won't give it the time of day.

So you’re just going to ignore that Malia has had educational gaps and come up with the pitiful excuse that card games are a way to reinforce math skills?

What gaps? The ones that got her accepted into SWW? You're reaching

DP- are you kidding? Or do you not understand reading comprehension? No one is reaching- you don’t become an “expert card Player” because you’re learning so much at school.

Why not? Maybe you've never heard of the MIT Blackjack Bank. But that's not really relevant here.

But it was a dumb JOKE. Your grand sense of humor is clearly on display here

(1) You don’t understand what constites a joke. Weedon was clearly making a point about teacher absenteeism which you seem not to understand.
(2) Lots of adults who are great at math do play blackjack in their spare time. What you’re not understanding is that students at MIT don’t play cards at school during learning time. I don’t know why this has to be explained.

In sum- the article makes clear what we all know- Eliot-Hine fails its students.

Teacher absenteeism is a problem throughout DCPS and EH is no exception. You try dealing with heartbreaking stuff students routine bring to class and keep a stone exterior.

you don't understand how coveted Walls seats are and someone completing EH and still gaining a seat at Walls kind of disproves your theory. I doubt it makes the kid any kind of uber student but it obviously didn't harm her prospects. But go ahead and die on that hill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If his daughter spent most of her time in middle school playing cards, being unchallenged and having a frequent rotation of subs or teachers coming/going, why does he need a WashPo article to tell us what we all know? DCPS is not prepared for middle school and certainly, there are only a few slots at the magnet high schools. I'm assuming that Weedon probably had to get a tutor for his DD in order for her to do well on PARCC and entrance exams to Walls given the lack of proper rigor.

While DCPS struggles with proper middle/high school neighborhood options, the schools in the suburbs struggle with how not to be pressure cookers. Those in the private Big 10 also struggle with the pressure cooker environments.

Its a sad state of affairs when our only option in this region and across the country is a pressure cooker school which comes with lots of learning, room for challenge/growth and opportunities vs disengaged low scoring schools rife with little challenge.

DC is in a unique position because the city council allowed charters here to directly compete with city public schools, thereby almost forcing DCPS to begin looking at how to retain residents for funding schools. New residents are trying to hold DCPS accountable with little success. DCPS is only good through elementary and they don't seem to care about proper neighborhood middle/high school options because its economic city tax base is strong. Many residents in the District are childfree and therefore don't use the city's schools so they really don't care to be involved. Many are also transient and not here for the long term. Still, others will leave after the free pre-k for the suburbs or private schools.

There are a lot of DC type A types who think tutoring is necessary, but for smart motivated kids its
unnecessary. The broad brush applied to EH and by extension its students and community is unfair when you can't even acknowledge the kids who happen succeed, however much they're an exception.

While the Weedons have seen the social and community benefits that come with attending their neighborhood middle school, they have also encountered the challenges. Most prominently: high turnover among teachers and administrators, which leads to an unstable academic environment. His daughter says she has become an expert card player because of all the free time she has had with substitute teachers.

Are you ignoring this portion of the article or just lacking proper comprehension? There was an unstable academic environment, his daughter became an expert card player and you tell me that the possibility of Malia having a tutor is a type A behavior? I am sure her parents had to fill in the large academic DCPS gaps in some form--- tutors, enrichment, etc. There are many posters on here who attend DCPS in upper elementary/middle school who provide out-of-school experiences--- which are a form of enrichment. There are others who have a tutor but probably wouldn't admit it --- the horror of do as I say, but not as I do exist in many DC liberal circles.

PP, you need to get off the offensive train, I did not paint the EH community with a broad brush nor did I state that there aren't smart kids at EH. I simply came to a conclusion based on what I read on WashPo.

gee, that kind of sounds like it was [i]A JOKE[/i]. I would question why he'd make a joke at the expense of a school he's trying to prop up. Then again, playing cards is a good skill for reinforcing math, albeit not where you'd want a middle schooler's math focus to be.

Passing PARCC is just not a big deal for a smart kid. The idea of tutoring someone to succeed at PARCC is mind-numbingly stupid.

The school has had high turnover. They're on their 4th principal in 4 years. They've had the same IB coordinator the entire time and she's fantastic. I'm sure whatever shortcomings EH has (and not to mitigate the school's struggles), motivated kids can succeed in such an environment. Most white IB families (and some AA too) just won't give it the time of day.

1. I'm pretty sure that MIT students are not playing BlackJack during the academic learning day.

2. I am almost certain that Joe Weedon was not happy about his daughter becoming a good card player which is why he displayed so much angst over the decision to send his daughter to Walls. He wants his daughter to be in an academically enriched environment.

3. Would you joke about your kid in a school in which the admin was a revolving door, the teacher absenteeism was high and your child became a good card player?

4. While passing PARCC is not a big deal, what is a big deal is that Malia Weedon spent most of her middle school years thoroughly unchallenged. This is a sad state of affairs. Its possible that she did not make any academic growth though she may have made social growth to be able to thrive in any setting.

