Thank you Jeff - and the DCUM community

[Anonymous]

Hi Jeff -

I just wanted to write a quick note to thank you for hosting this site, and in particular, for the DC Public and Public Charter Schools forum. I've been doing some research the last few weeks, as I think for the first time since PK3, we're going to be doing the lottery this year. While yes, I know you got some heat from that Brookings Institute report (which I thought had a couple of good points but was mostly unfair), and obviously there's always going to be people posting who look down their noses at all/most DC public schools, I've been so, so pleasantly surprised at the number of thoughtful, helpful, open minded, informed posts in this forum about a wide range of elementary schools.

There has been a lot of very slow, incremental improvement at tons of EOTP DCPS elementary schools over the past 15 years. There are lots of reasons for this - the unified lottery has leveled the playing field and forced families to truly think about what they value, free PK3 and PK4 has gotten a lot of families in the door of their IB, changing neighborhood demographics, etc.

But I think having an online place where (let's be honest - UMC and upper class/rich) people can post about their local IB, and hear from neighborhood families like them who are happy there, and get a more holistic view than just test scores or platitudes from the website, has truly helped provide more neighborhood buy in from families with resources and options. I truly think this website has been part of the solution on this. Being able to search and see that, yes, while Raymond and Cooke may not get much praise, schools like Seaton, Whittier, John Lewis, Garrison, and Thomson are discussed thoughtfully, generally positively, and fairly, with lots of helpful details helps more and more IB (and even nearby OOB) families start seriously considering them, and probably gets a bunch of people in the front door for open houses that in the past would have just lotteried to a charter without giving it much thought.

Anyway, tl/dr, I think you provide a really valuable service here that makes our city better, and I appreciate you and the people who contribute.

[jsteele]

Thank you for this very nice message. I agree with what you say about the impact of the forum and I have consistently argued that the Brookings report totally missed the way in which the forum has helped some schools that were traditionally overlooked.

While I appreciate the praise that you offered me, I believe that it is misplaced. The value of the forum is a result of user contributions. Without the helpful posts that you described, my role would be inconsequential. We are really lucky to have so many helpful users who use their time and effort to make such important contributions. For all of DCUM's flaws, it is still a great community.