A three-tier public education system

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking at what's happening with pubic education in the city, it seems like DC is careening toward a three-tier system of education, where what you get depends on where you live and what resources are available to you.

Tier I -- DCPS schools that are almost exclusively in-boundary. A few lucky lottery winners each year get to caucus with the Tier-1'ers. Overcrowded, but well-resourced. Limited almost exclusively to Capitol Hill and west of Rock Creek.

Tier II -- Charters. Assigned by lottery. Quality varies markedly. Transportation is an issue for almost all families.

Tier III -- DCPS schools of last resort. For families who for whatever reason can't or don't go charter or OOB. Schools are under-enrolled and under-resourced. High concentration of special needs kids and at-risk kids.

Is this too bleak a prognostication? It seems like DCPS is capitulating to charters a big chunk of the student population. The city is growing, the school-age population is growing, charters are adding thousands of seats, and DCPS isn't planning for growth at all. Is there an end-game in all of this?

I think it's very different if you look on a micro level than just averages.
WOTP charters can't get a foot in the door.
EOTP DCPS tend to be getting more popular and growing. Charters are growing there as well, but it's a more balanced split.
EOTR Charters are growing much larger and DCPS is shrinking with only a few neighborhood schools keeping up.

+1 This is a much more accurate take than the OPs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking at what's happening with pubic education in the city, it seems like DC is careening toward a three-tier system of education, where what you get depends on where you live and what resources are available to you.

Tier I -- DCPS schools that are almost exclusively in-boundary. A few lucky lottery winners each year get to caucus with the Tier-1'ers. Overcrowded, but well-resourced. Limited almost exclusively to Capitol Hill and west of Rock Creek.

Tier II -- Charters. Assigned by lottery. Quality varies markedly. Transportation is an issue for almost all families.

Tier III -- DCPS schools of last resort. For families who for whatever reason can't or don't go charter or OOB. Schools are under-enrolled and under-resourced. High concentration of special needs kids and at-risk kids.

Is this too bleak a prognostication? It seems like DCPS is capitulating to charters a big chunk of the student population. The city is growing, the school-age population is growing, charters are adding thousands of seats, and DCPS isn't planning for growth at all. Is there an end-game in all of this?

I think it's very different if you look on a micro level than just averages.
WOTP charters can't get a foot in the door.
EOTP DCPS tend to be getting more popular and growing. Charters are growing there as well, but it's a more balanced split.
EOTR Charters are growing much larger and DCPS is shrinking with only a few neighborhood schools keeping up.

+1 This is a much more accurate take than the OPs.

Yes. DCPS is not capitulating -- every year, more DCPS schools are attracting high SES residents, showing higher scores, and increasing their in-bounds enrollment. I was just thinking how outdated JLKM is as a shorthand for "good school" -- there are so many (Ross, Eaton, Stoddert, and looking to the near future, Seaton, and on and on) that could now be on that list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking at what's happening with pubic education in the city, it seems like DC is careening toward a three-tier system of education, where what you get depends on where you live and what resources are available to you.

Tier I -- DCPS schools that are almost exclusively in-boundary. A few lucky lottery winners each year get to caucus with the Tier-1'ers. Overcrowded, but well-resourced. Limited almost exclusively to Capitol Hill and west of Rock Creek.

Tier II -- Charters. Assigned by lottery. Quality varies markedly. Transportation is an issue for almost all families.

Tier III -- DCPS schools of last resort. For families who for whatever reason can't or don't go charter or OOB. Schools are under-enrolled and under-resourced. High concentration of special needs kids and at-risk kids.

Is this too bleak a prognostication? It seems like DCPS is capitulating to charters a big chunk of the student population. The city is growing, the school-age population is growing, charters are adding thousands of seats, and DCPS isn't planning for growth at all. Is there an end-game in all of this?

I think it's very different if you look on a micro level than just averages.
WOTP charters can't get a foot in the door.
EOTP DCPS tend to be getting more popular and growing. Charters are growing there as well, but it's a more balanced split.
EOTR Charters are growing much larger and DCPS is shrinking with only a few neighborhood schools keeping up.

+1 This is a much more accurate take than the OPs.

Yes. DCPS is not capitulating -- every year, more DCPS schools are attracting high SES residents, showing higher scores, and increasing their in-bounds enrollment. I was just thinking how outdated JLKM is as a shorthand for "good school" -- there are so many (Ross, Eaton, Stoddert, and looking to the near future, Seaton, and on and on) that could now be on that list.

