Experience with Macfarland?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my kid there is way above grade level and having a good time. Likes teachers and classes.

DCUM conventional wisdom is just gonna be what it's gonna be. People don't come here to learn, they come here for (self-)reinforcement.

I mean, good for your kid. But I think it’s also important to know you are an extreme minority. Most people for good reasons seek out settings where they are not extreme outliers. And I’m not talking about race - I’m talking about academic need. Basically you likely have very specific personal/family/kid quirks that are far from generalizable for most DCUM parents.

You know neither the PP or most DCUM parents… why do you feel that you can speak for/about them??

I can look at the numbers at MacFarland and pretty clearly conclude that most DCUM parents’ choice to send their kid there would be very counter-cultural for our socio-economic class (again NOT race). If you’re a counter-cultural family, cool, go for it. But there’s always the ONE parent who insists “my kid is THRIVING at [x terrible school] and you need to take that with a giant grain of salt because it likely will not be acceptable to most of us. (And as it pertains to MS, do ask them where they plan to send Jr to HS. It’s not Dunbar. Usually they plan to go private or assume Walls admission.)

yes - why do you feel the need to post when you do not have experience at McFarland??

b/c parents have to be less naive when they ask these questions.

if someone says they are “so happy” at a school that is objectively struggling, ask the following:

- where do you plan to send your child to HS? (or MS if elementary now)
- does your child have any special needs? (if relevant to you)
- how long has your child been at the school?
- do your prioritize academics? how is the school preparing your child for HS in math and writing?
- what kind of child do you have? easy kid, sensitive kid, sporty kid …?
- what kind of enrichment activities does your child do at school/after school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my kid there is way above grade level and having a good time. Likes teachers and classes.

DCUM conventional wisdom is just gonna be what it's gonna be. People don't come here to learn, they come here for (self-)reinforcement.

I mean, good for your kid. But I think it’s also important to know you are an extreme minority. Most people for good reasons seek out settings where they are not extreme outliers. And I’m not talking about race - I’m talking about academic need. Basically you likely have very specific personal/family/kid quirks that are far from generalizable for most DCUM parents.

You know neither the PP or most DCUM parents… why do you feel that you can speak for/about them??

I can look at the numbers at MacFarland and pretty clearly conclude that most DCUM parents’ choice to send their kid there would be very counter-cultural for our socio-economic class (again NOT race). If you’re a counter-cultural family, cool, go for it. But there’s always the ONE parent who insists “my kid is THRIVING at [x terrible school] and you need to take that with a giant grain of salt because it likely will not be acceptable to most of us. (And as it pertains to MS, do ask them where they plan to send Jr to HS. It’s not Dunbar. Usually they plan to go private or assume Walls admission.)

\]

I love that this thread is literally called "experience at MacFarland", a parent shared their experience, and then a person who does not have family there told them that their experience was wrong.
Took less than 1 page for this to reach peak DCUM

my post is how to interpret people’s representation about their experience. very valid.

NP but no. Not valid. Your post is how to discredit first-hand experience with your preconceptions about a school

I'm not even zoned for Macfarland but you're adding nothing to the thread other than undiluted obnoxious DCUM je ne sais quoi.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my kid there is way above grade level and having a good time. Likes teachers and classes.

DCUM conventional wisdom is just gonna be what it's gonna be. People don't come here to learn, they come here for (self-)reinforcement.

I mean, good for your kid. But I think it’s also important to know you are an extreme minority. Most people for good reasons seek out settings where they are not extreme outliers. And I’m not talking about race - I’m talking about academic need. Basically you likely have very specific personal/family/kid quirks that are far from generalizable for most DCUM parents.

You know neither the PP or most DCUM parents… why do you feel that you can speak for/about them??

