Middle Schools - Ward 6 Centric
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Anonymous
"Let's get back to the business at hand" PP here. My message was in response to the "can't polish a turd" poster. I should have been more explicit. Sorry to have precipitated your embarrassing yourself. |
Anonymous
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The business at hand:
WARD SIX ENROLLMENT/CAPACITY SH – 428 / 460 EH - 284 / 850 Jeff – 279 / 900 TOTAL IN-BOUNDS STUDENTS SH - 90 EH – 94 Jeff – 151 * Ward Six has capacity for 2,210 students in three middle schools. * Ward Six middle schools use 45% of their capacity. * Ward Six has 991 total middle school students enrolled. * Ward Six has 335 in-bounds middle school students. * Ward Six students fill 15% of the Ward Six middle school capacity. |
Anonymous
I love your honesty! This is a classic collective action problem, the type for whose solution there is an occasional Nobel Prize. The "logic of cooperation" actually doesn't require all of the people you mention to reverse course, just a meaningful amount to start, namely the amount it takes for a snowball effect. So let's try play it: Hypothetically, if I can get 10 families with current 4th graders somewhere in the "proficient"/"advanced" category to sign up for Eliot-Hine for 6th grade, who would give it a go? (I'm picking 10 as an experimental ballpark because that's about half a class size.) Who'd follow at 15? (let's assume distributed across about two home rooms) Who'd follow at 20? (let's assume distributed across two or three home rooms) etc. |
Anonymous
Yes, indeed you should have been more explicit. Especially if by explicit you also mean precise or correct. Which would be even more helpful (relevant) if you'd actually replied to the post which you had claimed to. It's someone else's mistake for taking your insults wrong though. We're supposed to read your mind, not your words, right? |
Anonymous
i'd follow at 20. but my kid is only 4....i'm seriously banking on the pioneers at our ward 6 elementary school sticking it out and making EH a better school! and there is no dancing around it: Eliot-Hine is the only facility that makes sense for ward 6. stuart hobson and jefferson (or at least SH) must merge to make one great middle school that feeds into the amazing Eastern High. |
Anonymous
Actually, this is precisely what's happening already. I can only speak for Maury, where I'm a parent. We've consistently lost our very best students to schools other than Eliot-Hine (Hardy, namely, but also Deal and Stuart-Hobson, more rarely private). One family followed the other and it just kept going. Well, that's no longer the case. From last to this year, a significant number of families with high performing students gave it a go. Many of them have younger siblings still in ES. So I can chat with the parents or sometimes their children to check in. And they're liking it, and so do their children. Mind you, these are parents who place a high emphasis on school and academic performance. |
Anonymous
It is a chicken and egg problem isn't it? We chose Washington Latin for our middle schooler because we somehow got the sense that the place is really serious about academics. So many factors play into this - listening to the Head of school and dean speak and realizing that they know their stuff, meeting other parents who send or are thinking about sending their children to Latin and noting that both they and their children put high value on the academic environment of the school. How does Eliot-Hine begin projecting that sense of being an academic place? |
Anonymous
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I've said earlier on this 10 page thread (or perhaps another recent one), tell me about the principal. And been told that principals can be replaced.
I still think the Deal change started with appointment of Principal Kim. |
Anonymous
Principals are a necessary factor in successful schools. But there are other necessary factors - the primary one being catchment area. Make a list of every successful DCPS school and the common denominator is a catchment area with proficient students that move up the feeder pattern and adroit parents. It’s not random that the best DCPS schools are west of the park. Deal works because its in-bounds parents absolutely dominate the situation as their kids move from elementary to Deal and then Wilson or elsewhere. The Cluster, on a smaller scale, is similar. These parents demand a great principal, prepare their kids for success at school, and then work their tails off on behalf of a shared vision. |
Anonymous
Right, we had this same conversation a few pages ago. Why don't you tell me anything about the EH principal? A strong catchment area is important, but look at Hardy. It is not alone sufficient. Tell me about the EH principal. Is there a problem that you're unwilling to discuss him/her???? |
Anonymous
I have no issues what-so-ever with Principal Young at Eliot Hine. Honestly, she seems fabulous. In fact, she's good enough to overcome the bumbling process that DCPS used to bring her on board. I can see Ms. Young being the leader of a high flying Eliot Hine. Sincerely. But for Eliot Hine to become great it will take more than Ms. Young. The principal is not the first thing parents are looking at in this case - the cohort is paramount. |
Anonymous
What about YOU? Imagine your child is in fifth grade this year and you are looking at Eliot Hine in the fall of 2012. Is it your first choice for middle school? A fallback? Or a no go? Remember we are talking Eliot Hine as is. No rose colored glasses allowed. |
Anonymous
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What Makes a Winning Middle School?
The Capitol Hill Public School Parent Organization (CHPSPO) grappled with this question before presenting their ideas to DCPS. Many agreed that Deal Middle School in Northwest DC is a good model for several reasons. For starters, it’s big. Under a per-pupil funding system, more students mean more dollars. With more dollars, a school can provide a greater variety of activity for children at the age it matters most. “Middle school is the age where kids figure out what excites them,” said Councilmember Wells. “Are they motivated by languages? By sports? By art? The more options you can provide in a middle school, the better. That’s why Deal is the ideal.” Wells also noted that high test scores are not necessarily what make a school attractive to parents. “We have schools with higher test scores that families are not clamoring to get into, and we have schools with low test scores that are very popular,” he said. “For parents, the most important things are, will their child be challenged? Do they feel like they can work with the administration at the school, and what’s the likelihood their child will be going to school with their friends?” Parents also want the physical campuses to have the same quality as the classes inside them. “Our kids deserve a safe, high-performing building, and our teachers and administrators deserve decent place to work,” said Jones [Stuart-Hobson parent and Ward 6 School Board Representative], who voiced concerns about the facilities at Stuart-Hobson. “When parents make choices about where to send their kids, they want rigor, but they also want a building free of asbestos and structural integrity issues.” From Hill Rag: July 2011 http://hillrag.com/CCN_Website09/images/papers/HR/Jul/0711/pdfs/38-41_RAG_0711.pdf |
Anonymous
I don't need to imagine much. I have a 4th grader and many of his peers - with whom he stands in the lunch line, with whom he plays chess afters school, with whom he does cub scouts, with whom he explores the spinning patterns of bayblades, with whom he explores their creative works for art thanks to Art Around the Corner, with whom he bikes to Lincoln Park and back on weekends, an with whom he learns to play classical music every Saturday - chose Eliot-Hine. Granted, this trend is new but it's real. Seeing it through, I am convinced, will be a model for the rest of the city. If I can help it, I don't want my child on the Red Line (I take it to work every day and it's not pretty), and I don't want my child in a bus or car for hours at a time playing video games. I want him with all the valuable time he can get to grow and thrive on meaningful connections right here, where we can all keep a watchful eye over their growth. Before long, they won't be looking to us parents, they'll be looking to one another and the rest out there to make choices. I'll be there to watch their back. Will YOU? |
Anonymous
That is a compelling vision. Really. This stuff ain't easy. |