DCPS' enrollment decreased this year, despite several WOTP schools accepting OOB students in late summer. https://osse.dc.gov/release/public-school-enrollment-district-columbia-increases-ninth-consecutive-year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking at what's happening with pubic education in the city, it seems like DC is careening toward a three-tier system of education, where what you get depends on where you live and what resources are available to you.

Tier I -- DCPS schools that are almost exclusively in-boundary. A few lucky lottery winners each year get to caucus with the Tier-1'ers. Overcrowded, but well-resourced. Limited almost exclusively to Capitol Hill and west of Rock Creek.

Tier II -- Charters. Assigned by lottery. Quality varies markedly. Transportation is an issue for almost all families.

Tier III -- DCPS schools of last resort. For families who for whatever reason can't or don't go charter or OOB. Schools are under-enrolled and under-resourced. High concentration of special needs kids and at-risk kids.

Is this too bleak a prognostication? It seems like DCPS is capitulating to charters a big chunk of the student population. The city is growing, the school-age population is growing, charters are adding thousands of seats, and DCPS isn't planning for growth at all. Is there an end-game in all of this?

I think it's very different if you look on a micro level than just averages.
WOTP charters can't get a foot in the door.
EOTP DCPS tend to be getting more popular and growing. Charters are growing there as well, but it's a more balanced split.
EOTR Charters are growing much larger and DCPS is shrinking with only a few neighborhood schools keeping up.

+1 This is a much more accurate take than the OPs.

Yes. DCPS is not capitulating -- every year, more DCPS schools are attracting high SES residents, showing higher scores, and increasing their in-bounds enrollment. I was just thinking how outdated JLKM is as a shorthand for "good school" -- there are so many (Ross, Eaton, Stoddert, and looking to the near future, Seaton, and on and on) that could now be on that list.

DCPS' enrollment decreased this year, despite several WOTP schools accepting OOB students in late summer. https://osse.dc.gov/release/public-school-enrollment-district-columbia-increases-ninth-consecutive-year

Again, you're looking at the overall. Not what's going on by area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking at what's happening with pubic education in the city, it seems like DC is careening toward a three-tier system of education, where what you get depends on where you live and what resources are available to you.

Tier I -- DCPS schools that are almost exclusively in-boundary. A few lucky lottery winners each year get to caucus with the Tier-1'ers. Overcrowded, but well-resourced. Limited almost exclusively to Capitol Hill and west of Rock Creek.

Tier II -- Charters. Assigned by lottery. Quality varies markedly. Transportation is an issue for almost all families.

Tier III -- DCPS schools of last resort. For families who for whatever reason can't or don't go charter or OOB. Schools are under-enrolled and under-resourced. High concentration of special needs kids and at-risk kids.

Is this too bleak a prognostication? It seems like DCPS is capitulating to charters a big chunk of the student population. The city is growing, the school-age population is growing, charters are adding thousands of seats, and DCPS isn't planning for growth at all. Is there an end-game in all of this?

I think it's very different if you look on a micro level than just averages.
WOTP charters can't get a foot in the door.
EOTP DCPS tend to be getting more popular and growing. Charters are growing there as well, but it's a more balanced split.
EOTR Charters are growing much larger and DCPS is shrinking with only a few neighborhood schools keeping up.

+1 This is a much more accurate take than the OPs.

Yes. DCPS is not capitulating -- every year, more DCPS schools are attracting high SES residents, showing higher scores, and increasing their in-bounds enrollment. I was just thinking how outdated JLKM is as a shorthand for "good school" -- there are so many (Ross, Eaton, Stoddert, and looking to the near future, Seaton, and on and on) that could now be on that list.

DCPS' enrollment decreased this year, despite several WOTP schools accepting OOB students in late summer. https://osse.dc.gov/release/public-school-enrollment-district-columbia-increases-ninth-consecutive-year

Again, you're looking at the overall. Not what's going on by area.

What data are you basing your assessment on? Can you share your side by side spreadsheets and what data you are using?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking at what's happening with pubic education in the city, it seems like DC is careening toward a three-tier system of education, where what you get depends on where you live and what resources are available to you.

Tier I -- DCPS schools that are almost exclusively in-boundary. A few lucky lottery winners each year get to caucus with the Tier-1'ers. Overcrowded, but well-resourced. Limited almost exclusively to Capitol Hill and west of Rock Creek.

Tier II -- Charters. Assigned by lottery. Quality varies markedly. Transportation is an issue for almost all families.

Tier III -- DCPS schools of last resort. For families who for whatever reason can't or don't go charter or OOB. Schools are under-enrolled and under-resourced. High concentration of special needs kids and at-risk kids.

