Van Ness Elementary School - Who plans on going there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just curious why this makes a difference to the OP: if I'd posted "I live in Congress Heights and am glad for a school that's on my way to work downtown and feeds into Jefferson and Eastern" would you be more or less likely to consider the school than if I wrote "I live in Tenleytown and since my IB school doesn't offer PK and I work at the Navy Yard it seems like a good choice until K"?

OP here... I'm just curious to get an idea of which OOB families see Van Ness as an attractive option.

Ahhhh- the VNPG creeps in again. You all lost the housing project issue and now you want to check to see that the 'right' OOB families are applying. Well played.

[Anonymous]

I would like OP to let us know how she expects OOB families will plan to attend VN? Is there a secret password I dot know about. The chorus of boosterism is rather creepy and off-putting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just curious why this makes a difference to the OP: if I'd posted "I live in Congress Heights and am glad for a school that's on my way to work downtown and feeds into Jefferson and Eastern" would you be more or less likely to consider the school than if I wrote "I live in Tenleytown and since my IB school doesn't offer PK and I work at the Navy Yard it seems like a good choice until K"?

OP here... I'm just curious to get an idea of which OOB families see Van Ness as an attractive option.

Ahhhh- the VNPG creeps in again. You all lost the housing project issue and now you want to check to see that the 'right' OOB families are applying. Well played.

If VN gets say, one third FARMs families (the projects plus EOTR poor familieis) and two thirds non FARMS (the new townhouses, OOB from the Hill, and OOB from non poor families EOTR) it will be a pretty desirable DCPS elementary. If all the OOB families are FARMs and the school ends up almost entirely FARMs, it will be one more DC school with a concentration of poverty - not good for either the FARMs of non-FARMs students. Trying to figure out what it will be does not seem to me inappropriate, racist, or even classist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just curious why this makes a difference to the OP: if I'd posted "I live in Congress Heights and am glad for a school that's on my way to work downtown and feeds into Jefferson and Eastern" would you be more or less likely to consider the school than if I wrote "I live in Tenleytown and since my IB school doesn't offer PK and I work at the Navy Yard it seems like a good choice until K"?

OP here... I'm just curious to get an idea of which OOB families see Van Ness as an attractive option.

Ahhhh- the VNPG creeps in again. You all lost the housing project issue and now you want to check to see that the 'right' OOB families are applying. Well played.

If VN gets say, one third FARMs families (the projects plus EOTR poor familieis) and two thirds non FARMS (the new townhouses, OOB from the Hill, and OOB from non poor families EOTR) it will be a pretty desirable DCPS elementary. If all the OOB families are FARMs and the school ends up almost entirely FARMs, it will be one more DC school with a concentration of poverty - not good for either the FARMs of non-FARMs students. Trying to figure out what it will be does not seem to me inappropriate, racist, or even classist.

Maybe not, but it's a waste of time considering this board represents a subset of the city's parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just curious why this makes a difference to the OP: if I'd posted "I live in Congress Heights and am glad for a school that's on my way to work downtown and feeds into Jefferson and Eastern" would you be more or less likely to consider the school than if I wrote "I live in Tenleytown and since my IB school doesn't offer PK and I work at the Navy Yard it seems like a good choice until K"?

OP here... I'm just curious to get an idea of which OOB families see Van Ness as an attractive option.

Ahhhh- the VNPG creeps in again. You all lost the housing project issue and now you want to check to see that the 'right' OOB families are applying. Well played.

If VN gets say, one third FARMs families (the projects plus EOTR poor familieis) and two thirds non FARMS (the new townhouses, OOB from the Hill, and OOB from non poor families EOTR) it will be a pretty desirable DCPS elementary. If all the OOB families are FARMs and the school ends up almost entirely FARMs, it will be one more DC school with a concentration of poverty - not good for either the FARMs of non-FARMs students. Trying to figure out what it will be does not seem to me inappropriate, racist, or even classist.

Even if it's not "inappropriate, racist, or even classist," it's pointless. You don't know who will apply or where else they'll get in. You don't know based on where someone lives how smart or well-behaved their kids are (and even if you did, kids change a lot from PK3 to 5th grade!). You don't even know how smart or well-behaved *your* kid will be as a PK student. You don't know which families will be involved in the PTA and if you'll like them. You don't know who the teachers will be, if the school will have uniforms, what language they'll teach, how VN will handle special ed, if there will be specials like gym or music for the PK3 and 4 kids next year, how aftercare will work, who will provide the meals, or any number of other things that could matter a lot. Maybe work on the things you can control, put out a welcoming image, and let the lottery shake itself out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just curious why this makes a difference to the OP: if I'd posted "I live in Congress Heights and am glad for a school that's on my way to work downtown and feeds into Jefferson and Eastern" would you be more or less likely to consider the school than if I wrote "I live in Tenleytown and since my IB school doesn't offer PK and I work at the Navy Yard it seems like a good choice until K"?

