Can anyone provide nuts & bolts advice how parents have gotten together to improve their local DCPS?

[Anonymous]

But watch out for being accused of being a gentrifier...there was a big article in the City Paper about a few parents who tried to improve Ross under the long-term principal who left about 5 years ago. They were accused of a lot of nasty things, publicly. Now all that they wanted has been implemented there. They forged the way in my opinion with the same attitude that Rhee displayed, but before it was fashionable! see if you can find it in the archives for what not to do

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Wow, you're trying to do this the hard way.

The historically easiest path is to recruit a group of parents with a shared vision for a unique high quality charter school.

Instead of trying to cobble together a group of a dozen parents who will collapse when they actually come face to face with the horrors of HD Cooke or Shepherd or Ross, put your energy into a school where you can make a difference in the quality. You'll be following the tradition(s) of: Cap City, Two Rivers, Yu Ying, and others.

There are 3 new charters opening next fall. Register for one of them before you kill yourself over a local DCPS. You don't owe it to society at large to sacrifice your child to the "Lord of the Flies."

I'm not sure I would call Ross, Shepard or Cooke a "nightmare." Ross is pretty sought after by neighborhood parents at this point b/c parents did what the above poster suggested. Cooke has a ways to go to be anything like Ross, but it certainly is not a nightmare for parents of 3-5 year olds. I'm pretty sure the same is true of Shepard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Wow, you're trying to do this the hard way.

The historically easiest path is to recruit a group of parents with a shared vision for a unique high quality charter school.

Instead of trying to cobble together a group of a dozen parents who will collapse when they actually come face to face with the horrors of HD Cooke or Shepherd or Ross, put your energy into a school where you can make a difference in the quality. You'll be following the tradition(s) of: Cap City, Two Rivers, Yu Ying, and others.

There are 3 new charters opening next fall. Register for one of them before you kill yourself over a local DCPS. You don't owe it to society at large to sacrifice your child to the "Lord of the Flies."

I'm not sure I would call Ross, Shepard or Cooke a "nightmare." Ross is pretty sought after by neighborhood parents at this point b/c parents did what the above poster suggested. Cooke has a ways to go to be anything like Ross, but it certainly is not a nightmare for parents of 3-5 year olds. I'm pretty sure the same is true of Shepard.

We have some good friends for whom Cooke is their inbounds school, so they've checked it out thoroughly. Nice new building, but it's still pretty awful. Their choices in order of preference are: charter, OOB west of the park, private (they only have one child, so private is a valid option), & move.

[Anonymous]

OP Here. Thanks to everyone who has responded so far. I really appreciate the insight and concrete strategies that have been contributed.

Re: the original post, its really just a question I posed out of honest interest in the subject. I'm not a leader of the current move to improve Walker Jones, far from it, just someone who recently found out about the effort and was interested in how parents have succeeded with such a project in the past. Also, it seemed like something a lot of other DCUM readers in changing neighborhoods would be interested in as well. I'm not trying to do anything "the hard way", but the exact opposite -- gather some community wisdom, lessons learned, effective strategies for anyone who might be thinking/planning such efforts.

For what its worth, I'm African-American myself and my grandmother actually taught at Walker Jones when I was small. At the same time, we're solidly part of the gentrifying trend (dual professional couple).
Personally, I'm not sure where we will send our 2 1/2 year old next year, not committing until we assess all of the options (DCPS, parochial, charter and private). Wherever we end up, its truly helpful for me to better understand how a parent can most strategically commit time/talent/treasure to their local school.

Thanks again,

Jen

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First, get more middle class people with college degrees or higher to move into your neighborhood. You'll need an overwhelming surge of these people to offset the losses to charter schools, Stoddert/Eaton/Hearst, and parochial choices.

This is the "secret" of the "good" schools West of the park and I think one of them on Cap Hill. It's pretty basic. It's not like they have magic principals and teachers and unique curriculum.

Mostly, this.

[Anonymous]

It's a great idea to get involved with your local school. And there is much you can contribute. The downside is, by the time the improvements kick in, your child will age out of the school.

The one area where parents really don't have much say is curriculum, which in DCPS is pretty mediocre throughout the system, even at the the so-called "good" schools. This is especially true at the elementary level. The middle school curriculum isn't that great either.

After seven years of PTA, LSRT, etc., I pulled my child out of DCPS, homeschooled through middle school and then sent him to a private school with an excellent curriculum.

