Time for a citywide traditional elementary school in each ward

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What you're proposing are called charters.

Dorothy Height is a former charter that is now being managed by DCPS in Ward 4. And next year DCPS will take over Excel Academy, which I think is in Ward 8.

What is the purpose of Dorothy Height? It's corrode because of inertia and lack of DCPS planning.

DCPS took over that school due to mismanagement issues regarding the Charter operator. Where should these kids go? Powell, West or Raymond. Perhaps to their IB schools if they are OOB?

[Anonymous]

Capital Hill Montessori isn't good? That's a DCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Capital Hill Montessori isn't good? That's a DCPS.

Not very good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So sick of all these “I’ve got the solution!” threads. Everyone with the internet is an education reformer. Exhausting.

This made me laugh out loud. So true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What you're proposing are called charters.

Dorothy Height is a former charter that is now being managed by DCPS in Ward 4. And next year DCPS will take over Excel Academy, which I think is in Ward 8.

What is the purpose of Dorothy Height? It's corrode because of inertia and lack of DCPS planning.

DCPS took over that school due to mismanagement issues regarding the Charter operator. Where should these kids go? Powell, West or Raymond. Perhaps to their IB schools if they are OOB?

DCPS picking up the slack of a failed charter was the right thing to do for the students.

But what should it be long term? I don’t think anyone in the area or city thinks that a general purpose citywide school is a good idea. How about a language immersion school with IB type preference for MacFarland feeders that don't have a dual language program?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So sick of all these “I’ve got the solution!” threads. Everyone with the internet is an education reformer. Exhausting.

This made me laugh out loud. So true.

Agreed. It's exhausting to even read.

[Anonymous]

The solution is to address poverty. But no one wants to talk about that. That seems less fun than ideas about shipping other people's children all over the place.

[Anonymous]

Dorothy Height is in the center of a demographic explosion in 16th Street Heights and Petworth. It was a charter, which ended up losing that status due to founder corruption. But the area needs schools, so DCPS took it over. It doesn't have a catchment area, partly because even though the area has many students it is surrounded by other schools (there are thousands of students within a couple blocks of Upshur Park every day between ES, MS, and HS and swing space and charter and DCPS are there too).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There seems to be a lot of negativity when mentioning out of boundary students. Sometimes out of boundary students are from the same or adjacent ward. Ward 6 has two citywide DCPS elementary schools. It seems like it is time to have a great citywide school in each ward, quadrant, or some other cluster of schools. There seems to be consumer interest based on waitlists at schools.

Both of the citywide schools (SWS and CHM@L) became “great” because they were filled with middle and upper income families fleeing Watkins and to a lesser extent, other Capitol Hill elementary schools. IB for Watkins parents used to get a preference at SWS.

Watkins still has not recovered from the brain drain from those two schools (and charters like TR 4th).

Don’t screw other IB schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The solution is to address poverty. But no one wants to talk about that. That seems less fun than ideas about shipping other people's children all over the place.

Exactly. Give homeless people homes. Provide jobs that pay enough to support a family. Teach people how to parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The solution is to address poverty. But no one wants to talk about that. That seems less fun than ideas about shipping other people's children all over the place.

Exactly. Give homeless people homes. Provide jobs that pay enough to support a family. Teach people how to parent.

So have you told your council members about this? When you meet with them or email them, are these the topics?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There seems to be a lot of negativity when mentioning out of boundary students. Sometimes out of boundary students are from the same or adjacent ward. Ward 6 has two citywide DCPS elementary schools. It seems like it is time to have a great citywide school in each ward, quadrant, or some other cluster of schools. There seems to be consumer interest based on waitlists at schools.

Both of the citywide schools (SWS and CHM@L) became “great” because they were filled with middle and upper income families fleeing Watkins and to a lesser extent, other Capitol Hill elementary schools. IB for Watkins parents used to get a preference at SWS.

Watkins still has not recovered from the brain drain from those two schools (and charters like TR 4th).

Don’t screw other IB schools.

You could say the same about the OOB program in general. It destabilizes the schools it leaves behind. But the answer isn't to take away people's options, it's to make their local schools more attractive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dorothy Height is in the center of a demographic explosion in 16th Street Heights and Petworth. It was a charter, which ended up losing that status due to founder corruption. But the area needs schools, so DCPS took it over. It doesn't have a catchment area, partly because even though the area has many students it is surrounded by other schools (there are thousands of students within a couple blocks of Upshur Park every day between ES, MS, and HS and swing space and charter and DCPS are there too).

I think DCPS took over Height and Excel so the buildings wouldn't go to other charters.

I agree that it would make sense to phase out the city-wide nature of Height and re-draw boundaries in the area. Another option would be to just have it offer PK and make it the IB preK option for a cluster of nearby schools that have IB PK waitlists, or make it a citywide Spanish PK3-5 immersion school that feeds into MacFarland (basically, compete with DCI feeders).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Capital Hill Montessori isn't good? That's a DCPS.

It is not good, sorry. I guess some people find it acceptable but not me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The solution is to address poverty. But no one wants to talk about that. That seems less fun than ideas about shipping other people's children all over the place.

That's right. But instead, folks who consider themselves intelligent propose sending as many students as possible over to Alice Deal. Make it a city-wide school instead of a local school. All of the new student's test scores will immediately go up, I assume the thinking goes, due to Deal's magic soil.