"The current system is unsustainable." Really?

[Anonymous]

I think what is unsustainable about this is that the boundaries have not changes in 40 years, so now at schools like Wilson and Deal, there are too many IB people and those with feeder rights. Thus, boundaries/feeder relationships have to change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think what is unsustainable about this is that the boundaries have not changes in 40 years, so now at schools like Wilson and Deal, there are too many IB people and those with feeder rights. Thus, boundaries/feeder relationships have to change.

Yup, and everyone is crying "foul" b/c let's face it, no one likes change especially when some will lose access to the best schools in the entire system, Deal and Wilson.

I've lived in many other parts of the country and never seen one instance where everyone was all for school boundary changes even when everyone agreed it was needed.

[Anonymous]

I'm basically new to DC too, and I will say what no one else is saying. It's only a crisis now because non-AA children are being impacted. I could be wrong, but the bad schools have always been bad, it's just now people care because non-AA kids are now in what use to be predominately AA neighborhoods.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm basically new to DC too, and I will say what no one else is saying. It's only a crisis now because non-AA children are being impacted. I could be wrong, but the bad schools have always been bad, it's just now people care because non-AA kids are now in what use to be predominately AA neighborhoods.

I disagree. It's a crisis because high SES children of all hues are being impacted. In the past, many high SES AA families used WOTP schools as an escape valve for pent up demand for high quality schools. Now that WOTP schools are filled with neighborhood kids and charters are increasingly difficult to get into, high SES families across the color spectrum are declaring it a crisis. They want to stay in the city and see their palatable options dwindling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm basically new to DC too, and I will say what no one else is saying. It's only a crisis now because non-AA children are being impacted. I could be wrong, but the bad schools have always been bad, it's just now people care because non-AA kids are now in what use to be predominately AA neighborhoods.

I disagree. It's a crisis because high SES children of all hues are being impacted. In the past, many high SES AA families used WOTP schools as an escape valve for pent up demand for high quality schools. Now that WOTP schools are filled with neighborhood kids and charters are increasingly difficult to get into, high SES families across the color spectrum are declaring it a crisis. They want to stay in the city and see their palatable options dwindling.

^^I should add that poor AA kids have pretty much always gotten the shaft under DCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm basically new to DC too, and I will say what no one else is saying. It's only a crisis now because non-AA children are being impacted. I could be wrong, but the bad schools have always been bad, it's just now people care because non-AA kids are now in what use to be predominately AA neighborhoods.

+10000 Now having bad schools is a crisis b/c white children will be impacted by the dismal state of DCPS outside Ward 4.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm basically new to DC too, and I will say what no one else is saying. It's only a crisis now because non-AA children are being impacted. I could be wrong, but the bad schools have always been bad, it's just now people care because non-AA kids are now in what use to be predominately AA neighborhoods.

+10000 Now having bad schools is a crisis b/c white children will be impacted by the dismal state of DCPS outside Ward 4.

sorry typo. Meant Ward 3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The crisis is that with the OOB feeder system, there's no place to put the ever-growing population of students who all have rights to attend the same TWO schools.

This only applies to Deal, Wilson and JKLMM schools, 5 elementary and one middle and one high school. The rest of DCPS are underenrolled with very few exceptions like Ross.

Would it be fair to say that there are two crises - an overcrowding crisis in the schools you list, plus a quality crisis elsewhere - and that this plan attempts to address those two crises, and other problems that do not rise to the leve of crisis, at the same time?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm basically new to DC too, and I will say what no one else is saying. It's only a crisis now because non-AA children are being impacted. I could be wrong, but the bad schools have always been bad, it's just now people care because non-AA kids are now in what use to be predominately AA neighborhoods.

I disagree. It's a crisis because high SES children of all hues are being impacted. In the past, many high SES AA families used WOTP schools as an escape valve for pent up demand for high quality schools. Now that WOTP schools are filled with neighborhood kids and charters are increasingly difficult to get into, high SES families across the color spectrum are declaring it a crisis. They want to stay in the city and see their palatable options dwindling.

^^I should add that poor AA kids have pretty much always gotten the shaft under DCPS.

NP. I totally agree with the above post. I am a native Washingtonian and product of DCPS - Tubman/Hearst, Deal, Banneker. My IB elementary was Tubman and it was definitely not meeting my needs. I escaped, as a OOB student, to Hearst and then went to to Deal and Banneker. So I definitely agree that the problems with schools EOTP are not new for AA families. The solution for some AA families was the OOB option - it was simple (one form) and we had our pick of the schools. However, the OOB pipeline began to tighten when IB families returned to the IB schools and it's been getting worse culminating into what we have today, which is everyone trying to squeeze into to Deal and ultimately Wilson.

In my opinion, there are two choices - move to upper NW/privates/charters/suburbs or stay and work with DCPS to build up your neighborhood school. Either way, I realize that the problems with DC's public schools are hard, systemic, and will take dedication, honesty and commitment from all stakeholders (parents, politicians, school administrators, educators) to fix.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The crisis is that with the OOB feeder system, there's no place to put the ever-growing population of students who all have rights to attend the same TWO schools.

