OOB for Wilson feeders: What is your neighborhood school missing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op again. No need to convince me to grasp anything. I know what caused me to arrange for other school options, but I am completely agnostic about what drove each of you reject your neighborhood school in favor of an OOB Wilson feeder. So tell me. If it was bad test scores plus something else, then say so. If it was something entirely unrelated to test scores, say that. I am not trying to herd the conversation in any direction.

I will also say that because of our commute, OOB is actually more convenient. That is probably not true of most people, but it is very much our situation.

Also, I knew that if OOB was not to our liking we could return to IB. So that is a tiebreaking factor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op again. No need to convince me to grasp anything. I know what caused me to arrange for other school options, but I am completely agnostic about what drove each of you reject your neighborhood school in favor of an OOB Wilson feeder. So tell me. If it was bad test scores plus something else, then say so. If it was something entirely unrelated to test scores, say that. I am not trying to herd the conversation in any direction.

Why are you limiting it to just OOB Wilson feeders? Plenty of people go OOB to non-Wilson feeders, and their opinions matter. They could potentially be drawn to and bolster the success of an alterna-Wilson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op again. No need to convince me to grasp anything. I know what caused me to arrange for other school options, but I am completely agnostic about what drove each of you reject your neighborhood school in favor of an OOB Wilson feeder. So tell me. If it was bad test scores plus something else, then say so. If it was something entirely unrelated to test scores, say that. I am not trying to herd the conversation in any direction.

Why are you limiting it to just OOB Wilson feeders? Plenty of people go OOB to non-Wilson feeders, and their opinions matter. They could potentially be drawn to and bolster the success of an alterna-Wilson.

Not OP but the context is the current Wilson feeder overcrowding focus groups and discussions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looked away from Brightwood years ago due to very low numbers of kids testing proficient on whatever the test was back then
Also, I hate the PreK-8 model. It doesn't allow for decent math differentiation, subject specialist teachers in upper grades, or enough of a critical mass for sports teams, drama, band etc

pp here...Brightwood is 65%hispanic 57% ELL...wouldn't it make sense to run a dual language program there? But that's not happening. With enrollment of 709, approx 210 would be in 6-8 grades...is that enough kids to offer French OR Spanish as a foreign language, or Math instruction at more than 1 level, or Science teachers with a science background? Are there enough kids for boys and girl's soccer teams/basketball/football/debate? Is there even enough field space for 2 teams to be outside at a time?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looked away from Brightwood years ago due to very low numbers of kids testing proficient on whatever the test was back then
Also, I hate the PreK-8 model. It doesn't allow for decent math differentiation, subject specialist teachers in upper grades, or enough of a critical mass for sports teams, drama, band etc

pp here...Brightwood is 65%hispanic 57% ELL...wouldn't it make sense to run a dual language program there? But that's not happening. With enrollment of 709, approx 210 would be in 6-8 grades...is that enough kids to offer French OR Spanish as a foreign language, or Math instruction at more than 1 level, or Science teachers with a science background? Are there enough kids for boys and girl's soccer teams/basketball/football/debate? Is there even enough field space for 2 teams to be outside at a time?

It is probably less. Most DCPS schools have less kids the higher up you go. And one language and three or four activities are still pretty slim pickings. More importantly, no honors classes, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op again. No need to convince me to grasp anything. I know what caused me to arrange for other school options, but I am completely agnostic about what drove each of you reject your neighborhood school in favor of an OOB Wilson feeder. So tell me. If it was bad test scores plus something else, then say so. If it was something entirely unrelated to test scores, say that. I am not trying to herd the conversation in any direction.

Why are you limiting it to just OOB Wilson feeders? Plenty of people go OOB to non-Wilson feeders, and their opinions matter. They could potentially be drawn to and bolster the success of an alterna-Wilson.

Not OP but the context is the current Wilson feeder overcrowding focus groups and discussions.

I think it is future, rather than current, OOB opinions that matter. Many of these people's IB schools have improved significantly since they left.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looked away from Brightwood years ago due to very low numbers of kids testing proficient on whatever the test was back then
Also, I hate the PreK-8 model. It doesn't allow for decent math differentiation, subject specialist teachers in upper grades, or enough of a critical mass for sports teams, drama, band etc

pp here...Brightwood is 65%hispanic 57% ELL...wouldn't it make sense to run a dual language program there? But that's not happening. With enrollment of 709, approx 210 would be in 6-8 grades...is that enough kids to offer French OR Spanish as a foreign language, or Math instruction at more than 1 level, or Science teachers with a science background? Are there enough kids for boys and girl's soccer teams/basketball/football/debate? Is there even enough field space for 2 teams to be outside at a time?