I can look at the numbers at MacFarland and pretty clearly conclude that most DCUM parents’ choice to send their kid there would be very counter-cultural for our socio-economic class (again NOT race). If you’re a counter-cultural family, cool, go for it. But there’s always the ONE parent who insists “my kid is THRIVING at [x terrible school] and you need to take that with a giant grain of salt because it likely will not be acceptable to most of us. (And as it pertains to MS, do ask them where they plan to send Jr to HS. It’s not Dunbar. Usually they plan to go private or assume Walls admission.)

\]

I love that this thread is literally called "experience at MacFarland", a parent shared their experience, and then a person who does not have family there told them that their experience was wrong.
Took less than 1 page for this to reach peak DCUM

my post is how to interpret people’s representation about their experience. very valid.

NP but no. Not valid. Your post is how to discredit first-hand experience with your preconceptions about a school

I'm not even zoned for Macfarland but you're adding nothing to the thread other than undiluted obnoxious DCUM je ne sais quoi.

NP. Data doesn’t lie. But lots of boosters on DCUM of failing schools who twist the truth to fit their agenda and convince themselves that they made the right choice. Fact.

[Anonymous]

PP says their child is in 7th and taking Algebra next year in 8th.

That gives me pause, because at Deal Algebra is offered in 7th for above grade level students, and an "advanced" learner would be in Geometry by 8th.

Is that not one of the options at Macfarland?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my kid there is way above grade level and having a good time. Likes teachers and classes.

DCUM conventional wisdom is just gonna be what it's gonna be. People don't come here to learn, they come here for (self-)reinforcement.

I mean, good for your kid. But I think it’s also important to know you are an extreme minority. Most people for good reasons seek out settings where they are not extreme outliers. And I’m not talking about race - I’m talking about academic need. Basically you likely have very specific personal/family/kid quirks that are far from generalizable for most DCUM parents.

You know neither the PP or most DCUM parents… why do you feel that you can speak for/about them??

I can look at the numbers at MacFarland and pretty clearly conclude that most DCUM parents’ choice to send their kid there would be very counter-cultural for our socio-economic class (again NOT race). If you’re a counter-cultural family, cool, go for it. But there’s always the ONE parent who insists “my kid is THRIVING at [x terrible school] and you need to take that with a giant grain of salt because it likely will not be acceptable to most of us. (And as it pertains to MS, do ask them where they plan to send Jr to HS. It’s not Dunbar. Usually they plan to go private or assume Walls admission.)

\]

I love that this thread is literally called "experience at MacFarland", a parent shared their experience, and then a person who does not have family there told them that their experience was wrong.
Took less than 1 page for this to reach peak DCUM

my post is how to interpret people’s representation about their experience. very valid.

NP but no. Not valid. Your post is how to discredit first-hand experience with your preconceptions about a school

I'm not even zoned for Macfarland but you're adding nothing to the thread other than undiluted obnoxious DCUM je ne sais quoi.

What MS did your child go to, and what is the HS plan?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP says their child is in 7th and taking Algebra next year in 8th.

That gives me pause, because at Deal Algebra is offered in 7th for above grade level students, and an "advanced" learner would be in Geometry by 8th.

Is that not one of the options at Macfarland?

That was in the other thread, and that parent was pretty clear that they don’t value acceleration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my kid there is way above grade level and having a good time. Likes teachers and classes.

DCUM conventional wisdom is just gonna be what it's gonna be. People don't come here to learn, they come here for (self-)reinforcement.

I mean, good for your kid. But I think it’s also important to know you are an extreme minority. Most people for good reasons seek out settings where they are not extreme outliers. And I’m not talking about race - I’m talking about academic need. Basically you likely have very specific personal/family/kid quirks that are far from generalizable for most DCUM parents.

You know neither the PP or most DCUM parents… why do you feel that you can speak for/about them??

I can look at the numbers at MacFarland and pretty clearly conclude that most DCUM parents’ choice to send their kid there would be very counter-cultural for our socio-economic class (again NOT race). If you’re a counter-cultural family, cool, go for it. But there’s always the ONE parent who insists “my kid is THRIVING at [x terrible school] and you need to take that with a giant grain of salt because it likely will not be acceptable to most of us. (And as it pertains to MS, do ask them where they plan to send Jr to HS. It’s not Dunbar. Usually they plan to go private or assume Walls admission.)

