Middle Schools

[Anonymous]

I've got middle schools on the brain. What are your thoughts on DCPS or DC charter middle schools that would be good matches for students who fall in the middle in terms of performance - not super advanced / not in need of intensive remediation. Ones that come to mind are:

Deal
Hardy
Stuart-Hobson
Washington Latin

What other schools would you consider?

[Anonymous]

Jefferson or Eliot Hine may be an option in the next few years. There is a big effort in Ward 6 to capture the momentum from the elementary schools and create middle schools that will attract the burgeoning enrollment. See info at this link: http://www.dc.gov/DCPS/Parents+and+Community/Community+Initiatives/Building+on+Momentum:+Ward+6+Middle+Schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've got middle schools on the brain. What are your thoughts on DCPS or DC charter middle schools that would be good matches for students who fall in the middle in terms of performance - not super advanced / not in need of intensive remediation. Ones that come to mind are:

Deal
Hardy
Stuart-Hobson
Washington Latin

What other schools would you consider?

good list here; a 'middle' student could thrive.

[Anonymous]

Middle schools are the one place I have considered private. More and more I think of middle school as the place our education system falls down. Are there good private options?

[Anonymous]

My vote is Deal. But will you be able to get in? Getting in Deal is pretty hard these days. At least with a private you can pay your way in...

[Anonymous]

Deal MS represents the utter failure of Michelle Rhee. Why? When she came on board Deal was good. Now that she's gone, Deal has benefitted from $250/sq ft. renovations, skylights, IB programming, organized athletcis, uniforms that fit, fencing teams plus valuable suits for loan, better cafeteria food, excellent band/instrumental options, differentiated instruction, foreign languages. And where is Deal? Major Upper Caucasia. Why isn't Deal's model replicated anywhere else? Easier to wine and dine with the upper NW parents. What school south of the park has I-Macs in every classroom smart boards on every wall, web-based email, excellent musical and theatre facilties, etc.. etc...where else? The parents didn't pay for this stuff. So who did? Who compares? We're going to be forced to pay private tuition in a couple of years because the ever-tight Deal boundaries are only getting tighter and tighter...shrink-wrapping the W3 mostly white kids into one fabulously free and unique MS. 'Nuff Said.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Middle schools are the one place I have considered private. More and more I think of middle school as the place our education system falls down. Are there good private options?

Middle school is hard across the board - public or private. I know a few folks who put their kids in private for middle then sent back to Wilson. The middle school years are tough ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Deal MS represents the utter failure of Michelle Rhee. Why? When she came on board Deal was good. Now that she's gone, Deal has benefitted from $250/sq ft. renovations, skylights, IB programming, organized athletcis, uniforms that fit, fencing teams plus valuable suits for loan, better cafeteria food, excellent band/instrumental options, differentiated instruction, foreign languages. And where is Deal? Major Upper Caucasia. Why isn't Deal's model replicated anywhere else? Easier to wine and dine with the upper NW parents. What school south of the park has I-Macs in every classroom smart boards on every wall, web-based email, excellent musical and theatre facilties, etc.. etc...where else? The parents didn't pay for this stuff. So who did? Who compares? We're going to be forced to pay private tuition in a couple of years because the ever-tight Deal boundaries are only getting tighter and tighter...shrink-wrapping the W3 mostly white kids into one fabulously free and unique MS. 'Nuff Said.

I don't get your post.

[Anonymous]

" Middle schools are the one place I have considered private. More and more I think of middle school as the place our education system falls down. Are there good private options?

Middle school is hard across the board - public or private. I know a few folks who put their kids in private for middle then sent back to Wilson. The middle school years are tough ones. "

Seriously? I live in bounds for Deal and all of my neighbors who send their kids to Deal love it (this is true both before and after the renovations), whereas they aren't that happy with Wilson. I don't know anyone who pulled their kids out for middle and returned them to Wilson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middle schools are the one place I have considered private. More and more I think of middle school as the place our education system falls down. Are there good private options?

Middle school is hard across the board - public or private. I know a few folks who put their kids in private for middle then sent back to Wilson. The middle school years are tough ones.

I agree. Deal left me completely underwhelmed. I would much rather see the JKLMs go Pre-K to 8 like a good private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Deal MS represents the utter failure of Michelle Rhee. Why? When she came on board Deal was good. Now that she's gone, Deal has benefitted from $250/sq ft. renovations, skylights, IB programming, organized athletcis, uniforms that fit, fencing teams plus valuable suits for loan, better cafeteria food, excellent band/instrumental options, differentiated instruction, foreign languages. And where is Deal? Major Upper Caucasia. Why isn't Deal's model replicated anywhere else? Easier to wine and dine with the upper NW parents. What school south of the park has I-Macs in every classroom smart boards on every wall, web-based email, excellent musical and theatre facilties, etc.. etc...where else? The parents didn't pay for this stuff. So who did? Who compares? We're going to be forced to pay private tuition in a couple of years because the ever-tight Deal boundaries are only getting tighter and tighter...shrink-wrapping the W3 mostly white kids into one fabulously free and unique MS. 'Nuff Said.