Is this too bleak a prognostication? It seems like DCPS is capitulating to charters a big chunk of the student population. The city is growing, the school-age population is growing, charters are adding thousands of seats, and DCPS isn't planning for growth at all. Is there an end-game in all of this?

I think it's very different if you look on a micro level than just averages.
WOTP charters can't get a foot in the door.
EOTP DCPS tend to be getting more popular and growing. Charters are growing there as well, but it's a more balanced split.
EOTR Charters are growing much larger and DCPS is shrinking with only a few neighborhood schools keeping up.

+1 This is a much more accurate take than the OPs.

Yes. DCPS is not capitulating -- every year, more DCPS schools are attracting high SES residents, showing higher scores, and increasing their in-bounds enrollment. I was just thinking how outdated JLKM is as a shorthand for "good school" -- there are so many (Ross, Eaton, Stoddert, and looking to the near future, Seaton, and on and on) that could now be on that list.

How does seaton perform in the testing grades?

High income preschoolers =/= strong school

[Anonymous]

Seaton's performance on PARCC has improved each year.

Last year 47% were proficient or advanced in Math; 31% were proficient or advanced in ELA.

Grade 3 performed better than grade 4.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seaton's performance on PARCC has improved each year.

Last year 47% were proficient or advanced in Math; 31% were proficient or advanced in ELA.

Grade 3 performed better than grade 4.

Seaton is a very impressive school and their principal has done wonders. However, as long as it lacks a good middle and high school feed, people won't be fully satisfied and retention will struggle. It's too bad-- DCPS just cannot seem to get a grip on middle school. I would propose Ludlow-Taylor and Watkins as schools to keep an eye on, because Stuart-Hobson is making progress. Personally, for the middle school years, I would favor Stuart-Hobson over doing middle school at Inspired Teaching, Two Rivers, CMI, etc., because a larger school can offer more different classes and activities.

[Anonymous]

OP's Tier 3 schools are not under-resourced in terms of dollars allocated to the school. However, the families may be under-resourced financially and in terms of patental education.

That's the reason the school system can't solve the problem. The fundamental differences between 'tiers' lie beyond DCPS's scope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seaton's performance on PARCC has improved each year.

Last year 47% were proficient or advanced in Math; 31% were proficient or advanced in ELA.

Grade 3 performed better than grade 4.

Seaton is a very impressive school and their principal has done wonders. However, as long as it lacks a good middle and high school feed, people won't be fully satisfied and retention will struggle. It's too bad-- DCPS just cannot seem to get a grip on middle school. I would propose Ludlow-Taylor and Watkins as schools to keep an eye on, because Stuart-Hobson is making progress. Personally, for the middle school years, I would favor Stuart-Hobson over doing middle school at Inspired Teaching, Two Rivers, CMI, etc., because a larger school can offer more different classes and activities.

This is a good point. There are not even enough 5th graders to report PARCC scores for last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seaton's performance on PARCC has improved each year.

Last year 47% were proficient or advanced in Math; 31% were proficient or advanced in ELA.

Grade 3 performed better than grade 4.

Seaton is a very impressive school and their principal has done wonders. However, as long as it lacks a good middle and high school feed, people won't be fully satisfied and retention will struggle. It's too bad-- DCPS just cannot seem to get a grip on middle school. I would propose Ludlow-Taylor and Watkins as schools to keep an eye on, because Stuart-Hobson is making progress. Personally, for the middle school years, I would favor Stuart-Hobson over doing middle school at Inspired Teaching, Two Rivers, CMI, etc., because a larger school can offer more different classes and activities.

This is a good point. There are not even enough 5th graders to report PARCC scores for last year.

And why are there so few 5th graders? Probably because of the middle school feeder!

[Anonymous]

I get it, OP. It feels like the city is giving up on true middle class families like mine. We can’t afford to live in an expensive neighborhood with a high quality in bound school. So instead we have to try each year for the lottery hoping that we can get a coveted spot. And looking at the wait lists is depressing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seaton's performance on PARCC has improved each year.

Last year 47% were proficient or advanced in Math; 31% were proficient or advanced in ELA.

Grade 3 performed better than grade 4.

Seaton is a very impressive school and their principal has done wonders. However, as long as it lacks a good middle and high school feed, people won't be fully satisfied and retention will struggle. It's too bad-- DCPS just cannot seem to get a grip on middle school. I would propose Ludlow-Taylor and Watkins as schools to keep an eye on, because Stuart-Hobson is making progress. Personally, for the middle school years, I would favor Stuart-Hobson over doing middle school at Inspired Teaching, Two Rivers, CMI, etc., because a larger school can offer more different classes and activities.