\]

I love that this thread is literally called "experience at MacFarland", a parent shared their experience, and then a person who does not have family there told them that their experience was wrong.
Took less than 1 page for this to reach peak DCUM

my post is how to interpret people’s representation about their experience. very valid.

NP but no. Not valid. Your post is how to discredit first-hand experience with your preconceptions about a school

I'm not even zoned for Macfarland but you're adding nothing to the thread other than undiluted obnoxious DCUM je ne sais quoi.

NP. Data doesn’t lie. But lots of boosters on DCUM of failing schools who twist the truth to fit their agenda and convince themselves that they made the right choice. Fact.

But OP has access to the data. OP did not ask someone to point her to the data. OP specifically and explicitly asked for first-hand experience, which obnoxious PP did not have. Lack of first-hand experience does not override first-hand experience when first-hand experience is what OP asked for. The idea that OP is too stupid to find or interpret the data herself is condescending and rude.

It's not about boosterism. It's about relevance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP says their child is in 7th and taking Algebra next year in 8th.

That gives me pause, because at Deal Algebra is offered in 7th for above grade level students, and an "advanced" learner would be in Geometry by 8th.

Is that not one of the options at Macfarland?

There were 7 seventh graders total testing proficient in math last year. No, they are not teaching a geometry class. And they shouldn't. Already the algebra class is mostly kids who are not at grade level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my kid there is way above grade level and having a good time. Likes teachers and classes.

DCUM conventional wisdom is just gonna be what it's gonna be. People don't come here to learn, they come here for (self-)reinforcement.

I mean, good for your kid. But I think it’s also important to know you are an extreme minority. Most people for good reasons seek out settings where they are not extreme outliers. And I’m not talking about race - I’m talking about academic need. Basically you likely have very specific personal/family/kid quirks that are far from generalizable for most DCUM parents.

You know neither the PP or most DCUM parents… why do you feel that you can speak for/about them??

I can look at the numbers at MacFarland and pretty clearly conclude that most DCUM parents’ choice to send their kid there would be very counter-cultural for our socio-economic class (again NOT race). If you’re a counter-cultural family, cool, go for it. But there’s always the ONE parent who insists “my kid is THRIVING at [x terrible school] and you need to take that with a giant grain of salt because it likely will not be acceptable to most of us. (And as it pertains to MS, do ask them where they plan to send Jr to HS. It’s not Dunbar. Usually they plan to go private or assume Walls admission.)

\]

I love that this thread is literally called "experience at MacFarland", a parent shared their experience, and then a person who does not have family there told them that their experience was wrong.
Took less than 1 page for this to reach peak DCUM

my post is how to interpret people’s representation about their experience. very valid.

NP but no. Not valid. Your post is how to discredit first-hand experience with your preconceptions about a school

I'm not even zoned for Macfarland but you're adding nothing to the thread other than undiluted obnoxious DCUM je ne sais quoi.

NP. Data doesn’t lie. But lots of boosters on DCUM of failing schools who twist the truth to fit their agenda and convince themselves that they made the right choice. Fact.

But OP has access to the data. OP did not ask someone to point her to the data. OP specifically and explicitly asked for first-hand experience, which obnoxious PP did not have. Lack of first-hand experience does not override first-hand experience when first-hand experience is what OP asked for. The idea that OP is too stupid to find or interpret the data herself is condescending and rude.

It's not about boosterism. It's about relevance.

first hand experiences have to be interpreted through the right lense. and a lot of people conceal or misrepresent (consciously or not).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP says their child is in 7th and taking Algebra next year in 8th.

That gives me pause, because at Deal Algebra is offered in 7th for above grade level students, and an "advanced" learner would be in Geometry by 8th.

Is that not one of the options at Macfarland?

