Ward 6 Middle Schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:what would it take for you to want to send your 6th grader to Jefferson or Eliot Hine? Seriously. Give us a list.

See, CHPSPO, this is what you do. You put the pressure on me to give you a succinct list of items, where if the boxes were all checked, I'd then send my child off to these schools. I'm supposed to say all of the usual desires: "honors program, improved facilities, diversity of population, engaged teachers, an administration who will 'work with me, children in the seats next to him who are receiving wrap-around services for the million traumas they're receiving when they aren't in that seat'" and then you go down that list one-by-one and write most of the items off as my either being racist/elitist or problems that are my own fault because I'm not involved enough.

It's a pretty short list hon: a school where I'm confident my kid will get a solid education and have a positive social experience.

Go!

And what would you say if I told you that's precisely what you'd get - minus the renovation, at least for now. Of course you can't know that because you know no one with kids in either school. You couldn't be bothered to find out. Yet, you're writing here with high-minded confidence. Please take your rage and disappointment elsewhere. There are plenty who actually do make it work and whose kids are thriving. I know them and trust that first-hand experience.

PP, so you don't have a child to guinea pig in your experiment. Just go away and shut up. I'm not the PPP, but I have to agree with her retorts to your foolishness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn't vote for bowser, and don't know anyone in ward 6 who did, so there's your "screw you ward 6" 'tude.

I did vote for Allen though because I thought he got the issues of MS and would fight where needed, but I see he has become neutered by the very valiant belief that charters are poison and it's his/chief of staff's/CHPSPO's way or you're welcome to move on to NW now... And I don't want to and I want diversity and I love the hill but can we come on now people? I'm not sending my kid to Hine or Jefferson with those scores and those facilities and DCPS couldn't give less of a crap. Try again in 5 years - or 10 when YOUR kid isn't the lamb. Don't look me in the eye and tell me "what's best."

That's another problem. Allen forgets he actually HAS NW in Ward 6

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^ thanks for illustrating my point so beautifully here for our readers pp. I'm afraid of poor, challenged, black kids. That's it. And my only solution is to go to a charter school 30 minutes away (one I'll be lucky to get into) where they "cherry pick" students and where my "snowflake" won't have to coexist with the icky kids that I really think should just be drowned in the Anacostia (nice touch, was that the second glass of wine talking?)

Remember everyone, I'M the asshole, not PP. Not her for "stomping her feet" and disallowing a charter to start up in a feasible, accessible area where the potential diversity of said school might actually be a benefit to ALL of the kids who might attend (including those pesky poor black ones) and where all attendees would benefit from the population of students having an engaged parental population.

But you know, I guess I should just go to these meetings and get to know some parents, because that's obviously the only reason I don't agree with PP. Because I, sure all I'd have to do is say this out loud and you'd never try to shame me the way you have here would you?

Awesome.

In all my years on DCUM - the best thing is knowing that there is someone out there, like me, who won't take CHPSPO's BS anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:what would it take for you to want to send your 6th grader to Jefferson or Eliot Hine? Seriously. Give us a list.

See, CHPSPO, this is what you do. You put the pressure on me to give you a succinct list of items, where if the boxes were all checked, I'd then send my child off to these schools. I'm supposed to say all of the usual desires: "honors program, improved facilities, diversity of population, engaged teachers, an administration who will 'work with me, children in the seats next to him who are receiving wrap-around services for the million traumas they're receiving when they aren't in that seat'" and then you go down that list one-by-one and write most of the items off as my either being racist/elitist or problems that are my own fault because I'm not involved enough.

It's a pretty short list hon: a school where I'm confident my kid will get a solid education and have a positive social experience.

Go!

And what would you say if I told you that's precisely what you'd get - minus the renovation, at least for now. Of course you can't know that because you know no one with kids in either school. You couldn't be bothered to find out. Yet, you're writing here with high-minded confidence. Please take your rage and disappointment elsewhere. There are plenty who actually do make it work and whose kids are thriving. I know them and trust that first-hand experience.

PP, so you don't have a child to guinea pig in your experiment. Just go away and shut up. I'm not the PPP, but I have to agree with her retorts to your foolishness.

Yeah, so WE should send our kids to these schools but you don't? Where exactly do your kids go?

[Anonymous]

For Brent to turn around, someone had to be the lamb, right? What made those parents decide to do that instead of running to the suburbs? Just trying to get a sense of how a school can actually become acceptable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For Brent to turn around, someone had to be the lamb, right? What made those parents decide to do that instead of running to the suburbs? Just trying to get a sense of how a school can actually become acceptable.

