Where will my Shepherd Elem kid go to middle/high school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Deal can't hold 2,000 students. It's already cracking. Somebody has to go. The most logical choices are the ones furthest away and/or connected to another program.

Send Bancroft from Deal, because Spanish can go to Adams or CHEC or Roosevelt.

Send Shepherd because the other side of the park is closer to MacFarland/Roosevelt/Coolidge.

Eaton & Oyster have already been dropped.

That leaves Janney, Lafayette, Murch, and Hearst. It's pretty hard to get rid of any of them from the Deal feed, so start restricting their boundaries (re-route some of them to other schools so that they feed Hardy or MacFarland instead).

Shepherd's further away, granted, but it is an International Baccalaureate World school. Deal is also an IB World school. Are there any other IB feeders to Deal?

No. But its a good point. So perhaps the Shepherd students should join their IB peer group at Elliot Hine MS and Eastern HS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Deal can't hold 2,000 students. It's already cracking. Somebody has to go. The most logical choices are the ones furthest away and/or connected to another program.

Send Bancroft from Deal, because Spanish can go to Adams or CHEC or Roosevelt.

Send Shepherd because the other side of the park is closer to MacFarland/Roosevelt/Coolidge.

Eaton & Oyster have already been dropped.

That leaves Janney, Lafayette, Murch, and Hearst. It's pretty hard to get rid of any of them from the Deal feed, so start restricting their boundaries (re-route some of them to other schools so that they feed Hardy or MacFarland instead).

Shepherd's further away, granted, but it is an International Baccalaureate World school. Deal is also an IB World school. Are there any other IB feeders to Deal?

No. But its a good point. So perhaps the Shepherd students should join their IB peer group at Elliot Hine MS and Eastern HS?

Turner and Thomson are also IB PYP schools. Deal, EH are certified for MYP. Browne EC is in the process of getting certification. Banneker and Eastern are at the HS level.

A programmatic feed to combine these programs makes no sense geographically. For anyone.

[Anonymous]

Jefferson is also doing IB MYP certification, not that that helps anyone in Shepherd Park.

I agree that Bancroft and Oyster should go to MacFarland and on to Roosevelt, and Shepherd should go to New North (when it opens) and then Coolidge.

Adams could be used as a PK campus with priority for schools that don't offer PK3 and plenty of room for early stages and other special ed placements. I also imagine some schools WOTP will run out of room for PK4 eventually, so it could help manage that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Jefferson is also doing IB MYP certification, not that that helps anyone in Shepherd Park.

I agree that Bancroft and Oyster should go to MacFarland and on to Roosevelt, and Shepherd should go to New North (when it opens) and then Coolidge.

Adams could be used as a PK campus with priority for schools that don't offer PK3 and plenty of room for early stages and other special ed placements. I also imagine some schools WOTP will run out of room for PK4 eventually, so it could help manage that.

Do you really think removing Bancroft and Shepherd is enough to alleviate Deal?

[Anonymous]

I don't understand why they don't end OOB feeders for a few years to see if that is enough. One can't assume that all IB kids from feeders continue to Deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jefferson is also doing IB MYP certification, not that that helps anyone in Shepherd Park.

I agree that Bancroft and Oyster should go to MacFarland and on to Roosevelt, and Shepherd should go to New North (when it opens) and then Coolidge.

Adams could be used as a PK campus with priority for schools that don't offer PK3 and plenty of room for early stages and other special ed placements. I also imagine some schools WOTP will run out of room for PK4 eventually, so it could help manage that.

Do you really think removing Bancroft and Shepherd is enough to alleviate Deal?

Of course not. It's called "low-hanging fruit." The hard work is re-drawing the boundaries of Janney, Lafayette, Murch, and Hearst in order to make them smaller. Obviously those students need to go to Hardy (which will remove Hardy as an OOB feeder for Wilson).

Anyone who thinks the PYP IB program should entitle an elementary school to Deal is kidding themselves and doesn't understand how IB works. Deal is MYP IB and it's a dead end. It feeds Wilson which is AP. It was only a device to coax higher SES parents into the school, but it's middle school. Yes, IB is more prestigious than AP and takes more work (which is why Wilson hasn't done the work - it doesn't have to). Eastern HAS done the work (albeit the scores aren't great, but it is theoretically possible to get a prestigious IB diploma from Eastern).

This is part of the DCPS chess game. You win by leaving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jefferson is also doing IB MYP certification, not that that helps anyone in Shepherd Park.

I agree that Bancroft and Oyster should go to MacFarland and on to Roosevelt, and Shepherd should go to New North (when it opens) and then Coolidge.

Adams could be used as a PK campus with priority for schools that don't offer PK3 and plenty of room for early stages and other special ed placements. I also imagine some schools WOTP will run out of room for PK4 eventually, so it could help manage that.

Do you really think removing Bancroft and Shepherd is enough to alleviate Deal?

It would be a start. I also think that DCPS should not guarantee admission to Deal (or Hardy or Wilson or any middle or high school) for kids who live OOB and attend feeder schools. I don't even think those kids should get a preference. That also wouldn't be enough to right-size Deal on its own, especially as its feeders become more and more IB. Some boundaries are going to have to change, or some schools will have to start feeding Hardy. But it would help some of the EOTP schools keep dedicated families rather than have them play the lottery every year for a Wilson-feeding school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why they don't end OOB feeders for a few years to see if that is enough. One can't assume that all IB kids from feeders continue to Deal.

