Opinions on Eaton Elementary?

[Anonymous]

Any toughts on the new world cultures theme? Did parents pick Chinese?

[Anonymous]

Eaton has had a Chinese teacher for the past several years who has taught Chinese to 3rd-6th graders. This new program will likely be an expansion of what has been a very successful program. The kids love it and have learned a lot about China - this year's school play was Mulan which was performed in English and Chinese.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The FCC Commissioner's daughter will be attending Eaton in the fall. His older child goes to Maret and the Commissioner is mega-wealthy so I think it says a lot that he's sending his child to Eaton. Apparently the incoming pre-k class is 76% in-boundary, up from 62% last year.

I agree that this is a silly statement, but I have to ask, which one? There are five Commissioner slots, one of whom is the Chairman. There has just been a big shift among them, so two male commissioners have left in the past 6 months and there are currently three sitting male commissioners, one of whom is the chairman. Two additional commissioners just received senate approval last week but they are both women so I assume you are not referencing either of them.

[Anonymous]

The Chairman

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The FCC Commissioner's daughter will be attending Eaton in the fall. His older child goes to Maret and the Commissioner is mega-wealthy so I think it says a lot that he's sending his child to Eaton. Apparently the incoming pre-k class is 76% in-boundary, up from 62% last year.

I agree that this is a silly statement, but I have to ask, which one? There are five Commissioner slots, one of whom is the Chairman. There has just been a big shift among them, so two male commissioners have left in the past 6 months and there are currently three sitting male commissioners, one of whom is the chairman. Two additional commissioners just received senate approval last week but they are both women so I assume you are not referencing either of them.

This is one of those "only in DC" posts

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any toughts on the new world cultures theme? Did parents pick Chinese?

Parents did not pick Chinese. The Chinese Embassy offered the program and the school took it, figuring that the free teacher in Chinese was better than no foreign language at all. But, there was never in the beginning any survey of what the native language strengths in the school were, what parental preference was if a foreign language was to be taught, or any thought about whether the provision of Chinese language was sustainable over the long term educational life of the child, or about the frequency of language lessons (weekly classes vs. partial or full immersion).

For example, Eaton's middle school articulation has just been changed from Deal to Hardy. I don't even know if Hardy Middle School offers Chinese language for 6th graders that will pick up at the level that Eaton students might have. It was my understanding several years ago when the Chinese program began, that Deal was planning to offer Chinese language if it became an IB school, but I don't know what the current situation is there.

Past experience has shown that these kinds of questions are important to ask, as some time ago the Montgomery County Chinese immersion programs (and I know Eaton Chinese classes are far less than immersion level) left many students who had started Chinese in elementary school stranded when they arrived at middle or high school Chinese advanced placement classes -- they did not have the proper Chinese skills to be successful in the upper level classes because the Chinese programs had been created without thought to the long term development of the language in the child.

All that said, I'm sure there are many parents who are happy that their child gets any exposure at all to language in elementary school, and I have no doubt that there are many kids who enjoy the classes and are learning a lot and are inspired to study more about China, language or other cultures.

[Anonymous]

I thought that Eaton students got to choose between Deal or Hardy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought that Eaton students got to choose between Deal or Hardy?

I thought the choice was temporary. In future years, it will be a feeder school for Hardy.

[Anonymous]

In-boundary Eaton students can choose between Deal and Hardy. Out-of-boundary Eaton studens are tracked to Hardy but can apply out-of-boundary to Deal. Not surprisingly, in light of the positive developments at Eaton detailed above, Eaton's test scores are way up for 2009. Reading proficieny is 85.5% (up from 74%) and math proficiency is 80% (up from 64%). These scores place it in the top echelon of D.C. schools, and is the only school with 80%+ scores that also has double digit representation of whites, blacks, hispanics, and asians.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In-boundary Eaton students can choose between Deal and Hardy. Out-of-boundary Eaton studens are tracked to Hardy but can apply out-of-boundary to Deal. Not surprisingly, in light of the positive developments at Eaton detailed above, Eaton's test scores are way up for 2009. Reading proficieny is 85.5% (up from 74%) and math proficiency is 80% (up from 64%). These scores place it in the top echelon of D.C. schools, and is the only school with 80%+ scores that also has double digit representation of whites, blacks, hispanics, and asians.

Vigorous test preparation works... to improve test scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In-boundary Eaton students can choose between Deal and Hardy. Out-of-boundary Eaton studens are tracked to Hardy but can apply out-of-boundary to Deal. Not surprisingly, in light of the positive developments at Eaton detailed above, Eaton's test scores are way up for 2009. Reading proficieny is 85.5% (up from 74%) and math proficiency is 80% (up from 64%). These scores place it in the top echelon of D.C. schools, and is the only school with 80%+ scores that also has double digit representation of whites, blacks, hispanics, and asians.

While the improvement is positive, "proficiency" is a pretty weak measurement. More important for a school like Eaton is how many of their students are scoring in the "advanced" category and is that subcategory up from last year? Most of Eaton's neighboring schools like Janney and Murch, Lafayette, etc., have % proficient scores in the 90s and significant proportions of advanced learners.

[Anonymous]

Actually, Murch's scores last year (don't know what they are this year) were 80% proficiency in reading and 74% in Math so I'm not sure where you're getting the 90%+ figures.