Opinions about Bancroft

[Anonymous]

Hearst is a good option with a smaller nurturing climate.

[Anonymous]

Hearst or West would be viable options. Both schools are small with a nurturing climate.

[Anonymous]

We're IB for Bancroft, got a spot for PK4 last year and turned it down. Mostly for the same reasons you named: the gut feeling that the school was not there yet. DC is now in her second year at YY and very happy. If you want rigor, you'll get it there (and you'll get language immersion, even if it is not Spanish...).
Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A good friend interviewed for a teaching position there and was offered the job...several times, but she turned it down because she did not like the vibe of the school. There are some Mt. Pleasant families that attend but most that I know have opted for charters like Inspired Learning, CapCity, etc. We live in Petworth and sometimes go there on weekends to use the playgrounds and there are rarely other families there--just groups of guys playing soccer, which tells me something. I think a sign of a healthy, community school is when families hang out there.

Let me see if I'm getting this right. You have no personal experience with the school. You know someone who says they turned down a teaching job because of a "vibe", as opposed to concerns about let's say, curriculum or FARM level? You don't even live in ward 1 but you can judge based on "sometimes" seeing guys play soccer in a space designed for soccer? News flash. If you live in a heavily Hispanic neighborhood and you DON'T see guys (as in residents or family) playing soccer, then there is something wrong.

By the way, many of the guys you apparently find objectionable in some way also have kids at Inspired Teaching and other charters. Stay on your side of 16th if you're that freaked out.

Bite me sweetheart. I lived in Mt. Pleasant for 16 years and still own property on Park Road. So both sides of 16th are of interest me.
Were you there during the riots? i was. How long have you been there? I'm very tuned into MtP and have been tracking Bancroft for quite a bit longer than you have, I'm quite sure. Quite. Anyway, you get these testy boosters all over the city who are desperate to promote their mediocre school so they try to snow their professional, college educated neighbors into thinking its a great, or improving or promising or whatever school. And i get it because attracting children from families with higher incomes is one proven path to getting a critical mass of successful students. It's a tough nut. Anyway, I researched and toured and talked to parents but decided not to send my son there.

[Anonymous]

We are IB for Bancroft too, and REALLY wanted to feel confident about it. But, we just weren't. It has attracted more middle class families in the last few years and it has a relatively new principal, but we felt like the challenges with the school were fairly entrenched and wouldn't change soon enough for our kids.

We use the playground on weekends and talk to some families who are happy there. But we got a spot at Mundo Verde and jumped on it. While it is in the same neighborhood and is also Spanish immersion , culturally it is a a world apart. Very nimble and energetic with an accessible administration and a well-thought out philosophy.

I don't think the OP is being too demanding and she can certainly be happy at a traditional DCPS or charter school. It just may be that Bancroft isn't the right option for her child. I'm sorry if that's the case.

[Anonymous]

It seems like Bancroft may just be transitioning into communicating more effectively with the middle class famililies since the area is changing.

[Anonymous]

5:42, it is more problemmatic than that. Bancroft suffers from the same issues as the recently renovated HD Cooke. Even if you took every single middle class kid living in a MtP rowhouse and forced them to go to Bancroft, they would still be outnumbered by the number of FARMS students, so the school would continue to focus on serving that population. Now, that might not be true if 50% of Bancroft was not OOB, but for that to change, you would need middle class neighborhood parents to stay with the school and force the administration to address their issues, which doesn't seem to happen, as all the neighborhood families I know wind up peeling off. It's a chicken/egg problem.

Indeed, it also seems---from looking at school and OOB data, that the Latino community in some way self-segregates into schools like Bancroft and Powell---how else to explain schools which are over 50% Latino even when the neighborhood immediately around them is much more racially diverse. And I also wonder if DCPS is tacitly encouraging this.