Because hundreds of families across the district would be hugely pissed off. They got their 3 year old in OOB to Shepherd or Bancroft or Hyde-Addison and think they they have a divine right to send that kid and all its little siblings through to Wilson over the next two decades. The families that trek their kids across town to Wilson-feeding schools tend to be middle class and many work for the DC and federal government (including Congress and the Department of Education). DCPS doesn't want to piss them off. They'd rather have 29 kids in an elementary school class, and if a couple of law firm associates living in AU Park decide to send their kid to private school or move to Maryland instead, they don't care. DCPS leadership doesn't see those families as really belonging in DC, or DCPS, anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why they don't end OOB feeders for a few years to see if that is enough. One can't assume that all IB kids from feeders continue to Deal.

Because hundreds of families across the district would be hugely pissed off. They got their 3 year old in OOB to Shepherd or Bancroft or Hyde-Addison and think they they have a divine right to send that kid and all its little siblings through to Wilson over the next two decades. The families that trek their kids across town to Wilson-feeding schools tend to be middle class and many work for the DC and federal government (including Congress and the Department of Education). DCPS doesn't want to piss them off. They'd rather have 29 kids in an elementary school class, and if a couple of law firm associates living in AU Park decide to send their kid to private school or move to Maryland instead, they don't care. DCPS leadership doesn't see those families as really belonging in DC, or DCPS, anyway.

Which DCPS has 29 kids in an elementary school class?

[Anonymous]

OP here. Someone said on our listserv today that they know a group of Lafayette parents who are actively campaigning to get EOTP students "out of Deal and Wilson."

Maybe I'm naive, but what's up with that? Why would this group (and not sure how large it is, or whether it represents the views of most WOTP families) want EOTP students out? At least, what are their stated reasons?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Someone said on our listserv today that they know a group of Lafayette parents who are actively campaigning to get EOTP students "out of Deal and Wilson."

Maybe I'm naive, but what's up with that? Why would this group (and not sure how large it is, or whether it represents the views of most WOTP families) want EOTP students out? At least, what are their stated reasons?

They will say it is because Deal and Wilson are overcrowded.

Also whenever the crowding/boundary review issues comes up someone suggests Lafayette should be cut out of the Deal/Wilson feeder pattern because it is in Ward 4. Identifying someone else who should be kicked out first is their way of trying to ensure that they won't lose what they have.

OP - there is a working group formed to talk about crowding in the Hardy/Deal/Wilson feeder pattern. Shepherd parents need to get engaged in that process asap. Read this whole thread http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/640142.page and get involved in the Ward 3/Wilson Feeder Network

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why they don't end OOB feeders for a few years to see if that is enough. One can't assume that all IB kids from feeders continue to Deal.

Because hundreds of families across the district would be hugely pissed off. They got their 3 year old in OOB to Shepherd or Bancroft or Hyde-Addison and think they they have a divine right to send that kid and all its little siblings through to Wilson over the next two decades. The families that trek their kids across town to Wilson-feeding schools tend to be middle class and many work for the DC and federal government (including Congress and the Department of Education). DCPS doesn't want to piss them off. They'd rather have 29 kids in an elementary school class, and if a couple of law firm associates living in AU Park decide to send their kid to private school or move to Maryland instead, they don't care. DCPS leadership doesn't see those families as really belonging in DC, or DCPS, anyway.

I think your overly blunt description is going to piss people off, but I think you're correct on the essence.

[Anonymous]

More here for OP. Gotta wade through it all

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/640148.page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Someone said on our listserv today that they know a group of Lafayette parents who are actively campaigning to get EOTP students "out of Deal and Wilson."

Maybe I'm naive, but what's up with that? Why would this group (and not sure how large it is, or whether it represents the views of most WOTP families) want EOTP students out? At least, what are their stated reasons?

They will say it is because Deal and Wilson are overcrowded.

Also whenever the crowding/boundary review issues comes up someone suggests Lafayette should be cut out of the Deal/Wilson feeder pattern because it is in Ward 4. Identifying someone else who should be kicked out first is their way of trying to ensure that they won't lose what they have.

OP - there is a working group formed to talk about crowding in the Hardy/Deal/Wilson feeder pattern. Shepherd parents need to get engaged in that process asap. Read this whole thread http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/640142.page and get involved in the Ward 3/Wilson Feeder Network

For Heavens sake please no more working groups, listening sessions, hopes and dreams meetings! The same Deal/Wilson overcrowding issues that existed in 2014 continue to exist in 2017, only worse. One or more of the feeder schools has to go. If this were a functioning school system then geography and transportation availabilty would be the primary (or only) criteria. Let's not over complicate this. Shepherd, Bancroft, and/or Oyster need to move. Soon.

[Anonymous]

The solution for Deal and Wilson is to split the major feeders.

Send Murch/Eaton/Bancroft to Deal & Wilson

Send Janney/Lafayette/Shepard to a new middle school and High school. You've got 250+ kids per grade right there alone.