OP here... I'm just curious to get an idea of which OOB families see Van Ness as an attractive option.

Ahhhh- the VNPG creeps in again. You all lost the housing project issue and now you want to check to see that the 'right' OOB families are applying. Well played.

If VN gets say, one third FARMs families (the projects plus EOTR poor familieis) and two thirds non FARMS (the new townhouses, OOB from the Hill, and OOB from non poor families EOTR) it will be a pretty desirable DCPS elementary. If all the OOB families are FARMs and the school ends up almost entirely FARMs, it will be one more DC school with a concentration of poverty - not good for either the FARMs of non-FARMs students. Trying to figure out what it will be does not seem to me inappropriate, racist, or even classist.

Even if it's not "inappropriate, racist, or even classist," it's pointless. You don't know who will apply or where else they'll get in. You don't know based on where someone lives how smart or well-behaved their kids are (and even if you did, kids change a lot from PK3 to 5th grade!). You don't even know how smart or well-behaved *your* kid will be as a PK student. You don't know which families will be involved in the PTA and if you'll like them. You don't know who the teachers will be, if the school will have uniforms, what language they'll teach, how VN will handle special ed, if there will be specials like gym or music for the PK3 and 4 kids next year, how aftercare will work, who will provide the meals, or any number of other things that could matter a lot. Maybe work on the things you can control, put out a welcoming image, and let the lottery shake itself out?

This is what makes me chuckle when I see discussions on this school. Very little chatter about any of the bolded topics, just constant speculation on the FARM/non-FARM ratio. If you don't think the rest of it is important, visit the Maryland school board and see all the educational complaints about elementary schools that are full of wealthy families.

[Anonymous]

I think most people in MoCo are pretty happy, from the real life people I know.

[Anonymous]

Real life people? As opposed to what?

[Anonymous]

Let's not pretend here. In general, schools in DC that have a relatively low FARM rate are the best schools in the city. This isn't a coincidence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Real life people? As opposed to what?

An anonymous message board filled with people complaining.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it's true about FARMs, so I can see why parents are nervously assessing who is going to be there. But they are going to have an uphill battle in the first few years convincing IB families who get lucky in the lottery to pass up SWS or Mundo Verde or some other HRCS in favor of an unproven school, even if it is their neighborhood school. You can get parents to pinky swear that they'll stay the distance, but it's hard to pass up the siren call of a more established program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let's not pretend here. In general, schools in DC that have a relatively low FARM rate are the best schools in the city. This isn't a coincidence.

I don't disagree that SES is a component of a successful school, but what about everything else? Posters here must think very little of the education system if you think that's all it takes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let's not pretend here. In general, schools in DC that have a relatively low FARM rate are the best schools in the city. This isn't a coincidence.

I don't disagree that SES is a component of a successful school, but what about everything else? Posters here must think very little of the education system if you think that's all it takes.

Is there a DCPS school that does the opposite? Is there a mostly high SES DCPS school that is struggling? Is there a mostly econ disadvantaged DCPS school (non-selective) that is doing well?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let's not pretend here. In general, schools in DC that have a relatively low FARM rate are the best schools in the city. This isn't a coincidence.

I don't disagree that SES is a component of a successful school, but what about everything else? Posters here must think very little of the education system if you think that's all it takes.

Is there a DCPS school that does the opposite? Is there a mostly high SES DCPS school that is struggling? Is there a mostly econ disadvantaged DCPS school (non-selective) that is doing well?

Then why do the schools bother hiring staff? We can put our kids in an empty classroom and have them stare at the walls all day and they will still do well as long as there are few poor kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let's not pretend here. In general, schools in DC that have a relatively low FARM rate are the best schools in the city. This isn't a coincidence.

I don't disagree that SES is a component of a successful school, but what about everything else? Posters here must think very little of the education system if you think that's all it takes.

Is there a DCPS school that does the opposite? Is there a mostly high SES DCPS school that is struggling? Is there a mostly econ disadvantaged DCPS school (non-selective) that is doing well?

Very shortsighted thinking to underestimate the importance of a school's leadership. I won't name the school since it seems to be improving, but my IB was doing pretty well until Rhee decided to shake things up and the school went down the tube.