Does it bother anyone else that only DCPS in Ward 1, 2, & 3 seemed to be 'taken care of'

[Anonymous]

Exactly. Because a number of parents at Janney actually *work* at the Washington Post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, many Ward 3 PTAs raise between $300K and $500K a year. If you add that on to a $3.5 million dollar operating budget, it makes a difference.

I wrote a $6k grant for my child's Title I school. We were awarded the grant and DCPS "took it" out of our student activity fund. It took 10 months and me threatening to go to the Washington Post to get it back. Betcha that doesn't happen at Janney...

Wow - unreal. When was this, PP? In the past couple of years? I can assure you it definitely doesn't happen at charter schools, grant-writing is how some of them ramp up their capital funds so quickly.

[Anonymous]

This is a sincere question, borne of curiosity -- OP, In what ways do you think Ward 3 schools are 'taken care of' by the Central Administration that Ward 8 schools are not?

ie, do Ward 3 schools get to pick the very best teachers off a list first, leaving the dregs for other wards? Do Ward 3 schools have lower pupil : teacher ratios? Do they jump to the top of the capital improvements list for gyms and playground equipment, leaving no leftover money for Ward 8? When DCPS gets 100 new laptops as a gift from Dell, do they all go to Ward 3 schools with none leftover for any other Ward?

I have not done any comparison research myself. I am wondering what more DCPS' ** central admin.** should do. (VS. the PTAs)

[Anonymous]

This kind of fund raising has been going on for years. You can go to guidestar.org and look for 990s there.

A "rich" DCPS can sell $40k worth of gift wrap, which is $20K in their coffers. (We can't do that at our mostly low-income school.)

Most of the schools are there. Some a bit, shall we say, delinquent in filing their taxes, but you get the general idea.

And yes, there are grant opportunities (some very large) that are available to charters, but not traditional public schools. (For the record, I have one child in a charter and 2 in a DCPS.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
The schools are taken care of because parents take care of them, or force the city to take care of them. It's about the feeling of entitlement (I use this in a positive way here) that the families in those neighborhoods feel about their right to receive adequate city services. You hear lots of grumbling, but no activism or organizing to make the schools better in the regions you mention.

Also, when your population is largely educated, white collar parents, the children are going to perform well no matter where they go to school. When your population is largely teenaged parented, generations of poor education, and poverty stricken, those kids will struggle no matter where they go to school.




I realize you mean well here, but this post is almost willfully ignorant of the history of segregated schooling in America as well as the historical background of race and privilege in DC. The schools in Ward 3 aren't "taken care of because parents take care of them" as though these parents somehow "took them back" from the mismanagement of DCPS

I think that you misunderstood me completely here. I never meant to say that they "took them back" from DCPS, but rather that the schools are reflective of the priviledged children who attend it. I think that we are actually in complete agreement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a sincere question, borne of curiosity -- OP, In what ways do you think Ward 3 schools are 'taken care of' by the Central Administration that Ward 8 schools are not?

ie, do Ward 3 schools get to pick the very best teachers off a list first, leaving the dregs for other wards? Do Ward 3 schools have lower pupil : teacher ratios? Do they jump to the top of the capital improvements list for gyms and playground equipment, leaving no leftover money for Ward 8? When DCPS gets 100 new laptops as a gift from Dell, do they all go to Ward 3 schools with none leftover for any other Ward?

I have not done any comparison research myself. I am wondering what more DCPS' ** central admin.** should do. (VS. the PTAs)

Well, there are some issues around contracts with the teacher's union which don't do much to help poorer schools. Teachers with the most seniority get to pick their schools and not surprisingly, they choose the ones with the fewest number of problems. So there's a system in place whereby the most senior teachers are rewarded the most for choosing the easiest-to-teach-in schools. Rhee is trying to provide extra compensation for teachers who choose to work in tougher schools but the teachers union management won't let their members vote on it. So the new order is going to come into being "all stick and no carrot." Too bad. That's one way the teacher's union could have gotten on board with helping disadvantaged schools, but that's not what teacher's unions are for. "Teachers Unions will be about school children when school children pay union dues."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Frankly, I think it's overly optimistic to call DCPS in Ward 1 acceptable. (Not that I'm disagreeing at all with your larger point.)

Do you send your child to public school in Ward 1? Some schools that come immediately to mind are Bancroft and HD Cooke - both certainly "acceptable."

If you are considering Bancroft and H.D. Cooke for your children and find them "acceptable" then that's great. Personally, I do not, but we are each entitled to our own opinions.

Is there anyone on this board who is both in-boundary for Cooke and considers it acceptable? (I meet the former condition, but, sadly, not that latter.)

I live near Cooke. There's some gorgeous old housing stock in LeDroit Park and Bloomingdale and Eckington. The area is definitely improving in terms family liveability (i.e., convenience to desirable destinations) but there's still plenty of room for improvement. Plenty. Starting with the schools. No way would I send my DC to the neighborhood schools.