In the Brent model, they had their own children as the "sacrificial lamb" CHPSPO now wants other parents to have other children be the lambs to slaughter.

[Anonymous]

Not only that, but it's really apples and oranges to compare the two. 20 kids sticking together in a PK4 class room at a small elementary, where all they really need to do is learn to share and take a nap and then building a program off of that is a totally different ask than the Hine/Jefferson jump.

Even if every single kid moves from Maury to Hine (none of them are going to play the lottery, none of them are going to move or go to SH) they ALL go, you'll have, at best, a 5% cohort of kids "making it work" at a time when social interaction/influence becomes paramount and where instruction really makes a difference.

Look, as I've said, I don't disagree this is what it will take to make these MS "neighborhood schools" and I also don't disagree that Charters will complicate the matter but that doesn't leave those in the leading edge any good choices.

It would be one thing if DCPS/Bowser actually acted like they want to improve these schools, but we've all seen what happened to the budgets.

I notice poor Weedon hasn't come back on here and confirmed he'll still send his DH to Hine when it's her turn. Nothing but respect for him if he's that principled, and to PP who would rather call me a racist than admit, "yeah, it's a tough spot you're in." But, regardless of my principals, I'm just not willing to do that to my kid.

[Anonymous]

*principles

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Once again CHPSPO, you can't address the above, so I'M the asshole again. "Go on to NW and your charters then!" I'm not obsesses I just want a viable school in my neighborhood.

So, what, your solution is to somehow magically wave a wand to turn those who're 20% "below basically proficient" (many of whom happen to be special education cases by the way) into geniuses; paint black children white, or drown the 99% FARMS kids in the Anacostia River (99 is not actual data but a placeholder for more >60%)? Miraculously, some of us have learned to coexist and not be doomed, no matter how vigorously you're stamping your feet. It's not for the faint of heart.

Oh please. Cut the boosterism and tell some truth. Jefferson and Eliot Hine are slowly creeping out from being truly dreadful schools. And yes I have visited both within the last few years. Good things are happening and the direction is positive. But as the recent vindictive budget cuts show it is all very very fragile. And it's not just facilities. DCPS also regularly renegs on funding for IB training, equipment you name it. There remain serious behavioral challenges and not enough resources to address them. Far too many students still struggle with grade level academics. Why don't we hear more about honors classes? ( because people are ashamed they exist--that doesn't really speak well of a culture that encourages excellence). People smell b-s a mile away. They also know that nothing is as simple as "co-existing". If boosters would simply admit it publicly and allow for honest discussion--no fair calling people "scared" "elitist" or "rascist" --it would do much more to further your cause

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Once again CHPSPO, you can't address the above, so I'M the asshole again. "Go on to NW and your charters then!" I'm not obsesses I just want a viable school in my neighborhood.

So, what, your solution is to somehow magically wave a wand to turn those who're 20% "below basically proficient" (many of whom happen to be special education cases by the way) into geniuses; paint black children white, or drown the 99% FARMS kids in the Anacostia River (99 is not actual data but a placeholder for more >60%)? Miraculously, some of us have learned to coexist and not be doomed, no matter how vigorously you're stamping your feet. It's not for the faint of heart.

Sorry, but "not be doomed" is not a standard I choose my kids' education by.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are gunning at CHPSPO then you need to start with Charles Allen, his Chief of Staff is full-on CHPSPO.

Why don't we meet with Latin, BASIS, Charter Board, and DME and get them to add more Latin and BASIS seats? CHPSPO can take the minutes of the meeting and live Tweet it.

[Anonymous]

Isn't it delicious that CHPSPO is so confident that Brent parents should jist go ahead and try to make a failing middle school work for them and trust that their kids will thrive in the end. After all, didn't we manage to band together and turn around our neighborhood elementary school with the help of families from across the Hill (and alot of others).

In case you hadn't noticed, we're pretty worn out from trying to make Brent work to our advantage and don't feel like gambling on a middle school education. Even if we opt to forget about those parts of the Ward 6 Middle School Plan which Henderson and DCPS walked away from, relaunching an elementary school with a successive cohorts of PK students is a far cry from a handful of UMC kids magically flipping a middle school with a declining population at which a significant segment of students can't even read or do basic math. If you think I'm a racist or don't give a shit about poor black kids, then so be it. Better yet, why don't you walk the walk and p withdraw your kids from (1) Peabody and Maury and send them to Amidon or (2) Stuart-Hine and enroll them at Jefferson or Hine. Let me know how that works out for you.

