Watkins Parents: How pleased are you? How optimistic?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm uneducated on the Watkins issues (although E.V. Downey basically warned against it too). Can anyone point me to a prior thread that discusses the issues? I'm sure its been rehashed over and over so I'd rather not reinvent the wheel here.

Please don't. Please. Use the damn search function PP.

PP here. Is that different from the "search function"? I guess this topic must be very upsetting to you. Please accept my apologies, I didn't realize that the adolescents that apparently make Watkins so upsetting are also posting to this board.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks everyone. I of course have been consulting with numerous parents, but one never knows what info one will get from this board. So I thought I'd be thorough and post. Whether that proves to be productive we'll see....

I'm not inteRested in old dirt on Watkins unless it's relevant to the direction the school is going.

What I can say is that a number of the parents of my child's PS3 class who three years ago swore they'd never send their child to Watkins are going to do so, so I think that speaks about the trend. And a lot of those parents put in lots of volunteer hours, can afford private school, etc.

[Anonymous]

I've heard the same, OP. Hopefully Watkins can make the turn. Their are enough parents who are willing to work to make it the best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm uneducated on the Watkins issues (although E.V. Downey basically warned against it too). Can anyone point me to a prior thread that discusses the issues? I'm sure its been rehashed over and over so I'd rather not reinvent the wheel here.

Please don't. Please. Use the damn search function PP.

PP here. Is that different from the "search function"? I guess this topic must be very upsetting to you. Please accept my apologies, I didn't realize that the adolescents that apparently make Watkins so upsetting are also posting to this board.

I think they are trying to avoid another ridiculously long thread about Watkins. Look for the recent behemoth thread. I think it's title is something to the effect of Dump the Cluster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm uneducated on the Watkins issues (although E.V. Downey basically warned against it too). Can anyone point me to a prior thread that discusses the issues? I'm sure its been rehashed over and over so I'd rather not reinvent the wheel here.

Please don't. Please. Use the damn search function PP.

PP here. Is that different from the "search function"? I guess this topic must be very upsetting to you. Please accept my apologies, I didn't realize that the adolescents that apparently make Watkins so upsetting are also posting to this board.

I think they are trying to avoid another ridiculously long thread about Watkins. Look for the recent behemoth thread. I think it's title is something to the effect of Dump the Cluster.

No doubt, I just thought it was unnecessarily rude and aggressive. Thanks for your civil and helpful post. That helped me to find some additional information.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm uneducated on the Watkins issues (although E.V. Downey basically warned against it too). Can anyone point me to a prior thread that discusses the issues? I'm sure its been rehashed over and over so I'd rather not reinvent the wheel here.

Please don't. Please. Use the damn search function PP.

PP here. Is that different from the "search function"? I guess this topic must be very upsetting to you. Please accept my apologies, I didn't realize that the adolescents that apparently make Watkins so upsetting are also posting to this board.

I think they are trying to avoid another ridiculously long thread about Watkins. Look for the recent behemoth thread. I think it's title is something to the effect of Dump the Cluster.

No doubt, I just thought it was unnecessarily rude and aggressive. Thanks for your civil and helpful post. That helped me to find some additional information.

a lot of that thread involved Watkins staff/teachers with an axe to grind with outgoing AP. It had its own subplots, including wild accusations, LT backers promoting a neighborhood alternative, and others interesting in Hill MS feeds. Like most DCUM posts it's 'buyer beware.'

[Anonymous]

Watkins-related question:

Could someone explain the 1st grade class patterns? I've heard something about it getting smaller? How many classes? How many kids per class? How many teachers per 1st grade class?

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm uneducated on the Watkins issues (although E.V. Downey basically warned against it too). Can anyone point me to a prior thread that discusses the issues? I'm sure its been rehashed over and over so I'd rather not reinvent the wheel here.

Please don't. Please. Use the damn search function PP.

PP here. Is that different from the "search function"? I guess this topic must be very upsetting to you. Please accept my apologies, I didn't realize that the adolescents that apparently make Watkins so upsetting are also posting to this board.

I think they are trying to avoid another ridiculously long thread about Watkins. Look for the recent behemoth thread. I think it's title is something to the effect of Dump the Cluster.

No doubt, I just thought it was unnecessarily rude and aggressive. Thanks for your civil and helpful post. That helped me to find some additional information.

a lot of that thread involved Watkins staff/teachers with an axe to grind with outgoing AP. It had its own subplots, including wild accusations, LT backers promoting a neighborhood alternative, and others interesting in Hill MS feeds. Like most DCUM posts it's 'buyer beware.'