[Anonymous]

10:33, that is an excellent point. The neighborhood does not match the demographics of the school. I guess that may be a warning sign. How is Oyster compared to Bancroft? I hear Oyster has a stellar program so why isin't Bancroft incorporating what Oyster does?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:10:33, that is an excellent point. The neighborhood does not match the demographics of the school. I guess that may be a warning sign. How is Oyster compared to Bancroft? I hear Oyster has a stellar program so why isin't Bancroft incorporating what Oyster does?

Perhaps because Bancroft can't incorporate 20 years of history in Cleveland Park/Woodley Park?

I know that sounds snarky, the point is that it just isn't that simple. First of all it's a DCPS school, not a charter. It's not like they get to make independent programmatic, curricular, or staffing decisions. Second of all, and equally large, is the cultural inertia of what's already there. By way of example I offer the cluster schools on the Hill and Brent and Maury. There's actually a critical mass of middle and upper-middle class parents on the Hill who would be happy to have their elementary students feed into a quality MS program. However, the DCPS philosophy is apparently that these students need to be spread around, so that they can be used as good little examples in the poor performing classrooms, to raise a school's scores and teach its students how to behave.

Schools like Mundo Verde get to start fresh.

[Anonymous]

Parent of Bancroft student here. I love the school because of the teacher's hard work. This is my sons 2nd year at the school. However, I am concerned about the work load of the teachers. Last year and even this year the teachers have complained about the amount of work that is being placed on them by administration. Also, it seems like there is some type of disconnect between teachers and admin. When the teachers OPENLY belittle admin to parents then its obvious a lack of respect exists.

[Anonymous]

The workload is district-wide. I think teachers over DCPS feel the pressure of the workload so maybe its not necessarily school admin enforcing the pressure but perhaps central office. But, teachers openly discussing concerns about admin to parents does warrant some internal issues.

[Anonymous]

Didn't they all accept a gigantic pay-hike in the new contract? Was there supposed to be nothing in exchange?

[Anonymous]

OP, some of the things you describe (poorly written schoolwork, low test scores) simply reflect the school's demographics. Bancroft's scores are pretty much in line with other DCPS schools with a similar % of low income Latinos.

Our child (third year at Bancroft) loves school and has made good friends, and we've liked his teachers. To me that's half the equation. I didn't worry about academics much in preschool but am more now that he's in K. But I felt reassured at our first parent-teacher conference when the teacher said he had been tested and will be placed in a group with other advanced readers.

Others have complained that the principal is not very visible. My take on it is that she's not an extrovert and chatting up parents doesn't come naturally to her. (Not that she couldn't try harder.) She's also still pretty new and is maybe still building confidence. The asst principal is only in her second year.

The principal has put a big emphasis on raising test scores, and while math jumped up 2 years ago (then dropped slightly last year) reading has stayed flat. Personally I would like to know more about what is and isn't working. There will be a public meeting later this year (in Jan?) to talk about the scores and I urge anyone thinking about Bancroft to attend.

One thing about Bancroft that may set it apart from Cooke, Francis Stevens, etc. is that a handful of middle class families stay all the way through fifth. Their kids seem to be thriving--many were in Bancroft's wonderful spring musical, and I was really impressed by their poised performances and how they moved effortless between Englsh and Spanish. Parents with doubts about Bancroft may want to talk to some of these families about why Bancroft works for them.

[Anonymous]

We applied to Bancroft OOB. Why? It feeds to Deal.

You may ask "aren't you worried about the school's performance?" No. We would be considered upper middle class. Our children will be fine wherever they attend school.

We didn't get a spot by the way, but I may try again depending on what happens at our current charter school.

The last thing I will say is this: I am rather fatigued by the attitude of some school administrators toward families (parents) that are high SES. I think many would prefer parents who are mostly deferential rather than those who ask hard questions. The problem with that approach is that it is very short sighted. All parents should be encouraged to partner with the school and to bring whatever resources they have to improve outcomes for all students

[Anonymous]

11:19 that is so true!