what schools feed into Deal right now and what changes are on the horizon?

[Anonymous]

The middle school plan on the link mirrors what happens at Deal. It looks like Deal gave some input to this plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hearst should feed to Hardy. Does not make sense to add it to Deal.

HELLO! Our house is in-bounds for Hearst and FAR FAR FAR closer to Deal (as in "a stone's throw) than Hardy... we currently have our child at Latin, but why should kids in our neighborhood hike to Hardy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The middle school plan on the link mirrors what happens at Deal. It looks like Deal gave some input to this plan.

Ah, if only improving student achievement were as easy as creating a powerpoint presentation...

Tell me, do you also have a slideshow for increasing the educational attainment and decreasing the poverty level of the majority of DC families?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hearst should feed to Hardy. Does not make sense to add it to Deal.

HELLO! Our house is in-bounds for Hearst and FAR FAR FAR closer to Deal (as in "a stone's throw) than Hardy... we currently have our child at Latin, but why should kids in our neighborhood hike to Hardy?

Fine, let the neighborhood kids have Deal as an option by right due to proximity. However, the OOB kids (aka, "the majority of the school") should go elsewhere. The "stone's throw" argument just doesn't apply to them.

Deal is FULL, people. It's a mega-school. It's time to focus on other MS options because everybody west of 16th St. simply can't fit in.

[Anonymous]

I believe Deal is only huge by dcps middle school comparisons. Other middle schools around the country are that big or bigger and always have been.

Why not accommodate and let as many people as possible benefit from its great program rather than shutting the gate? What is the school's official capacity based in its programming?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I believe Deal is only huge by dcps middle school comparisons. Other middle schools around the country are that big or bigger and always have been.

Why not accommodate and let as many people as possible benefit from its great program rather than shutting the gate? What is the school's official capacity based in its programming?

Wrong. Deal is a mega-school by anyone's definition. Almost a thousand students in a middle school is huge. Some experts don't even recommend high schools get anywhere near that large.

[Anonymous]

nope, lots of other schools are that size. Experiencing a large size is important. When did we decide that our kids couldn't handle large settings? Of course they can!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:nope, lots of other schools are that size. Experiencing a large size is important. When did we decide that our kids couldn't handle large settings? Of course they can!

Actually, the experts have been saying this for years. Decades, in fact. It's very well proven and documented that smaller schools do a better job of educating students and closing the achievement gap. The economies of scale are great if all schools do is purchase pencils in bulk. When you start looking at the output in terms of learning and achievement, smaller is proven to be better.

Deal is almost twice the size of similar competing schools (Latin, Hardy, Stuart-Hobson).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:nope, lots of other schools are that size. Experiencing a large size is important. When did we decide that our kids couldn't handle large settings? Of course they can!

Actually, the experts have been saying this for years. Decades, in fact. It's very well proven and documented that smaller schools do a better job of educating students and closing the achievement gap. The economies of scale are great if all schools do is purchase pencils in bulk. When you start looking at the output in terms of learning and achievement, smaller is proven to be better.

Deal is almost twice the size of similar competing schools (Latin, Hardy, Stuart-Hobson).

Well I for one am sick of "so-called" experts telling parents what's best. Deal works for my kid in spite of its size.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:nope, lots of other schools are that size. Experiencing a large size is important. When did we decide that our kids couldn't handle large settings? Of course they can!

Actually, the experts have been saying this for years. Decades, in fact. It's very well proven and documented that smaller schools do a better job of educating students and closing the achievement gap. The economies of scale are great if all schools do is purchase pencils in bulk. When you start looking at the output in terms of learning and achievement, smaller is proven to be better.

Deal is almost twice the size of similar competing schools (Latin, Hardy, Stuart-Hobson).

Well I for one am sick of "so-called" experts telling parents what's best. Deal works for my kid in spite of its size.

Yes, damn those scholars and their studies and their proof and all that rot. The world looks totally flat from your house, right?

[Anonymous]

You can keep your damn studies and proof. I have all the proof I need thank you.

[Anonymous]

School size correlates about as strongly to student achievement as teachers with graduate degrees, teachers with degrees in the subject they teach, and teachers with national board certification. In other words, not very closely at all. When it comes to size, the dominant correlation is the student-to-teacher ratio.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:School size correlates about as strongly to student achievement as teachers with graduate degrees, teachers with degrees in the subject they teach, and teachers with national board certification. In other words, not very closely at all. When it comes to size, the dominant correlation is the student-to-teacher ratio.

Not true, especially with respect to closing the achievement gap. There are numerous studies documenting that smaller schools (urban and rural) do a better job of providing a quality education to all their students. The racial achievement gap can be closed, but school size matters.

[Anonymous]

what studies show that school size matters for closing the achievement gap??

[Anonymous]

Whoever is touting research about small schools being better should remember that the Gates Foundation, after dumping mega money behind the small school concept, and disrupting the educational processes of untold school districts in the process, walked away from the whole mess a few years ago after concluding that smaller schools did not automatically translate into better educational outcomes.