I wish you the best of luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[

We have some good friends for whom Cooke is their inbounds school, so they've checked it out thoroughly. Nice new building, but it's still pretty awful. Their choices in order of preference are: charter, OOB west of the park, private (they only have one child, so private is a valid option), & move.

Awful how? Lots of poor black kids? B/c when I looked at it what I saw was "nice new building, great principal, great PS teachers and an active PTA". Awful was not a word that sprang to mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[

We have some good friends for whom Cooke is their inbounds school, so they've checked it out thoroughly. Nice new building, but it's still pretty awful. Their choices in order of preference are: charter, OOB west of the park, private (they only have one child, so private is a valid option), & move.

Awful how? Lots of poor black kids? B/c when I looked at it what I saw was "nice new building, great principal, great PS teachers and an active PTA". Awful was not a word that sprang to mind.

They were looking for a school where the educational opportunities were exemplary, the instruction was at or above grade level, and there was a community of families with high standards for achievement (grad school or better).

[Anonymous]

Cooke parent here. We are working as hard as we can to become an active, engaged force that helps improve our local school, and this thread has (mostly) been very helpful and inspiring to me. Cooke isn't awful - but it's not for everyone. If you want your child to go to school with people who are very much like you (grad school graduates or better), then Cooke is not your place. Academically, though, educational opportunities are exemplary, at least in our experience thus far.

[Anonymous]

Another Cooke parent here. Ditto. My kids are getting a great education so far, and the teachers are top notch. We struggle with the same issues as everywhere else (disorganized administration, not great aftercare, lack of communication), but we are really working hard to try to address these issues. I don't think that Cooke can be characterized as "awful."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cooke parent here.... If you want your child to go to school with people who are very much like you (grad school graduates or better), then Cooke is not your place.

Though PP sounded a bit supercilious, I think when they wrote "a community of families with high standards for achievement (grad school or better)" they meant their expectations for their children was to go on to grad school, etc...

Not that that sounds much better.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the PP who said the best way to improve the school is to get a lot of middle class parents to enroll. Not politically correct, but true.

[Anonymous]

My question is, how do you get them engaged when they get there? We have a critical mass of such middle & upper middle class folks, but we struggle to get them to do anything. They are always "too busy," or asking why someone else can't help out. Meanwhile, my friends at Oyster are staying up late on Sunday nights baking 300 cupcakes because the PTA at Oyster said they had to. How do I get that power??????

[Anonymous]

Brent parent here - first thing (and this is key) you need at least 5 or 6 professional parents to form a base. This needs to be a solid group of commited parents (AA, white, blue, purple...but they need to be commited to going to the school no matter what). Once it appears that real, deadicated professional parents are going to be going to the school - and leading an effort - people will follow.

Why I fought to get my kid into Brent? On the backs of the hard work of the few parents who met regularly and started the change at that school. It wasn't the greatest...but now people choose to go there. People were commited to go there.

If you want to make WJ a better a school (which appears OP to be your intent) - get a few other families from your neighborhood and start meeting. Meet regularly. Get to know each other...know the school. Know the principal, know the teachers, visit, know the parents of students.

Ask the school "what do you need" - and then see if there are things that you as professionals can bring to the school to make it better.

THanks how you fix a school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Brent parent here - first thing (and this is key) you need at least 5 or 6 professional parents to form a base. This needs to be a solid group of commited parents (AA, white, blue, purple...but they need to be commited to going to the school no matter what). Once it appears that real, deadicated professional parents are going to be going to the school - and leading an effort - people will follow.

Why I fought to get my kid into Brent? On the backs of the hard work of the few parents who met regularly and started the change at that school. It wasn't the greatest...but now people choose to go there. People were commited to go there.

If you want to make WJ a better a school (which appears OP to be your intent) - get a few other families from your neighborhood and start meeting. Meet regularly. Get to know each other...know the school. Know the principal, know the teachers, visit, know the parents of students.

Ask the school "what do you need" - and then see if there are things that you as professionals can bring to the school to make it better.

THanks how you fix a school.

Okay, I know you mean well, but this is like so much smoke being blown up our asses. Honestly? Those Capitol Hill law partners who are willing to throw tens of thousands of dollars at Brent for their annual fundraiser, so that they have a viable elementary option before going private or charter aren't really the example the rest of the city can rely upon for a school turn-around.