PP, I look at your post with buyer beware skepticism. The thread's central point is that Watkins isn't a neighborhood school. Guess what, it still isn't! It's too dang big to get that accolade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm uneducated on the Watkins issues (although E.V. Downey basically warned against it too). Can anyone point me to a prior thread that discusses the issues? I'm sure its been rehashed over and over so I'd rather not reinvent the wheel here.

Please don't. Please. Use the damn search function PP.

PP here. Is that different from the "search function"? I guess this topic must be very upsetting to you. Please accept my apologies, I didn't realize that the adolescents that apparently make Watkins so upsetting are also posting to this board.

I think they are trying to avoid another ridiculously long thread about Watkins. Look for the recent behemoth thread. I think it's title is something to the effect of Dump the Cluster.

No doubt, I just thought it was unnecessarily rude and aggressive. Thanks for your civil and helpful post. That helped me to find some additional information.

a lot of that thread involved Watkins staff/teachers with an axe to grind with outgoing AP. It had its own subplots, including wild accusations, LT backers promoting a neighborhood alternative, and others interesting in Hill MS feeds. Like most DCUM posts it's 'buyer beware.'

PP, I look at your post with buyer beware skepticism. The thread's central point is that Watkins isn't a neighborhood school. Guess what, it still isn't! It's too dang big to get that accolade.

This is really the problem. It's too large to ever be a neighborhood school. People may send their kids for a year but as soon as they luck out in the lottery they will be out of there.

[Anonymous]

Anyone know what the OOB population is in this year's Watkins 1st grade?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone know what the OOB population is in this year's Watkins 1st grade?

This is going to sound snarky but I don't know how else to pose it: Do you really mean how many OOB or not Hill kids (meaning higher SES, parents on MoTH, kids in SOTH)? Ward 6 more generally, or truly IB?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone know what the OOB population is in this year's Watkins 1st grade?

This is going to sound snarky but I don't know how else to pose it: Do you really mean how many OOB or not Hill kids (meaning higher SES, parents on MoTH, kids in SOTH)? Ward 6 more generally, or truly IB?

To tack onto this question: Say, if I live at 14th and E ST NE attending Watkins, would you consider me OOB? And if you do, what does that information tell you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm uneducated on the Watkins issues (although E.V. Downey basically warned against it too). Can anyone point me to a prior thread that discusses the issues? I'm sure its been rehashed over and over so I'd rather not reinvent the wheel here.

Please don't. Please. Use the damn search function PP.

PP here. Is that different from the "search function"? I guess this topic must be very upsetting to you. Please accept my apologies, I didn't realize that the adolescents that apparently make Watkins so upsetting are also posting to this board.

I think they are trying to avoid another ridiculously long thread about Watkins. Look for the recent behemoth thread. I think it's title is something to the effect of Dump the Cluster.

No doubt, I just thought it was unnecessarily rude and aggressive. Thanks for your civil and helpful post. That helped me to find some additional information.

a lot of that thread involved Watkins staff/teachers with an axe to grind with outgoing AP. It had its own subplots, including wild accusations, LT backers promoting a neighborhood alternative, and others interesting in Hill MS feeds. Like most DCUM posts it's 'buyer beware.'

PP, I look at your post with buyer beware skepticism. The thread's central point is that Watkins isn't a neighborhood school. Guess what, it still isn't! It's too dang big to get that accolade.

This is really the problem. It's too large to ever be a neighborhood school. People may send their kids for a year but as soon as they luck out in the lottery they will be out of there.

... and there it goes -- more axe grinding. Give it a rest

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone know what the OOB population is in this year's Watkins 1st grade?

This is going to sound snarky but I don't know how else to pose it: Do you really mean how many OOB or not Hill kids (meaning higher SES, parents on MoTH, kids in SOTH)? Ward 6 more generally, or truly IB?

Go to: http://edu.codefordc.org click "schools" and choose Watkins. You can see where the kids are coming from. A large number are coming from Anacostia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone know what the OOB population is in this year's Watkins 1st grade?

This is going to sound snarky but I don't know how else to pose it: Do you really mean how many OOB or not Hill kids (meaning higher SES, parents on MoTH, kids in SOTH)? Ward 6 more generally, or truly IB?

Go to: http://edu.codefordc.org click "schools" and choose Watkins. You can see where the kids are coming from. A large number are coming from Anacostia.

Somewhat of a misleading conclusion. I see 101 from Union Station/Stanton Park/Kingma and 140 from Lincoln Park as the biggest cohorts. The Anacostia contingent is in groups of 23 (Congress Heights, 15 Douglas Shipley Terrace, 39 Twining/Randle Gardens. There are some more distributions of similar size in Wards 5 and 7 too. Do you include Capitol Heights/Benning in your swath of Anacostia?