There were 7 seventh graders total testing proficient in math last year. No, they are not teaching a geometry class. And they shouldn't. Already the algebra class is mostly kids who are not at grade level.

This which also confirms one of 2 things. Either OP’s kid is not really above grade level in math or if he is then it’s obvious his needs are not being met in such a majority low performing school where kids are way below grade level.

The 7th graders are not even ready for Algebra.

[Anonymous]

Second-hand experience here from DD's teammate:

Lots of fights and chaos, she felt unsafe. She left after 6th (last year) because she said it was too dangerous. FWIW.

[Anonymous]

MacFarland currently has 2 6th grade accelerated math classes. They are currently teaching algebra concepts in those classes.

Just attempting to be factual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP says their child is in 7th and taking Algebra next year in 8th.

That gives me pause, because at Deal Algebra is offered in 7th for above grade level students, and an "advanced" learner would be in Geometry by 8th.

Is that not one of the options at Macfarland?

There were 7 seventh graders total testing proficient in math last year. No, they are not teaching a geometry class. And they shouldn't. Already the algebra class is mostly kids who are not at grade level.

This which also confirms one of 2 things. Either OP’s kid is not really above grade level in math or if he is then it’s obvious his needs are not being met in such a majority low performing school where kids are way below grade level.

The 7th graders are not even ready for Algebra.

Yes, and this is true at most DCPS middle schools. There are far more kids who are being accelerated into algebra before they're ready then who are in need of more advanced math classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MacFarland currently has 2 6th grade accelerated math classes. They are currently teaching algebra concepts in those classes.

Just attempting to be factual.

Half the sixth graders last year got 1s, 5 kids out of 168 passed, and they thought "you know what we need this year? two accelerated math classes!"

That's kind of amazing when you think of it.

Just attempting to be factual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my kid there is way above grade level and having a good time. Likes teachers and classes.

DCUM conventional wisdom is just gonna be what it's gonna be. People don't come here to learn, they come here for (self-)reinforcement.

I mean, good for your kid. But I think it’s also important to know you are an extreme minority. Most people for good reasons seek out settings where they are not extreme outliers. And I’m not talking about race - I’m talking about academic need. Basically you likely have very specific personal/family/kid quirks that are far from generalizable for most DCUM parents.

You know neither the PP or most DCUM parents… why do you feel that you can speak for/about them??

I can look at the numbers at MacFarland and pretty clearly conclude that most DCUM parents’ choice to send their kid there would be very counter-cultural for our socio-economic class (again NOT race). If you’re a counter-cultural family, cool, go for it. But there’s always the ONE parent who insists “my kid is THRIVING at [x terrible school] and you need to take that with a giant grain of salt because it likely will not be acceptable to most of us. (And as it pertains to MS, do ask them where they plan to send Jr to HS. It’s not Dunbar. Usually they plan to go private or assume Walls admission.)

\]

I love that this thread is literally called "experience at MacFarland", a parent shared their experience, and then a person who does not have family there told them that their experience was wrong.
Took less than 1 page for this to reach peak DCUM

my post is how to interpret people’s representation about their experience. very valid.

NP but no. Not valid. Your post is how to discredit first-hand experience with your preconceptions about a school

I'm not even zoned for Macfarland but you're adding nothing to the thread other than undiluted obnoxious DCUM je ne sais quoi.

NP. Data doesn’t lie. But lots of boosters on DCUM of failing schools who twist the truth to fit their agenda and convince themselves that they made the right choice. Fact.

NP. Data doesn't lie, true. But it's not clear that every parent cares about the data, and at any rate, as a PP said, the data is publicly available, and the OP here sought first-hand experience (i.e., anecdotes) that they're presumably going to use in conjunction with the data. We don't need to come in here and assert that the first-hand experience doesn't matter, when that's specifically what the OP asked for; how is that remotely helpful?

Also, how do you know that the PPs who reported positively about the school are "twisting the truth"? They didn't claim the PARCC scores were wrong, they said their kids were having good experiences at the school despite the data.