[Anonymous]

Isn't HD Cooke's building under renovation right now?

When it re-opens, it will be interesting to see whether parents who previously would not have considered it would be willing to get involved now that at least one issue---physical condition---has been improved.

Does anyone on this board have any first-hand experience with HD Cooke?

[Anonymous]

Met the principal once. She is not a friendly person, FWIW.

[Anonymous]

That, unfortunately, is what I hear about a lot of the schools outside of Ward 3. That is, the administrations in many DCPS schools actively discourage the enrollment of children of well-educated parents who might question the school's performance and challenge it to do better. No engaged parents means no PTAs, so that said administrators can just coast along.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That, unfortunately, is what I hear about a lot of the schools outside of Ward 3. That is, the administrations in many DCPS schools actively discourage the enrollment of children of well-educated parents who might question the school's performance and challenge it to do better. No engaged parents means no PTAs, so that said administrators can just coast along.

This has been my impression, too.

[Anonymous]

My impression three. But I think it bears mentioning that there are supposedly a handful of DCPS schools which have taken a page from the charter school playbook and are actively recruiting families and offering special programming.

I understand Thompson elementary downtown is one of those schools (full disclosure: I am not a Thompson parent or employee, but I do have an interest in seeing schools which offer Chinese language succeed). It's gotten a lot of love from Jay Mathews at the WaPo, and the Principal has done an excellent job of creating partnerships with embassies as well as an exemplary job of creating business partnerships and sponsorships. I know they offer a great music program and of course, my personal interest - Chinese language instruction.

If all DCPS schools were like Thompson I could honestly believe the system would make a roaring comeback.

[Anonymous]

Well, there are some issues around contracts with the teacher's union which don't do much to help poorer schools. Teachers with the most seniority get to pick their schools and not surprisingly, they choose the ones with the fewest number of problems. So there's a system in place whereby the most senior teachers are rewarded the most for choosing the easiest-to-teach-in schools. Rhee is trying to provide extra compensation for teachers who choose to work in tougher schools but the teachers union management won't let their members vote on it. So the new order is going to come into being "all stick and no carrot." Too bad. That's one way the teacher's union could have gotten on board with helping disadvantaged schools, but that's not what teacher's unions are for. "Teachers Unions will be about school children when school children pay union dues

I am a DCPS teacher and I don't believe this is true at all. As far as I know, "seniority" is a term used within your school. Once you leave your school, your seniority is lost. You don't get first pick at the "better" schools.

The "better" DCPS schools (I am currently working in one) have a much more rigorous hiring process. The last thing they want is a teacher forced upon them by downtown (it can take some effort to get rid of the weak ones). So, when a position opens, a committee of teachers gets together and interviews MANY candidates, looking for the best fit. When I first started working for DCPS, I was placed in a school, no interview needed. It was NOT a high performing school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Well, there are some issues around contracts with the teacher's union which don't do much to help poorer schools. Teachers with the most seniority get to pick their schools and not surprisingly, they choose the ones with the fewest number of problems. So there's a system in place whereby the most senior teachers are rewarded the most for choosing the easiest-to-teach-in schools. Rhee is trying to provide extra compensation for teachers who choose to work in tougher schools but the teachers union management won't let their members vote on it. So the new order is going to come into being "all stick and no carrot." Too bad. That's one way the teacher's union could have gotten on board with helping disadvantaged schools, but that's not what teacher's unions are for. "Teachers Unions will be about school children when school children pay union dues

I am a DCPS teacher and I don't believe this is true at all. As far as I know, "seniority" is a term used within your school. Once you leave your school, your seniority is lost. You don't get first pick at the "better" schools.

The "better" DCPS schools (I am currently working in one) have a much more rigorous hiring process. The last thing they want is a teacher forced upon them by downtown (it can take some effort to get rid of the weak ones). So, when a position opens, a committee of teachers gets together and interviews MANY candidates, looking for the best fit. When I first started working for DCPS, I was placed in a school, no interview needed. It was NOT a high performing school.

So where is the incentive for experienced and/or high-performing teachers to choose the schools where they're needed the most? I.e., the worst-performing schools. Rhee is trying to offer huge financial upside for this, but the WTU won't let the member vote on it.

[Anonymous]

It's not the money, it's the student/parent population. My kids went to a well regarded Ward 3 school, and the students came from well educated families that valued and encouraged learning, both in and out of boundary. When there were problems with a teacher, you better believe the parents let the principal know. The parent were actively involved with the school, not just in raising funds, but also serving on committees, keeping the grounds spruced up, going on field trips etc. It's these things that make a good school, not just money. Schools with students from well educated families who are involved in their children's education will always be better. Not necessarily fair, but that's the way it is. The reason schools like KIPP have been able to succeed is by literally keeping their kids out of their home environments and at school. Most of the kids at KIPP only go home to sleep, and even go to school on Saturdays.