Brightwood would make much more sense as a dual-language school than Oyster Adams at this point, if neighborhood demographics and enrollment were the criteria.

But anyway -- there are 709 students but only 2 classes worth as you approach 8th.

PK4 49 students
K 81 Students
GRADE 1 69 Students
GRADE 2 87 Students
GRADE 3 96 Students
GRADE 4 57 Students
GRADE 5 55 Students
GRADE 6 63 Students
GRADE 7 58 Students
GRADE 8 55 Students

[Anonymous]

Op again. As far as I'm concerned, if you are not OOB for Wilson feeder, feel free to add your thoughts, but please just make clear the IB and OOB schools you're addressing, so the conversation doesn't get confused. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op again. As far as I'm concerned, if you are not OOB for Wilson feeder, feel free to add your thoughts, but please just make clear the IB and OOB schools you're addressing, so the conversation doesn't get confused. Thanks.

You will not get honest answers if you want people to identify their schools. The people who know the most, are the most at risk of being recognized, and I personally would not talk down my IB school by name because I have many friends who are working very hard at making it better, and I support them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op again. As far as I'm concerned, if you are not OOB for Wilson feeder, feel free to add your thoughts, but please just make clear the IB and OOB schools you're addressing, so the conversation doesn't get confused. Thanks.

You will not get honest answers if you want people to identify their schools. The people who know the most, are the most at risk of being recognized, and I personally would not talk down my IB school by name because I have many friends who are working very hard at making it better, and I support them.

And honestly there are few schools outside the Wilson feeder network with decent test scores (Cap Hill and a few others being the exceptions). So it really doesn't matter what one's IB is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op again. As far as I'm concerned, if you are not OOB for Wilson feeder, feel free to add your thoughts, but please just make clear the IB and OOB schools you're addressing, so the conversation doesn't get confused. Thanks.

You will not get honest answers if you want people to identify their schools. The people who know the most, are the most at risk of being recognized, and I personally would not talk down my IB school by name because I have many friends who are working very hard at making it better, and I support them.

And honestly there are few schools outside the Wilson feeder network with decent test scores (Cap Hill and a few others being the exceptions). So it really doesn't matter what one's IB is.

What is wrong with all of them is that they don't feed into a good enough middle and high school. The end.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op again. As far as I'm concerned, if you are not OOB for Wilson feeder, feel free to add your thoughts, but please just make clear the IB and OOB schools you're addressing, so the conversation doesn't get confused. Thanks.

You will not get honest answers if you want people to identify their schools. The people who know the most, are the most at risk of being recognized, and I personally would not talk down my IB school by name because I have many friends who are working very hard at making it better, and I support them.

And honestly there are few schools outside the Wilson feeder network with decent test scores (Cap Hill and a few others being the exceptions). So it really doesn't matter what one's IB is.

What is wrong with all of them is that they don't feed into a good enough middle and high school. The end.

+1. Fix the middle and high school and the elementaries will follow. What matters right now is what parents of young children want in their IB middle school and high school. Not what people who already left those schools didn't like about them back when they left.

[Anonymous]

Not much has changed since they left. Just say why you left. If it was because of the middle and high schools weren't good enough for you, then say why they weren't good enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op again. As far as I'm concerned, if you are not OOB for Wilson feeder, feel free to add your thoughts, but please just make clear the IB and OOB schools you're addressing, so the conversation doesn't get confused. Thanks.

You will not get honest answers if you want people to identify their schools. The people who know the most, are the most at risk of being recognized, and I personally would not talk down my IB school by name because I have many friends who are working very hard at making it better, and I support them.

And honestly there are few schools outside the Wilson feeder network with decent test scores (Cap Hill and a few others being the exceptions). So it really doesn't matter what one's IB is.

What is wrong with all of them is that they don't feed into a good enough middle and high school. The end.

yes, they all have that problem, but many have other issues too

[Anonymous]

And because of the way that DC allocates per pupil funding, Deal will always be the monster school that can offer everything, and all the other middle schools will pale in comparison. If they could tweak the formula somehow so that Deal got less incremental money for each student over a certain number, and the other middle schools were funded based on their capacity not their enrollment, some of the funding inequity would balance.