[Anonymous]

To the poster that mentioned the Weedons were joking about Malia's card game growth, please read below:


1. I'm pretty sure that MIT students are not playing BlackJack during the academic learning day.

2. I am almost certain that Joe Weedon was not happy about his daughter becoming a good card player which is why he displayed so much angst over the decision to send his daughter to Walls. He wants his daughter to be in an academically enriched environment.

3. Would you joke about your kid in a school in which the admin was a revolving door, the teacher absenteeism was high and your child became a good card player?

4. While passing PARCC is not a big deal, what is a big deal is that Malia Weedon spent most of her middle school years thoroughly unchallenged. This is a sad state of affairs. Its possible that she did not make any academic growth though she may have made social growth to be able to thrive in any setting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If his daughter spent most of her time in middle school playing cards, being unchallenged and having a frequent rotation of subs or teachers coming/going, why does he need a WashPo article to tell us what we all know? DCPS is not prepared for middle school and certainly, there are only a few slots at the magnet high schools. I'm assuming that Weedon probably had to get a tutor for his DD in order for her to do well on PARCC and entrance exams to Walls given the lack of proper rigor.

While DCPS struggles with proper middle/high school neighborhood options, the schools in the suburbs struggle with how not to be pressure cookers. Those in the private Big 10 also struggle with the pressure cooker environments.

Its a sad state of affairs when our only option in this region and across the country is a pressure cooker school which comes with lots of learning, room for challenge/growth and opportunities vs disengaged low scoring schools rife with little challenge.

DC is in a unique position because the city council allowed charters here to directly compete with city public schools, thereby almost forcing DCPS to begin looking at how to retain residents for funding schools. New residents are trying to hold DCPS accountable with little success. DCPS is only good through elementary and they don't seem to care about proper neighborhood middle/high school options because its economic city tax base is strong. Many residents in the District are childfree and therefore don't use the city's schools so they really don't care to be involved. Many are also transient and not here for the long term. Still, others will leave after the free pre-k for the suburbs or private schools.

There are a lot of DC type A types who think tutoring is necessary, but for smart motivated kids its
unnecessary. The broad brush applied to EH and by extension its students and community is unfair when you can't even acknowledge the kids who happen succeed, however much they're an exception.

While the Weedons have seen the social and community benefits that come with attending their neighborhood middle school, they have also encountered the challenges. Most prominently: high turnover among teachers and administrators, which leads to an unstable academic environment. His daughter says she has become an expert card player because of all the free time she has had with substitute teachers.

Are you ignoring this portion of the article or just lacking proper comprehension? There was an unstable academic environment, his daughter became an expert card player and you tell me that the possibility of Malia having a tutor is a type A behavior? I am sure her parents had to fill in the large academic DCPS gaps in some form--- tutors, enrichment, etc. There are many posters on here who attend DCPS in upper elementary/middle school who provide out-of-school experiences--- which are a form of enrichment. There are others who have a tutor but probably wouldn't admit it --- the horror of do as I say, but not as I do exist in many DC liberal circles.

PP, you need to get off the offensive train, I did not paint the EH community with a broad brush nor did I state that there aren't smart kids at EH. I simply came to a conclusion based on what I read on WashPo.

gee, that kind of sounds like it was [i]A JOKE[/i]. I would question why he'd make a joke at the expense of a school he's trying to prop up. Then again, playing cards is a good skill for reinforcing math, albeit not where you'd want a middle schooler's math focus to be.

Passing PARCC is just not a big deal for a smart kid. The idea of tutoring someone to succeed at PARCC is mind numbingly stupid.

The school has had high turnover. They're on their 4th principal in 4 years. They've had the same IB coordinator the entire time and she's fantastic. I'm sure whatever shortcomings EH has (and not to mitigate the school's struggles), motivated kids can succeed in such an environment. Most white IB families (and some AA too) just won't give it the time of day.

So you’re just going to ignore that Malia has had educational gaps and come up with the pitiful excuse that card games are a way to reinforce math skills?

What gaps? The ones that got her accepted into SWW? You're reaching

DP- are you kidding? Or do you not understand reading comprehension? No one is reaching- you don’t become an “expert card Player” because you’re learning so much at school.

Why not? Maybe you've never heard of the MIT Blackjack Bank. But that's not really relevant here.

But it was a dumb JOKE. Your grand sense of humor is clearly on display here

(1) You don’t understand what constites a joke. Weedon was clearly making a point about teacher absenteeism which you seem not to understand.
(2) Lots of adults who are great at math do play blackjack in their spare time. What you’re not understanding is that students at MIT don’t play cards at school during learning time. I don’t know why this has to be explained.

In sum- the article makes clear what we all know- Eliot-Hine fails its students.

I hate to break it to everyone but getting substitute teachers in DC and all the inside the beltway schools is extremely difficult. DCPS/MoCo/NoVa all struggle to get subs.