This only applies to Deal, Wilson and JKLMM schools, 5 elementary and one middle and one high school. The rest of DCPS are underenrolled with very few exceptions like Ross.

Would it be fair to say that there are two crises - an overcrowding crisis in the schools you list, plus a quality crisis elsewhere - and that this plan attempts to address those two crises, and other problems that do not rise to the leve of crisis, at the same time?

Exactly. The first is a new problem reflecting improving schools, and the second is an old problem that we should have been addressing for years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The crisis is that with the OOB feeder system, there's no place to put the ever-growing population of students who all have rights to attend the same TWO schools.

This only applies to Deal, Wilson and JKLMM schools, 5 elementary and one middle and one high school. The rest of DCPS are underenrolled with very few exceptions like Ross.

Would it be fair to say that there are two crises - an overcrowding crisis in the schools you list, plus a quality crisis elsewhere - and that this plan attempts to address those two crises, and other problems that do not rise to the leve of crisis, at the same time?

Exactly. The first is a new problem reflecting improving schools, and the second is an old problem that we should have been addressing for years.

and I would go further to say charters are a mixed blessing in that they provided relief for some from poor quality schools and really stalled improvement of other schools that could have been just as good as the charter schools that parents fled to, if parents had stayed to improve their assigned neighborhood school

[Anonymous]

There is also the problem with schools like Eliot-Hine, Jefferson and Payne that are 2/3 empty and the city is renovating and heating and cooling at great expense. I think all three of those schools are on the upswing, but would the money used to have so many schools open be spent better with massive early intervention or tutoring or whatever?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. So, if I understand correctly, the Ward 3 schools are packed. Increasingly, they are packed by IB students, which force more and more OOB kids into either charters, private, or the suburbs.

So, other than the fact that the District's population is rising, what is new about any this that hasn't been the case for decades? If anything, a rising population (of presumably relatively high SES families) will improve the quality of local schools as a result. Or perhaps as others elsewhere have stated, these kids' parents will prefer to enroll them in new charters or privates because they demand good schools.

Again, I understand the angst as I have a very young child myself. But I fail to see any new 'crisis' here that hasn't been going on for many generations.

The crisis is that with the OOB feeder system, there's no place to put the ever-growing population of students who all have rights to attend the same TWO schools.

This only applies to Deal, Wilson and JKLMM schools, 5 elementary and one middle and one high school. The rest of DCPS are underenrolled with very few exceptions like Ross.

Where are you getting that? I just went through all the elementary schools in Ward 1 to see where they're under-enrolled.

Bancroft has no available seats for any grade.
Bruce Monroe has one seat for 5th grade.
Cleveland has one seat in 4th grade and 3 in 5th grade.
Cooke has a handful of seats per grade available for kindergarten, 3rd grade and 5th grade.
Marie Reed has a few seats per grade for 2, 3, 4 and 5.
Tubman has 1 seat for 5th grade.

I get that the Ward 3 schools have no seats available for any grade, but these are hardly empty buildings. People attend them. What was your point?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. So, if I understand correctly, the Ward 3 schools are packed. Increasingly, they are packed by IB students, which force more and more OOB kids into either charters, private, or the suburbs.

So, other than the fact that the District's population is rising, what is new about any this that hasn't been the case for decades? If anything, a rising population (of presumably relatively high SES families) will improve the quality of local schools as a result. Or perhaps as others elsewhere have stated, these kids' parents will prefer to enroll them in new charters or privates because they demand good schools.

Again, I understand the angst as I have a very young child myself. But I fail to see any new 'crisis' here that hasn't been going on for many generations.

The crisis is that with the OOB feeder system, there's no place to put the ever-growing population of students who all have rights to attend the same TWO schools.

This only applies to Deal, Wilson and JKLMM schools, 5 elementary and one middle and one high school. The rest of DCPS are underenrolled with very few exceptions like Ross.

Where are you getting that? I just went through all the elementary schools in Ward 1 to see where they're under-enrolled.

Bancroft has no available seats for any grade.
Bruce Monroe has one seat for 5th grade.
Cleveland has one seat in 4th grade and 3 in 5th grade.
Cooke has a handful of seats per grade available for kindergarten, 3rd grade and 5th grade.
Marie Reed has a few seats per grade for 2, 3, 4 and 5.
Tubman has 1 seat for 5th grade.

I get that the Ward 3 schools have no seats available for any grade, but these are hardly empty buildings. People attend them. What was your point?

This much crowding in these schools is relatively new. Ward 5 schools are still hovering in the 60% capacity though Burroughs may be able to pull that up this year. I think many other schools in the upper ward 7 area are also way below capacity and many of the middle and high schools are way below capcity.

[Anonymous]

Bancroft may not have taken anyone in the lottery, but the building is only at 87% capacity (according to the DME materials). A school can elect to operate below capacity (see also: Hardy).