Middle School at DCI

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you're looking for concrete feedback, do a search for DCI on DCUM. There have been half a dozen long DCI threads in the last six months alone...

School is still fairly chaotic and housed in a strangely configured building (long and lean) that isn't the best. Weak disciplinary practices.

School is far from homes of most students in feeders (esp. Cap Hill) and not near a Metro stop, meaning long, tiring commutes in traffic/on parent hired buses for most of the kids.

Teaching population unstable - around 1/4 of the teachers leaving annually.

School is populated by mostly high-need low-income students but won't track students, other than for math and language. Lack of rigor a real problem for advanced students.
Over reliance on technology hasn't worked too well.

Essentially no native speakers on both the small Chinese and French tracks, so low standards for speaking after as many as 9 years of immersion or partial immersion studies. Spanish track dominates in a big way.

etc. etc.

I would cast doubt on this poster because they post every 15 minutes and always trash dci and Yu Ying. Anyone else??

[Anonymous]

It's a pretty good summary of the problems actually.

[Anonymous]

Looking at the latest map of where DCI students live, most are not as far from WR bldg as PP suggests

https://www.dcpcsb.org/dc-international-school-location-map

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's a pretty good summary of the problems actually.

How so?

I understand IB is actually great at tracking. Why doesn’t that work at DCI?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you're looking for concrete feedback, do a search for DCI on DCUM. There have been half a dozen long DCI threads in the last six months alone...

School is still fairly chaotic and housed in a strangely configured building (long and lean) that isn't the best. Weak disciplinary practices.

School is far from homes of most students in feeders (esp. Cap Hill) and not near a Metro stop, meaning long, tiring commutes in traffic/on parent hired buses for most of the kids.

Teaching population unstable - around 1/4 of the teachers leaving annually.

School is populated by mostly high-need low-income students but won't track students, other than for math and language. Lack of rigor a real problem for advanced students.
Over reliance on technology hasn't worked too well.

Essentially no native speakers on both the small Chinese and French tracks, so low standards for speaking after as many as 9 years of immersion or partial immersion studies. Spanish track dominates in a big way.

etc. etc.

The racism in this post is pretty bad. I get it, you don’t want brown kids in your school if they aren’t directly useful to you. Got it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a pretty good summary of the problems actually.

How so?

I understand IB is actually great at tracking. Why doesn’t that work at DCI?

They don’t do it in middle school (same as Deal) . It will happen in high school for 11th and 12th when students choose HL classes (or not).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you're looking for concrete feedback, do a search for DCI on DCUM. There have been half a dozen long DCI threads in the last six months alone...

School is still fairly chaotic and housed in a strangely configured building (long and lean) that isn't the best. Weak disciplinary practices.

School is far from homes of most students in feeders (esp. Cap Hill) and not near a Metro stop, meaning long, tiring commutes in traffic/on parent hired buses for most of the kids.

Teaching population unstable - around 1/4 of the teachers leaving annually.

School is populated by mostly high-need low-income students but won't track students, other than for math and language. Lack of rigor a real problem for advanced students.
Over reliance on technology hasn't worked too well.

Essentially no native speakers on both the small Chinese and French tracks, so low standards for speaking after as many as 9 years of immersion or partial immersion studies. Spanish track dominates in a big way.

etc. etc.

The racism in this post is pretty bad. I get it, you don’t want brown kids in your school if they aren’t directly useful to you. Got it.

Pipe down raise baiting troll. Academic attainment and rigor, a school environment conducive to learning, and school leadership are the more likely culprits when parents bail, or avoid DCI altogether.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a pretty good summary of the problems actually.

How so?

I understand IB is actually great at tracking. Why doesn’t that work at DCI?

They don’t do it in middle school (same as Deal) . It will happen in high school for 11th and 12th when students choose HL classes (or not).

Much too little too late!

Not clear if DCI will offer HL language classes. They don't have to in order to remain certified as an IBD World School. Neither Banneker nor Eastern does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a pretty good summary of the problems actually.

How so?

I understand IB is actually great at tracking. Why doesn’t that work at DCI?

They don’t do it in middle school (same as Deal) . It will happen in high school for 11th and 12th when students choose HL classes (or not).

Much too little too late!

Not clear if DCI will offer HL language classes. They don't have to in order to remain certified as an IBD World School. Neither Banneker nor Eastern does.

Frankly I'd be more concerned if they didn't offer HL literature, history, science and math classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a pretty good summary of the problems actually.

How so?

I understand IB is actually great at tracking. Why doesn’t that work at DCI?

They don’t do it in middle school (same as Deal) . It will happen in high school for 11th and 12th when students choose HL classes (or not).

Much too little too late!

But that's how IB works. MYP covers through 10th, and there is no tracking. IBO diploma studies begin in 11th.

[Anonymous]

Imagine if fully one-third of your child’s class was comprised of kids who were simultaneously prone to physical violence, lacked intellectual curiosity and were flat out unable to behave themselves in a civilized manner. Welcome to middle school at DCI, an abject failure by any objective standard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a pretty good summary of the problems actually.

How so?

I understand IB is actually great at tracking. Why doesn’t that work at DCI?

They don’t do it in middle school (same as Deal) . It will happen in high school for 11th and 12th when students choose HL classes (or not).

Much too little too late!

But that's how IB works. MYP covers through 10th, and there is no tracking. IBO diploma studies begin in 11th.

Parents who don't know much about IB programs like to claim this on DCUM. My sister's children attend a Fairfax public MS with MYP curriculum and extensive tracking, for math, languages, humanities subjects, almost everything but electives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a pretty good summary of the problems actually.

How so?

I understand IB is actually great at tracking. Why doesn’t that work at DCI?

They don’t do it in middle school (same as Deal) . It will happen in high school for 11th and 12th when students choose HL classes (or not).

Much too little too late!

Not clear if DCI will offer HL language classes. They don't have to in order to remain certified as an IBD World School. Neither Banneker nor Eastern does.

Frankly I'd be more concerned if they didn't offer HL literature, history, science and math classes.

OK, but not sure how much mileage your student gets from years of immersion language studies when SL (Standard Level) IBD is on a par with AP academically, and kids who start learning Spanish in 7th or 8th grade at Deal routinely score 5/5 on AP Spanish at Wilson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a pretty good summary of the problems actually.

How so?

I understand IB is actually great at tracking. Why doesn’t that work at DCI?

They don’t do it in middle school (same as Deal) . It will happen in high school for 11th and 12th when students choose HL classes (or not).

Much too little too late!

But that's how IB works. MYP covers through 10th, and there is no tracking. IBO diploma studies begin in 11th.

Parents who don't know much about IB programs like to claim this on DCUM. My sister's children attend a Fairfax public MS with MYP curriculum and extensive tracking, for math, languages, humanities subjects, almost everything but electives.

Just not true. The big intl school in Europe our children attended for middle school before we came to DC used the MYP curriculum AND tracked plenty. Not tracking in middle, or hardly tracking, is a DC specific problem due to obnoxious racial politics.

[Anonymous]

Is beefing a big issue?