This is a good point. There are not even enough 5th graders to report PARCC scores for last year.

Seaton is a very impressive school and I am in no way trying to knock it. I backed out the 5th grade test scores from the SY 16-17 data and they are as follows:

ELA: 33.2%/16.8%/8.4%/37.5%/4.1%

Math: 12%/13%/29%/29%/17%

So not quite as good as the 3rd and 4th grade scores, but still quite good. I don't know what their special sauce is, but clearly it is working.

However, I have to ask what happens when they need to operate more upper-grade classrooms. For SY 16-17 data, it looks like there were two third grade classrooms, and only classroom for fourth and one for fifth. In the current year, going by the website, seems like it's two classrooms at each grade level. So where did those additional kids come from and will they score as well? Time will tell. I would not be surprised if scores dip a little bit, and would not consider it a red flag under the circumstances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking at what's happening with pubic education in the city, it seems like DC is careening toward a three-tier system of education, where what you get depends on where you live and what resources are available to you.

Tier I -- DCPS schools that are almost exclusively in-boundary. A few lucky lottery winners each year get to caucus with the Tier-1'ers. Overcrowded, but well-resourced. Limited almost exclusively to Capitol Hill and west of Rock Creek.

Tier II -- Charters. Assigned by lottery. Quality varies markedly. Transportation is an issue for almost all families.

Tier III -- DCPS schools of last resort. For families who for whatever reason can't or don't go charter or OOB. Schools are under-enrolled and under-resourced. High concentration of special needs kids and at-risk kids.

Is this too bleak a prognostication? It seems like DCPS is capitulating to charters a big chunk of the student population. The city is growing, the school-age population is growing, charters are adding thousands of seats, and DCPS isn't planning for growth at all. Is there an end-game in all of this?

I think it's very different if you look on a micro level than just averages.
WOTP charters can't get a foot in the door.
EOTP DCPS tend to be getting more popular and growing. Charters are growing there as well, but it's a more balanced split.
EOTR Charters are growing much larger and DCPS is shrinking with only a few neighborhood schools keeping up.

+1 This is a much more accurate take than the OPs.

Yes. DCPS is not capitulating -- every year, more DCPS schools are attracting high SES residents, showing higher scores, and increasing their in-bounds enrollment. I was just thinking how outdated JLKM is as a shorthand for "good school" -- there are so many (Ross, Eaton, Stoddert, and looking to the near future, Seaton, and on and on) that could now be on that list.

DCPS' enrollment decreased this year, despite several WOTP schools accepting OOB students in late summer. https://osse.dc.gov/release/public-school-enrollment-district-columbia-increases-ninth-consecutive-year

In SY 2010-2011, total public school enrollment was 74,986, with 45,630 in DCPS and 29,356 in charters.

This year, total public school enrollment is 91,598, with 48,169 in DCPS and 43,429 in charters. So over the past seven years, charters have added 14,073 students and DCPS has added 2,539.

However, in 2010 DCPS had about 2200 special ed kids in private placement. This year it has 708. So about 1500 of the students DCPS has added are simply the result of reducing private placements. If you take out private placements DCP has added about 1,000 students -- which is about what have been added to Deal and Wilson in the past 7 years. The entire rest of the system is flat. This is in a time when 17,500 kids have been added to public schools, a growth of 22%. The charter school population has grown by 48% in that same time period.

DCPS is not effectively competing for students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looking at what's happening with pubic education in the city, it seems like DC is careening toward a three-tier system of education, where what you get depends on where you live and what resources are available to you.

Tier I -- DCPS schools that are almost exclusively in-boundary. A few lucky lottery winners each year get to caucus with the Tier-1'ers. Overcrowded, but well-resourced. Limited almost exclusively to Capitol Hill and west of Rock Creek.

Tier II -- Charters. Assigned by lottery. Quality varies markedly. Transportation is an issue for almost all families.

Tier III -- DCPS schools of last resort. For families who for whatever reason can't or don't go charter or OOB. Schools are under-enrolled and under-resourced. High concentration of special needs kids and at-risk kids.

Is this too bleak a prognostication? It seems like DCPS is capitulating to charters a big chunk of the student population. The city is growing, the school-age population is growing, charters are adding thousands of seats, and DCPS isn't planning for growth at all. Is there an end-game in all of this?

You must be new around here (?)