I'll happily pass on the Kool-Aid and go take my chances at a charter or another school at which I can feel good about entrusting my child's safety and education. I guess I can live with your disapproval.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isn't it delicious that CHPSPO is so confident that Brent parents should jist go ahead and try to make a failing middle school work for them and trust that their kids will thrive in the end. After all, didn't we manage to band together and turn around our neighborhood elementary school with the help of families from across the Hill (and alot of others).

In case you hadn't noticed, we're pretty worn out from trying to make Brent work to our advantage and don't feel like gambling on a middle school education. Even if we opt to forget about those parts of the Ward 6 Middle School Plan which Henderson and DCPS walked away from, relaunching an elementary school with a successive cohorts of PK students is a far cry from a handful of UMC kids magically flipping a middle school with a declining population at which a significant segment of students can't even read or do basic math. If you think I'm a racist or don't give a shit about poor black kids, then so be it. Better yet, why don't you walk the walk and p withdraw your kids from (1) Peabody and Maury and send them to Amidon or (2) Stuart-Hine and enroll them at Jefferson or Hine. Let me know how that works out for you.

I'll happily pass on the Kool-Aid and go take my chances at a charter or another school at which I can feel good about entrusting my child's safety and education. I guess I can live with your disapproval.

There is always risk for any child in a new environment but a seat in a diverse charter school carries less than one in any but the most proven and well-resourced DCPS school.

[Anonymous]

This is true^ Now that we've established that CHPSPO's "wing and a prayer" approach is not going to pull any of us into these schools, which seem to have insurmountable issues, can we try and have a constructive conversation about them? There's got to be a better way than charter across the city or sacrificial lamb. I've tried to have some of these conversations but with CHPSPO in the room, eye-rolling in disgust, they've been limited.

I was beating the drum a year or so ago on another Ward 6 MS thread that we should think about "specializing" the schools. I know "test-in" is a frightful, dirty thing, but let's think about it hypothetically for a moment.

I propose Hine become a test-in program and then Jefferson get the money and the extra support for becoming a special ed/vocational training program with stellar sports facilities and additional teachers and wrap-around services. I know, these are 6th graders we're discussing, so let's not "doom" them to lives of labor and dashed NFL dreams already, but we are talking about a population of high-risk kids, who can't even read in 6th grade, and whose chances of graduating and going to college or exceedingly slim. They need another solution than wasting away in a MS that doesn't seem to be managing them well or preparing them for high school, and getting them thinking about vocation now, vs. just being failures, is working in many other countries this young.

Plus, if any of these high-risk can test-in to Hine, then they are surrounded by a cohort that isn't sucking up the time they could receive and the "higher-SES" families will have their reassurances. And when I say "test-in", I'm not saying the kids need to know calculus - they just need to be able to read at grade level. I think this would change the school literally, overnight and solve the problem of people clamoring for an accessible charter.

Given Bowser's "empowering males of color" initiative, could we ever make it work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is true^ Now that we've established that CHPSPO's "wing and a prayer" approach is not going to pull any of us into these schools, which seem to have insurmountable issues, can we try and have a constructive conversation about them? There's got to be a better way than charter across the city or sacrificial lamb. I've tried to have some of these conversations but with CHPSPO in the room, eye-rolling in disgust, they've been limited.

I was beating the drum a year or so ago on another Ward 6 MS thread that we should think about "specializing" the schools. I know "test-in" is a frightful, dirty thing, but let's think about it hypothetically for a moment.

I propose Hine become a test-in program and then Jefferson get the money and the extra support for becoming a special ed/vocational training program with stellar sports facilities and additional teachers and wrap-around services. I know, these are 6th graders we're discussing, so let's not "doom" them to lives of labor and dashed NFL dreams already, but we are talking about a population of high-risk kids, who can't even read in 6th grade, and whose chances of graduating and going to college or exceedingly slim. They need another solution than wasting away in a MS that doesn't seem to be managing them well or preparing them for high school, and getting them thinking about vocation now, vs. just being failures, is working in many other countries this young.

Plus, if any of these high-risk can test-in to Hine, then they are surrounded by a cohort that isn't sucking up the time they could receive and the "higher-SES" families will have their reassurances. And when I say "test-in", I'm not saying the kids need to know calculus - they just need to be able to read at grade level. I think this would change the school literally, overnight and solve the problem of people clamoring for an accessible charter.

Given Bowser's "empowering males of color" initiative, could we ever make it work?

You want to open up a vocational ed MIDDLE SCHOOL? Jesus H. Christ.