I don't get your post.

I do get this post. On consecutive days, I visited both Deal and Jeferson Middle Schools. The fact that Deal is provided with everything it needs to thrive and Jefferson is literally left to "die on the vine" is what the pp is getting at. Kids at Jefferson ( and many other schools I am sure ) are left to learn in truly abominable conditions...from the quality of teaching to the obvious health hazards throughout the building.

There are bright spots at Jefferson and everywhere, I am sure. But the obvious feeling of neglect there when compared to Deal feels downright criminal.

After these visits I resolved that anyone who asks me what is going on in the dcps education system needs a field trip to these two campuses and THEN we can start to talk about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Deal MS represents the utter failure of Michelle Rhee. Why? When she came on board Deal was good. Now that she's gone, Deal has benefitted from $250/sq ft. renovations, skylights, IB programming, organized athletcis, uniforms that fit, fencing teams plus valuable suits for loan, better cafeteria food, excellent band/instrumental options, differentiated instruction, foreign languages. And where is Deal? Major Upper Caucasia. Why isn't Deal's model replicated anywhere else? Easier to wine and dine with the upper NW parents. What school south of the park has I-Macs in every classroom smart boards on every wall, web-based email, excellent musical and theatre facilties, etc.. etc...where else? The parents didn't pay for this stuff. So who did? Who compares? We're going to be forced to pay private tuition in a couple of years because the ever-tight Deal boundaries are only getting tighter and tighter...shrink-wrapping the W3 mostly white kids into one fabulously free and unique MS. 'Nuff Said.

I don't get your post.

I do get this post. On consecutive days, I visited both Deal and Jeferson Middle Schools. The fact that Deal is provided with everything it needs to thrive and Jefferson is literally left to "die on the vine" is what the pp is getting at. Kids at Jefferson ( and many other schools I am sure ) are left to learn in truly abominable conditions...from the quality of teaching to the obvious health hazards throughout the building.

I get it too. Point is also that the kids at Deal, due to their SES, are likely to excel anyway, when kids that may need extra resources don't get it. Why?? It's completely unfair.


To other posters who are debating middle school in private then back to public for high school, I can totally get that too. As far as I can tell (though my kid is very young), people talk about Deal, Hardy, and Washington Latin for middle school around here (of course, if you're in-boundary for one of the two, different story, no worries!). Long odds on getting into those if you're not in boundary (and for the charter, obviously). For high school, my impression is that there are slightly more chances for a decent public education. I could be wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middle schools are the one place I have considered private. More and more I think of middle school as the place our education system falls down. Are there good private options?

Middle school is hard across the board - public or private. I know a few folks who put their kids in private for middle then sent back to Wilson. The middle school years are tough ones.

I agree. Deal left me completely underwhelmed. I would much rather see the JKLMs go Pre-K to 8 like a good private school.

Current Deal parent here. What was it about the school that you found underwhelming? I am not being snarky, I am really curious. I am curious because this is so different from our experience with Deal. It has surpassed our expectations in almost every way. I thank my lucky stars that Deal is our in-boundary school. In fact, our JKLM ES is inferior to Deal in many ways (not just facilities) and it is Deal that kept us in DCPS. Deal has a fabulous principal and the most responsive faculty and staff we have ever experienced. Our academically advanced child is challenged and learning. We are so happy that our child was able to start Deal in 6th grade instead of staying in elementary for that year. So please, tell us what was so underwhelming.
As an aside, I know of several families that left both charters and privates for Wilson this year. Not saying that everything there is golden right now but things are looking up.

[Anonymous]

Our child was on track for Stuart Hobson, but we ended up chosing Washington Latin. I think there is a bit of a private school feel academically, but the big drawback are the facilities. S-H has good test scores and the kids win all sorts of academic awards (which to me indicates that there is the ability for higher achieving children to excel) but when the vice principal told a group of prospective parents that they "teach to the test" we decided to look elsewhere. We (DC included) are happy at Latin.

[Anonymous]

We're in boundary for Deal and thought about sending our kid there (older sibling in private MS). We were coming from DCPS elementary. But we decided to go private for several reasons, one of them being we didn't like the high school options at all, and figured that competition is going to be extremely tough for private 9th grade, what with all the Deal and Hardy kids who decide to go private, as well as the private K-8 grads. But MS is tough everywhere.